Card and cash sales: 3 amount limits for your till

Key takeaways

• Check your processor's largest single charge in your currency.
• Confirm the minimum for each payment source you accept.
• Pass large cash sales to the owner or accountant for review.

Why these limits matter at your till

A till looks simple from the customer's side. Someone picks up an item, hands over a card or some cash, and leaves with their purchase. Behind that moment are rules about how large or how small a card payment can be before a processor refuses it, and about when a cash payment has to be reported to the government. Those rules are rarely printed on the till itself. Most staff learn about them the hard way, when a payment fails in front of a customer or a manager asks a question at the end of a long shift.

This post covers three amount limits that matter for card and cash sales. The first is the largest single card charge a processor will accept. The second is the smallest card charge it will accept. The third is the point at which a cash payment has to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. None of these should stop you from taking payments. They are facts worth knowing before a customer is waiting at the counter.

The specific figures below are attributed to Stripe, Square and the IRS, with links to their guidance. Your own processor may have its own settings, and your business may face other rules that are not covered here. Treat this post as a starting point. Check your processor's current documentation, and talk to your accountant about your own situation.

How processors write amounts

Before you can understand a limit, you need to know how the amount is written. Several of the limits below are written as whole numbers, not as prices with a decimal point, and that is the form many processor systems expect to receive.

Stripe's documentation gives a clear example. To charge 5 UGX, you provide an amount value of 500. The customer still pays 5 UGX. The number is simply written in the form the processor expects. You can read more about supported currencies on Stripe's supported currencies page.

Some currencies do not use decimal places at all. Square's page about monetary amounts describes the Japanese Yen as a zero-decimal currency. For a currency like that, the whole number is the full amount, and there are no cents to write.

Why does this matter at the till? Because the number a system receives is the number it charges. If a developer or a setup screen treats an amount the wrong way, the charge can end up far from what the customer agreed to pay. When you check a limit, always ask whether the figure is in whole units or in the smaller unit. That one question heads off many mistakes.

Limit one: the largest card charge

A processor can set a ceiling on how much it takes in one charge. Stripe's documentation describes its ceiling in digits. For all currencies other than Indian rupees, it describes eight digits, which is a maximum charge of 999,999.99, written as 99999999. For Indian rupees, it describes nine digits, which is a maximum charge of 9,999,999.99 INR, written as 999999999. The Stripe supported currencies page sets out these figures.

Notice that the cents count as digits, but the decimal point does not. The eight digits in 999,999.99 are six digits before the point and two after it. That is worth remembering when you read a limit out loud, because a digit count is easy to misread.

What does this mean at the till? If a single card sale is more than the maximum for your currency, one charge will not go through. You have two options. You can split the sale into smaller charges, or you can take part of the total another way. Splitting should be done openly, with the customer's agreement, and you should check that your processor allows it before you try.

Large sales are the ones most likely to hit a ceiling. Furniture, equipment, bulk orders, and invoices paid in one go often come close. If your shop regularly takes large card payments, put the maximum on a card by the till and tell staff what to do when a total goes over it.

Do not assume the ceiling is the same for every processor. Stripe's figures are Stripe's own. Another processor may set a different maximum, so check yours before you rely on any number here.

Limit two: the smallest card charge

Many shop owners are surprised by this one. A card processor can refuse a charge that is too small, and the minimum is not one fixed number that applies everywhere.

Square's developer documentation says that the minimum payment amount varies depending on the payment source. It also says that valid minimums are determined by the country associated with the account. Square tells developers to make sure the amount value is greater than or equal to the valid minimum amount. You can read the full guidance on Square's page about monetary amounts.

Stripe's documentation adds a second point. It says that exceptions to the minimum charge amount apply to some payment methods. So a minimum that works for one kind of payment may not be the right minimum for another. The Stripe supported currencies page covers this.

For your till, there are three things to do.

First, find out the minimum your own processor applies. Do not guess, and do not rely on a number you remember from a friend's shop.

Second, check the country tied to your account. A shop that was set up under the wrong country, or that has moved to a new one, may see a different minimum than it expects.

Third, check the payment source. Square says the minimum payment amount can vary by payment source. Ask your processor for the minimum for each payment type you take, and write those figures down.

A very low-cost item paid by card may be declined even when the customer's card is perfectly good. Staff should know what to do in that case. Options include taking cash for that item, adding it to a larger order if your processor's rules allow, or telling the customer plainly why the card was refused. Staff should never make up a reason.

Illustrative example: checking a minimum

Suppose a processor's minimum is 100 in the shop's currency, an illustrative value. Staff check the applicable payment source before offering an agreed alternative for the smaller sale. These illustrative amounts are not processor settings.

Limit three: cash over $10,000

The third limit is not a processor rule. It is a reporting rule from the Internal Revenue Service, and it is written about cash. The IRS says that each person engaged in a trade or business who, in the course of that trade or business, receives more than $10,000 in cash in one transaction or in two or more related transactions must file Form 8300. The IRS page about Form 8300 explains the rule.

Three parts of that rule are worth looking at closely.

The first word is "more." The rule describes receiving more than $10,000 in cash. An amount of exactly $10,000 is not more than $10,000, so the rule as quoted does not reach it.

The second part is "in one transaction or in two or more related transactions." A single large cash payment counts. Several cash payments that are related can also count, even if none of them is large by itself. Ask your accountant how to decide whether transactions are related.

The third part is "in the course of that trade or business." The rule is aimed at money received in the course of a business, and a shop taking payments is in that position. Card payments are not what this rule describes, because the rule is about cash.

For staff, the practical point is recognition and handover. They need to notice a large cash sale when they see one, and they need a clear way to pass it on. Tell the manager or owner straight away when a cash total is near or over the line, so the paperwork can be handled properly.

Never split or reduce a cash payment just to avoid the rule, and do not ask a customer to do it for you. If you are unsure what the rule requires in a particular case, ask your accountant before you take the next payment. Keep records of large cash sales in a way that you can find later, because questions about them may come up after the day is over.

If you are ever in doubt about whether a particular sale is covered, write down the facts while they are fresh: the date, the time, what was sold, the total, and how it was paid. Those are the facts an accountant will ask for first. For a related filing question, see the guide to Form 8300 e-filing.

Common situations at the till

Some situations come up again and again. Agree on how to handle them before they happen.

A customer wants a large item by card, and the total is over the maximum your processor accepts for one charge. Tell the customer what is happening in plain words, and do not blame the card or the bank. Offer the options you have agreed on, such as a split with the customer's agreement or another payment method for part of the total. Call the manager if the customer is unhappy with the options.

A very small purchase by card is refused because it is below the minimum. Check the minimum for that payment type. Ask whether the customer would like to take another option, such as cash, rather than waiting while the card is tried again and again.

A customer pays for one large order in cash over several visits. Tell the owner, and ask the accountant how to treat the total. Do not decide on your own that the visits are separate.

A customer pays part by card and part by cash. The card part is a card charge, so the card limits apply to it. The cash part counts toward the cash rule only as cash. Because the two parts are handled differently, staff should record how the payment was split, so the manager can see what happened.

A card payment is refused and the customer tries again several times. Stop after a reasonable number of attempts. Repeated tries can cause frustration and do not change a refusal caused by an amount limit. Check the amount, check the minimum or maximum, and then decide on the next step with the manager.

A customer asks whether a large payment can be split across two cards. Do not promise the customer a result until you have checked.

Checks at the start and end of a shift

Limits are easiest to manage when they are checked at the same times every day. At the start of a shift, a staff member should confirm that the till is set to the right currency and that the limits in your till guide match your processor's current settings. If anything has changed, tell the owner before the first sale.

At the end of a shift, review any large card sales that were refused and any cash sales that came close to the reporting threshold. Write a short note for each one, with the time, the amount, and what was done. A simple log of this kind is useful if a question comes up weeks later, and it gives your accountant something concrete to work from. Keep the log with your cash records rather than in a separate place, so nobody has to search for it. Use the guide to recording cash totals before close alongside this review.

If your till produces a daily summary, look at it for unusually large totals and for card payments that were declined. A short look at the summary each day catches many problems before they grow.

Who does what at the till

Good limits are only useful if the right person acts on them. A simple split of duties helps.

The person at the till should know the processor limits for the items they sell. They should be able to say, in plain words, what happens when a card payment is refused, and what to offer the customer next. They should not need to guess.

The shift lead or manager should decide what happens with large sales. That includes whether a sale is split, whether another payment method is used, and who handles any paperwork that the cash rule requires.

The owner or accountant should review the rules regularly, and again whenever the processor, the country on the account, or the payment types change. A change in any of those can change a limit without anyone noticing at the till.

Write these roles down. A short sheet beside the till is more useful than a long manual that nobody reads. Talk to customers calmly, too. A customer is not doing anything wrong when a payment hits a limit. Explain that a processor or a rule sets the limit, and then offer a way forward.

Building a simple till guide

A one-page guide by the till is one of the most useful things a shop can make. Keep it short, and update it when anything changes. Include these items:

• The largest single card charge your processor accepts, written in your currency.
• The smallest card charge for each payment type you take, and the country setting that applies to your account.
• A note that a card decline can happen for many reasons, and what staff should say to the customer when it does.
• The rule for cash sales near or above the reporting threshold, and who to call about them.
• The name and contact details for your processor's support team.
• The date the guide was last checked.

After you write the guide, test your setup. If your processor offers a test mode, use it to see how the till responds to a very small amount and to a very large amount. Write down what the till actually does, not what you expect it to do. The two are often different, and the gap is where most surprises come from.

Today, check your processor's documentation and write the applicable maximum and minimums beside the till, with the date you checked them.

Related guides: Card surcharge rules: 6 checks before you ring a sale · Cash drawer count sheet: 7 fields to fill in at close · Cash drawer reconciliation: 4 steps from float to close.

Questions to ask your processor

1. What is the largest single card charge I can take, in my currency?

Your processor's current maximum for your currency is the figure to check.

1. What is the smallest card charge I can take, for each payment type I accept?

Confirm the minimum for each payment type with your processor.

1. Does the minimum depend on the country associated with my account?

Square ties valid minimums to the country associated with the account.

1. What does the system do when a charge is above the maximum or below the minimum?

An amount outside the processor's limits can be refused.

1. Where is this information published, and how will I know when it changes?

Check your processor's current documentation and ask how it communicates changes.

Questions to ask your accountant

Your accountant can answer the questions that this post cannot. Consider asking these:

1. How do I decide whether several cash payments are related transactions?

Ask your accountant to assess the payments together.

1. Does my business need to file Form 8300 for the cash sales we take?

Ask your accountant to review your cash sales against the reporting rule.

1. What records should I keep for large cash sales, and how long should I keep them?

Record the sale details and ask your accountant about retention.

1. Does anything change if the same customer pays in cash across several visits?

Ask your accountant how to treat the total across visits.

General information, not legal or tax advice.