Recommendations for online shops regarding online cashbox

D.Korobitsyn: Since July, 1st, all online shop are obliged to use online cashbox while processing payments made with credit cards or other types of electronic money.

The general scheme of operation is the following: a customer makes an order on the online shop's website. After having introduced the delivery data, the client is to choose the way of payment. If a credit card is chosen, the client is usually sent to some aggregator's gateway. The client puts the credit card's data on the aggregator's site. The latter brings this transaction through authorization and carries out the payment. After that, the aggregator's system sends to the online shop's database some information saying the payment is successfully authorized. Now, the online shop is to establish a contact with the online cash box to provide it with the data. The online cash device is to make a receipt, bring it through fiscalization and send these data to the fiscal data operator (FDO). There the data are verified and an electronic receipt is sent to the client by e-mail or in form of a text message, also posting the data to the Tax Inspectorate.

This scheme used to be finished at the point of sending the data from the payment system to the shop. The shop was not supposed to do nothing else. From now on, the shop is to send some information to the cash device about the order, including the its composition, the payment sum and the client's personal information (the e-mail address and the telephone number) to provide him or her with an electronic receipt.

Three ways of solving this problem are possible, it is important to understand their difference.

The first way implies renting a cash box. At the moment, there are about ten options within this range. The most popular is Atol-online. I can name others, Orange Data, Check-online, for example. It is easy to find a variety of options on the Internet. Their prices are basically the same, two or three thousand robles a month. You have to additionally buy a fiscal drive, it is obligatory no matter which option you choose from those listed above. The reason is that a fiscal drive is to be a property of the legal entity that is carrying out the transactions. The very cashbox that makes the transactions, may not be the legal entity's property, it can be rented.

Thus, the shop has the right to rent a cashbox. Once again, the rental cost depends on a particular operator and can vary from 2 to 3.5 thousand rubles a month. I came across an offer of 1900, and even 1500 rubles, but, here, these operators' safety is in doubt, as these are not among the popular ones. Still, on market you can find similar offers.

In our work we use Atol-online at the moment. This option was the first to appear on market (about a year ago), since then, we have been working with it. The security and the simplicity are this option's advantages in comparison to other alternatives. The down side is the high cost. Monthly payments of 3000 rubles may seem burdensome for some shops.

The working scheme is the following: the information network of the shop gets the data from the payment system, saying the payment has been carried out automatically, through API, or a specific module. Then, the network is connected to the rented online cashbox, which is located at the operator's data center (at the data center of Atol-online, in our case) and sends there the data that are necessary for creating a receipt, making fiscalization of the latter and sending it first to a fiscal data operator and then-to the Tax Inspectorate and the client. The process in completely automatic, it is easy and handy. If you are using a content management system (CMS), 1C Bitrix, for example, note that there are modules which were drafted by Bitrix and Atol-online, being a joint project. These modules support all the existing protocols. So, this proves to be a simple and handy solution also. We can calculate this option's costs. They include a monthly rental payment of 3000 rubles (being 36000 rubles for 12 months), added a fiscal drive of 6200 rubles for a three-year period. That's the price of using this solution.

The second way is a bit cheaper, yet more difficult to fulfil. Such scheme can be advised for online shops, having offline outlets or pickup points. The latter have already got online cash desk, used at the moment of distributing orders at their office. In this case, it is possible to use the following options:
– Modul Kassa;
– DREAMKAS;
– KKMSERVER
etc.

The key point is the following: the online shop, having received the data from the payment system, sends this information to the cash device for creating a receipt. The cash device is located at a pickup point, for example. In this case, the cash device must be connected to a computer, being switched on round the clock and having Internet access. Such scheme usually implies a sort of a subscription fee for using software that provides the system's operability.

That's the way it works. You have to install an application on the computer the online cash box is connected to. This application serves as a local web server. The online shop is further connected to the application and provides the latter with the data. The application, in its turn, is connected to the online cash device, plugged into the computer with the application already installed. Then, this cash box is where the receipt is formed, passed through fiscalization and sent to the fiscal data operator, the Tax Inspectorate and the client.

The lower cost is this option's strength, this software is 500-1000 rubles a month. If you have already got a cash device, you needn't buy anything else. The disadvantage has to do with the integrational problems. A significant disadvantage implies the necessity of providing non-stop operation of the computer where the application is installed, as payments on the website can be made at any time. Both the computer and the cash box are to be switched on and provided with Internet access night and day. This is an additional point to be taken into account. Leaving for home from any of the pickup points, the employees must not switch off the computer. The alternative is to have an independent computer for the payments to be made. But, as the online cashbox is connected to it, it is no more an independent computer but the main operating computer at the pickup point.

The third option seems to be the best one as for the costs, but more difficult to accomplish. You can buy an automatic cashbox. Such devices are usually used for e-commerce, or are installed into the vending machines, where no vendor appears, no human being is involved. Such device looks like two cigarette packs joint together. Its cost is from 6000 to 9000 rubles. To date, I have found four types of such terminals. Umka Terminal and FF Terminal  are among the renowned ones. 

Третий вариант пожалуй, оптимален с точки зрения денег, но более трудоёмок в реализации. Вы можете приобрести автоматизированный кассовый аппарат. Обычно такие устройства используются для интернет-торговли, а также в вендинговых аппаратах, другими словами, в местах, где нет кассира, где не участвует человек. Это устройство выглядит, как коробочка размером с две пачки сигарет. Стоимость этого устройства составляет 6000-9000 рублей. На сегодняшний день я нашел четыре разновидности таких терминалов. Более-менее распространенные устройства – это Umka Terminal и FF Terminal.

The working principle is the following: you need to buy this device, and a fiscal drive that you are going to need whatever scheme you choose. You are to get them interconnected and guarantee both continuous power supply and Internet access.

After that, you will have to make some specific setting for your online shop to make it send a request to the automatic cash device after having received the data about a successful transaction from the payment system. Under this request, the receipt is automatically created by the cash box, passed through fiscalization, and sent to the FDO, the client and the Tax Inspectorate. This solution proves to be the cheapest. However, it requires the participation of high-qualified specialists, responsible for this kind of work.