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How Order Totals Are Calculated
How Puree works out a quote total, discounts, surcharges and GST or VAT, and why Xero invoices match to the cent.
This page explains how Puree works out a quote’s total, and what it sends to Xero when you link the quote. In short: a quote is a list of priced lines, its totals are the sums of those lines, and its tax is worked out the way Xero works it out, so the Xero invoice matches the quote to the cent. For setting up tax, see Tax Rates. For how the Xero invoice lines look and which income accounts they post to, see How quotes appear as Xero invoices.
Every new quote is priced this way, and so is an existing quote once you edit it. A quote you haven’t edited since keeps the older rules until you next edit it. See How Puree Did It Before at the end.
How a Quote Total Is Worked Out
1. Each Line’s Price
Every priced thing on the quote is a line, worked out in whole cents.
- Items: the price times the quantity. A quantity marked as returned is taken off first. Paid options are added per unit, for example a $5.00 gluten-free option on 2 platters adds $10.00. A presentation style adds its charge either per unit or once for the line, depending on how the style is priced. See Item Options and Presentation Styles.
- Bundles, such as a platter or boxed lunch, are priced as one line. The bundle carries the whole price, including any surcharge for the contents chosen, and its contents are not counted again. In a package, the package carries those surcharges instead. See Bundles.
- Packages: the price per guest times the number of guests, plus any item surcharges for the choices made, any paid options and any presentation style charge. Items inside a package are covered by the package’s price, so they aren’t counted again. See Package Item Surcharges & Options.
- Staff: the number of staff times the hourly rate times the hours, or the number of staff times the rate for a fixed charge. The hours are worked to two decimal places, so an 80-minute shift counts as 1.33 hours.
- Venue hire: the price of each venue reservation.
- Delivery fee: the fee on the quote.
- Info-only lines add nothing.
- Optional extras add nothing until you add them to the order. Then they count like any other line, at the quantity you added. See Optional Extras.
A hidden adjustment (see Discounts & Surcharges) changes the prices themselves, and the adjusted prices may be rounded. For example, a package’s adjusted price per guest is rounded to the nearest 5c.
2. The Subtotal
The subtotal is the sum of the lines, including the delivery fee.
3. A Discount or Surcharge
A visible discount or surcharge (see Discounts & Surcharges) is turned into cents once:
- Percentage: that percentage of the subtotal, including the delivery fee, rounded to the nearest cent (half a cent rounds up). 10% off a $670.00 subtotal is $67.00.
- Fixed amount: the amount you entered.
Puree then shares it across the priced lines, the delivery fee included, in proportion to their amounts. The shares are whole cents and always add back to exactly the discount or surcharge, so every line carries its own part of it.
A surcharge is still shown, and invoiced, as a line of its own.
4. Tax (GST or VAT)
Each quote saves its own tax setting, and each line keeps its own tax band. The delivery fee has its own band, chosen beside Delivery Fee. See Tax Rates.
Puree works out the tax once for each invoice line, laid out exactly as the Xero invoice will be, and rounds it to the nearest cent (half a cent rounds up). The quote’s tax is the sum of those.
The invoice lines follow the Invoice detail setting in Xero Settings. Accounts without Xero use Summarised by category.
- Summarised by category: one line per master category (menu, beverages, equipment, miscellaneous, venue), and one each for staff, venue hire and the delivery fee. Each package is its own line, or one line per share when its Xero allocation splits its price (see Xero Allocation: Split a Package’s Price Across Your Revenue Accounts). A surcharge is its own line. Charges in one category on different tax bands are separate lines.
- Individual priced lines: every priced line is its own invoice line.
If you have mapped tax bands to Xero tax rates, or the quote has more than one band, a summarised invoice is built band by band, as Xero receives it. Venue hire then joins the venue category’s line, and lines with the same name and income account on bands mapped to the same Xero tax rate are combined into one, for example two packages with the same name. The tax is worked once on the combined line.
On each invoice line:
- Prices exclude tax: tax = the line’s amount after discount × the rate ÷ 100. The tax is added on top.
- Prices include tax: tax = the line’s amount after discount × the rate ÷ (100 + the rate). The tax is already inside the price.
Quotes are always priced as they stand. Nothing is frozen when a quote is accepted: the accepted quote PDF is the record of what was agreed.
Worked Example: Prices Exclude Tax, With a Discount
A New Zealand quote at 15% GST, prices excluding tax, with a 10% discount, summarised by category.
| Line | Working | Amount | Discount share | After discount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 × Mini quiche | 40 × $4.50 | $180.00 | −$18.00 | $162.00 |
| 2 × Sandwich platter - Gluten free | 2 × ($65.00 + $5.00 option) | $140.00 | −$14.00 | $126.00 |
| 2 × Waiter (4 hours) | 2 × $38.00 × 4 hours | $304.00 | −$30.40 | $273.60 |
| Delivery fee | $46.00 | −$4.60 | $41.40 | |
| Total | $670.00 | −$67.00 | $603.00 |
The discount is 10% of $670.00, delivery fee included: $67.00. Each line’s share is 10% of its amount, and the shares add up to exactly $67.00.
The tax, one invoice line at a time:
| Invoice line | After discount | GST 15% |
|---|---|---|
| Catering menu items (quiche and platters) | $162.00 + $126.00 = $288.00 | $43.20 |
| Staff costs | $273.60 | $41.04 |
| Delivery fee | $41.40 | $6.21 |
| Total | $603.00 | $90.45 |
The quote’s total is $603.00 + $90.45 = $693.45.
Worked Example: Prices Include Tax, With a Surcharge
A UK quote at 20% VAT, prices including VAT, with a fixed £30.00 bank holiday surcharge, summarised by category.
| Invoice line | Amount | VAT included (amount × 20 ÷ 120) |
|---|---|---|
| Catering menu items: 50 × Afternoon tea at £6.00 | £300.00 | £50.00 |
| Beverages: 30 × Glass of prosecco at £2.00 | £60.00 | £10.00 |
| Delivery fee | £30.00 | £5.00 |
| Order Surcharge | £30.00 | £5.00 |
| Total | £420.00 | £70.00 |
The total is £420.00, of which £70.00 is VAT. On the invoice the surcharge is its own line. For your reports it is also shared across the three priced lines: £23.08, £4.61 and £2.31, adding up to exactly £30.00.
Worked Example: Why Each Invoice Line Counts
At 15% GST, prices excluding tax: Catering menu items $10.10 and Beverages $10.10 are two invoice lines. Each carries $1.515 GST, which rounds to $1.52, so the quote’s GST is $1.52 + $1.52 = $3.04, and Xero’s is $3.04 too. Working 15% on the whole $20.20 at once would give $3.03.
What Puree Sends to Xero
Puree sends Xero exactly the invoice lines the quote’s tax was worked on. How quotes appear as Xero invoices shows how they look.
- Layout: Summarised by category or Individual priced lines, as you choose in Xero Settings.
- Quantities: with Individual priced lines, each line goes with its real quantity and the price of one, options included, for example 2 × $70.00 for the gluten-free platters. A package split across income accounts sends each share as the guests at that share’s price per guest. A line whose price doesn’t divide into whole cents, or has a once-per-line styling charge, goes as 1 at the line’s total. Summarised lines go as quantity 1.
- A discount goes in Xero’s Disc. column as each line’s exact share in dollars and cents, not as a percentage.
- A surcharge is its own line, Order Surcharge, posted to your Miscellaneous account.
- Line order: venue hire, venue items and packages first, then menu, beverages, equipment, miscellaneous, staff and the delivery fee, with the surcharge last.
- Tax: Puree doesn’t send tax amounts. Xero works out the tax on each line, which gives exactly the quote’s tax. Lines on mapped tax bands carry the Xero tax rate the band is mapped to in Settings → Tax. Without mappings, Xero uses each income account’s default tax rate, so make sure it matches the rate on your quotes.
- Checked before sending: Puree works out what Xero will make of the invoice before sending it. If that wouldn’t match the quote to the cent, for example because a tax band is mapped to a Xero rate with a different percentage, Puree doesn’t send it, and the sync shows the reason.
On Xero, the first worked example becomes:
| Xero line | Amount | Disc. | After discount | GST worked by Xero |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catering menu items | $320.00 | $32.00 | $288.00 | $43.20 |
| Staff costs | $304.00 | $30.40 | $273.60 | $41.04 |
| Delivery fee | $46.00 | $4.60 | $41.40 | $6.21 |
| Total | $670.00 | $67.00 | $603.00 | $90.45 |
Invoice total: $603.00 + $90.45 = $693.45, the same as the quote.
This has been checked against Xero for prices excluding tax and prices including tax.
Combined invoices still use the older layout, with any discount as a percentage on every line, so a combined invoice can be a cent away from its quotes. See Combined Invoices.
Deposits and payments are recorded in Xero separately. See Managing Deposits and Processing Deposits in Xero.
QuickBooks
QuickBooks invoices are being moved to the same lines. Until then, a QuickBooks invoice can differ from the quote by a cent. On a quote with prices including tax, a QuickBooks limit means the invoice may still come out a cent (or a penny) high. See Connecting with QuickBooks.
Card Payments and Reports
- Stripe: the amount charged is exactly the quote’s. The GST or VAT figure printed on Stripe’s receipt is Stripe’s own calculation and can differ from the quote’s by a few cents. Your Xero invoice is the tax invoice. See Stripe Credit Card Payments.
- Reports add up the same stored figures as the quote, so they agree with it. See Reports.
Common Questions
Does My Xero Invoice Match the Quote?
Yes, to the cent, for a quote priced by these rules. Puree checks before sending, and won’t send an invoice Xero would total differently. A combined invoice, and a quote not edited since the change, can still be a cent away.
Why Did a Quote’s Total Move by a Cent?
Usually because the quote moved to these rules when it was edited: tax is now worked once per invoice line rather than once on the whole quote, so a quote with several lines can carry a cent or two more or less tax. In return it now matches Xero.
Changing Invoice detail in Xero Settings, or a tax band’s Xero mapping, changes the invoice lines, so it can also move a quote’s tax by a cent, accepted quotes included.
A quote paid in full stays paid when its total moves by a few cents, and nothing is charged or refunded by itself. On a quote with a deposit paid, the balance payment link updates to the new balance.
What Happens to My Older Quotes?
A quote you haven’t edited since the change keeps the older rules, and its Xero invoice is built the older way. Saving its items page in the quote builder, or editing it with an AI assistant or the developer API, moves it to the new rules for good. Accepting it, changing its status or syncing it to Xero doesn’t. A duplicated quote is a new quote, so it uses the new rules.
I Mapped Two Tax Rates to One Xero Rate
If two Puree bands at different percentages are mapped to the same Xero tax rate, Xero would charge that one rate on both, and the invoice couldn’t match the quote. That is a mapping to fix in Settings → Tax, not rounding: map each band to a Xero rate with the same percentage. Until then, Puree won’t send the invoice, and the sync tells you why.
How Puree Did It Before
Quotes not edited since the change still work this way.
- Tax was worked out once on the whole quote, or once per tax band, rather than once per invoice line.
- A discount went to Xero as a percentage on every line (a fixed discount as the matching percentage of the subtotal), or, on a quote with tax bands, shared out by band.
- Every Xero line went as quantity 1 at the line’s total, with the quantity in the description.
- Xero worked out and rounded the tax on each invoice line, so an invoice could differ from its quote by up to half a cent per line. In the last worked example, the quote said $3.03 and Xero charged $3.04.