Calculate and Add Redemption Products to Invoices

As of January 1, 2024, California has required the implementation of Redemptions on Invoices. These are additional recycling charges based on volume and container type. Please see here for more information: https://calrecycle.ca.gov/bevcontainer/wine-spirits/

Vinosmith supports automatically calculating the redemption values for products sold and adding these as line items to Invoices. 

The current implementation supports California, but other States/Authorities that require similar behavior could leverage it.

Tutorial Video

How Does It Work?

The result is the automatic insertion of non-inventory products on Invoices with a currency and quantity amount based on sibling products that contribute to that calculation.

For example, assume you have a 750ML glass bottle sold as a 12-pack. According to the CA program, this product has a redemption value of $0.10/bottle.

So, if you sold 1 case (12 bottles) of this product, add a non-inventory line-item charge of $1.20 to the invoice.

Vinosmith automates the calculation and insertion of this non-inventory item. 

Getting Started

General steps to activate this feature:

1. Create one or more Redemption Entries 

2. For each Product you sell: link it to a single Redemption Entry

3. Create one or more Non-Inventory Products that reflect a Redemption Entry (this is what is put on the invoice)

4. Configure each Supplier

Because Vinosmith groups multiple Supplier Products across different Invoices, you will need to create Supplier-specific Products that are, in turn, reflections of each Redemption Entry.

Step 1: Create one or more Redemption Entries

First, create the top-level redemption entries. You will likely only have 1-3 of these entries for California Redemption, which are (as of January 2025):

• 5 cents for containers less than 24 ounces

• 10 cents for containers 24 ounces or larger

• 25 cents for boxes, bladders, or pouches

1. Navigate to the Products tab and locate the Redemption Entries: Manage link

2. Create each entry with a clear, concise name and the per-unit Rate. 

Step 2: For each Product you sell, link it to a single Redemption Entry

Every Product you sell that is required to have a redemption must be linked to a single Redemption Entry that you created in Step 1.

This is required because when you sell a 750ml bottle, Vinosmith needs to know which product reflects this Redemption Entry that needs to be added to that specific Supplier Invoice.

You can link a Product to a Redemption Entry in multiple ways:

1. Manually via Edit Product

2. Via Product Properties Excel Import, use the Redemption Entry: Name column.

3. On the web, use Batch Edit from the Products tab; click Batch Edit on the left

Step 3: Create Non-Inventory "Products" for each Redemption Entry for each Supplier

This is the product that is added to invoices and is customer-facing.

Note for QuickBooks Integrations: This item must also be created in QuickBooks for batching invoices. You can create the redemption item in QuickBooks to sync to Vinosmith.  Please edit the item in Vinosmith to the recommended settings below.  If you decide to create the item in Vinosmith first, that's fine, too.  All you need to do is create the item in QuickBooks and then map it. 

In Step 1, you may have created a Redemption Entry for "Bottle / Glass" at $0.05/unit and linked it to your SKUs. Vinosmith needs to know which other non-inventory item to add to the invoice as a sibling when that product is ordered.

So, you would create a new Product under the Supplier, ostensibly with the same/similar name as the Redemption Entry created in Step 1, but that's not required.  You need to create a new product with these strongly recommended settings:

1. Inventory Item = unchecked (meaning it is a non-inventory Item)

2. Orderable by Reps = unchecked (meaning Reps cannot add it to an Order)

3. Admin Only? = checked

4. TIP: A bottle size called "unit" is available for you to use as these non-inventory products. When rendered on invoices, the display will be "1/unit," which is probably more aesthetically pleasing than "1/750ml".

These settings aren't required, and the system will work equally well without them set this way; this is just a recommendation.

Step 4: Configure Supplier

If you created a Supplier Product reflecting a Redemption Entry, you most likely want that Supplier enabled for this calculation. But it is a distinct step. Navigate to the Supplier, click Edit and check the box for Redemption Enabled?

After the Supplier has been redemption-enabled, all Redemption Entries and these Supplier-specific "products" must be mapped. Locate the Redemption Entry Mappings section when viewing the Supplier details. Click Manage in the upper right of that section.

On the mapping screen, you are prompted to choose the single Redemption Entry and map it to the (non-inventory) Product you created in Step 3. 

Map all that is necessary. It's possible not all redemption entries need to be mapped for this Supplier.

Multiple Suppliers? Note on Convenience 

Steps 3 and 4 can be tedious if you have a non-trivial number of Suppliers. Both of these can be fully automated within Vinosmith on initial setup.

To have Vinosmith automatically perform Steps 3 and 4:

1. Create the Redemption Entry

2. Go back to the Redemption Entry; click Edit on the left

3. When editing, at the bottom of the edit screen are two buttons. 

4. The left-most button for Step 1: Add to all Suppliers will perform Steps 3 and 4

That flow will create a non-inventory product under each supplier with an identical name for the redemption entry.

On that same screen on the right side is a button for Step 2: Attach to all Products. This flow should be taken carefully; you will likely only do it once.

That flow will link this Redemption Entry to ALL products, overwriting any current setting. 

This would be useful if most of your products fall under a generic Redemption Entry (say glass bottles) and you have a handful of products under a different RE (say a Keg). In this case, you would click that button, and this RE would get linked to ALL of your Products (kegs included). You can now manually edit that much smaller set of products for the Kegs and manually set their Redemption Entry to a different value.

Note: Exempt from Accounts

You can exempt Account(s) from participating in this system by editing the account and toggling their Redemption Enabled flag. Any accounts not enabled for redemption will not have these calculations applied to their invoice. This flag is enabled by default for all Accounts.

You can set this flag one at a time by manually editing an account, or in batch via the Excel export/import flows.

Reporting

All of our reports exclude non-inventory items by default. We do provide an option to include non-inventory items on the report.

RA40 - CRV / Redemption Entry Sales is a simple report calculating a Supplier's CRV sales and units.