How sales in other countries are handled

Overseas sales can be an exciting opportunity for many professionals. For example, some Print Shop users make a high proportion of their sales internationally. Wedding photographers, too, often work with clients from overseas, or with friends and family from other countries who're also potential customers. But how do you set up an online shop that handles everything from collecting orders and payments to printing, production and shipping around the world like a local? Billing the customer in their own currency and delivering door to door?

Here's how Workspace does it.

How overseas sales are handled

For practical reasons Workspace cannot charge sales into other countries directly from your own account. That's because:

•  Your customer will be paying in a different currency to your account, and
• The wholesale cost of supplying the order will be different — generally because servicing and freight costs into different countries vary.

Instead:

1. Workspace calculates the "profit" you would have made on the sale if it had been made in your own country, and converts it to your overseas customer's currency. How Profit is calculated.

2. As well, Workspace looks up Queensberry's wholesale cost for supplying the same goods in your overseas customer's country and currency.

3. Workspace adds those two amounts together in real time, and displays the total to your customer in your shopping cart. When they buy, that is what they will pay, and their card will be charged in their currency.

4. Currency conversions are made at current rates, and so the price will vary day by day as exchange rates move.

5. Workspace maintains a "cash sale" account in the main regions where Queensberry does business, and transactions are handled by these accounts. The order will be delivered in the normal way (invoice-free), the wholesale cost paid to Queensberry as usual, and the balance paid out to you.

6. Even though the sale was made technically by a different account, you can track these sales in the same way as your in-country sales, with the Workspace Sales Tracker. That includes seeing how much you made on the sale and any payout due. You can also track orders as they go through production, and look up courier tracking numbers.

7. In your accounts you should ONLY include the cash payout (profit) you made on the deal. You should not declare the gross sale amount, or claim the wholesale cost as an expense, as they belong to the account that handled the sale on your behalf (point 5).

8. Workspace treats these sales as exports, which are generally zero-rated or exempt local taxes. If in fact you do have a liability to pay tax on sales into other jurisdictions it is your responsibility to calculate and collect it, and you should do so by building it into your prices. Click here for more about how Workspace handles tax on your sales. We recommend you consult your professional advisor.