Payments, tax and your figures

Getting paid by card

Card payments go through Stripe, a payments company, into your own Stripe account and then straight into your bank. The money never sits with us: there is no Meridian balance, no payout schedule of ours to wait for, and we take no commission. Stripe's own fees apply and we do not add to them.

To connect:

1. Go to Settings → Settings and scroll to Payments.
2. Press Connect payments. You are taken to Stripe to create or connect

your account.

1. Follow Stripe's steps, then come back.

When it is done, Payments says Connected. If Stripe still needs something before it will let you take payments or pay you out (an ID document, a bank account, a business detail), the panel lists what in plain words and shows a Finish setting up payments button.

Until Stripe is connected, everything else still works. You can send invoices, take payment however you do now, and record payments by hand. Your booking page cannot take deposits until it is connected.

Your region, tax and currency

All of this is in the Tax section of Settings → Settings. Press Save settings at the bottom when you are done.

1. Where you are: choose your country. This fills in the usual Rate and

what the tax is Called (GST, VAT and so on). You can change either.

1. Currency: choose the currency you charge in.
2. Registered for GST (or VAT): tick it if you are registered.
3. ABN and Tax number: add them if you have them. They are printed

on your invoice PDFs.

1. Prices exclude tax: tick it only if your prices have tax added on top.

Rates and thresholds change. They are here as sensible starting points, not as advice.

Registered, or not

If you are not registered, leave the box unticked and your invoices show no tax at all. That is the right answer for a photographer under the threshold.

Tick the box on the day your registration starts. Meridian records that date and shows it under the tax settings ("Charging GST since…"). Anything invoiced before it keeps its original figures with no tax; anything after it carries your rate. If you untick the box, the date is cleared, and ticking it again starts a new date.

Prices include tax, or have it added

Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland normally quote prices with tax already inside: $3,500 means $3,500, with the GST included. Canada and the US normally add tax on top; tick Prices exclude tax if that is you.

This one setting runs through invoices, quotes, sessions, the print shop and the gallery checkout, so every price a client sees is worked out the same way.

Expenses

Business → Expenses. What you spend, so it comes off your tax.

To add one, fill in Add one and press Add expense:

• When, Who to and What for (the category).
• Amount paid and GST included. Leave GST blank if there was none; not everything has it.
• Business use: the percentage that was for the business. A phone bill is rarely all business.
• For which shoot (optional): links the cost to a booking, so you can see what that shoot really made.
• Kilometres driven, if it was a trip.
• I have the tax invoice: untick it if you do not have the receipt.
• What it was: a short note.

Categories: prints and albums, cameras and equipment, software and subscriptions, travel and vehicle, second shooters and editors, studio rent and venue hire, advertising and marketing, insurance, bank and platform fees, training and workshops, and everything else.

Things worth knowing (these follow Australian rules):

• Bank fees and insurance usually have no GST to claim, so choosing those categories clears the GST box. You can still type an amount if yours did.
• Over $82.50 you need a tax invoice to claim the GST back. If you record one without the receipt, the screen tells you how much GST cannot be claimed, so you can go and find it.
• Kilometres are worked out at 88c each, up to 5,000 km. That rate is reviewed each year, so check it before you rely on it. Trips in your mileage logbook count towards the same total.

A part-business expense is split both ways (the deduction and the GST credit) rather than claimed in full.

The Expenses screen also shows:

• This quarter's BAS (or your own country's return), if you are registered: total sales, the GST on them, total purchases, the GST on those, and whether you owe or are owed.
• This quarter by category.
• What each shoot made: what came in against what that job cost, for shoots you have linked costs to.

To remove an expense, press Remove next to it under Recent.

Reports

Business → Reports. Pick dates with From and To and press Show, or press This quarter.

• What you Received, what is Still owed, what is Overdue, and what is left After tax and costs.
• Your takings over the Last twelve months.
• Sessions booked, by kind of session.
• Where the work comes from: how clients found you, and what they have paid.
• Enquiries: how many became bookings.
• If you are registered, a box headed with your own tax return (a BAS in Australia, a GST return in New Zealand, a VAT return in the UK and Ireland, a GST/HST return in Canada) with total sales and the tax collected.

Everything is counted when the money arrived, not when it was invoiced.

To send it all to your accountant, see sending your numbers to your accountant.

This is bookkeeping, not accounting advice. Your accountant is still your accountant.

Invoice numbering

Invoice numbers run in order with no gaps, and a number is never reused. Gap-free numbering is a requirement in most of the regions above, and the first thing an auditor checks.