How to set up returnable packaging in Mews POS for compliance with laws in Germany, Denmark and Austria

Packaging laws that apply in Germany, Denmark and Austria, affects all restaurants that offer takeaway food and beverages in these countries. In addition to disposable plastic packaging or packaging with plastic content, suppliers of takeaway food and beverages must offer reusable packaging. Restaurants are now responsible for charging and returning a deposit for the reusable cups and boxes, even if the package comes from a different property.

In Mews POS, you can charge returnable packaging through regular invoices as an additional product in the cart when a customer orders a meal. You can also issue a negative invoice when the customer returns some items and does not order anything else.

In this article, you can learn about:

Setting up a returnable category in the web dashboard
Refunding returnable packaging using the Android app
Viewing returned packaging in reports

Setting up a returnable category in the web dashboard

To handle returnable packaging through Mews POS, you need to define a returnable category of products.

Note:

Only users with administrator permissions can create a returnable category.
You can define only one category as returnable. It is not possible to return products from other categories.

To set up a category as returnable:

In Mews POS, go to Settings > General > Edit Merchant.
Assign the Returnable category to the category you want to define as returnable.
Click Save.

Refunding returnable packaging using the Android app

Once you set up the Returnable category in the web dashboard, you can return the products from that category using the Android app. Note: You can only refund the products with cash.