What is visual basic rounding?

What is a "rounding fee" on a restaurant bill?

• We went out to lunch, and in the detail of our bill was an item labeled "rounding fee". It raised the bill .03 cents to the nearest nickel. Is this legal? can restaurants get away with this? AND it was before taxes......

• Answer:

  It's usually the practice of rounding the sale price on bill items to achieve a total amount due that eliminates pennies. It's a feature on certain point of sale computer softwares for businesses. The point of sale system goes back into the bill and creates a pre-tax charge that is either a debit or credit to the bill (+/-) to result in a bill that is rounded to the nearest nickel. Companies that market this feature to restaurants and other high volume businesses convince them that dealing with pennies is costing them thousands of dollars per year in labor. I've researched the numbers, and it's not true. They grossly overestimate the amount of time it takes to count out pennies to overstate a dollar amount in savings to the business owner if they purchase this extra feature. In most states, on most items, this is a legal practice. They are basically changing the price of the items you purchase by as much as $.03, up or down, to create a total amount without pennies. In some states, such as Kansas, this practice will violate the liquor codes though. In those states, the law says that any alcoholic beverage has to remain the same price during an entire business day for every customer that purchases that item. The cost of the item cannot be rounded up or down, even pennies, under any circumstances. The POS companies are also completely ignorant to these laws in the states where the laws exist. Brandon O'Dell O'Dell Consulting Restaurants/Retail/Bars http://www.bodellconsulting.com