Shireburn’s Beverage Container Refund Scheme Modules

What is BCRS?

On November 14th, 2022, the Beverage Container Refund Scheme (BCRS) will be launched in Malta. The aim of BCRS is to incentivise the return of single-use beverage through a refundable deposit on single use beverage containers.

How does it work?

A deposit of €0.10 is added to the purchase price of relevant beverage at beverage producer or importer stage. The deposit is then charged to retailers at the wholesale stage which is then passed onto the consumer.

Consumers can recoup the deposit by returning the beverage container via a retailer or Reverse Vending Machine where they will receive a BCRS voucher.

Further information about BCRS can be found here.

How can Shireburn Help?

The Shireburn Team have been busy preparing for the implementation of the BCRS by developing a new BCRS module for both our inventory management system as well as our POS system. Once setup, the system will auto-allocate the BCRS charges to the applicable products within the scheme without any user intervention. This will protect the business to conform to the BCRS requirements, provide for more accurate reporting and at the same time account for the unit charge on the quantity sold with the applicable rates without the need of any user intervention. The POS also supports the validation of BCRS vouchers before redeeming the money and decommissioning of the vouchers once sale is confirmed.

Shireburn Inventory Management System

The new BCRS module implemented within Shireburn Inventory Management System (SIMS) include the following functionality:

• Identify the products that will make part of the BCRS Scheme through the stock cards
• A new unique non inventory stock code that will be used for the BCRS and is thus allocated to an Exempt VAT Code
• A new field to identify the BCRS registration number
• Creation of a new entry at the bottom of the sale to autofill the BCRS stock code, the € 0.10 selling price and the auto calculation of the total BCRS quantity (bottles and containers) included in the current sale. The item will be added on the sales posting screen immediately before the confirmation of the sale
• Functions to assist in the sales products in packs
• Reporting options will provide for the BCRS “sales” reporting which will be linked to the new stock code
• Function to exclude the BCRS code from discount calculations

Shireburn Point of Sale

The new POS BCRS Module will include the following functionality:

• Auto-creation of a new item at the bottom of the sale with the BCRS stock code
• Auto-generation of the sum of the applicable quantity and add the resulting value to the sales total
• Appending the BCRS code immediately before confirming the sale
• Option to exclude the BCRS value from any discounts & product schemes given on the POS
• Exclusion of BCRS item code from the POS Customer Loyalty Schemes
• Chit modifications to conform to the new BCRS requirements
• Where required, a new payment type needs to be created BCRS Ref. Dep. This will be linked to the BCRS RVM Server to validate each voucher to be redeemed
• Support of unlimited number of vouchers to be redeemed
• For each voucher, the system will validate the voucher
• The voucher numbers are maintained on the system
• On completion of the BCRS vouchers posting, the system will automatically allocate the redeemed value to be reduced from the amount due from the customer
• Once the sale is confirmed, the POS will decommission the voucher(s) so that they cannot be used again