Do you need a cash register for an online store?
The rule depends on who collects the money, not on the fact that you sell online. If payment comes through an online card, a bank transfer or a courier, a cash register is not needed. If you collect cash yourself at the customer's door, it becomes mandatory.
Short answer
- Online card payment or bank transfer: you do not need a cash register.
- Cash on delivery collected by the courier: the courier issues the document, you issue the invoice.
- You deliver yourself and take cash or card from the customer: you need a cash register.
- You also have a physical pickup point where customers pay: you need a cash register there.
- Whatever the method, the order invoice remains mandatory and goes into the national e-invoicing system.
What the law says (in brief)
- Emergency Ordinance 28/1999 requires electronic fiscal cash registers for cash or card collections from the public.
- Mail-order commerce is exempt, except for home deliveries carried out by the store itself on the basis of an order.
- When the courier collects the money, the courier issues the cash-on-delivery document and transfers the amount to your account.
- For online card payments, the bank statement and the invoice cover proof of collection.
- Check your concrete situation with your accountant — own-fleet delivery changes the classification entirely.
Practical example
Example: a flower shop sells online and delivers around town in its own van, taking cash at the door. There a cash register is mandatory. The same shop, if it moves delivery to a courier with cash on delivery, no longer needs one: the courier issues the collection document and the shop issues the order invoice.
Common mistakes
- Assuming "online" automatically means no cash register, even though you deliver with your own van.
- Not issuing an invoice for cash-on-delivery orders, believing the courier document replaces it.
- Opening a personal pickup point without installing a cash register there.
- Not reconciling the courier's cash-on-delivery transfers with the store's orders.
How 4shopy helps
- Orders land in 4invoices as invoice drafts (optional connection), whatever payment method was chosen.
- You can enable online card (Stripe, with your own connected account), bank transfer and courier cash on delivery in the store: the first two need no cash register, and with cash on delivery the courier collects the money, not you.
- Card payments and transfers show on the order, for easy reconciliation.
- A collections report by payment method, useful in the conversation with your accountant.