I have paid Android apps on Google Play. I'm using Google Checkout XML API (notification history, specifically) to retrieve order details. I'm in the USA, and some of my customers are not. For overseas orders, the Google Checkout API returns the order amount in native currency, not USD, and doesn't provide the exchange rate, either.
On the Google Checkout site, on the other hand, I can see the USD revenue amount in order details, and it matches the eventual payout perfectly. They display order total in native currency, then the fee, then my profit - first in native currency, then in dollars.
I'm afraid that if I'll use the native currency and apply one of the publicly available rates, the dollar amount will not match Google's. And reconciliation with the eventual payout would not be possible.
I've set the notification API version to 2.5. I'm retrieving every possible notification for an order. There's no USD amount that I can see, and no rate.
Short of scraping the Google Checkout web UI, any ideas, please?
Link: someone else admitting the problem.
EDIT: I actually had Checkout screen scraping as an interim solution. Then they've rolled out the new Wallet merchant page, and it became much less friendly to scraping :(
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I am working on launching my first app ever. Yes, super exciting, but also terrifying LOL.
I am working with an app dev company that has been extremely helpful thus far, but when it comes to the pricing structure I am looking to implement, they say that it cannot be done.
I find this hard to believe, as it seems like anything is possible, however, I have not the first clue how to operate the backend of Apple App Store and Google Play Store in regards to pricing and subscriptions we have available for in-app purchases.
I am not looking to do this behind my dev teams back whatsoever, but am looking for any advice y'all can provide in regards to what I am looking to do so I can share it with them and we can make it happen together!
I am launching an app for employers who are doctors to find associate doctors for their offices.
Therefore the pricing I am attempting to construct in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store is the following:
The app is free on each store. When the Employer downloads the app > creates an account > hits a paywall prior to entering. I am looking to charge the employer a one-time upfront higher fee and then a recurring smaller fee to help with retention rates and continue to have them stay and engage in our community.
So, with example numbers I am looking to charge an employer at that payment portal say a $299 initial one-time fee for their first month with us on the app and then say a $49/month auto-recurring fee after that, month 2 and beyond.
How would you go about setting something like this up in each respective Store (Apple and Google)?
I am genuinely curious if it is at all possible, because I spoke with Apple and Google this morning via phone and email and they said it was possible but didn't provide great direction in regards to actually setting it up and what that would entail for each of their Stores.
Thanks in advance!
Kindly,
John
I have implemented In-app billing in my application, but have limited the in-app purchase function to a few countries/currencies, since I'm note sure what my responsibilites are regarding VAT tax collection and reporting. I find it a bit unclear after reading about it on Google Play Store.
I have read that I have to report VAT to Japan manually, so I have disabled In-app billing for this country.
I can see that Google Play collect tax for many countries.
What countries do I have to make exceptions for?
I would be happy for any feedback :)
Google documentation here: VAT Guidelines
For any EU country plus Albania, Morocco, Norway and South Korea you don't have to report or deal with VAT currently but the rest is up to you unfortunately. I'm currently developing a paid app too and looked up on tax issues beforehand.
This is not an exact answer since rules about taxes can change overnight, also there are some controversial debates going on about how Google evades taxes but that is a discussion for another topic.
To give an example, for my country (Turkey) you have to prepare a report about your annual income amount if you are located here but even then some financial reporters claim that selling software is actually "renting" it so it cannot be taxed. My suggestion for you would be to update your billing strategy according to the link above and if any unwanted situation occurs oppose it with the given legal information.
In case of Japan and GooglePlay, you have to do the whole VAT procedure on your own if your income reaches a threshold of 10 million Yen (about 95 kUSD) per year, otherwise no action from your side required. If you make that much money you could probably pay a tax professional to deal with this.
Source: National Tax Agency JAPAN
No.6 Taxable Person
Business which falls under either of the following categories is a “Taxable Person” who is required to file the final return.
(1) Businesses which had a taxable sales amounting to more than 10million yen during the Base Period (See following Figure A), ...
I have an app with in-app-billing & google analytics setup and now I want to track my transactions and purchases from within the app. My issue is that I can't get my head around how I'm supposed to get the tax for the transaction.
The tax is different in each country (based on the credit-card i think) if I'm not mistaken so there should be a way to get it programmatically. I am using Googles in-app-billing api v3 and Analytics SDK for Android V4.
I dunno, I might be missing something obvious. Help would be appreciated, thanks.
I believe that you need to provide the tax amount when you are submitting your transaction hit. Check the ecommerce tracking guide. You can set the tax amount using setTax method on the HitBuilders.TransactionBuilder. Since taxes differ based on many thing (like the address zip code in US or the product category) Analytics can deduct the tax based on location alone. Your app needs to provide this with the transaction.
Is there any way of getting to know who has bought your app on the Android Market? I currently haven't got an account on the market, my app is still in development so i'm asking you guys.
I'd like to know and make a list of the people who purchased, or downloaded for free, my apps. Not their email addresses or anything, just some unique usernames, maybe from the Android Market itself. Is that possible?
If not, is there any way to get this information AFTER the app has been bought? The in-app billing system i'm guessing is anonymous as well, as it's still part of the Google/Android Market billing system. But if i were to use PayPal to make "my own in-app billing" would that work? I'm guessing i can see any PayPal transactions from where/who it originated, no?
If someone can offer me a suggestion on how i could get this information, with the user's willing participation of course, i'd be grateful.
To track users, people generally use some kind of Analytics app:
Google Analytics for Android and Flurry are popular, to name a couple.
I know of no other way to track general downloads, other than the Android developer dashboard/console
To answer your first question:
Google Android purchases (market and in-app) show up in the Merchant section of Google Checkout.
EDIT: Also, once a purchase is made, it is not anonymous and you as a merchant have freedom to contact the customer directly.
EDIT #2: To address your second comment:
From https://checkout.google.com/sell/orders a merchant can see the following information for each order:
Google Checkout Order Number
Total $ (or other currency) Amount
If they've yet been charged/pending/or other Credit Card/Other processing problems and current status.
Order Details (Include user name - which is Full Name - and App Name)
Additionally, within each order you get:
Customer's full name
Billing Address
Full email, not masked
Sold on, Charged on, Confirmed on Dates/Times
App name ID
So, Quite a bit information.
I have an iPhone application which is a reporting application, by this I mean, a user searches for a postcode, and gets information for free on that postcode. Then for a cost (about £1-£3) they can purchase a complete report.
I purchase the report data legitimately per request, and put a markup on the price and deliver it through the iPhone.
I have been pulling my hair out with my android application as I can't find an answer on how to do the same for Google. Paypal has an API, but I am unsure if I will get approval in the market.
I don't care who takes their cut, be it Google through checkout (cant find anyway to implement) or PayPal, but my business model works by letting the user search for free to obtain basic data, and upsells them useful data.
It is now possible to do so :-)
http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/billing_overview.html