The invoicing software for opticians and optometry
Three VAT treatments live at the same counter: the sight test is exempt, prescription glasses go at 10% and sunglasses at 21%. And there is a detail almost nobody looks at: if you give the sight test away with the purchase, you never have an exempt transaction, and without one there is no prorrata to work out.
What is particular about invoicing in opticians and optometry
An optician's is half practice and half shop, and VAT treats it as two different businesses sharing the rent, the electricity and the staff.
The sight test is healthcare
Article 20.Uno.3º exempts care given to natural persons by healthcare professionals, and qualified optician-optometrists are among them. If you charge for the sight test or the eye examination as a separate service, that invoice goes without VAT.
Three rates on the same receipt
Prescription glasses, frames for prescription glasses and prescription contact lenses are on the list in the eighth annex to the Act, which article 91.Uno.1.6º.c puts at 10%. Non-prescription sunglasses and accessories go at 21%. It is a closed list: you check each line against it instead of assuming.
The prorrata depends on a commercial decision
If you charge for the sight test separately you have an exempt transaction, and with it a prorrata that stops you deducting in full the VAT on the rent and the electricity. If you include it in the price of the glasses, there is no separate consideration and there is no exempt transaction. Charging for it or giving it away is a commercial decision with tax consequences, and it is worth taking it knowing that.
Every order goes through the lab
Lenses are ordered cut to the customer's prescription and take days. In between there is a deposit, a frame set aside and a customer ringing to find out whether they have arrived. A pending order is not a sale: it is an obligation with a date on it.
How it is done today, and how it looks with Cairos
In an optician's the margin is lost at the counter: in the wrong rate, in the forgotten order and in the stock of frames that has been hanging there for two seasons.
A real photo of the inside of a Spanish optician's: a frame display, the consulting room at the back with the phoropter and the counter with the till. Shop lighting, no recognisable faces.
Without Cairos
- Everything is charged at 21%, including the prescription glasses that should have gone at 10%.
- The sight test gets invoiced or not depending on who is in that afternoon.
- Nobody has worked out the prorrata, and the VAT on expenses is deducted in full.
- The order to the lab is written in a notebook and sometimes it gets lost.
- Nobody knows which frames have not moved for months.
With Cairos
- Every product carries its rate in the catalogue and the receipt comes out right on its own.
- The sight test is a service with its own treatment, decided once.
- If you charge for the sight test separately, the prorrata is worked out on its own and adjusted in December.
- The order is recorded, with its deposit and its expected date.
- The stock tells you what moves, what does not and how much margin each brand leaves.
What VAT each thing carries in an optician's
The service and the product follow different routes, and the product also has two rates depending on what it is. Neither is inherited from the other.
| Item | VAT | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A sight test or eye examination by a qualified optician-optometrist, charged separately | Exempt | Healthcare under art. 20.Uno.3º, which reaches qualified opticians. |
| Prescription glasses and frames for prescription glasses | 10 % | They are on the list in the eighth annex, which art. 91.Uno.1.6º.c puts at the reduced rate. |
| Prescription contact lenses | 10 % | Same annex, same closed list. |
| Non-prescription sunglasses | 21 % | It is an accessory, not a medical product on that list. |
| Solutions, cases and accessories | Depending on the product | You have to check each line in the eighth annex before assuming 21%. |
| Hearing aids and devices to make up for impairments | 10 % | They come under the same annex, which is also a closed list: you look line by line. |
| Repairing or adjusting a frame | 21 % | It is a service, and it is not healthcare. |
| Vision therapy with a therapeutic purpose | Exempt | It becomes healthcare again if it prevents, diagnoses or treats and a qualified professional provides it. |
And a question worth settling with your accountancy firm rather than by habit: the recargo de equivalencia does not reach anyone who transforms the product before selling it, and fitting lenses cut to a customer's prescription into their frame looks a lot like transformation. Nor does it apply to commercial companies. It is not a decision to take by looking at what the optician's next door does.
The modelos you end up filing
| Form | When | Why in your case |
|---|---|---|
| 303 | Quarterly | With sales at 10% and at 21% and, if you charge for the sight test separately, with prorrata. |
| 390 | January | The annual summary, with the final prorrata if there is one. |
| 111 | Quarterly | Optometrists and shop staff on the payroll. |
| 115 | Quarterly | The 19% withheld on the shop's rent, quarter by quarter. |
| 347 | February | Lens labs and frame brands go over €3,005.06 easily. |
| 130 or 200 | Quarterly, or July | Depending on whether you are an autónomo or a company. |
What you will actually use
When you register as an optician's, Cairos switches on the counter and the consulting room at once: a catalogue with its rates, barcodes, orders and payment tracking.
A catalogue with its VAT rate
Every frame, lens and accessory with its rate on its record, and the receipt adding up correctly without you thinking about it.
Exempt, 10% and 21% kept apart
The 303 comes out with each taxable base in its own box, which is where you see whether the catalogue was set up properly.
Orders to the lab
The quote is accepted, the deposit is taken and the order is left with its expected date.
Prorrata
If you charge for the sight test separately, worked out from your income and adjusted when the year closes.
Try it with your optician's invoices
Free plan with up to 30 documents a year, no card needed. And if it does not work for you, your data leaves with you.
Questions from opticians and optometry
Your optician's invoices differently. So does the program.
No minimum term · VeriFactu included · Native support in Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Basque and English