Does a salon in Latvia need a cash register?
Short answer: if clients pay at the salon in cash, by card or with a gift card, the payment in Latvia usually has to be registered in a VID-registered electronic device (a cash register or cash register system) and the client has to receive a receipt. The obligation does not depend on turnover. Bank transfers are not registered in the device, and for services provided at the client's home a VID-registered paper receipt (kvīts) can be used instead. Salon software, including Tervita, does not replace the cash register: it records sales for the salon, while the fiscal receipt comes from the registered device.
This is general information, not tax advice. It is based on VID's guidelines on electronic devices (15 January 2025), VID's cash register page (updated 21 July 2026) and a VID answer published on LV portāls (6 November 2025; informational, not a binding legal act). Rules change; check the current wording of Cabinet Regulations No. 95 and No. 96 on likumi.lv and confirm your case with an accountant or VID. The full Latvian version is on our Latvian blog.
What applies to a salon
| How the client pays | Register in the cash register? | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Cash at the salon | Yes, and issue a receipt | VID guidelines 1.1 |
| Card through a POS terminal | Yes, a card payment is not a bank transfer | VID guidelines 1.1 |
| Gift card | Yes, it is a payment confirmation | VID guidelines 1.1 |
| Bank transfer after an invoice | No | VID guidelines 1.2, Reg. 96 p. 38 |
| Service at the client's home | Device not required; VID-registered kvīts on request | VID answer, 6 Nov 2025 |
The sources above do not directly address online card prepayment at booking or employee benefit platforms such as Stebby; ask your accountant or VID how to treat them.
A POS terminal is not an electronic device under these rules and is not registered with VID. Card payments still go through the cash register, and the terminal's daily report is kept with the device's Z report.
Since 1 April 2025 (transitional provision 243 of the amending law) the law "On Taxes and Fees" (section 30, paragraph 1.7) requires a location whose previous-year turnover exceeded 50,000 euros to offer a cashless payment option. Turnover is counted per location.
E-receipts
VID guidelines say the rules do not forbid an electronic receipt if your device's technical solution supports it: the receipt is generated from the transaction registered in the device and sent as text, PDF or another readable format. A PDF from salon software that is not a registered device is not a fiscal receipt.
What Tervita does and does not do
Tervita's Point of sale records services, products, packages and gift cards, the payment method (Card, Cash, Bank transfer, Gift card and, if enabled, Stebby), shows or prints a receipt or saves it as PDF, and handles refunds as separate correction documents. That feeds reports, commissions and loyalty points. See point of sale.
What it does not do: it is not a VID-registered device, it has no fiscal cash register integration, and Card only records the method; there is no card terminal integration. Tervita's Country and compliance settings say the same: operational records only, statutory accounting and fiscal records remain in the external system.
In practice: record the sale in Tervita, register the same cash or card amount in the cash register and issue its receipt, then at the end of the day compare Tervita's takings by payment method with the Z report and the terminal report.