Set up discounts

Before anyone can give a discount, two things are set up:

1. A discount type: it decides where discounts are recorded in your accounts, so your reports show what discounts cost you.
2. Each person's discount rights: whether they may give discounts at all, and how much before a manager must approve.

Before you start

• To add a discount type you need the Inventory Master permission.
• To change a person's rights you need the User Management permission.
• Have an income account for discounts ready, for example Sales Discounts (Accounting → Chart of Accounts). You can use one account for every discount type, or one each.

Steps: add a discount type

1. Go to Products & Services → Items (other) and press New item.
2. Set Item Type to Discount.
3. Type the Item Name, for example Trade Discount for your account customers, or Customer Discount for the counter.
4. Choose the Discount Account: where these discounts are recorded.
5. Type the Rate and choose the Rate Unit (% (percent) or Fixed amount). The rate is filled in when someone picks this type for a single invoice line. For a discount on the whole sale, the cashier types the amount.
6. Press Save.

With one discount type, it is used for every discount. With two or more, the cashier chooses the Discount type on the till's checkout and on the invoice's Summary.

Steps: let a person give discounts

1. Go to Setup → Users, open the person, and choose the Rights tab.
2. In Selling & prices, tick Give discounts.
3. To cap them, tick Limit discounts to a percentage and type the Max discount %, for example 10.
4. Press Save. It applies from their next sale.

Up to the limit, the person gives discounts on their own. Above it, the sale is not saved until a manager approves it with their own sign-in (see When a sale needs a manager's approval). The limit applies at the till, on invoices and on sales orders, and it is checked two ways:

• Each line: a line's price after its discount (or a lower price typed in its place) may not go below the list price less the limit.
• The whole sale: a discount on the whole sale may not be more than the limit's percentage of the sale.

Tips

• Administrators are never held to a limit, so owners and managers can always approve.
• Promotions are not counted against anyone's limit: the owner approved them when setting them up.
• Use Copy rights from user… on the Rights tab to give a new cashier the same discount rights as a colleague.

Common problems

• "To give a discount on the whole sale, first set up a discount type" → there is no active discount type with a Discount Account. Add one as above.
• "That discount type can't be used" → it is inactive or has no Discount Account. Open it under Items (other) and fix it, or pick another type.
• A cashier can't type a discount at all → their Give discounts right is off.
• Every discount asks for a manager → the person's Max discount % is 0 or very low. Raise it on their Rights tab.