About discount application
For more information: Discount codes - reference information.
This topic provides details about the automatic and manual application of discounts.
Application of automatic discounts
For automatic discounts, you don’t have to specify the order of their application. When the user saves a document, the system always applies automatic discounts in the following order:
Line-level (applied to each line of the document)
For each document line, the system checks applicable line-level discounts and picks the one with the largest discount amount.
Group-level (applied to multiple lines of the document)
The system checks for applicable group-level discounts and applies all of them.
Document-level (applied to the document total amount)
There can be only one (the best) document-level discount, which is why group-level discounts (that apply to multiple lines of the document) are often used as document-level discounts. For example, if you create a group-level discount that is applicable to a specific customer price class, it will work as a document-level discount affecting each line of a document.
The following options, which are located in the Discount codes - reference information window, affect the order of discount application and the calculation of the discounts:
- Exclude from discountable amount
- If you select this option, available for line-level discounts, you can exclude the discountable amount of the line-level discount from the discountable amount for higher-level (group or document) discounts. For instance, by using this option, you can exclude items with a 75% clearance discount defined at the line level from the basis for the usual 5% document discount that the customer receives on orders exceeding €2000.
- Skip document discount
- This option is available for group-level discounts. If you design a group-level discount to be applicable to multiple lines and significantly reducing the document total, select this option to not apply a document-level discount to the documents to which this group-level discount has been applied.
Interaction between discounts and customer-specific prices
In Visma Net, you can define special prices to be used for particular customers. You can enter and maintain such prices by using the Sales prices (AR202000) window. If customer-specific prices are available for items listed on a customer document, the system replaces the general sales prices with customer-specific prices.
If you want to use customer-specific prices as an alternative to discounts, you can select the Ignore line discounts if the customer-specific price is a Available option on the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window. With this option selected, the system will apply line-level discounts only to lines with generally priced items (if applicable). In both cases, Group- and Document-level discounts are applied as usual.
Application of manual discounts
The discounts with the Manual check box selected in the Discount codes - reference information window will not be applied automatically or selected as the best available when the user saves the document. You can configure manual discounts, for example, for rebates or coupons. While automatic discounts of all levels are applied when a document is being saved, the user can apply a manual discount to the document in the appropriate window, which can be one of the following windows:
A user can apply manual line-level discounts to a document on the Document details tab of the appropriate window by selecting the discount code in the particular line. After the code has been selected and the discount amount has been calculated, the system calculates other discounts.
To apply manual group-level or document-level discounts, the user selects each manual discount by its code in the table on the Discount details tab of the appropriate window. If the user changes the line quantities when adding manual discounts, manual discounts will be recalculated. (They will not, however, be replaced by automatic discounts even if the automatic discounts would result in a greater discount amount.)
Details of discounts applied to documents
The users can view the details of the document-level and group-level discounts, automatic or manual, that were applied to the document on the Discount details tab of the respective data entry window (listed in the previous section).
Discount limit validation
You can configure the system to validate the percentage allowed for discounts on orders (or invoices) and issue a warning when the total discount percent calculated for the group-level and document-level discounts exceeds the established limit for customers of specific customer class. To do this, specify the limit (as a percent) in the Group/document discount limit (%) field in the Customer classes (AR201000) window.
Refreshing prices and discounts on documents
For documents with the On hold status, the users may periodically refresh the prices and discounts if they suspect that the prices or discounts were updated or new discounts have been defined in the system. To update the prices and discounts, the user can use the Recalculate prices dialog box, which opens when the user selects Recalculate prices on the Actions menu of the window toolbar of the respective window. In the dialog box, the user can select whether to replace manual discounts with automatic discounts. If the user is not satisfied with the result, the user can apply the manual discounts.
Application of auxiliary manual discounts
Manual discounts (without discount codes) are applied when all automatic discounts have been applied. You can specify the manual discount for particular document lines by using the Document details tab of the appropriate data entry windows:
- Sales invoices (AR301000)
- Cash sales - reference information
- Sales orders (SO301000)
- Customer invoices (SO303000)
To apply a manual discount, you can enter either the discount percent or the discount amount. The system will recalculate other related values automatically.