Editing Discounts

When you select Add or Edit from Setup General Item Discounts, the Edit Discount Definition dialog will appear.  This is where you define all of the details of the discount.

This dialog is also used for item-specific discounts, when Add New Discount is selected from an Edit Inventory Item dialog.

The fields are described in detail below.  All discounts must have a description and either a percentage or an amount -- the rest of the fields are optional, and define when and how the rate is applied.

Description

This is important, since this will be shown on the receipts as the description for the discount.  It should be kept appropriately short, especially if you're using a 3" receipt printer.  Also note that the description for the item being discounted will be added in front of this description (for instance, if the description is "10% off", the receipt will show something like "Firewood : 10% off").  So keep it short!

This description is also what's shown in the selection list when using Select Discounts in the Edit Inventory Item dialog.  While there's no restriction against duplicate descriptions, it would make it very difficult to select the appropriate discount when editing inventory items if there are any duplicate descriptions.  If this is difficult to do while keeping them short, consider adding details widely separated from what the customer sees, like "10% off....................(end of season)".  You will be able to see the details in the list, but if printed on a 40-column printer the details of the description will be cut off and not shown.

Discount each item a fixed amount

Enter a value here if you want a particular dollar amount subtracted from the price of each item.  This fixed amount will be multiplied by the quantity of items as needed.  You don't need to enter a dollar sign, just the number

...and/or discount by a percentage

Enter a percentage here (with or without the % symbol) to discount the items.  This percentage is applied to the total price of the items, after they are multiplied by any quantity (and after any fixed-amount discount is applied if entered above).

Treat as a Surcharge (add a Charge, not a Discount)

When this box is checked, this "Discount" definition will be added as a Charge, rather than as a Discount.  This can be used for instance to add Bottle Deposit amounts to soft drink sales.  Enter the amount as a positive number as with a Discount, but instead of subtracting the amount, it will add it (since it's a Charge, of course).

Note: Any items marked as Surcharges will be added separately from Discounts -- therefore it's possible to have one Surcharge and one Discount apply to an item at the same time.  (Normally only one Item Discount can apply during a given sale, but the Surcharge is a special case.)

Non-Taxable

If this discount/surcharge should not be taxed (i.e. don't adjust the taxable amount by the discount or surcharge amount), then check this box.  This is typically used for bottle deposits, for instance, since those are usually not taxed.

Applies if Qty >=

If this discount should only apply if the quantity purchased is greater than 1, then enter the appropriate number here (e.g. if the discount starts if they buy 3, enter 3 here).  Note that the discount will be applied to the total quantity purchased, not just those above the value here (e.g. it would be applied to all 3 items, not just those beyond 3).

Applies if Qty <=

If this discount should only apply if the quantity purchased is lower than a certain quantity, then enter the appropriate number here.  This is normally only used in conjunction with the Applies if >= field for bracketed discounts, like 10% off qty 5 to 9, 15% off qty 10 or more. The 10% discount would have 9 in this field, so it won't apply if the qty is 10 or more.

Applies only in qty multiples of

If the discount should only apply in certain multiples, then enter the number here -- for instance if the discount is only to apply for groups of 5 items purchased, then enter a 5 here.

Transaction category to use for discounts

You will usually want to leave "Same as inventory item" selected, so that the discount amount is subtracted from the total sales of that category.  However there may be times when you want the discounts to be reported in a completely separate category, not affecting the figures for that particular category.  In that case, select the 2nd option here and then select the category you want the discount amount to be reported in.  

Note however that regardless of the Transaction Category used for the discounts, the discounts will always count for the corresponding Inventory Item or Inventory Class for the item discounted.  So even if you select a separate Transaction Category for the discounts (perhaps an "end-of-season" category), you can still get a report showing the actual amount received for each item or inventory class.

Also note that the Discount transaction types can be filtered when reporting, so you could get a report showing only the total discounts given for any transaction category, item, or inventory class no matter which way you choose to do it.

So, it may just be a matter of whether you want special categories for reporting particular type of discount (e.g. seniors, sales, close-outs, etc.).  The other factor would be if you're exporting to QuickBooks, you need to map each category into some QuickBooks item or account.  If you use special discount categories, this may not let you account for the discounts properly in QuickBooks.

Discount type to show for transaction

If this discount applies only to certain discount types, then you probably want to report these discounts according to the discount actually used by the customer.  In that case, select the "Same as customer's discount" option.  However if it has nothing to do with the discount types defined (e.g. just a sale price), then choose the 2nd option and select a discount to use for reporting.  You'll probably want to add at least one special discount type for this, such as "Sale" or "Merchandise", that's different than any discounts that might be used for reservations.

Applies to Discounts

This function lets you select one or more discount types that this discount will apply to.  For instance, if it's a senior discount, select the Senior discount type.  This means that in order for this discount to apply, the Senior discount must be selected for "Discount type used" at the top of the P.O.S. sales entry dialog.  You can select more than one discount type, or even all of them, and it will apply to any of the selected types.

Apply only if customer has no discounts

Check this box if this discount should only apply if no discount is selected for "Discount type used" when entering sales.  While this sounds like it's not a useful option, it can be important for making discounts mutually exclusive so the proper one is used.  For instance, you might have a 10% discount for seniors, 15% for employees, and 5% for anyone else (with other conditions like applying to certain dates).  While the ordering of the discounts can be used make this work properly, it's a good idea to check this option for the 5% discount to make sure it's not applied to seniors or employees by mistake.

Season Dates Applicable

This field is used to specify the dates for which the discount is applicable (think of it more as "sale dates" than season dates, but "season" is used here to be consistent with Rates and Sites setup terminology).  Dates in this field and the other two Special Dates fields can be entered as single dates or as date ranges.  You can also enter dates without the year if you want to specify dates that apply the same to every year, but this only applies to the Season Dates, not the Special Dates.  If you leave this field blank, it means that the site is available all year long (so there's no need to enter 1/1 to 12/31).

Note that the dates in these fields will be entered in the "regional" format according to your computer's settings -- for instance, month/day for U.S., and day/month for Canadian, etc.  U.S. format is used in the examples.

There is no limit to the number of dates or date ranges you can enter, and the field will scroll as needed. Separate each date range with a comma.  A space after the comma is optional (it will be inserted automatically when displayed).  The format of a date is fairly flexible as long as if follows the month/day/year convention. Each range should include two dates separated by the word "to".  Here are some examples of valid range entries:

1/1 to 9/30, 11/1 to 12/31        (note there are no years, so it applies to every year)

1/2/2002 to 4/3/02                (years can be 2 or 4 digits)

10-5-01, 10-7-01 to 12-31-01        (single dates can be entered, and you can use the dash in a date)

Regardless of the date format you use, it will be changed to a common format (like mm/dd/yyyy) after you save the information.  If you make a mistake in an entry, it will warn you when you click Save and ask you to fix it.

You can clear out old date ranges once that year has passed (and add new ones for upcoming years).  Unlike the dates for Sites, there is no need to keep old dates in the lists since you won't add P.O.S. transactions for past dates.

Special Dates Applicable

Special Dates Applicable take precedence over season dates in determining if a site is available.  Even if you have specific seasons, there may be times when you want to make some discounts available out of season.  You could just adjust the Season Dates if you enter the dates for each year separately, but if you use the same Season Dates every year (entered without years, like 3/1 to 9/30) then it's easier to enter any exceptions in this field.  

The Special Dates Available field follows the same formatting as Season Dates, with the exception that they should always have a year in them.  (Otherwise you would be better off adjusting the Season Dates.)  It's OK to have dates here that are considered applicable by the season dates anyway, but it would add work for the software so it's best to avoid overlapping dates.  

Note -- Since this is an exception list, you can't just put the normally applicable dates here -- use the Season Dates field for the normal range.  The Special Dates Available list simply overrides "out of season" dates, making dates applicable that aren't in the normal season range.

Special Dates Not Applicable

This is the highest priority of the date fields.  If a date is included here, the discount will be considered not applicable on this date even if the same date is in both of the Dates Applicable lists above.  Dates in this list should always have years in them.

Days of the Week Applicable

These checkboxes allow you to indicate which days of the week the discount is applicable on, handy for things like a "Tuesday special".  Note that the days of the week selected can be overridden by Special Dates Applicable or Special Dates Not Applicable, so take care in specifying special dates in these cases.

If you don't plan to have discounts that are based on the day of the week, then you should disable these fields (see Define Data Fields).  This will improve the speed of the program.

Notes

The Notes field is just for your own notes, perhaps an explanation of why a discount is set up the way it is.  The Notes are never seen by the customer.  They can be any length (it will scroll as needed).