Documentation/ Checking the line items/ Discounts
Discounts on the lines
Each line takes up to three discounts, one after another. When the supplier states them as an amount rather than a percentage, there is an automatic conversion that translates them without changing what you are charged.
Document › Items tab › Fix the list data › Turn amount discounts into percentages
On this page
Discounts one after another
The three discounts go on in a chain: the second works on what the first left, and the third on what the second left. They do not add together.
| Step | Sum | On €100 |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | — | €100.00 |
| Discount 1: 10 % | 100 − 10 % | €90.00 |
| Discount 2: 5 % | 90 − 5 % | €85.50 |
| Discount 3: 2 % | 85.50 − 2 % | €83.79 |
Three chained discounts of 10, 5 and 2 % do not come to 17 %: they come to 16.21 %. It is why figures fail to tie up when somebody checks by hand and adds the percentages.
The problem with a discount in money
Some suppliers state the discount not as a percentage but as an amount: −€12.40 in the discount column. The system pulls it out as it stands, but a discount in money does not fit a percentage field, and the line stops adding up.
The conversion to a percentage
The application settles it with an action of its own: the line's discount is in money and has to become a percentage, so it works out each line's real percentage from what was actually charged.
The line's amount does not change. The conversion does not recalculate what you pay: it works out what percentage that discount is of the price, and records it as that. The money is identical.
The sum is done line by line, because the percentage the same amount represents depends on each item's price.
What it tells you
When it finishes, the screen says how many lines were corrected and how many were left out, with the reason for each one.
Lines left out
| Reason | Why |
|---|---|
| They carry no discount | There is nothing to convert. |
| Not enough to go on | The price or the quantity is missing, so the percentage cannot be worked out. |
| They have an agreed price | Their price is already fixed by a rule; converting the discount would change that arrangement. |
A line being left out is not an error: it is telling you why it was not touched.
How far it reaches
Like the other corrections in this section: this document and future ones from the same supplier. The ones already processed do not change.
Next to the result sits Undo, available only in that window.
When it cannot be applied
| Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No line with a discount was found | What was charged is quantity times price: there is no discount to convert. | Nothing. If the discount is on another of that supplier's documents, apply it from there. |
| The document has no supplier | With no supplier there is nobody to attach the rule to. | Put the supplier right on the General tab and come back. |
| The conversion could not be applied | The operation did not finish. | Try again. |
If you also have to fix a column on the same document, do that before the discount conversion: the percentage is worked out from the lines' values, and those values need to be the right ones.