1 Topic by mtleng (edited by mtleng 11/15/2011 02:11:13 am)

  • Registered: 09/29/2011
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Topic: Fixed/absolute discount amounts possible on sales invoices?

Are fixed/absolute discount amounts possible on a sales order/invoice?  That is, a discount amount not related to any particular product.  This is similar to the question posed in the thread https://frontaccounting.com/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=1277, except I'm finding that negative prices ARE allowed (with a warning message), whereas in that thread it was stated that this wasn't possible (I assume the code was changed since then).

My current solution is to enter a charge item with a negative price.  Is this the accepted solution/work-around or is there a better way?

  • joe
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Re: Fixed/absolute discount amounts possible on sales invoices?

The prices cannot be entered with negative amounts.
Consider using a PriceList with the reduced prices instead.

/Joe

  • rodw
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Re: Fixed/absolute discount amounts possible on sales invoices?

I just overwrite the product price. Eg. Have RRP $995, sell for $945. You have to make sure GL Accounts is correctly set up if you apply a 10% discount so the P&L reflects the correct position in your country.

[b]RodW[/b]
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  • Registered: 09/29/2011
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Re: Fixed/absolute discount amounts possible on sales invoices?

joe wrote:

The prices cannot be entered with negative amounts.
Consider using a PriceList with the reduced prices instead.
/Joe

Why do you say 'cannot'?  This is what I'm doing now and the journal entries are as expected.  That is, positive prices credit the sales account and negative prices debit it.  And the total on the invoice is correct also.  Is see no issue with doing this.  Is something going to screw up internally by doing this that I'm not aware of?

And what are you referring to by 'PriceList'?  Is this a feature, or do you mean adjust each item price to make-up for the difference created by the discount, as suggested by rodw's post?

  • joe
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Re: Fixed/absolute discount amounts possible on sales invoices?

You can only enter negative amounts for service items (with a warning) in FA.

Instead you could create a new PriceList (or Sales Type in Sales Tab). Here you can enter a factor related to the default Sales Type.
F.i. if you want a discount of 10 percent, then enter a factor of 0.9. Then put this Sales Type on the Customer.

/Joe

6 Reply by mtleng (edited by mtleng 11/16/2011 12:27:29 am)

  • Registered: 09/29/2011
  • Posts: 15

Re: Fixed/absolute discount amounts possible on sales invoices?

Thanks for the replies but these suggestions don't really help in this case as I'm trying to account for a fixed/absolute discount not a percentage discount (ie. $10 off, not 10% off).  FA already has various mechanisms in place for percentage discounts, whether it be applied to an individual item in the invoice or applied to a Sales Type (ie. Retail, Wholesale, etc.).  However, it doesn't make sense to create new Sales Types every time there is a fixed/abs discount as this would eventually clutter the Sales Types with hundreds of entries dedicated to mimicking the fixed value of a single order.  And for orders with dozens of products, it also doesn't make sense to fudge all the value to reduce the total cost by some fixed amount.  Either case would require a lot of unnecessary overhead.

Unless using charges/services items with -'ve amounts will lead to some sort of critical failure, I think this is a much better work-around.  But, none-the-less a work-around.

Just my 2 cents, I think proper support for such discounts would be a valuable addition and, with support for POS now available, I think it's also a feature that will become more in demand.

  • elax
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Re: Fixed/absolute discount amounts possible on sales invoices?

If you want fixed discount, do as Joe suggested, create a service Item called discount, then enter a negative price on it with the value of your discount (You'll have to configure the tax properly so the VAT will take into account the VAT or not)

/Elax

8 Reply by ericta (edited by ericta 05/18/2013 04:08:45 pm)

  • ericta
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  • Registered: 04/06/2011
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Re: Fixed/absolute discount amounts possible on sales invoices?

when setup this discount item, what do I choose from COGS Account?

still 5010, COSG - retail?

Thank you
Eric