How to limit discounts in Torgsoft: maximum discount per product type and prohibitions

Entrepreneurs in retail often face the problem of uncontrolled discounts, which leads to profit loss. The most common complaints are sellers manipulating discounts for their own acquaintances or situations where a large regular-customer discount applies to a product with a minimum markup. 

For example, in a children’s goods store, the markup on diapers is only 3-5%, while the customer has a 10% discount card. If the customer buys this product, the owner will not only fail to earn anything but will also incur a loss by selling the product at a "minus". To avoid such financial losses, Torgsoft has mechanisms for strict discount restrictions, prohibitions, and separation of staff access rights.

Below is a comprehensive guide to setting up discount restrictions in Torgsoft.

1. Setting a maximum discount for a Product type

The most effective way to protect low-margin goods is to set a discount limit for the entire product category (type).

How to set it up:

1. Go to the Inventory management -> Product type menu.

2. Select or create the required product branch (for example, "Diapers").

3. Find the Maximum discount at sale block and enable the Maximum discount set switch.

4. In the field that appears, enter the limit percentage (for example, 2%).

How does it work? If the customer has a discount card with a 10% discount, the program will automatically "cut" it to 2% specifically for this product type. This means that another product in the receipt will be sold with a 10% discount, while diapers will be sold with only 2%.

2. Complete ban on discounts for a product (0% discount)

If you want a product to always be sold strictly at the retail price and not be affected by any discount cards, enter "0" in the Maximum discount (%) field (in the Product type settings).

In addition, you can set a 0% product discount directly in the card of a specific product. In new versions of the program, the operation of a zero product discount is governed by the general priority system: it works correctly and overrides customer discounts or promotions if it has the highest priority.

3. Product discount and "Marked down" status

Sometimes it is necessary to strictly fix the price for a specific batch or unit of goods. For this, the following is used:

• Product discount. It is set individually for a product (for example, through the Stock status -> Set product discount form). It has the highest priority (priority 0) over other types of discounts (for example, customer discounts) and is always applied, regardless of whether a discount card is present.

• "Marked down" status. If you mark the product as Marked down in the product card (or when setting a discount), no other discounts will apply to this product anymore (they will not be added to customer discounts), and as a bonus, the system will prohibit the customer from returning this product.

4. Restricting seller rights (Protection against manipulation)

Restriction settings will make no sense if the cashier can manually edit the price in the receipt. To prevent abuse and theft, the owner needs to configure the "Seller" role (Settings -> Parameters -> Role -> Document / Access tab):

• Prohibit price changes. Clear the "Allowed to change the sale price in sales" checkbox. This will prevent the cashier from lowering the price on their own and taking the difference.

• Prohibit discount changes. Clear the "Allowed to change the discount percentage when ordering goods" checkbox.

• Restrict manual discounts. Make sure the seller does not have rights to set a "Document discount" (manual discount for the entire receipt), because a manual document discount has priority over any automatic restrictions.

It is also useful to use minimum sale price control. In the user settings, you can set the "Ask about selling below cost" parameter or prohibit selling below cost with a minimum markup.

5. When promotions should "bypass" restrictions

Torgsoft has a smart discount priority system. By default, product type restrictions and product discounts override everything. But if you deliberately launch a global marketing promotion (for example, "Black Friday" or "Total Sale") and want it to apply even to goods with restrictions, enable the "Has priority over discount restrictions" switch when creating the Promotion (Marketing -> Promotions menu). Then the promotion discount will ignore the maximum discount set for the product type or manufacturer.

Using restrictions by Product type, blocking manual cashier intervention through Role settings, and using the Marked down status or 0% product discount fully protects your business from selling low-margin goods at a loss and prevents discount fraud at the checkout.