Fixed customer discount: why it doesn't work and how to set it up correctly

A fixed customer discount — is a mode that assigns a stable discount percentage to the buyer on a permanent basis, regardless of the amount of their accumulated purchases or purchase history.

Entrepreneurs sometimes contact technical support with the following question: a discount is set in the customer card, for example 10%, but when a product is added to the «Sale» form or when an invoice is issued, it is not applied to the product, is calculated incorrectly, or disappears after other items are added to the receipt. Usually, the reason is not a system error in the program, but a conflict of priorities: the fixed discount is overridden by a product discount or promotion settings.

How to correctly assign a fixed discount to a customer

To make sure the discount is assigned to the buyer, you need to fill in their card correctly:

1. Go to the main menu item Marketing - Customers. Open an existing customer card or create a new one.

2. On the «General» tab, in the Discount calculation method field, select «Fixed» from the drop-down list.

3. In the Discount % field, specify the required fixed discount amount, for example 5 or 10.

  4.  In the general customer list, customers with a fixed discount are visually marked with a red circle next to their surname: a blue circle means an accumulated discount, and a green one means a bonus discount.

Why does the fixed discount not work?

If you added a product to the sale, selected a customer, but the fixed discount is zero or differs from the expected value, check the following settings:

1. Overriding by Product Discount 

This is the most common reason. By default, Product Discount has the highest priority (level 0) and overrides all other discounts, including the customer discount. The set product discount is always applied, regardless of whether the customer has a discount card or not. Moreover, previously, even if a 0% product discount was set for a product, it overrode the customer discount. In newer versions, this logic has been changed and aligned with the general discount priority rules.

2. Discount blocked by Promotion conditions 

If a promotion is active in the store, for example «For one product», its settings may have the switches «Customer discount does not apply to products of the activating group» and «Product discount does not apply to products of the activating group» enabled. In this case, when products that activate the promotion are added, the customer’s fixed discount is forcibly reset to zero. The customer discount also will not work if the product falls under a promotion that has a higher priority in the priority table, or if the promotion has the same priority but offers a higher discount percentage.

3. Sale at wholesale prices 

If you sell a product at a wholesale price, with the «Wholesale» trade type set, by default, no customer discounts apply to wholesale sales. To make the customer’s fixed discount apply to wholesale prices, go to Settings - Parameters - Discounts - Advanced mode settings and enable the «Apply discounts to wholesale sales» switch.

4. Impact of rounding settings 

If the total amount of goods in the receipt is very small, for example not more than UAH 10, and receipt rounding to a whole number is enabled in the program settings (Settings - Parameters - Receipt), the fixed discount may simply not work mathematically, because it is neutralized by rounding.

5. Payment with a gift certificate 

If a customer partially pays for a product with a gift certificate, configured to work «As a product», their fixed discount will apply only to the amount paid additionally with real money. First, the certificate nominal value is deducted from the full product price, and only the remaining amount is subject to the customer’s fixed discount.

Updating prices and discounts after changing the customer

A separate issue occurs when the seller creates a receipt or issues an invoice, adds products to it, and only then changes the customer to another one with a different discount type or amount.

When the buyer is changed in the «Customer Order» editing form or in «Trade with invoice», the new customer’s discount may not be applied instantly and automatically to the products that have already been added. In such cases, selling prices will not change automatically to avoid accidental changes to the agreed order amount.

For the new customer’s fixed discount to be correctly applied to the entire product list in the document, use the «Update prices» button. When this button is clicked, the program will:

• Set current price list prices for all products, taking the selected accounting center into account.

• Recalculate the final selling prices according to the fixed discount of the customer currently selected, taking into account all priorities: promotions, product discounts, and so on.