Discount groups

A discount group is a named set of dated discount rules that xMatix uses to fill in the Contract Discount on document lines, so that a negotiated discount is applied automatically instead of being typed on every order. You build discount groups once in the Sales or Procurement settings. New orders, invoices, quotes, purchase orders and the other documents pick a group when they are first saved, and each line added afterwards takes its contract discount from that group's rules.

Overview

A discount group has two parts:

• The group itself (the header). Its Discount Type, Active and scope fields (Partner Account, Branch, Partner Account Group, Customer Account Group) decide which new documents the group is stamped onto.
• Its rules (the Rules tab). Each Discount Group Rule gives a Discount Percent or a fixed Discount Amount from a Date Effective From date, optionally until a Date Effective Till date. A rule can name one Item, one SKU or one Item Group, or none of them to cover every item.

The header decides which group a document uses. The rules decide which discount a line gets.

A contract discount is separate from the line's ordinary Discount and cash discount (Discount2), which users type, and from the scheme discounts that trade schemes add. All of them can apply to the same line.

When to use it

• A dealer or a tier of customers has a standing discount agreed in a contract, and you want it on every order without anyone remembering to type it.
• A discount applies to a range of products, such as every lubricant, rather than to the whole catalogue. Use a rule with an Item Group.
• A discount starts or ends on a known date. Add a rule with that Date Effective From or Date Effective Till.
• A supplier gives you a standing discount on purchases. Use a Purchase Price group.

Prices and taxes are separate masters: see Price lists and Tax groups.

How xMatix handles it

1. A new document gets a group. When a new document is saved, xMatix looks for an active group of the matching type that fits the document's partner account, branch and account groups. If one fits, it is written to the document's Discount Group, replacing any group already chosen. If none fits, the field keeps whatever it had (usually nothing).
2. Each new line gets a discount. When a line is added, xMatix looks only at the rules of the group on the document. It keeps the rules in force on the document date that fit the line's item, SKU and item groups, and writes the winning rule's percentage or amount to the line's Contract Discount or Contract Discount Amount. It also records the rule in the line's Discount Group Rule.
3. Nothing is refreshed afterwards. Editing a line, changing the document's group, or selecting Reprice does not re-apply contract discounts. Only lines added from then on use the current group and rules.

Sales documents use Sale Price groups: orders, invoices, quotes, opportunities, delivery orders and service orders, whose lines all receive contract discounts. A sale-return credit note also gets a group on its header, but credit note lines never receive a contract discount. Purchase orders and bills use Purchase Price groups.

When an order is invoiced, the invoice copies the order's group, and each invoice line copies the order line's contract discount. If a rule in the invoice's group matches a new invoice line, the rule's value is written again.

The field app works out the same group and contract discounts on the device when you take an order offline (see Mobile).

Prerequisites

• The items you want to discount exist, with their SKUs if you discount those separately.
• For an account-group-scoped group, an account group of type Discount exists with the right members.
• For an item-group rule, an item group of type Discount exists with the right members.
• Your security profile lets you create and edit Discount Group and Discount Group Rule records (see Permissions).

Procedure

Step 1 — Open the discount group register

In the Sales app, select Settings, then Discount Group in the Pricing & Tax group. The same register is in the Procurement app's Settings, also in Pricing & Tax.

The default view, All Discount Groups, shows every group with its Name, Discount Type, Partner Account, Branch, Is Claimable, Is Default, Is Active, Created By, Created Date and Modified Date. Use the view switcher to show only All Sales Discount Groups or All Purchase Discount Groups.

Step 2 — Create the group

1. Select New. The New dialog opens.
2. Enter a Name that says who the discount is for, for example Gold Dealers 2026.
3. Choose the Discount Type: Sale Price for sales documents or Purchase Price for purchase orders and bills. The type is required.
4. Turn on Active. A group that isn't active is never chosen automatically.
5. Leave Default as it is. It has no effect (see Fields).
6. Under Partner Applicability, set the scope. Leave a field empty to mean "any":
   • Partner Account: the company that sells (or buys) on the document. The list shows active partner accounts.
   • Branch: the branch the document is raised in. The list shows the branches of the chosen partner account.
   • Partner Account Group: a Discount account group containing the partner account.
   • Customer Account Group: a Discount account group containing the customer. Leave it empty on Purchase Price groups, because purchase documents have no customer and such a group never matches them.
7. Save.

The group's record page opens on the Rules tab. Its header shows Discount Type, Partner Account, Branch and Active, with Edit and Delete buttons.

On a tenant that runs one company or one location, the Partner Account and Branch fields are hidden. A group then applies to the whole tenant.

Step 3 — Add discount rules

1. On the Rules tab, select New. A new rule form opens in the list.
2. To discount one product, pick the Item (only active items are listed) and, optionally, one of its SKUs. To discount every item, leave both empty.
3. Enter the discount, either as a Discount Percent (type 5 for 5 %) or as a fixed Discount Amount. If you fill in both, the percentage is used.
4. Enter Date Effective From. It is required. Optionally enter Date Effective Till. Leave it empty for a discount with no end date.
5. Save.

The rule gets a number in the DR series as its Name. The list shows each rule's Name, Item, SKU, Discount Percent, Discount Amount, Date Effective From and Date Effective Till, five rows at a time. Use the row's Edit or Delete to change or remove a rule.

The rule form also offers Item Lot Type. Discount matching ignores it, so a lot-type rule applies to every lot.

Step 4 — Discount a range of items with an item group

The Item Group field is not on the rule form. Set it on the rule's own page:

1. Add the rule as in Step 3, with Item and SKU empty.
2. Select the rule's Name to open its record page.
3. In the Applicable Item panel, edit Item Group in place and pick a Discount item group.

The rule now applies only to lines whose item is a member of that group. A group of any other type matches no line.

Step 5 — Change a discount from a date

Don't overwrite the existing rule, because you would lose the record of the old terms.

1. Open the old rule, or use the row's Edit, and set Date Effective Till to the last day of the old discount.
2. Add a new rule for the same item, SKU or item group with the new discount and Date Effective From set to the first day of the new terms.

Lines added to documents dated from that day get the new discount. Lines already on documents keep their discount.

Step 6 — Check which discount a document gets

1. Create a draft document for the customer, company and branch in question, and save it.
2. Check the Discount Group on the document's record page. If it is empty, no group matched.
3. Add a line for the item and check its Contract Discount or Contract Discount Amount, and the Discount Group Rule that supplied it.

Step 7 — Use a different group on one document

A group you pick on a new document is replaced whenever any group matches, so change the group after the document has been saved for the first time. On an order, edit Discount Group on the record page. The order's picker lists active groups of both types, so choose one of the right type.

The new group applies only to lines added afterwards, and only if the group's own scope fits the document: rules of a group whose partner account, branch or account groups don't fit the document are never used. Existing lines keep their contract discount. Correct those lines by hand, or delete and add them again.

Step 8 — Change, retire or delete a group

• Change a header field. On the group's record page, open the Details tab and edit the field in place, or select Edit. A change to the type, scope or Active affects only documents created afterwards.
• Retire a group. Turn off Active and end-date its rules with Date Effective Till. Turning off Active alone only stops the group from being chosen for new documents. Documents that already carry it still discount new lines from its rules.
• Delete a rule or a group. Use Delete on the record page, or the row's delete action. Prefer retiring a group over deleting it when documents still reference it.

Fields

Discount group

Discount group rule

Rules also have a Price List field. It is stored but not used for matching, so a rule that names a price list still applies to every document carrying its group.

Business rules

Which group a new document gets. This runs once, when a new document is first saved:

• Sales documents look only at Sale Price groups. Purchase orders and bills look only at Purchase Price groups.
• Only Active groups qualify. Each scope field must be empty or must fit the document: the document's Partner Account and Branch, the partner account's Discount account groups and, on sales documents only, the customer's Discount account groups.
• Matching groups are ranked: a group with a branch comes before one without, then the same for partner account, partner account group and customer account group. The first one is used. When two groups tie on that ranking, which one wins isn't predictable, so avoid overlapping groups.
• The matched group replaces any group already on the new document. If no group matches, the document keeps what it had.
• A group can't be scoped to a supplier. On purchase documents the scope fields describe your own company, branch and partner account group.

Which rule discounts a line.

When the discount is written.

• Only when a line is added. A contract discount typed on a new line is replaced if a rule matches.
• If no rule matches, the line keeps whatever it had, and you can type a contract discount yourself.
• Changing the line's item or SKU, changing the document's group, scope or date, and Reprice don't re-apply contract discounts.
• The rule's percentage or amount replaces the other one on the line: a percentage sets Contract Discount Amount to zero, and an amount sets Contract Discount to zero.
• Lines that trade schemes generate from another line, such as free items, don't inherit that line's contract discount.

How it reaches the amount. The line's Net Discount adds the contract discount to the regular and cash discounts. A Contract Discount Amount above zero is used as it is; otherwise Contract Discount is applied to the line's base amount. The contract discount is also taken off the taxable value, unless the line applies its discounts after tax. The order's Total Discount Amount is the sum of its lines' Net Discount. See Order lines for the full calculation.

Validations.

• Date Effective Till can not be Backdated. The rule is refused when the end date is before the start date.
• Nothing stops two rules from overlapping, or several groups from matching the same document. The rankings above decide which one is used.

Mobile

The field app downloads discount groups and rules, so Take Order works out the order's group and each line's Contract Discount on the device, with the same matching and ranking, even offline. Offline, it uses the rule's Discount Percent only: a rule that has only a Discount Amount shows no discount on the device. When the order reaches the server, the server applies the group's rules again as it saves each new line, so the amount is applied then.

Example

A distributor gives its gold-tier dealers 4 % off everything and 7 % off lubricants. From 1 November the lubricant discount rises to 8 %.

1. The administrator creates a Discount account group Gold Dealers with the gold-tier customers, and a Discount item group Lubricants.
2. They create a Sale Price discount group Gold Dealers 2026, Active, with Customer Account Group set to Gold Dealers.
3. On the Rules tab they add a rule with no item at 4 % from 1 January. They add a second rule with no item at 7 % from 1 March, open it and set Item Group to Lubricants.
4. For the change, they set the 7 % rule's Date Effective Till to 31 October and add a third rule at 8 % from 1 November, again with Item Group Lubricants.
5. A sales executive raises an order dated 3 November for a gold-tier dealer. The order gets Gold Dealers 2026. A 5-litre engine oil line, which is in Lubricants, gets 8 %. A filter line, which isn't, gets 4 %.

Because an item-group rule doesn't outrank a catch-all rule, the lubricant rules start later than the 4 % rule here. If the 4 % rule were renewed with a start date after 1 November, it would win on the lubricant lines too. In that case, give the 4 % rule an item group of its own or start the lubricant rule on the same day or later.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox:

1. Create a Discount account group that contains a test customer.
2. Create a Sale Price discount group called Training Discounts. Turn on Active and set Customer Account Group to that account group.
3. Add a rule for one item at 10 % from the first of this month, and a rule with no item at 3 % from the same day.
4. Create a draft order for the test customer and add that item and one other item.

Expected result: the order's Discount Group is Training Discounts. The first line's Contract Discount is 10 %, and the second line's is 3 %. Now select Reprice on the order: the contract discounts stay as they are.

Quick reference

• The header decides which group a document gets. The rules decide the discount.
• Sales documents use Sale Price groups, and purchase orders and bills use Purchase Price groups. Credit note lines get none.
• Empty scope fields mean "any". A scoped group beats an open one.
• Account and item groups must be of type Discount.
• A rule can name an item, a SKU, an item group, or nothing (every item).
• Item beats SKU beats start date. An item-group rule doesn't outrank a catch-all.
• Use a percentage or a fixed amount per line. The percentage wins if both are set.
• Discounts are written when a line is added, and never refreshed after that, not even by Reprice.
• Default, Claimable, Claimable Percentage, Item Lot Type and the rule's Price List have no effect.

Permissions

Access follows the user's security profile. Discount Group and Discount Group Rule each need read access to view them, and create, edit or delete access to change them. In the standard profiles, Sales, Sales Executive, Sales Manager, Standard User and System Admin have full access to both. The standard Procurement and Service profiles have no access, so purchasing staff who maintain Purchase Price groups need it added. Because a discount group changes what every new document charges, review which profiles your organisation lets edit them.

Configuration

An incentive plan slab can name a discount group as its reward. That only records the group on the compensation line; it doesn't change any document or put the earner into the group.

Common problems

A new order has no discount group

No active group of the right type matched the order. Check that a Sale Price group is Active, and that each of its scope fields is empty or fits the order: the same Partner Account and Branch, and account groups of type Discount that contain the company or customer. A group of another type matches no one.

The group I picked on a new order was replaced

When a new document is saved, a matching group always replaces the one on it. Save the document first, then change Discount Group, and add the lines afterwards.

The line has no contract discount

Check, in order: that the document has a discount group; that the group's scope still fits the document; that a rule covers the line's item, SKU or Discount item group, or is a catch-all; that the document date falls between the rule's Date Effective From and Date Effective Till; and that the line has an item. Lines that existed before you added the rule or changed the group keep their old value.

Reprice didn't update the discounts

Reprice re-prices lines from price lists only. Contract discounts are written once, when a line is added. Correct the lines by hand, or delete them and add them again.

The item-group discount isn't applied

Another rule won. A rule naming the item beats an item-group rule, and a catch-all rule with a later Date Effective From beats it too. Also check that the item group's type is Discount and that the item is on its Members tab.

A fixed-amount discount is too small on large quantities

Discount Amount is taken off the line once, whatever the quantity. Use Discount Percent for a discount that scales with quantity.

I get "Date Effective Till can not be Backdated"

The rule's end date is before its start date. Correct one of them and save again.

Common questions

Does changing a rule update open orders?

No. A line's contract discount is written when the line is added, and nothing re-applies it: not editing the rule, not changing the order's group, not Reprice. Lines added after the change use the new rule. For lines that are already on an open order, type the new Contract Discount yourself, or delete the line and add it again so that the rule is applied to it. Invoices raised from the order copy the order line's discount, but if a rule in the invoice's group matches a new invoice line, the rule's current value is written over it.

Can one customer have their own discount?

Not directly, because the group's scope fields are company, branch and account groups. Put the customer in a Discount account group of their own and set it as the group's Customer Account Group. The same pattern serves a tier of customers. Discount groups count account group members whether or not the member is marked active, so remove a member's row to take them out.

Can a line get both a contract discount and a scheme discount?

Yes. The contract discount comes from the document's discount group, and the scheme discount comes from trade schemes. They are worked out independently and both reduce the line amount. The order shows them separately as Total Discount Amount and Total Scheme Amount. A free-item line that a scheme generates from another line doesn't inherit that line's contract discount.

What does the Default flag do?

Nothing. Unlike price lists, discount groups have no fallback: a document that matches no group gets no contract discount. Give a group no scope fields if it should apply to everyone, and make sure no narrower group also matches.

Are discount group discounts claimable from the company?

Not through the discount group. Claimable and Claimable Percentage are stored but not read. Trade claims decide claimability from the scheme, so model a recoverable discount as a trade scheme.

Related topics

• Pricing, discounts and taxes
• Price lists
• Account groups
• Item groups
• Order lines
• Trade schemes
• Discount Group reference
• Discount Group Rule reference