Discounts

Users can apply a variety of discounts at POS. The following table lists the types of discounts that can be applied:

Sample Item Details - Discounts

Discount Preferences
Discount-related preferences are found in the Transactions > Discounts area in Prism preferences. The General area has preferences for rounding discounts and accumulated discounts. The Item Discount Settings area has preferences for editing item discounts.

Preferences & Settings > Transactions > Discounts:

Inventory Item Maximum Discount Percentage
When a user lists an item on a transaction and tries to apply a discount to that item, Prism checks to make sure the value does not exceed the Maximum Discount Percentage entered in the item's Inventory record. Depending on the version of Prism, the Maximum Discount Percentage in Inventory can be populated in different ways. In Prism 1.14.7 and earlier there is a special preference provided for backward compatibility with RIL (and Retail Pro 9). The "Populate Max Discount From" preference is in Admin Console - Node Preferences - Merchandise - Inventory - General. There is a similar preference RIL (or Retail Pro 9) in System Preferences - Local Preferences - Merchandise - Inventory - Pricing - General.
The preference has two possible settings: RIL Max Discount % or RIL Max Accumulated Discount %.  
RIL Max Discount %: If selected, the Max Discount % field in Prism Inventory will display the RIL Max Discount % value and Prism POS will use that value to control an item's maximum discount.
RIL Max Accumulated Discount: If selected, the Max Discount % field in Prism Inventory will display the RIL Max Accumulated Discount % value and Prism POS will use that value to control an item's maximum discount.
Employee Max Disc %
Whenever a discount is entered on a transaction, the Prism web client checks the Employee Max Disc % defined in the current logged-in user's employee record to see if the discount exceeds the allowed maximum. If the discount exceeds the allowed maximum, the discount is reduced, with the user informed via a toast message.
Sample toast message explaining discount has been reduced:

If more flexibility is required, users can enable the "Enable Employee Maximum Discount Override" preference. If the "Enable Employee Maximum Discount Override" preference is enabled, managers or other users can override the Employee Max Discount setting. By default, the preference is disabled.
When the "Enable Employee Maximum Discount Override" preference is enabled and a discount that exceeds the employee max discount percentage is entered , Prism will display an override prompt before reducing the discount.
Sample prompt displayed when a discount exceeds the employee max disc %:

Apply Maximum: Apply the maximum amount allowed, reducing the discount if necessary.
Override Discount: When a user clicks "Override Discount," a prompt is displayed for a manager or other override user to log in. This Prompt for Override, Override user sets new maximum for specific discount. The discount amount is entered in the OVERRIDE_MAX_DISC_PERC field in the DOCUMENT_ITEM table.
Cancel: Cancel discount request.

Editing Discounts In-Line
Users can edit the Discount $ or Discount % directly from the main transaction form. To edit the item discount, click in the Discount field. Select the desired discount type from the menu (You can set a default discount type in Prism Preferences - Transactions - Discounts).

1. Select an item in the item grid and then click the Discount Button    
2. Select a discount option. Type the discount amount or percentage. Press or tap the checkmark to apply the discount.    
3. If the "Show Discount Reason" preference is selected, then users must select a discount reason.    
4. The entered discount is applied. Complete the rest of the transaction.    

Item Details - Discounts
The Item Details screen includes a discounts tab where users can view/add/edit discounts.

1. Select an item on the transaction. Click the Discounts button.     
2. The Item Details screen opens to the Discounts tab.    
3. To enter a discount percentage, enter the value (e.g. 10) in the text box and then tap or click the Discount % button. Alternatively, you can enter a discount amount or a specific price.     
4. Select a Discount Reason.    
5. Click the Apply button.    
6. If using accumulated discounts, you can enter additional item discounts in the same manner.     
7. Click the Show Discount button to view the discount(s). Click Cancel to exit the dialog.    

Show Discount Button
When a user selects the Show Discounts button, the discounts applied to the item or transaction are displayed. Users with the required permission can remove individual discounts as needed.

Sorting Discounts
When multiple discounts are being applied, Prism will apply three levels of sorting:

• The first level sorts discounts by the "Spread" flag.: 1 - Non-Spread, 2 - Spread
• The second level sorts discounts according to the source of the discount: 1 - Price Level, 2 - Customer, 3 - Manual, 4 - Promotion
• The third level of sorting is by order of operation (time discount was applied)

Discount Reasons
When a user applies a discount at POS, the user must select a reason. In Prism, Node Preferences > System > Reasons and Notes, users can work with the reasons copied during initialization and define additional reasons, if needed. In Prism, if the Reason Required checkbox is selected in Prism preferences, when a user applies an item or a transaction discount, the user must select a discount reason. If the Reason Required checkbox is not selected, the reason is optional.
Sample Discount Reasons:

Manual Flag
The Manual flag on Discount Reasons that controls whether employees can manually select reason at POS. Only reasons that have the "Manual" flag selected in preferences can be selected manually at POS by users. If the reason does not have the Manual flag selected in preferences, then it can only be assigned by the program (automatically) as part of a POS event. This feature is especially useful when retailers use different reasons for discounts applied manually versus those applied automatically. For example, retailers may have special Discount Reasons that are applied by a customer loyalty plugin. The preference prevents automated reasons from being accidentally chosen at POS. By default, the Manual checkbox is selected for all Discount Reasons. Clear the checkbox as needed for any reasons that should only be applied automatically.

Multiple Discounts and Reasons (Accumulated Discounts)
When using the Accumulated Discounting feature in RP Prism, users can assign multiple discounts at either the item level or the transaction level. Users assign a Discount Reason to each individual discount. The same reason can be used for multiple reasons (see illustration below).  When multiple discounts are applied, when viewing the consolidated discount info for the transaction, "Multi" will be displayed as the Discount Reason.

Security for Discounts

Alerting User when Max Discount Reached
When the item's max discount is reached, a flag is displayed next to the discount percentage. If the user sees the word "Max" in red beside the discount, the user can assume that the discount has reached its maximum amount and part of a discount may not have been applied. Associates can see the flag and quickly understand why some part of a discount was not applied. There are many ways that the maximum discount for an item can be reached: Item Max Discount, Customer Max Discount, or Employee Max Discount. Note: The max discount value can be based on either the Max Discount % or Max Accumulated Discount % (see the previous section on the new preference related to this).
Item Max Discount
In each item's inventory record, the Max Discount field can be used to limit the amount of discount applied to an item. This is especially useful when vendors place restrictions on discounts.

Employee Max Discount
The Employee Max Discount field can be used to limit the discounts granted by employees. By default, this field is set to 100, meaning employees can grant discounts up to 100 percent. If the maximum discount percentage is exceeded, a prompt is displayed. A manager or other override user can override the discount if necessary. Otherwise, clicking Apply Maximum will overwrite the entered discount percentage with the maximum discount percentage in the employee record.

Discount Rounding
Prism includes a Discount Rounding Method preference to control how percentage discounts are rounded: Up, Down, or Normal (whichever is closest). This preference is especially useful for handling the rounding of decimal amounts (e.g. half-cent) when applying a discount percentage. The preference is found in Preferences & Settings > Transactions > Discounts. IMPORTANT: This preference is for rounding DISCOUNTS, not PRICES.

Example
Here is an example of how this preference can be used to apply fine-grained control to the rounding of discounts, especially when dealing with "half-cent" amounts.

 Issues with Rounding Discounts
When rounding discounts, the result will sometimes not be what you expect. In other words, when rounding down, the price will go up, and when rounding up, the price will actually go down. Let's look at two examples to illustrate the point.

• Example 1: An item's original price is $1.00 and you are set to round discounts DOWN. You give it a 10.6% discount. This results in a discount amount of $0.106 and price of $0.894. After rounding, you end up with a discount amount $0.10 and price $.90. As you can see, when the discount amount was rounded DOWN, the price ended up looking like it was rounded UP.
• Example 2: A similar inversion happens when you deal with half a cent when using NORMAL rounding method (to the nearest value). Rounding a discount amount of 0.005 will be rounded UP, but the price will look like it's rounded DOWN. For example, let's take a $1.00 item and give it 10.5% discount. This translates to a $0.105 discount amount and $0.895 price. Rounding the discount using the NORMAL method will round the discount amount to $0.11, so the price becomes $0.89. As you can see, the price went DOWN, not UP.

Accumulated Discounts
The Accumulated Discounts feature enables retailers to apply multiple discounts to an item, with each discount affecting the already discounted price. Example:  A 20% discount followed by a 10% discount, results in a 28.01% accumulated discount.
Basic Steps for Accumulated Discounts

1. Define a Max Accumulated Disc % for individual items in RP 9 Inventory, as needed.
2. Configure RP Prism Permissions related to discounts.
3. Enable accumulated discounts in RP Prism Preferences.
4. Create transactions and add discounts as needed.
5. Use the Show Discounts button to view (or remove) discounts.

Preferences for Accumulated Discounts
Accumulated discounts must be enabled in preferences. Separate preferences control accumulated discounts for manual discounts (transaction-level and/or item-level) and spread discounts (when a transaction discount is spread across the items/quantities). To enable accumulated discounts, navigate to Preferences & Settings > Transactions > Discounts.

Accumulate Spread Discounts
When a user applies a transaction level discount, the user can spread the discount amount. Spreading a discount distributes the discount amount among the items and quantities on the transaction. To accumulate spread discounts, first enable the feature in Prism Preferences & Settings > Transactions > Discounts. If a Transaction Level Discount is spread, then the discounts are applied to the item(s), reducing the item price. Note: An additional preference option can be set to automatically spread discounts.

1. On a transaction in progress, tap or click the Transaction Details button.    
2. Click the Discounts tab.    
3. Enter a discount value. You can enter an amount or a percentage. To enter a percentage, enter the value and then tap the Percent% button.    
4. Click the Apply button.    
5. Click the Spread button.    
6. Add and spread additional transaction discounts in the same manner. Click the OK button to exit Transaction Details.    
7. To view details for the spread discounts, select an item and then tap or click the Item Details button.    
8. The Discounts tab is displayed by default. Click the Show Discount button.    
9. Details for each of the spread transaction discounts are displayed. Click Cancel to exit the discounts dialog. Click OK to exit Item Details.