The following guide will take you through applying discount in PPS. Section 1 covers applying discount at the time of raising a charge and Section 2 details how to apply discount to a charge already part of an invoice or to the overall balance of an invoice with multiple charges. Section 3 of the guide will cover how discount affects practitioner commission reports.
Section 1 - Applying discount when raising charges
a. When raising a charge via the Create a Charge screen (Accounts > Create A Charge) you can add discount via the Discount field. You can either enter a percentage or a fixed amount here and the system will subtract that amount from the total in the Unit Cost field. When this charge is part of an Invoice the Unit Cost will be visible along with the final charge cost after discount.
b. If you want to apply discount to a charge you're raising when completing an appointment then you'll need to choose the Cash Desk option in the Complete Appointment screen. Cash Desk can also be used to raise ad-hoc charges via the Accounts menu. You can apply discount from Cash Desk using the Discount button in the bottom corner.
This gives you the option to apply a percentage discount based on either the total of the last raised charge or the total of all charges currently raised in the cash desk. Alternatively, you can choose a fixed discount amount that will be applied overall. Choosing the percentage based on the previous entry will apply the discount to that charge and it will be shown as a deduction to the unit cost on any invoices. The latter two options will add a negative value Discount charge to the invoice to bring the overall total down.
Select the relevant option and enter the discount amount in the far left discount field and hit enter.
Section 2 - Applying discount to an Invoice
a. To apply a discount to a charge already assigned to an invoice simply access the invoice either via the Client or Third Party Log, the Accounts screen, or the Invoices/Receipts List. If the invoice is not issued then you can choose the Charges option in the bottom left corner. With the charge you want to apply discount to selected choose Modify the Selected Charge. You can now add discount as detailed in Section 1 of this guide.
b. If you want to apply an overall fixed rate discount to an invoice that may contain multiple items then open the invoice and choose Charges > Create a New Charge to add to this Invoice.
Create a charge of negative value reflecting the amount of discount you want to apply. This will bring the overall total owed on the invoice down. You can simply enter "Discount" in the Type and Description field or add a Discount standard charge purely for this purpose in Standard Charges and Stock Items.
Section 3 - Discount and Commission
When running the Practitioner Commission report you have the option to run the report based on charges and view commission rate based only on Charge Value before discount. This will only be applicable when the discount is applied to the charge itself via the "Discount" field. If an overall discount is applied to an invoice using an additional, negative value charge then these will need to be excluded in using report criteria. The negative charges will be included and commission will be applied to them, also to a negative value.