Create a Discount Rule

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Overview

This article provides the steps necessary to create a discount rule. One or more discount rules can be associated with a Coupon, which can then be applied to an account or a Master Plan Instance, to influence the charge calculations of an account's invoice according to how the Discount Rule is configured.

Instructions

Getting Here: Click Marketing > Discount Rules

Click New.

The Create New Discount Rule page displays.

Enter a short, descriptive name for the discount rule in the Rule Name field.
Enter a unique identifier for the discount rule in the Client Defined Identifier field, if you would like an identifier different than the automatically populated value.
Enter an explanation of what this discount rule will provide in the Description field.

Note: This description will not be displayed to customers.

Enter a description of the rule that you would like to display to customers on a statement in the External Description field.
Select one of the following options from the Discount Type drop-down.

Fixed: applies a credit that is a fixed amount.
Percentage: applies a credit based on a percentage of a fee charged for a service.

Enter the fixed amount or percentage amount of the credit in the Amount field, depending on which Discount Type you selected.
If you selected a discount type of Fixed, select the Currency to which the credit applies.

Only customers who are billed in the specified currency will receive the discount.

Note: The Currency field does not display if you chose a discount type of Percentage.

Select one of the following options from the Duration field:

Specify Interval (from first application):
- Select Months, Weeks, or Days to specify the duration type of the discount.
- Enter the number of Max Applicable Months, Weeks, or Days for which the discount rule will remain in effect on an account starting from when the corresponding coupon is assigned to the account. Allowable values are from 1 to 999.
- When you select Months, the Invoice Application field appears, from which you can select:
  - Use default: Follows the default behavior of Discount Rules
  - Use proration and remainder factors: Flags the Discount Rule as a Remainder Discount Rule,which causes the discounts applied to an account's invoices to sum to a particular amount over its specified application period. When applied on the plan instance level for a recurring monthly service, it will prorate the discount applied on the initial invoice and apply the remaining proportion of the discount on the appropriate invoice.
Number of Uses: Enter the number of Max applications per account to determine the maximum number of times the applicable discount(s) can be applied to invoices generated for an account.
No Expiration: Select this option if the discount rule should have no expiration.

Discount rules can be applied to multiple transactions until a maximum discount amount is reached or the discount expires. Examples:

You create a discount rule for a fixed amount (example: $50), Max Applicable Weeks is 10 weeks and it's applied to multiple transactions. The discount is applied to multiple invoices until it’s fully exhausted or expires (10 weeks after it's applied to an account), whichever comes first. For example: a) 1st invoice is $30, so a $30 discount is applied, b) 2nd invoice is $30, so a $20 discount is applied, c) 3rd invoice, no discount because the $50 discount is already fully exhausted.
You create a discount rule for a percentage (example: 10%), Max Applicable Weeks is 5 weeks and applied on multiple transactions. The discount is applied to multiple invoices (each time for a 10% discount), until it expires (5 weeks after the corresponding coupon is assigned to an account).

Invoice Display Method: Select either of the following to specify how the discount should be displayed on invoices:

Reduce Price of Original Line Items(s): If a product costs $100 and the discount is $10, then $90 will be displayed on an invoice.
Add a Separate Discount Line Item: If a product costs $100 and the discount is $10, then two invoice line items will be displayed on an invoice, one for the $100 charge and one for the $10 discount. After selecting this option, you can specify the service code with which to identify the invoice line items associated with credits generated by this discount rule as described below.

If you selected Add a Separate Discount Line Item, then choose one of the following options from the Discount Behavior field:

Apply to gross amount of the charge: If there is a $100 charge line item, and you have two coupons giving 10% off and 5% off, respectively, this option will yield $10 and $5 discounts.
Apply to net amount after previously applied discounts: If there is a $100 charge line item, and you have two coupons giving 10% off and 5% off, respectively, this option will yield $10 and $4.50 discounts.

If you selected Add a Separate Discount Line Item, then choose one of the following options from the Assign specific/alternate service code to line item field:

Use the same service code as the “charge” line item: Select this option to use the same service code as the charge line item to identify invoice line items associated with credits generated by this discount rule.
Use a specific service code: Select this option to select a different service code with which to identify invoice line items associated with credits generated by this discount rule.

If you selected Use a specific service code, then choose the service code with which to identify the invoice line items associated with credits generated by this Discount Rule from the Service To Use field.
Click the Rule Application Details tab at the top of the page.
Select the plans, services, or items to which the discount rule should apply from the Scope drop-down.

If you selected All Plan Charges, Specified Plans, or Specified Plan/Service Charges, or Specified Item Charges, drag each plan or item from the list to the section of the screen that reads Please drop…here. Repeat this step for each plan or item to which the discount rule should apply. Click the red "X" to remove a plan or item from the discount rule.

If you selected, All Plans, Specified Service Charges, drag each service from the list to the section of the screen that reads Please drop…here. Repeat this step for each service to which the discount rule should apply. Click the red "X" to remove a service from the discount rule. Select each service to which the discount rule should apply.

Click Save.

You can now include the discount rule in a coupon when creating a coupon.