Give a Customer a Standing Discount

A standing discount is a percent off chosen services or inventory items that one customer always gets — for example "10% off Weekly Service at all sites". You keep it on the customer, and every invoice drafted for them afterwards takes it off on its own. The customer sees the line at its regular price with a labelled discount row under it, so they can see what they saved.

Before you start

• Who can do this. Office users with Sales and Billing access (every office role unless your company changed role access). Field roles do not see the card, and the discount does not appear on the customer's Activity for them.
• What a discount can cover. Services from your pricing catalog, rows on this customer's contracts, and inventory items still in use. Permit fees are passed through at cost and cannot be discounted.

Add a discount

1. 1

   Open the customer's Billing tab

   Go to DirectoriesCustomers, open the customer, and choose the Billing tab. Find the Customer Discounts card and click Add Discount.

2. 2

   Enter the percent

   Type the number in Percent Off, for example 10 or 12.5. It must be above 0 and no more than 100, and is kept to two decimals. Type the number only — 10% is refused.

3. 3

   Choose the items

   Under Items, pick from Add a service…. Services are grouped by work type, and a group On This Customer’s Contracts lists the rows on their contracts. To add a chemical or other product, type at least two letters in Search inventory to add an item… and click the item. A discount can cover up to 50 items; click the × on an item to take it off.

4. 4

   Choose the sites

   All sites, including sites added later covers every site, now and in future. Only the sites I choose lists the customer's active sites to tick.

5. 5

   Write the label

   Label (Shown To The Customer) is printed on the invoice beside the amount taken off, for example "Neighbor rate". Up to 60 characters, and no <, > or line breaks. Leave it blank and the customer reads "Customer discount".

6. 6

   Set dates if it should start or end

   Start Date (Optional) and Expiration Date (Optional) are both included: a discount that expires on March 31 still applies to March. Leave both blank for a discount with no end.

7. 7

   Save

   Add an Internal Note (Office Only) if it helps (who agreed to it, and why). Read the sentence at the bottom of the drawer — for example "10% off Weekly Service at all sites, through Mar 31, 2027." — then click Save Discount.

The card confirms with Saved: and the same sentence, and the discount appears in the table with its Percent, Items, Sites, Label, Dates and Status. If another discount on this customer covers some of the same items and sites, an amber notice says so: "Where both apply, the higher percent is used; they are never added together." Each add, change, hold, resume and removal is also noted on the customer's Activity for office users.

Which invoices take the discount

Only invoices drafted after you save. A discount's start and expiration dates are judged by the date the work was done, not the date the invoice is drafted:

A line you type yourself — on New Invoice → From a Customer, on From a Job, or added in Edit Draft — has no service or item behind it, so no discount can match it. A card sale on the Virtual Terminal is charged at the regular price.

How the discount is worked out

• Highest percent wins. Two discounts never add together. On a tie, a discount for chosen sites beats an all-sites one, then the older discount wins.
• On Hold is judged when the invoice is drafted. A discount on hold that day gives nothing, whatever its dates say.
• Drafted invoices never change. Editing, holding or removing a discount changes only invoices drafted after that.
• Chosen sites. The line must be for one of those sites. A single line that bills several sites at once is discounted only when the discount covers every one of them.
• One customer only. A discount on a management company does not reach the accounts it manages.
• With a contract's own discount. When the contract carries a discount from its quote, the customer discount comes off each line first and the contract's discount comes off what is left. Contract credit is applied to the discounted total.
• Tax is worked out on the discounted amount.
• Contract totals stay at the regular price. The contract's Total contract, each month's planned amount, and the Est. amount in + Create Invoice do not change.
• Summary-style chemical billing stays one line; its description says how much came off, for example "Chemicals used, less $2.60 customer discount (March 2026)".

A monthly contract draft also carries an internal note such as "Customer discounts on this invoice: Neighbor rate (10%) −$16.00. Each discounted line shows its list price." On the office invoice page, the discount row's label links back to the customer's Customer Discounts card.

Change, put on hold, or remove

Each row on the card has three actions:

• Edit opens the drawer as Edit Discount. Below the fields it lists Contracts This Discount Touches and the History of who changed what, and when.
• Put On Hold stops the discount for invoices drafted from now on; the row reads On Hold and the action becomes Resume.
• Remove asks Remove This Discount? Click Remove Discount to confirm, or Keep Discount. The row leaves the card. Invoices that already carry it keep it.

On a draft invoice

Open the draft and click Edit Draft. A discounted line shows a chip under its description with the label and percent, for example "Neighbor rate (10%)". The price box holds the list price, and the text under it reads "List price. After discount: $144.00". Change the quantity or the list price and the discount follows at the same percent.

To take the discount off this draft only, click the × on the chip and then Save Draft. The line goes back to the regular price and stays that way on this draft; the discount stays on the customer.

What the customer sees

On the customer portal, the pay page, the printable invoice and the invoice PDF, a discounted line is shown at its regular price, followed by a row with the label and percent and the amount taken off — for example "Neighbor rate (10%)" and "-$16.00". The two rows add up to what the invoice charges for that line. The customer sees the label, the percent and the amount only; your internal note and the discount's settings stay in the office.

Not available yet

• Quotes are not filled in with a customer's discount.
• The contract page has no discount card; manage discounts from the customer's Billing tab.
• A draft cannot be re-checked against changed discounts, and Edit Draft has no service or inventory picker, so a line you add by hand cannot take a discount.
• The phone apps do not show the card or the discount row.

Verify it worked

On a contract for this customer that bills a covered row, click + Create Invoice and pick the next month. Open the draft: the line shows the regular price, a row with your label and percent under it, and a total that is the regular price less the discount. The contract's Total contract is unchanged.

Troubleshooting