In this article you'll learn how to create a discount. We'll review the various types of discounts you can create as well as the rules you can apply to determine when ASAP should apply the discount.

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Because discounts can directly affect your revenue, it's very important that you understand how a discount will work before you make it available to your customers. 

Discount Categories

You can discount different items, from tuition aid, to early bird discounts, to senior discounts. Before creating your discount, set up the discount category you'd like to track.

• For ASAP Classic:  Go to Configure > Setup Data > and scroll to the Discount Category table.  Enter a Name, a Code for the discount category, and then click Save.
• For ASAP4: Go to Set Up > Financials > and click the Discount Categories tab. Click , enter a Name, a Code for the discount category, and then click the check mark.

Discount Preferences

You can now select the order discounts are applied to an invoice - in the way that is most beneficial to the registrant or most beneficial to the organization in one easy step.

• Go to Set Up > Financials > and click the Discount Categories tab.
• Scroll to Discounts Preferences and select the benefit recipient.

Create a discount

1.  Access the Discounts page.

• For ASAP Classic:  Go to Configure > Setup Data
• For current ASAP: Go to Set Up > Discounts

2.  Fill in the basics

1. Select a Discount Category. If you need to create a discount category, see Discount Categories.
2. Name your discount ("Early Bird Discount", "Summer Camp Special Discount", whatever you like). 
3. Select a date range for your discount. For example, if you want the discount to be valid only in July,  select 7/1/2020 and 8/1/2020.
4. If you use G/L codes, select the G/L code to associate to the discount. You may want to create a G/L code just for tracking discounts.

 3. Select the type of discount

The next step is to select the type of discount you want to create. Options include:

• Fixed-rate discounts - these are the simplest type of discounts; when in doubt use this one.
• Early-bird discounts ("enroll before March 1st and get 20% off...")
• Age-based discounts ("students under 18 get 20% off...")
• Volume-based discounts ("buy two and get 20% off...", or "get 20% off when two siblings enroll in the same class")

Let's review each of these options individually.

• Fixed-rate discounts

Fixed-rate discounts are the simplest type of discount you can create. Select Fixed Rate Discount when the age of the student, the registration date, or the number of items being bought or number of students enrolling are not important. The discount will be a fixed dollar amount or percentage.  If you are applying this discount as an administrator in the Admin side of ASAP, you can change the dollar amount as you apply the discount. 

Recommended Uses:

- Use this when creating discounts for Financial Aid as you can adjust the amount for each student. 

- Use this when you have an 'Enroll By' discount and set it to expire on the date they must enroll by. 

• Early-bird discounts

Select Early Bird Discount if you want to give people a discount for registering a certain number of days before the beginning of the class.

After you select early-bird discount, enter the number of days prior to the beginning of the class that the discount should stop being valid. For example, if you want a discount that's valid up until 30 days before class starts, you enter "30".

Recommended Uses:

- Use when you have classes starting on different dates and you want to drive enrollment by offering incentives for each class.

• Age-based discounts

Select Recipient Age Based when you want people within a certain age range to receive a discount.

After you select recipient age based, enter the age range you wish to make the discount valid for. For example, if this was a senior's discount you might enter "65" and "100".

NOTE: The registrant must have their date of birth stored in ASAP to take advantage of an age-based discount.

• Volume-based discounts

Volume-based discounts are based on either the number of items being purchased ("Buy 3 and get 10% off!"), or the number of people who are registering, also known as a sibling discount ("Get 10% off when two siblings enroll in the same class!").

First let's create a discount that is triggered based the number of items being purchased, and then we'll create one that is based on the number of registrants on the invoice.

Discounts based on the number of items being purchased

1. Select Volume Based.
2. Select one of the following options:
   • Discountable items - select if you don't care how many students contribute to the total number of items in the cart.
   • Discountable items that a single student purchases - select if you want the discount applied only if one student registers for all of those classes.
3. Enter the number of items that need to be purchased for the discount to be valid.
4. Enter the amount of the discount.
5. Select either Dollars or Percent and click Add.
6. Click Save.

You now have a single volume discount. You can repeat that process to create a series of different volume discounts. For example, you could offer 10% off for a volume of 2, 15% off for a volume of 3, etc etc :-)

7. Go to 5. Apply discount rules.

 Discounts based on the number of people enrolling in a class (sibling discount)

1. Select Volume Based.
2. Select Students purchasing the same discountable items.
3. Enter the number of students that need to be registering for the same class for the discount to be valid.
4. Enter the amount of the discount.
5. Select either Dollars or Percent and click Add.
6. Click Save.

You now have a single sibling discount. Again, you can repeat the process if you want to offer a series of tiered sibling discounts.

7. Go to 5. Apply discount rules.

4. Enter the amount of the discount

A discount can be dollar-based ("Sign up now and get $20 off!") or percentage-based ("Sign up now and get 20% off!). 

Let's review both of these options individually:

• Dollar-based discounts

To create a dollar-based discount, select Dollars and enter the amount of the discount you want applied to the invoice.

After you select Dollars you'll see an option that reads Apply discount once per invoice?

1. If you DO NOT select this option, the discount will be applied to the invoice once FOR EVERY DISCOUNTABLE ITEM ON THE INVOICE.

For example, if you create a discount where everyone over 65 gets $100 off, and you DO NOT select Apply discount once per invoice, and the the student enrolls in three classes, that student will receive $300 off of the total on their invoice.

2. If you DO select this option, that means that the discount will be applied to the invoice ONLY ONCE.

Using that same seniors discount as an example, if you DO select Apply discount once per invoice, and the the student enrolls in three classes, that student will only receive $100 off of the total on their invoice no matter how many classes they enroll in.

• Percentage-based discounts

To create a percentage-based discount, select Percentage and enter the amount of the discount you want applied to the invoice.

You do not have the option to apply a percentage-based discount only once per invoice, and that brings us to a VERY IMPORTANT DISTINCTION between dollar and percentage-based discounts:

Discounts in ASAP are applied to the sub-total of an invoice and not to specific items. What does that mean? If you create a 20% off discount, and that discount is applied to an invoice, that 20% will be deducted from the sub-total of that invoice and not to any one specific item. That means that everything on the invoice will be 20% off.

You can create a discount that will only be applied to an invoice when a specific item is on it (we'll get into that below), but that discount will still apply to every discountable item on the invoice, since it's going to be applied to the subtotal and not to the specific item.

The only way to create a discount where the amount of the discount doesn't change no matter what the sub-total, is to create a dollar-based discount and then select Apply discount once per invoice? Then you can calculate what the percentage off of a particular item would be in dollars, create a dollar-based discount for that amount, and select Apply discount once per invoice? 

5. Apply discount rules

The rest of the options on the discount configuration page allow you to make your discounts even more specific. Let's look at each type of rule.

When should the discount be applied?

 Here you have two choices:

1. Automatically, meaning ASAP applies the discount to the student's invoice as long as all of the discount rules are met. Is the student over 65? Are they registering 35 days before the start of class? ASAP automatically applies those discounts to the invoice without any further action from you or the student.
2. When the student enters a coupon code, meaning the student or administrator needs to enter a coupon code in order for the discount to be applied to the invoice. Note that the discount won't be applied to the invoice if the discount rules are not met, regardless of whether or not the coupon code is entered.
   1. Select Single-use if you want the coupon to be good for only one person, or Multi-use if you want more than one person to be able to use the code.
   2. A manual discount is most often used internally by staff, so use this setting and just don't share the code with students.  

Who should receive the discount?

With this option, you can limit the number people who are eligible to receive the discount. For example, you can create a discount that works for:

• A specific student (you can use this to award an individual student)
• A customer group (this is most often used for students you assign to a group, like Financial Aid, or Honor Roll students. )
• A specific customer type (this is used when you have at least two different types of students, such as University X students and Community students) 
• A specific membership level ("All Gold Members receive 20% off!")

If you want the discount to be applicable to all individuals, select Everyone.

What items should the discount apply to?

This is where you can specify which item, or items, need to be on an invoice in order for the discount to be applied.  ("Enroll in Guitar Lessons and Choir together and receive 20% off!") You can specify more than one item by selecting the additional item type, saving it, and repeating that process. 

If you don't care which items are on the invoice for the discount to be valid select Applies to all items. Otherwise you have the following options:

• Class, Course, and Course Group are for targeting a specific class or classes.
• Private Lesson is for discounts that apply to private lessons only, and Lesson Package is for discounting lessons that are sold as a part of a package.
• Time Period Fee is for discounting the registration fee for that semester/year, and Time Period is for discounting classes or lessons that take place within a particular time period.

Are there any items that this student must have purchased in the past for this discount to be valid?

Use this option for creating discounts for returning students.  Again, you can specify that more than one item needs to have been purchased in the past in order for the discount to be valid.