We have a client here in the Twin Cities, MN, USA that resells door hardware mostly to schools. Before using Dynamics GP, this client was going through challenging quote gymnastics each time they did a quote.
They were challenged when they would not discount the quote for the client, and they were challenged internally, with a lot more work and setting future unwanted expectations, when they would offer a discount.
Because they did not want the client to see the word “Discount” on the quote-thereby encouraging each client to ask for a discount each time something was quoted, they went through the difficult process of effectively discounting each line item so that the quote itself did not show the word “discount” at the bottom-but footed properly.
This process was painful for 3 reasons:
1. It was a lot of work to change or discount each line item to avoid having one larger discount at the bottom.
2. Each time a client wanted that same part quoted, they looked at their past cost which was sometimes discounted heavily due to the size of the order. So if the client had a smaller order, they were still looking at their last cost for their prior order-and demanding the same price.
3. Clients with no discount amount were constantly asking for a discount since there was a line for a discount, but it was blank.
Our solution, which we did within the GP Report Writer but could easily have been done with Crystal Reports, was to simply suppress the printing of the word discount on the quotes that did not have discounts.
The row now shows the word “discount” if there is a discount, but suppresses “discount” if there is no discount offered.
Now our client does not have to recalculate lines, deal with artificially lower prices for future orders, or explain why many quotes have no discount being offered.
An Excel depiction of what the issue is with the word discount showing and inviting each client to press for a discount.
This idea can be used with Dynamics SL using Crystal Reports where a conditional line could be suppressed when there is no discount being offered or the amount is zero.
In fact most accounting software programs have some way of suppressing a line or the printing of that line (print a blank line instead of removing the line altogether).
I hope this helps you maintain your margins or your client’s margins and proves useful to you.
