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My company has been using Invoices and Bills facility in Xero since 2014. There is no facility to apply discounts to bill line items as there is no discount column available via the GUI. Also the Xero user can’t toggle this discount field via [Show/hide field] button as in Invoicing.

Now consider one of our examples. We have partner contacts who can be either a supplier or a purchaser and in a given Qtr depending whether the sum of all sales by both partner contact and ourselves in that Qtr are net to ourselves or net to partner contact. This is through a revenue sharing agreement with a partner contact. Mostly it’s 75% for us and 25% for partner contact. However, sometimes it can be 87.5% for us and 12.5% for the partner contact.

In the example, I've uploaded is a Xero Bill (some sensitive info has been blocked out) from the partner contact because the sum of all the sales to the third parties over the Qtr made by us and the partner contact results in us owing the partner contact money so they would invoice us in that Qtr.

Each line is a sale to a third party. For bills, if positive, then it is us that has made the sale to the third party. If it is negative, then it is the partner contact that made the sale to third party. You can see that we have managed to get discounts on each line item to represent the revenue share. The way we achieve this is first create a purchase order where there is a line-item discount column. Then convert this to a bill. Also, you can’t then edit the bill with a different % discount. Not ideal if you don’t need to create a PO but easier than calculating or adding separate discount lines or adding a credit note as workarounds.

This really needs to be implemented. I've been spending tons of time to switch my company over to Xero and just finding out this feature isn't implemented is a huge disappointment and waste of time. Now we'll have to figure out an alternative or some workaround because it is highly impractical to be editing these manually unfortunately (more room for error)

Purchase/Bill Discount Field and/or Payment Terms Setting should have discount field.

Xero is lacking supplier settings to set a percentage settlement discount by supplier default settings. There is nowhere to apply credit terms for purchases that include a settlement discount. Xero suggests adjusting the quantity to accommodate the discount but this inaccurately records inventory quantity. Likewise adjust price to reduce for discount but this also inaccurately records the price of an item. There should be a field in Bills for discount %. And a payment terms option that includes a settlement discount for suppliers accounts.

Adding discounts to bills is too Klunky, and too slow. adding a negative on a separate line is counter intuitive. You should be able to have a discount column for each line item. Most suppliers invoice this way and it should be the same when entering bills.

We're starting Xero from this month, and this feature is important to our business, as I'm sure to many, many others - so why has Xero not done anything about it since the idea was touted in Aug 2012?

There is no discount column for bills must be Stone Age accounting. It cannot be that hard to add; even the old Real World accounting had this built-in!

Xero added the discount column to Invoices why cant they add it to Bills as well.
Agree with other users that it is frustrating to be unable to add in a discount.
Please Xero look in to this, the original post was created years ago!

Totally Agree Tracey, it's terribly frustrating having to 'doctor' the Bill to allow reconciliation. Not to mention the implications for my accountant.

We have several clients that get discounts from Suppliers for Early payment. Different % discounts depending on how early they pay. We have not found any simple way of dealing with this, and are having to change each individual Bill/Purchase invoice, before allocating payments. This is dissuading our clients from wanting to move to Xero, and some that we have recently moved are considering changing package again. This is costing alot of time to maintain at their current rate of orders.

The mind boggles as to why this is not just added as the coding is already there for Invoices, Sales Orders and Purchase Orders.

Considering Xero has been around for 17 years and this is still just a topic of conversation. I would have expected this issue to be resolved back in 2006 when Xero was Accounting 2.0 and the issue had already been raised in the Beta version Accounting 1.0 - Rant Over !

This is an astonishing omission from Xero, it is an everyday occurrence in commercial trading terms and should be corrected as a matter of urgency.

I told agree with Rosalyn Easton
I was stunned not to have this feature when I started using Xero in July 2022. I consider it a major omission that should be fixed ASAP. A total pain to work around. Aarggghhhhhhhhhh

I was more than annoyed at the lack of this feature that has been totally missed by Xero. It adds extra steps changing the invoice totals and then remembering when to pay various invoices on time to get the discount.
In my previous package I had the ability to set in the Supplier Contact level of discounts and "if paid by dates" that automatically calculated the discount if I paid before that date.

I am new with XERO. When entering a bill from a supplier I discovered that there is no quick built in option in a column (there is this option in creating an invoice) for applying a discount to that item. My supplier offers 10% on some items and 5% on other items in the same bill. XERO already includes this easy option when creating an invoice. It seems like a no brainer to add this IMPORTANT option for entering a bill. How soon can this be actioned? Tinkering with the number of items or create fractions of an item this will create a nightmare for my inventory numbers. Creating a separate line for a discount is a time wasting exercise. PLEASE find the way to include this easy improvement ASAP. This would save time for users.

I was surprised by this limitation. I don't understand why Xero doesn't support supplier discounts on invoicing.
At the moment we are integrating with Xero API and unlike sales invoices, we will have to calculate the discount before sending the data to Xero system. Unfortunately, the integration of purchasing bills will be less transparent.

Is it possible to be able to apply even a penny discount when paying a supplier invoice. ATM i have to go back into invoice to reduce the original amount of invoice by the discount which is time consuming

Hi I agree , we need to add the discount % on the contact detail where you do all the financial info if very invoice carries a %. We should also be able to add a discount on single invoice (refer sage cloud).This is very import for the retail clients.Thanks

An option in Xero to raise commission invoices which are deducted from supplier payments or being able to differentiate from sales invoices and commission invoices raised to suppliers.

I agree. My Suppliers add discounts to each line. No having a discount column as it does in invoicing makes entry slow.

It seems inconsistent that there is a discount column in invoices but not bills. Should be easy enough to add it in since it is in the invoice template already.