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Discounts and Extras

A discount reduces the price of a position on the receipt, an extra (surcharge) increases it. In the fiskaltrust.Middleware data model, neither is recorded by changing the price of the position. The POS system sends the position with its regular price and adds a separate charge item for the discount or extra directly after it. This charge item carries the flag Discount (0x0000_0000_0004_0000) in ftChargeItemCase, which marks it as a discount or extra for the previous position.

This page describes how the POS system records discounts and extras, and which rules the Middleware applies. Whether extras are allowed and how discounts are reported to the authorities is market specific; see Market-specific considerations.

Overview​

DiscountExtra
MeaningReduces the price of the previous position.Increases the price of the previous position.
ftChargeItemCase flag0004 Discount0004 Discount
QuantityPositivePositive
AmountNegativePositive
ExamplesPercentage discount, staff discountSurcharge on a position

Table 1. Discounts and extras use the same flag; the sign of the amount distinguishes them.

The flag is part of the global tagging section gggg of ftChargeItemCase, see gggg - Global tagging/flags. In the examples on this page, CCCC stands for the country code of the queue.

Recording a discount or extra​

The POS system sends the discount or extra as its own charge item with:

  • the flag Discount (0x0000_0000_0004_0000) set in ftChargeItemCase,
  • the same type of service and the same VAT rate in ftChargeItemCase as the position it belongs to, and the same VATRate; for example, a discount on a position with ftChargeItemCase 0xCCCC_2000_0000_0013 uses 0xCCCC_2000_0004_0013,
  • a positive Quantity,
  • a negative Amount for a discount, or a positive Amount for an extra; Amount is the gross amount of the reduction or increase, not the resulting price,
  • a Description that explains the discount or extra, for example 10% off or Staff discount.

The discount or extra follows directly after the position it belongs to in cbChargeItems. If the POS system uses Position, it can number the discount as a sub-position of the item, for example 1.1 for a discount on position 1.0.

The position keeps its regular price; the discount or extra is not deducted from or added to its Amount. The receipt total is the sum of all charge items, including the discounts and extras, and must equal the sum of the pay items.

Negative amounts

Outside of voids and refunds, a negative Amount on a charge item is only accepted if the item carries the flag Discount. Depending on the market, a price reduction sent as a negative charge item without the flag is rejected, see Rules applied by the Middleware.

Examples​

The discount example is taken from the business case SignRequestReceipt_Discount. All positions use the normal VAT rate and are paid in cash.

Percentage discount on every position​

The customer gets 10 % off the whole purchase. Because a discount always belongs to one position, the POS system sends one discount per position:

PositionDescriptionQuantityAmountftChargeItemCase
1.0Dress1150.000xCCCC_2000_0000_0013
1.110% off1-15.000xCCCC_2000_0004_0013
2.0Shoes170.000xCCCC_2000_0000_0013
2.110% off1-7.000xCCCC_2000_0004_0013
Cash (pay item)193.000xCCCC_2000_0000_0001

Table 2. A 10 % discount on the whole purchase, sent as one discount per position.

Extra on a position​

An extra is sent in the same way as a discount, with a positive amount. For example, a surcharge of 2.00 on a position:

PositionDescriptionQuantityAmountftChargeItemCase
1.0Pizza112.000xCCCC_2000_0000_0013
1.1Surcharge12.000xCCCC_2000_0004_0013
Cash (pay item)14.000xCCCC_2000_0000_0001

Table 3. An extra that increases the price of one position.

Discounts on several positions or on the whole receipt​

A charge item with the flag Discount always belongs to the previous position; the flag has no receipt-level variant. A discount without a preceding position, for example as the first charge item of the receipt, is not handled uniformly across markets, so the POS system always sends it directly after a position. To grant a discount on several positions or on the whole receipt, the POS system distributes it to the positions and sends one discount after each position it applies to, as in Percentage discount on every position.

Distributing the discount to the positions also assigns it to the correct VAT rate. If a receipt contains positions with different VAT rates, each discount uses the VAT rate of its own position, so that the VAT of every rate is reduced by the matching part of the discount.

Discounts in refunds and voids​

In a void or refund, every charge item is inverted, including the discounts and extras. A discount line that was sent with a negative amount is therefore sent with a positive amount in the void or refund, together with the inverted position. Combined with the flag IsVoid or IsReturn/IsRefund on the charge item, the meaning of the sign is inverted as well, so the positive amount still describes the discount. See Values in a correction.

LineOriginal QuantityOriginal AmountCorrection QuantityCorrection Amount
Dress1150.00-1-150.00
10% off1-15.00-115.00
Cash (pay item)1135.00-1-135.00

Table 4. A discounted position and its full refund.

In a partial refund, the POS system sends the returned positions together with their discounts, so that the customer gets back the price that was actually paid. See Partial refund.

Discounts, vouchers and other price reductions​

Not every reduction of the amount to pay is a discount. The following cases have their own types of service or pay items and must not be sent with the flag Discount:

CaseHow it is recorded
Multi-purpose voucher redeemed, for example a gift voucher with a monetary valuePay item with payment type 06 Voucher. The receipt total is not reduced; the voucher pays for the purchase.
Single-purpose voucher redeemed, for example a voucher for 2 × coffeeCharge item with type of service 4 Voucher, a negative amount and the flag ShowInPayments (0x0000_0000_8000_0000), which shows it like a payment and keeps the total amount unreduced.
Downpayment deducted from the final receiptCharge item with the flag Downpayment (0x0000_0000_0008_0000) and a negative amount.
TipCharge item with type of service 3 Tip, or pay item with the flag IsTip.

Table 5. Price reductions that are not discounts.

The type of service 4 Voucher and the payment type 06 Voucher are described in the Reference Tables. The business cases SignRequestReceipt_SinglePurposeVoucher and SignRequestReceipt_MultiPurposeVoucher show the sale and the redemption of both voucher types.

Market-specific considerations​

The model on this page is the interface default. Markets restrict it or add constraints, depending on what the national format and the fiscal device or service can represent. Before implementing, consult the market pages for:

  • whether extras (positive amounts) are allowed,
  • whether a discount may reduce a position to zero, or must be smaller than the position,
  • whether the discount must use the same VAT rate as its position,
  • how many discounts or extras a single position may carry,
  • whether discounts are allowed in refunds and voids,
  • market-specific flags, for example the Italian local flags for subtotal discounts and surcharges in ftChargeItemCase.

For the market rules, see:

Rules applied by the Middleware​

The Middleware assigns every charge item with the flag Discount to the last preceding charge item that is not itself a discount, an extra or a redeemed voucher. Depending on the market, it rejects a request if:

  • a charge item has a negative Quantity or Amount and is neither a discount nor flagged as IsVoid or IsReturn/IsRefund, in a receipt that is not a void, full refund, partial refund or exchange,
  • the discounts that follow a position, together with redeemed vouchers that follow it, exceed the amount of the position; the gross amounts are compared.

Markets can define further rules, for example that extras are not allowed, that a discount uses the same VAT rate as its position, or that a position carries at most one discount or extra. These rules are described on the market pages.

When the request is rejected, the ReceiptResponse contains an error state and the error message; see Error Handling.