How is an Early Payment Discount Calculated?Įach vendor invoice includes the payment terms. Customers can try to negotiate with each supplier for better discount terms in both categories. These are also known as volume or quantity discounts and are for larger purchases. If they don’t take a discount, customers may not pay the bill until a good amount of time after the due date.īesides prompt payment discounts, vendors offer sales discounts. Better balance cash inflows and outflows.Small business vendors that receive payments faster can do things like: Vendors that want to shorten their quote to cash cycle offer a discount percentage that will incentivize prompt payment. If a standard policy exists, then the accounts payable department can efficiently process these discounts through automated software. It’s best when both vendors and customers have a company policy to create standards for offering and receiving early payment discounts. Any purchase order and vendor invoice should always show the payment terms. As a customer, your company decides whether to take an early payment discount or pay a bill on/after the due date.
Other names for this type of discount are a cash discount or a prompt payment discount.Įarly payment terms are much shorter than the number of days in a standard payment cycle. Suppliers offer an early payment discount to customers when they want to collect their accounts receivable quickly. Here’s a breakdown of how it all works: What is an Early Payment Discount? Coding bill payment discounts properly is part of the accounting process. You’ll reduce the cost of doing business when a discount amount is more than the finance charges-including loan interest.Īpplying early payment discounts in Intuit QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop is easy.
When your cash flow is sufficient, take advantage of vendor discounts with early payment!