POS Discount Controls

A till discount comes in two layers. The first is the discount set on the item itself, as a fixed amount or a percentage. Whoever may edit items set it, both the web till and the app fill it in automatically, and it is always allowed. The second is anything a cashier adds on top of that, a manual discount, and that is what the controls are about.

A manual discount is capped by one workspace-wide limit: Largest discount a cashier may add (%), in Settings → Sales, measured as a share of the line on top of the item’s own discount. The default is 0, which means the item’s discount and nothing more, so switching the controls on changed no honest sale. The limit is the same for every cashier, item and category. Limits that differ by role, item or category are something we can add to your workspace.

In practice: a Nakuru hardware shop sets the limit to 5%. A KES 2,000 tin of paint already carries a KES 100 item discount. The cashier can take a further KES 95 off (5% of the KES 1,900 line) without asking anyone. A customer who wants 10% off the line needs more authority than the cashier has, and the till asks for it before the sale can complete.

Above the limit, the till asks for a Discount reason, written in free text and kept with the sale, and for an authority. A cashier who holds the Apply POS discount override permission is their own authority. A cashier who does not sees a Supervisor approval field: a supervisor who holds that permission chooses their name and types their personal till approval PIN, and the discount is recorded as approved by them.

A supervisor sets that PIN (4 to 8 digits) on the Till approval PIN card under Settings → My Account, or in the mobile app’s Profile. The card appears only for people who hold the override permission, because a PIN is useless without it. Five wrong entries lock that supervisor’s PIN for 15 minutes, and a till that keeps entering wrong PINs across supervisors is stopped for a while as well. Setting a new PIN unlocks it. If no supervisor has set a PIN, the till says so, and an over-limit discount cannot be approved there.

In practice: at the Nakuru shop the customer asks for 10%. The cashier types “Bulk order, 40 tins” as the reason, the duty supervisor chooses her name and types her PIN, and the sale completes with her recorded as approver. The next day a new cashier guesses at the PIN three times; the supervisor is told nothing has been approved, and two more wrong guesses would have locked her PIN for 15 minutes. A supervisor who shares her PIN makes every approval look like hers, which is the opposite of what the record is for.

Every discount is recorded with the sale: the cashier, the approver, the percentage and the reason. That record is what a manager reviews, on the sale itself, rather than a separate log that can drift from it. Reviewing it weekly is how patterns show up: one cashier whose discounts all cite the same reason, or a supervisor approving far more than colleagues.

A sale rung up offline in the mobile app is different. By the time it syncs the goods have left and the money is in the drawer, so refusing it would lose the sale, the stock movement and the cash from the books, which is worse for the audit than the discount. An over-limit discount on an offline sale is therefore kept and flagged for review. Someone who holds the override permission opens the sale and clears the flag once they have looked at it.

In practice: a field van in Eldoret loses signal for an afternoon and the driver gives a regular customer 12% off. When the app syncs that evening the sale is accepted, and the discount shows as waiting for review with the driver’s name on it. The branch manager reads the reason, calls the driver, and clears it. Alerts on discount patterns, a fixed list of reason codes, and the same discount authority on quotes, orders and invoices are things we can add to your workspace.