The discount field in an invoice is not treated as a product therefore is not included in any sales report. Can I edit this field to be included in sales reports?

Hello,

Adding discounts on your invoices means that your customers are getting a great deal on your products/services. It's important that you're able to account for these discounted transactions when you're reviewing your sales reports. I'll help explain where to look in order to see this information.

The discount will appear in the Memo/Description column on your sales reports. For instance, take a look at the Sales by Product/Service Detail report. I've included a screenshot below to demonstrate how the discount will be reflected.

Keep in mind that in most cases, this will only appear on detail reports, not summary reports. For example, your Sales by Product/Service Summary report doesn't display this information.

Your Profit and Loss Report will show the discounts given under the Income section, too. You'll see this on both the Profit and Loss and Profit and Loss Detail reports.

I hope this helps clear things up for you.

Cheers!

Hi there! Everything seems to work well with the discounts, except that they are not showing up on my P&L under the Income section. Is there a setting I have to turn on or do I have to wait a certain period of time to make sure these are showing up correctly? Thanks!

BTW - the discounts ARE showing the Sales by product / service detail, they only are not showing on the P&L

Hi lovebug. Based on what you've described, I recommend checking with your accounting method as this determines what's considered as income/expense and at what stage. There are two types of accounting methods in QuickBooks Online; Accrual Basis and Cash Basis. 

Accrual basis

• In this accounting method, the time when you enter a transaction and the time when you actually pay or receive cash may be two separate events.
• An accrual basis report shows income regardless of whether your customers have paid your invoices and expenses regardless of whether you have paid all your bills.

Cash basis

• A bookkeeping method in which you regard income or expenses as occurring at the time you actually receive a payment or pay a bill.
• A cash basis report only shows income if you have received cash and expenses if you have paid cash.

Knowing this info, you can now select which accounting method works best with your business. You can edit this by clicking the Gear icon > Account and Settings > Advanced > Accounting method to Cash > Save).

Let me know if you have questions by leaving a comment below. I'll be on standby. 

I'm having a similar problem on the P/L report. For instance we have an invoice for a product that is 20K, but there was an 11K discount for a total of 9K and the client paid the 9K. In the cash p/l report the income is showing as 20K which is NOT what we billed for or received.

What is the discount account hitting on the other end? Like what is the other side of the entry? I need to eliminate it from the P&L. 

Hi there jskhosa1015,

It's key to be able to know which account is affected in each transaction so that you know if your accounts are well balanced. QuickBooks Online allows you to see the transaction journal of invoices so that you can see the effect of this transaction on your chart of accounts. I can provide some information on how to find out the accounts affected by an invoice.

In order to locate the Transaction journal of an invoice with a discount, you can navigate to the Sales tab, then the Invoices section. Click on an invoice you wish to view to open up the menu to edit it, then click on the More option found in the bottom bar to locate Transaction Journal. This will show you all accounts affected by this transaction as well as the amount in credit and debit for each account.

If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out here.

So, where can I know the effect of the discount in the pnl? Because in sales account, it still stated the amount before discount. Then which account that the discount is record?

Hi Bibly Act,

Thanks for joining us here.  In addition to the valuable information provided above, there are two ways to set up an apply discounts in QuickBooks Online.  In addition, to see the discounts in the Profit and Loss report, follow these steps;

1. Open Reports from the left menu and then select the Profit and Loss report

2. Use the ▼ dropdown menu to select the Report Period

3. Click Customize

4. Scroll down and click on Filter

5. Use the ▼ dropdown and select All in the Distribution Account field

6. Hit Run Report

If you require additional assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us.  It would be our pleasure to work with you directly, and ensure you're able to run the report without further delay!

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