Adding a financial discount to your invoice
If you want to encourage your customers to pay quickly, a financial discount can be a handy tool. You grant it to customers who pay quickly; in everyday language this is called a cash discount.
You set a financial discount on a payment condition, not on the invoice itself.
Example: you grant a financial discount of 2% to a customer who pays the invoice within 8 days. If they pay later, the discount lapses.
Applying a financial discount
By default, Robaws calculates the VAT on the total amount (excluding VAT) with the discount already deducted. The taxable base is therefore the amount after discount, regardless of whether the customer eventually pays on time or not.
Example: you create an invoice of €100.00 with 21% VAT and a financial discount of 2% on payment within 8 days. The discount of 2% is calculated on €100.00, and the VAT of 21% is then calculated on the amount after discount.
Example invoice worked out | |
|---|---|
Total price excl. VAT | €100.00 |
Financial discount (2%) | €2.00 |
Taxable base | €98.00 |
VAT 21% | €20.58 |
Total amount on the invoice (without discount, incl. VAT) | €120.58 |
Total amount on payment in time (with discount, incl. VAT) | €118.58 |
This way of working follows from the default settings on the payment condition: Calculation basis for financial discount set to 'Excl. VAT' and Calculation basis for VAT set to 'Incl. discount'. If you set Calculation basis for VAT to 'Excl. discount', the VAT stays on the full amount and the discount is only mentioned as a deductible amount at the bottom of the invoice.
Creating a financial discount
You create a financial discount on the payment condition, via settings > general > master data > financial > payment conditions.
A payment condition contains either a financial discount or a credit limit, never both. If you switch on the financial discount, Robaws switches off the credit limit automatically.
Field | Description |
|---|---|
Enable financial discount | Has to be switched on before you see the fields below and can fill them in. |
Financial discount % | The percentage of discount your customer may settle on payment in time. |
#days financial discount valid | The number of days after the invoice date within which your customer may settle the discount. |
Calculation basis for financial discount | Choice between Excl. VAT (default) and incl. VAT: is the percentage calculated on the amount without or with VAT? |
Calculation basis for VAT | Choice between Incl. discount (default) and Excl. discount: is the VAT calculated on the amount after deduction of the discount, or on the full amount? |
The two calculation bases cannot both be set to 'inclusive'. If you choose incl. VAT as the calculation basis for the discount, Calculation basis for VAT automatically jumps to Excl. discount.
What appears on the invoice?
At the bottom of the invoice Robaws automatically prints a statement: "On payment before 20 September 2026, €2.00 discount (2.00%) may be deducted from the total." That date is the invoice date plus the number of days you have filled in on the payment condition — not the due date.
In the totals table an extra column Total with discount appears next to Total, so that your customer sees both amounts. If your totals table is set to the 'Vertical' layout, or if the invoice contains instalments, discounts at document level or a deduction, that column disappears and only the statement remains.
In the VAT table you see the reduced taxable base (€98.00) and an extra line of €2.00 at 0% VAT. That is the discount itself, which falls outside VAT.
If you send the invoice as an e-invoice via UBL or Peppol, the discount is included as a discount at document level with the description 'Conditional cash/payment discount' and the percentage. The amount to be paid in the e-invoice is the amount without discount (€120.58 in the example); after all, the discount is conditional.
What happens when your customer pays?
If your customer pays the amount with discount (€118.58) and you assign that payment to the invoice, Robaws closes the invoice itself: the remaining balance of €2.00 is booked automatically as a payment of the genre Granted financial discount. You do not have to settle anything manually. This works for payments from the bank link, cash payments, payment links and manually registered payments.
That automatic settlement only works for an exact amount and for as long as the discount is valid. If your customer pays a different amount or pays too late, the difference remains outstanding. In that case register it yourself on the invoice via Payments > Simple registration and choose Granted financial discount or Payment difference under 'Genre'.
Setting exceptions
On every VAT tariff (via settings > general > master data > financial > VAT tariffs) there are two more fields that have to do with the financial discount. With Excluded from discount you exclude invoice lines with that tariff from the calculation. With Financial discount accountancy code you determine which account the discount is booked to in your accounting package.
If Purchase is also switched on on the payment condition, the financial discount works on your incoming invoices as well. For as long as the discount is valid, Robaws automatically includes the amount with discount in the payment file, so that you benefit from your supplier's discount yourself.
Updated on: 08/09/2026
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