What are early payment discounts? 📖
Early payment discounts, known as 'Skonto' in Germany, are incentives offered by suppliers allowing buyers to reduce the invoice amount by a certain percentage if payment is made within a specific period ahead of the due date. The two critical components of early payment discounts are discount date and percentage:
Discount Rate: The percentage reduction in the invoice amount offered to the buyer if payment is made within the specified period. For example, a 3% discount for early payment.
Discount Period: The time frame within which the buyer must make the payment to be eligible for the discount. This is usually expressed in days from the invoice date. For example, 7 days.
Why do early payment discounts matter? ❗
Early payment discounts provide immediate cost savings by reducing the total amount payable on invoices. For instance, a 3% discount on a EUR 10.000 invoice saves the buyer EUR 300. Over time, these savings can accumulate significantly, having a direct impact on a company’s bottom line and improving its overall profitability.
Using Moss to never miss early payment discounts 💸
With Moss, you can define discounts directly in your invoices or automate the m by setting default payment terms for your suppliers.
Note: Early payment discounts are only available to customers connected to DATEV Duo.
When you receive an invoice and the supplier has default payment terms in Moss, these terms will automatically define the applicable discount date and percentage.
If the selected supplier doesn't have default payment terms, you can define them directly in the invoice by selecting a payment term or manually entering the discount date and percentage in the payment details section of your invoice.
Once the early payment discount is defined, you will see the corresponding discount amount in the invoice side-panel as well as in all invoice tables.
Paying and exporting invoices with early payment discounts
1. Pay your invoices in Moss (using your Moss Wallet or generating a SEPA file)
Once an invoice has been approved and you are ready to make the payment, Moss will use the discount date and percentage defined on the invoice to determine the amount to be paid to the supplier.
If the invoice contains a payment discount and the payment date is prior to the discount date, the payment amount will be corrected using the relevant discount percentage. Else, the discount will be ignored, as it is overdue and the full invoice amount has to be paid.
When invoice and payment are exported to Datev DUO, the former will be booked using the full invoice amount, while the latter will be booked to reflect the actual amount paid. Then, when invoice and payment are reconciled, Datev Rechnungswesen will book the outstanding amount as a supplier discount.
Reminder: If you generate a SEPA payment file in Moss and upload it to your online banking environment, the payment entry will be booked in DATEV via your bank connection, instead of Moss.
2. Pay your invoices in DATEV DUO
Once an invoice has been approved and you export it from Moss to DUO, if the invoice contains early payment discounts, these will be reflected in DUO.
Then, when you proceed to pay the invoice in DUO, if the payment date is prior to the discount date, DUO will correct the payment amount using the relevant discount percentage. Else, the discount will be ignored, as it is overdue.
Finally, DATEV Rechnungswesen will suggest booking a payment reconciliation for the invoice automatically based on a link between bank statement import and data from Unternehmen Online. Datev Rechnungswesen will book the outstanding amount as a supplier discount.