Rebates

Rebates in AutoMagic track money that suppliers owe you — whether as percentage-based discounts, fixed amounts, or allowances. The feature manages the full lifecycle from recording a rebate through to claiming and reconciling payments.

The workflow follows these stages:

1. Accrue — Record a rebate against a supplier (e.g. a 5% volume discount or a £500 advertising allowance)
2. Claim — Group one or more accrued rebates into a claim and submit it to the supplier
3. Pay — Record payments received from the supplier against your claims
4. Reconcile — Match claims and payments in a unified ledger, ticking rows to confirm they balance

Rebates are linked to suppliers (from your Address Book) and categorised using predefined rebate categories such as Purchase Discount, Advertising Allowance, Listing Fee, etc.

For more detail on each step, see the questions below.

To create a new rebate:

1. Navigate to Customer → Rebates
2. Click the + New button (or press Ctrl+N) on the toolbar
3. In the supplier picker dialog, select or search for your supplier and confirm
4. The Rebates Editor opens with a new blank rebate form

Fill in the following fields:

1. Period Start / Period End — The date range this rebate relates to
2. Category — Choose from the dropdown (e.g. DISCOUNT, ADVERTISING, LISTING). These are managed under Customer → Master Data → Rebate Categories
3. Calculation Type — Choose either:
   1. Percentage — Enter a rate in the Rate % field (e.g. 0.05 for 5%)
   2. Fixed Amount — Enter a monetary amount in the Amount field (e.g. 500.00)
4. Description / Notes — Optional free-text fields for context

Click Save (Ctrl+S) to store the rebate. It will appear in the table with status Accrued.

There are two ways to calculate a rebate amount:

1. Percentage — The rebate is expressed as a percentage rate. You enter the rate in the Rate % field (e.g. 0.05 means 5%). The actual monetary value is determined when the rebate is claimed, based on the underlying purchase volumes.
2. Fixed Amount — The rebate is a fixed monetary amount. You enter the exact value in the Amount field (e.g. 500.00). This amount is used directly when the rebate is claimed.

When you select Percentage, only the Rate % field is visible. When you select Fixed Amount, only the Amount field is visible — the fields toggle automatically.

Rebates themselves have three possible statuses:

1. Accrued — The rebate has been defined and logged but not yet included in a claim
2. Disputed — The rebate is being disputed with the supplier (e.g. you disagree with the amount)
3. Claimed — The rebate has been included in a submitted claim

Rebate claims have four possible statuses:

1. Submitted — The claim has been submitted to the supplier but no payment received yet
2. Paid Partial — The supplier has paid part of the claim amount
3. Paid Full — The supplier has fully paid the entire claim
4. Disputed — The claim is being disputed with the supplier

You can create a new claim from two places: the Rebates table or directly from within an individual rebate editor.

From the Rebates Table:

1. Navigate to Customer → Rebates
2. Select the rebate row you want to claim against
3. Click New Claim on the toolbar (or right-click and choose New Claim)

From within a Rebate Editor:

1. Open any rebate entry (double-click a row in the table)
2. In the embedded claims table at the bottom of the editor, click New Claim on its toolbar

In either case:

1. The Rebate Claims Editor opens with the rebate reference pre-filled (these fields are read-only)
2. The claim date defaults to today
3. The status is set to Submitted automatically
4. Enter any notes about the claim if needed
5. Click Save to create the claim

The rebate's status will change from Accrued to Claimed.

To see a list of all your rebate claims:

1. Navigate to Customer → Rebate Claims

The claims table shows:

1. Ref — The claim reference number (auto-generated, e.g. CLM-00001)
2. Supplier Name — The supplier the claim was submitted to
3. Claim Date — When the claim was created
4. Accrued — Total accrued amount on the claim
5. Paid — Total paid amount received against this claim
6. Status — Current status (Submitted, Paid Partial, Paid Full, or Disputed)

To edit a claim:

1. Double-click any row in the table, or select it and press Enter

The Rebate Creditors view gives you a supplier-by-supplier summary of your rebate position — showing how much has been accrued, how much has been paid, and what is still outstanding.

To access it:

1. Navigate to Customer → Rebate Creditors

The table displays:

1. Supplier ID / Name — The supplier
2. Total Accrued — Sum of all claim amounts for this supplier
3. Total Paid — Sum of all payments received from this supplier
4. Outstanding — The difference (Accrued minus Paid) — money still owed to you
5. Unrec. Claims — Number of claims that have not yet been reconciled

To drill into the detail for a specific supplier:

1. Select a row in the creditors table
2. Click View Ledger on the toolbar

This opens the full reconciliation ledger for that supplier. You can also select ALL SUPPLIERS to see a combined view across all suppliers.

The Rebate Ledger is a unified chronological view of all claims and payments for a supplier. It lets you match incoming payments against outstanding claims to confirm everything balances.

Opening the ledger:

1. From Rebate Creditors, select a supplier and click View Ledger

The ledger table shows:

1. Date — When the event occurred (claim date or payment date)
2. Ref — Claim reference or payment reference
3. Status — For claims: Submitted, Paid Partial, Paid Full, or Disputed
4. Debit — Claim amounts (shown as debits)
5. Credit — Payment amounts (shown as credits)
6. Rec — A checkbox column indicating whether the row has been reconciled

Reconciling entries:

1. Single row — Click the checkbox in the Rec column, or select a row and press SPACE
2. Multiple rows — Hold Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) and click to select multiple rows, then press SPACE or use Tick Selected from the menu
3. After ticking the relevant claims and payments, click Save to commit the reconciliation

Row colour coding:

1. Gray — Row has been reconciled (ticked)
2. Dark Green — Payment rows, or claims with status Paid Full
3. Orange — Claims with status Paid Partial
4. Red — Claims with status Disputed

At the bottom of the screen, running totals show:

1. Unreconciled — Total amount not yet reconciled
2. Reconciled — Total amount that has been reconciled

To record a rebate payment received from a supplier:

1. Navigate to Customer → Rebate Creditors
2. Select the relevant supplier and click View Ledger, or go directly to the ledger for that supplier
3. In the ledger view, click New Payment on the toolbar

The Rebate Payment Editor opens with:

1. Supplier — Pre-filled from the selected supplier
2. Payment Date — Defaults to today

Fill in:

1. Amount — The payment amount received (in your currency)
2. Payment Ref — The supplier's reference number or invoice number for this payment (optional)
3. Description / Notes — Any additional context

Click Save to record the payment. It will appear in the ledger as a credit entry.

Reconciliation is done in the Rebate Ledger view:

1. Navigate to Customer → Rebate Creditors, select a supplier, and click View Ledger
2. Tick (check) the claim rows that should be matched with payment rows:
   1. Press SPACE on individual rows, or use the checkbox column
   2. For multiple rows, hold Ctrl and click to select them, then press SPACE or use Tick Selected from the menu
3. Ensure all related payment rows are also ticked
4. Click Save on the toolbar

What happens when you save:

1. All ticked claim and payment rows are assigned to the same reconciliation group (a unique group ID)
2. The reconciled_at timestamp is set on each row
3. Claim statuses are automatically updated:
   1. If the payment total matches the claim total exactly → Paid Full
   2. If the payment is less than the claim → Paid Partial (amounts are distributed proportionally across multiple claims)
4. Unticked rows remain unreconciled

Important: The reconciliation runs within a single database transaction. If you tick claims without any payments, or if the totals don't balance, you will see a confirmation dialog before proceeding.

The system handles mismatches gracefully with confirmation dialogs:

Claims ticked but no payments:

1. If you save with claim rows ticked but zero payment rows, a dialog appears: *“You are reconciling claims without selecting any payments. This will mark the claims as partially paid with zero payment applied.”*
2. Click Yes to proceed or Cancel to abort

Partial reconciliation (totals don't balance):

1. If the total of ticked claims does not equal the total of ticked payments, a dialog appears: *“The total of ticked claims does not match the total of ticked payments. The claims will be marked as partially paid.”*
2. Click Yes to proceed — the system distributes the payment amount proportionally across all ticked claims
3. Click Cancel to abort and adjust your selection

For example, if you have two claims totaling £10.00 (£6.00 and £4.00) and a payment of £9.00:

1. Claim 1 receives £5.40 (60% of the payment)
2. Claim 2 receives £3.60 (40% of the payment)
3. Both claims are marked as Paid Partial

By default, the ledger shows only unreconciled entries so you can focus on what still needs attention. To view reconciled history:

1. In the ledger toolbar, click Show All to toggle between unreconciled and all entries
2. When Show All is active, a year spinner appears above the table (range: 1970 to current year)
3. Use the spinner to select a specific year — only reconciled entries from that year will be displayed
4. Click Show All again to return to the unreconciled view

This makes it easy to audit past reconciliations or investigate historical payment patterns.

Rebate categories are lookup codes used to classify rebates (e.g. DISCOUNT, ADVERTISING, LISTING). There are 8 pre-seeded categories:

1. DISCOUNT — Purchase Discount (volume or trade discounts)
2. ADVERTISING — Advertising Allowance (joint advertising/promotions)
3. GATING — Gating Fee (fee for listing on supplier platform)
4. LISTING — Listing Fee (product listing charges)
5. CLEANING — Cleaning Fee (returns/cleaning related)
6. RETURNS — Return Allowance (allowance for returned goods)
7. PROMOTION — Promotional Allowance (promotional activities)
8. OTHER — Other (unclassified rebates)

To manage categories:

1. Navigate to Customer → Master Data → Rebate Categories

The table shows:

1. Code — The unique category code (e.g. DISCOUNT)
2. Name — Display name
3. Description — What this category represents
4. Active — Whether the category is available for selection (inactive categories won't appear in dropdowns)
5. Created At / Updated At — Timestamps

You can:

1. + New — Create a new category (code must be unique)
2. Edit — Modify an existing category's name, description, or active status
3. Delete — Remove a category (note: deleting an active category used by existing rebates may cause issues)

The system validates that category codes are unique on save. If you try to save a duplicate code, an error message will appear: *“A category with code 'X' already exists.”*

The rebates feature uses several permission levels to control access:

If you do not have the required permission, the corresponding menu items and toolbar buttons will be hidden or disabled.

All three views (Rebates, Claims, Creditors) share a common navigation flow, so you can move between them easily:

1. From the Rebates table, select a rebate and click New Claim to create a claim against it
2. From the Rebates Editor, use the embedded claims table at the bottom to view, edit, or create linked claims
3. From Rebate Creditors, select a supplier and click View Ledger to see the full reconciliation view
4. From the ledger, double-click a claim row to open its editor, or use New Payment to record an incoming payment

This cross-navigation means you rarely need to leave the rebates area — everything is connected.