This article is relevant to Chaser users who want to incentivize early payments by offering discounts to customers who pay before a specified date.
Set up early payment discounts in Chaser
- Navigate to Manage and select the Fees and Discounts tab.
- Click on Edit
- Choose a discount type:
- Fixed amount (e.g., £10)
- Percentage discount (percentage of the invoice total)
- Set parameters:
- Discount deadline: Choose how many days before the due date the early payment discount expires.
- Select how to update fees:
- Update invoice in Xero (Xero users only)
- Choose this to automatically add the discount to the invoice as a new line item
- Choose invoice-related settings which will show on your invoice line item:
- Account, Tax Rate, Item, and Description
- Choose this to automatically add the discount to the invoice as a new line item
- Email notification
- Email 1: Invoice(s) eligible for early payment discount
You will be notified by email of all invoices that qualify for an early payment discount. This is simply a courtesy notification to keep you informed. - Email 2: Payment made for the eligible invoice
You will receive an email when a payment is made through the payment portal for an invoice that was eligible for an early payment discount. You will need to manually update the invoice during the reconciliation process.
- Email 1: Invoice(s) eligible for early payment discount
- Update invoice in Xero (Xero users only)
You will receive an email if you have the following notification settings enabled. This is done automatically if you have enabled the early payment discount.
- Choose which schedules the early payment discounts will automatically apply to (Optional)
- All associated invoices have early payment discounts applied automatically per the settings. However, discounts can also be managed manually and applied to specific invoices if preferred.
- Choose which schedules the early payment discounts will automatically apply to:
- All associated invoices have early payment discounts applied automatically per the settings.
Early payment discounts are updated daily at midnight.
Update early payment discount settings
Any changes to your late fee settings are applied instantly to all relevant invoices. For example, increasing the fee from 5% to 10% will automatically update all existing invoices that include early payment discounts.
Manually apply early payment discounts to invoices
Manually apply early payment discounts to specific invoices in Receivables and then Invoices, or in the Invoices section of a Customer page.
Filter on invoices with an early payment discount
See which invoices have early payment discounts applied using the filter on the Receivables, Customer list.
Invoices with a discount applied show as discounted in the invoice list.
Payment portal
Your debtors will be able to view their early payment discounts in the payment portal and make payments for invoices that are eligible for an early payment discount.
When your debtor hovers over the tooltip, they’ll see which invoices offer an early payment discount.
Use placeholders for early payment discounts in your templates
Personalize your reminders and clearly communicate any discounts or fees with your debtors by including invoice-related placeholders. Add these to your templates to automatically show relevant amounts, based on the invoices included.
Single templates (All channels)
These placeholders display the fee or discount for each invoice:
- Invoice: Early payment discount – Shows the discount for early payment on the invoice.
Multi-templates (All channels)
These placeholders display the total of any fees or discounts across all invoices included in the chaser:
- Invoice: Early payment discount - aggregate – Shows the combined discount total across all invoices.
Multi-templates (Email and letter only)
If you’re using a multi-template with a table layout, you can include an extra column that shows the specific fee (positive) or discount (negative) for each invoice:
- Invoice: Table with fees – This will add a column to the multi-invoice table to show individual invoice fees or discounts.
These placeholders help ensure your debtors clearly understand what they owe—and what they can save by paying early to secure a discount.
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