Discounts on extras and bookings

When you knock money off a booking — a goodwill gesture, a returning-guest rate, compensation for a hiccup — Accommador records it as its own line rather than quietly lowering the room price. The guest's balance drops by the right amount, your reports still show what the room really earned, and Xero sees exactly what happened.

Why a separate line

A discount buried in the room rate disappears: your revenue reports understate what the room sold for, and six months later nobody can say why one stay was cheaper. As its own line, the discount is visible on the booking — in red, badged as a discount, with a leading minus — and your books carry both the true room revenue and the money you gave back.

Creating a discount

A discount lives in your extras catalogue at Accounting → Extras, like anything else you put on bookings: create an entry, give it the amount as a normal positive figure, and mark it as a discount. Accommador applies the minus sign whenever it's added to a booking — you never type a negative number. See build your extras catalogue.

Where you can apply one

• On a booking — add the discount from the booking's Extras tab, like any other extra. See add extras to a booking.
• While creating a booking — pick the discount from the catalogue as you build the booking, and it's applied from the start.
• In a spreadsheet import — bookings you bring across can carry their discounts, so the history you import tells the same story your old records did. See importing bookings from a spreadsheet.

How a discount shows in Xero

On an invoice Accommador raises, the discount arrives as a negative line, clearly described with the discount's name and the booking reference. Like any extra, a discount item can carry its own account — map it to the discount or contra-revenue account your accountant prefers and every use of it codes there automatically; unmapped, it goes to your default extras account. GST is handled like any other line. See how extras are coded in Xero.

Not the same as specials and coupons

Offers on your own booking page — specials and coupon codes — work differently: they adjust the accommodation price itself at the moment of booking, and the saving shows as part of the room line rather than a separate discount line. Use those for advertised offers; use catalogue discounts for money off after the fact.

Troubleshooting

The discount took the balance below zero — is that right?

Yes. Nothing stops a discount larger than the remaining charges; the booking simply shows a credit owed to the guest.

I imported a booking with a discount and the balance didn't change

That's correct. An imported total is the final amount the guest actually paid, so the discount doesn't change what's owed — it records how that total came about, keeping the revenue split honest.

Can I type a one-off discount straight onto a booking?

Create it in the catalogue first, then pick it. Keeping every discount as a catalogue item is what lets each one carry its own Xero account and show up consistently in reporting.