Re: [Emerald] calculating termed-discount values

Josh Hillman ( (no email) )
Fri, 21 May 1999 15:48:38 -0400

From: Dale E. Reed Jr. <daler@iea-software.com>
>I suppose an alternate display it this way:
>
>Login Description Cost Quantity Discount Item Total
>------ ----------- ----- -------- -------- ----------
>daler PPP Dialup 25.00 12 33.3333 200.00
>
>Although the discount isn't appealing in that format. :( I
>just have to make sure that the numbers on the invoice actual
>come out when your customer is doing the math.

Here's a part 2 to the message I just sent that I didn't think of until now.
Keeping your idea above, there isn't necessarily a reason to display the
actual discount percentage. Because the above scenario leaves no rounding
restrictions within Emerald to be confined to, it gives the ISP the freedom
of customizing the information displayed on the invoice. The ISP could
display it exactly as you have it above, or they could modify it so that in
place of the percentage number, it simply puts the word "(Discounted)" so
long as that value is greater than zero.
Or the report could be modified in CR to display (or round) to 2 decimals.
This has two potential outcomes:
Example:
Base montly cost: $25.00
Actual discount: 15.54545454...
Months: 12
1. If the displayed number is rounded to two decimals, the display would
show 15.55%
This means that the total is going to be slightly less than what the
displayed discount would indicate (if the customer were to calculate it
out). This could be a problem because the customer might think they're
getting cheated out of a penny or two.
2. If the displayed number is displaying the first two decimals (not
rounding), then the display would should 15.54%. This means that if the
customer were to actually calculate it out, their total would come up
slightly higher than what they're being charged for and that'd make them
happy because they're thinking they're being charged a hair less than what
they should be.

Josh