Margin floor and discount approvals

A discount wins the job until it loses you money on it. The margin floor checks every discount against what the work costs you, line by line, before the quote goes out. Every discount that goes below the floor is recorded: who asked, who decided, the reason, the amounts and the lowest margin.

It is part of the Pro and Business plans. Customers never see any of it: costs and margins are not on the quote page, the PDF or the link you send.

What a line's margin is

A line's margin is what is left of its price after the discount and after its cost, as a share of the discounted price. The cost comes from the cost basis on each task in your library:

• Loaded hourly rate: what an hour of labor costs you, payroll load included. Leave it blank and the task uses your company's default rate.
• Materials: what one room of this task uses, per visit.
• Travel: the drive, per room, per visit.

Labor hours come from the quote line's own minutes. Fees have no cost. A line with no cost basis has no margin, and it is never below the floor.

On the web, set the cost basis in Settings › Templates › Services. Open a task and fill in Cost basis (staff only); owners and managers see these fields. On the phone, in app versions that include it, open Settings › Rooms and tasks › Tasks and edit a task: the fields are Loaded hourly cost, Materials per room and Travel per room. See Your room and task library.

Set the margin floor

Only the owner changes the floor.

On the web, open Settings › Team pay and find the Margin floor card:

1. Floor (%): the lowest margin a discount may leave on any line. It is 15% unless you change it.
2. Below the floor: what happens when a discount goes under it.
   • Needs an owner or manager to approve, with a reason (the default).
   • Refuse the discount.
   • Show margins only: margins are shown and nothing is ever refused.
3. Default loaded hourly rate: the labor cost for tasks without a rate of their own. Open the task library takes you to the tasks.
4. Select Save margin floor.

On a plan below Pro, the card says the margin floor is part of the Pro plan.

On the phone, in app versions that include it, open Settings › Margin floor. The same choices are there as Minimum margin (%) and Below the floor (Require approval, Block discount or Off). Default loaded hourly cost (company currency) shows only to people who can see cost amounts. Select Save margin floor.

Line margins on a quote

On the web, go to the quote's Send step and open Price adjustments and checks. The Line margins panel lists each line's Line, Price, Discount, Cost and Margin after the discount you are typing, and marks any line below floor. The panel says: "Only staff see this; it is never on the customer's quote." The preview uses the quote as last saved, so a room you just changed counts after the next autosave.

On the phone, in app versions that include it, the quote's Price and notes screen has a Line margins card. Type the discount and tap Check this discount.

Owners and managers see the Cost amounts. Estimators see the margins but not the costs.

When a discount goes below the floor

What happens depends on the Below the floor setting and on who is typing the discount.

• Refuse the discount. The quote shows This discount is too deep and asks you to lower the discount before it can be saved. A smaller discount saves normally.
• Needs approval, and you are an owner or manager. Under Below the margin floor, enter a Reason and select Apply discount. The discount goes on the quote, and the trail records you as both the person who asked and the person who approved.
• Needs approval, and you are an estimator. Enter a Reason and select Ask for approval. The quote shows "Request sent. The discount is applied once it is approved." Until then it says "Your request is waiting for an owner or manager." On the phone, the rest of your changes save right away; only the discount waits.
• Show margins only. The margins are shown and the discount saves.

Approve or reject a request

Owners and managers decide requests.

On the web, open the Below-floor discounts page. It is not in the sidebar: open it with the Below-floor discounts button on the Margin floor card, or with See requests in a quote's Line margins panel. Waiting on you lists the requests to decide, and Your requests lists the ones you sent. Add a Note (optional), then select Approve and apply or Reject. Approving puts the discount on the quote. Recent decisions keeps what was decided.

On the phone, in app versions that include it, open the Quotes tab and tap Discount approvals in the toolbar. A badge shows how many requests are waiting. Under Waiting for approval, tap Approve or Reject, with an optional note.

The report by salesperson

The Below-floor discounts page has a By salesperson report for the last 90 days: requests, approvals, rejections, the ones still waiting, the discount given and the average lowest margin. The phone's Discount approvals screen has a report by salesperson too. Owners and managers see it. It is a quick way to see who discounts deepest, and how often it is approved.

What is checked, and what is not

• Only a discount that gets deeper is checked. A new discount, or a larger one, that takes a costed line below the floor is gated. Lowering a discount, removing it or sending the quote again is never refused.
• Editing rooms on a quote that already has an approved discount is not a discount change, so it does not ask again.
• The discounts in a price for each schedule are checked the same way. A waiting request covers the quote's discount only.
• Lines without a cost basis have no margin, so they never block a discount.
• Duplicating a quote keeps an approved discount, or copies the quote without it.
• There are no promo codes for customers. Every discount is one your team typed.

Who can approve, and who can see costs, follows the roles in Team, roles and permissions.