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Sales Discount Tracking Template

A discount log holds one number per deal. This one prices all eight concessions in the same currency, so the threshold reads the total.

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Concession Register · Halverson Systems, one quarter

DealRepStandard TCVHeadlineEverything elseActualReview
D1Okonjo$3,404,70024.0%0.0%24.0%VP
D3Okonjo$680,94022.0%0.0%22.0%VP
D2Okonjo$907,92020.0%0.9%20.9%Rep
D5Lindqvist$4,161,3008.0%13.1%21.1%Rep
D6Lindqvist$2,837,25010.0%14.8%24.8%Rep
D8Lindqvist$794,43011.0%10.8%21.8%Rep

Six of the twelve deals in the quarter. The threshold is 20%, and the shaded pair gave the same total to within two tenths of a point.

Escalated, because the discount field crossed 20%2 of 12
Actually over 20% once every concession is priced6 of 12
Cleared the approval matrix and should not have4 of 12

D3 went to the VP. D8 was signed by a rep, because its give was in the contract instead of in the price.

Every discount log on the market is the same object: deal, rep, requested percent, approved percent, final value, approval status. One number per deal, and it is the only give the approval matrix can read. So it is the only give anybody has to defend, and everything else a buyer asks for costs the person granting it nothing. Net-90 instead of net-30 is sixty days of money. A three-year price hold is the annual uplift, given up.

So this pack prices all eight kinds of concession as a percent of what the contract would have been worth over its own term at standard terms. A headline discount already is that number, which is why the basis was chosen: everything else becomes directly comparable to the figure the matrix already reads, and the components add. Then the threshold is tested twice. In the worked quarter Halverson Systems escalates above 20%, two of twelve deals crossed it on the headline, and six crossed it on the total.

Four deals were signed without the approval they needed. The pair that shows it needs no commentary: D3 at 22.0% headline and 22.0% actual went to the VP, while D8 at 11.0% headline and 21.8% actual was signed by a rep. Each concession is also classed by whether it dies with its deal or lands in the master agreement, which is where the rep leaderboard inverts. The best headline discount on the team is the worst true cost by a factor of two.

Eight concessions, one currency

Three sheets from the pack, on the worked quarter. One deal broken out line by line, the propagation tail on everything that lands in the contract, and the price trend read at a held mix. The same register also feeds [the quarter-end triage](/tools/quarter-end-deal-triage), where the question is which of these terms to stop offering.

D6, the largest give in the quarter, against a headline discount that left ten points of apparent room under the threshold. Standard terms: net-30, annual prepay, 5% uplift, credits capped at 10%, no termination right.

ConcessionWhat was grantedCostIn the paper
Price discount10.0% off list1,000 bpsNo
Multi-year price holdFlat for 3 years435 bpsYes
Termination for convenienceGranted343 bpsYes
Free seats25 on 750 paid323 bpsNo
Billing frequencyQuarterly253 bpsYes
Payment termsNet-7583 bpsYes
SLA credit capRaised to 20%40 bpsYes
TotalReported as 10.0%2,477 bps

Every line below the first is invisible to a discount report, and five of the six land in the master agreement.

A concession in the master agreement is the redline the next buyer's counsel asks for. Halverson's assumption: 45% of comparable buyers ask once a term exists, and six comparable deals are in the coming year.

ConcessionTimesGrantedClassTailTotal
Price discount12$2,575,117Contained$0$2,575,117
Multi-year price hold4$359,304Template$970,120$1,329,424
Termination for convenience3$269,842Template$728,572$998,414
Billing frequency4$243,499Template$657,447$900,946
Payment terms7$89,560Template$241,812$331,372
SLA credit cap3$38,284Template$103,367$141,651
Quarter38$3,701,12927% template$2,701,318$6,402,447

The tail on the propagating 27% is $2,701,318, almost exactly what the entire non-propagating 73% cost on its own deals. Which is why Lindqvist has the best headline discount on the team at 9.0% and, once the tail is priced, the worst true cost at 53.2% against Baptiste's 16.2%.

Four quarters, read twice: once as it happened, and once with the segment mix held at Q1 so the price movement is separated from the mix movement.

QuarterRealized per seatAt the Q1 mixAverage discountEnterpriseMidSMBEnt share
Q1$929$92922.6%28%18%8%56%
Q2$926$91722.8%29%19%9%51%
Q3$941$91721.6%29%19%9%43%
Q4$938$90521.8%30%20%10%38%
Year+0.9%−2.6%−0.7pt+2pt+2pt+2pt−18pt

Every segment's discount got worse by exactly two points. Both summary numbers say it improved, because enterprise fell from 56% of seats to 38% and enterprise is where the discounts are. The mix contributed $33 a seat in the wrong direction.

What is in the pack

01

Concession Catalog

Eight kinds of concession with the formula that prices each one, all on the same basis. Then its propagation class, its cost multiplier once the tail is priced, whether it shows on a discount report, and what to ask for in return.

02

Concession Register

One row per deal: headline discount, everything outside the discount field, the actual total, the ratio between them, what was traded back, and a verdict on whether the approval matrix saw what it should have.

03

Concession Detail

One row per concession per deal, thirty-eight rows on the worked quarter. What was granted in plain terms, its cost in basis points and dollars, its class, its expected tail, and what it should have been traded for.

04

Discount by Rep and Segment

Headline against actual against actual-with-the-tail, weighted by contract value rather than by deal count, with the gap the discount report misses as its own column. This is the table where the ranking reverses.

05

Realized Price Trend

Discount and units by segment by quarter, realized price per seat as it happened, and realized price at a held base-period mix. The difference between the last two is the mix contribution, stated rather than buried.

06

How a Concession Gets Priced

The worked quarter end to end with the arithmetic shown, including one deal broken out line by line and the four assumptions that price the non-price concessions.

07

Concession Policy and Trade Guidance

A standing policy whose thresholds read the total, plus five terms that need approval regardless of it. Then a reference document a rep opens mid-negotiation: what each give costs, what to ask for instead, and the order to give things in.

08

Discounting Against Policy

The quarterly readout in six sections, each explaining why the one above it was not the whole answer, ending in four decisions somebody can say yes or no to in the meeting.

How to use it

  1. 1

    Open it in River, or download it

    Edit with AI installs the pack as a private Space with the agent ready to read your own closed deals. Download gives you the five sheets and four documents as CSV and Word files, with no account.

  2. 2

    Send the standard terms first

    Payment days, billing frequency, annual uplift, SLA credit cap, and whether termination for convenience is standard. Nothing can be priced without a baseline, and every row of a contract that differs from it is a concession.

  3. 3

    Send the contracts, not the CRM export

    The discount is in the CRM. The other seven concessions are in the order form, an addendum or an amendment signed afterwards. A register built from the CRM alone reproduces the discount report with extra steps.

  4. 4

    Read the four deals that cleared the matrix

    Then the rep table with the tail priced in, then the price trend at a held mix. The readout ends in four decisions, and the first one is a single line in the approval policy.

Frequently asked questions

Is it free, and do I need an account?

The download is free and needs no account: five CSV sheets and four Word documents, pre-filled with the worked quarter so the arithmetic is visible. Edit with AI opens the same pack as a private Space with the agent ready to price your own closed deals, which does create a free account.

Why treat payment terms and billing frequency as discounts?

Because they are financing costs with a rate on them. Sixty extra days at the bank prime loan rate of 6.75% is 111 basis points of contract value, and monthly in arrears delays the average dollar by five and a half months, which is 309. Both are larger than plenty of discounts that get escalated.

How do you price a termination right or a raised credit cap?

With four stated assumptions rather than a formula nobody can see: a breach rate for the credit cap, an exit probability and remaining committed term for the termination right, and a delivery cost ratio for waived services. They are written on the sheet so they can be argued with, which is what redline review needs from them.

What is the propagation tail and where do its numbers come from?

A term in a signed master agreement is the redline the next buyer's counsel asks for. Two inputs price that: the share of comparable buyers who ask once a term exists, best read off your own redline history, and the count of comparable deals in the coming period. Their product is the multiplier.

Why does the price trend need a held-mix column?

Because an average discount is mix-weighted, so it moves when the mix moves even if no price did. Across the worked year every segment's discount worsened by two points while the average improved by 0.7 and realized price per seat rose 0.9%. Holding the mix at Q1, price fell 2.6%.

Does this replace our discount approval process?

No. It supplies the number the process should read, and one line changes: the threshold tests the total. Price differentials between buyers also want a reason on the record, which is what 15 U.S.C. 13(a) contemplates for goods when it permits differentials that allow for differences in cost of sale.

How is this different from a pricing comparison or a quote?

A TCO comparison prices one deal against a competitor before you sign. Quote generation turns an agreed price into paper. This one reads what you already signed, across a quarter, and asks what it will cost the deals after it.

Stop counting one of eight

Take the five sheets and four documents blank, or open the pack in River and have your own closed quarter priced line by line.

Edit with AI