Promotions

Promotions

A promotion is an additional incentive for selected agents and products, typically for a temporary period of time.
The promotion value which appears as a separate line on the invoice is extra to an Agent's existing discount/commission!
It appears separately in statistics (as a price item) and each promotion can be charged to a different accounting code.

The promotion is applied to the "Commission Agent", NOT the main agent.
This allows both "Net" and "Gross" agent types to benefit from the promotion.

There are 3 main promotion types:

1. Additional percentage discount/commission
2. Fixed value discount per booking or week
3. Buy 'x' weeks including 'y' weeks free

There are also rules covering when it applies, how it is calculated, and how Class reacts to changes after the initial booking.

Promotions can apply to Tuition, Accommodation, Transfers and Sundry.

By allowing promotions under each category, 2 (or more) promotions may be applied to a single booking, eg. book 4 weeks and get 1 free AND receive a free transfer.

Accounting
If CC/Depts are used (in addition to Nominal Codes), you are advised to set up default Promotional CC/Depts for each school prior to adding the first promotion. The system will make use of these defaults later in the promotion set-up, saving considerable time.

School Record

Adding a Promotion:

Promotion Browse:

Please note restrictions when seasonal pricing is in use!

Be careful when creating promotions where dates overlap with other promotions.
If the same product/agent is contained in more than 1 "date active" promotion, it will be random as to which promotion is applied to the booking! It is best to either adjust the dates to avoid conflict or deactivate 1 of the promotions.

Code
Code must be entered - any 10 characters

Name
Enter description of the promotion (this is for internal use only and will only be seen when a finance line is edited, and does not appear on the invoice). The Price Item Name (explained later) appears in the booking and on the invoice.

Used By
Class only

Category
Tuition, Accommodation, Transfer or Sundry

Notes
Free format notes

Promotion Type:

Only 1 from the 3 options may be chosen

Promotion Type 1 - Percentages

Additional Discount/Commission
Enter the percentage additional discount/commission.
The system will automatically determine whether discount or commission applies, based on the agent's rules.

Apply "Before" or "After" normal discount/commission
This is best explained with an example:

* Whether or not an agent's normal discount/commission is deducted from the promotion value is determined in another rule. See Below: "Apply Relevant Agent Discount/Commission to Promotion Value".

Promotion Type 2 - Booked/Free Weeks

Enter the total weeks and the included free weeks
eg. 4 weeks including 1 week free
8 weeks including 2 weeks free

Apply promotion to ALL weeks*
This is best explained with an example:

* The number of weeks against which free weeks apply is controlled by the min/max weeks in the Promotion Parameters tab.

Promotion Type 3 - Absolute Value

Enter the values required against each currency, unless not required, in which case leave as zero.
if the agent's currency has a zero value in the promotion, the promotion discount will show as zero.

The value may be 'Per Booking' or 'Per Week'*

* The number of weeks against which the weekly value is to be applied is controlled by the min/max weeks in the Promotion Parameters tab.

Promotion Parameters:

Booking Date
Booking Date * range
*Note: The relevant date is the date the Price Item is entered onto the booking; it is not the date of the original enrolment, or the start of the course.

Price Item Start
Price Item Start Date range, eg. course start or accommodation start.
It is NOT the arrival date of the student, or the first course date.

Price Item End
Price Item End Date, eg. course end or accommodation end.

Min/Max Weeks
The Min/Max weeks which apply to the promotion.
For example, the 10% discount may only apply to bookings between 6-12 weeks duration
Bookings that exceed the maximum receive the discount applicable to the max weeks.
In the example above, this would be 12 weeks.

In the above screen example, the booking must:
BE CREATED between 26th Dec 2011 and 30th Jun 2012
START the course between 26th Jan 2011 and 24th Jun 2012
END the course by 1st Jul 2012.
BOOK a minimum of 4 weeks, with a maximum of 12 weeks

Apply to Package Items
If selected, if the item is within a package it will have the promotion applied.

Apply Promotion to Gross and Net Prices (student and agent benefit)
This is best shown with an example:

10% discount/commission

* Whether or not agent's normal discount/commission is deducted is determined in another rule, explained below.

Apply Relevant Agent's Discount/Commission to Promotion Value
This is best shown with an example:

10% discount/commission

Cancel Promotion (rules say any changes invalidates promotion)
Any date change to the promotion item will automatically cancel the promotion.

Increase Duration
"Recalculate Promotion, if valid" - If the duration is increased, the value of the promotion will be recalculated according to the rules.
                                             If valid: for example, the dates may be changed in such a way that the start date now falls outside of the
                                             promotion period and therefore no longer applies.

"Leave Promotion Unchanged, if valid" - If the promotion rules still apply after the date change, the promotion value is left unchanged.
                                                     If valid: for example, the dates may be changed in such a way that the start date now falls outside
                                                     the promotion period and therefore no longer applies.

Decrease Duration
"Recalculate Promotion, if valid" - If the duration is decreased the value of the promotion will be recalculated according to the rules.
If valid: for example, the dates may be changed in such a way that the start date now falls outside the
promotion period and therefore no longer applies.

"Cancel Promotion" - if the duration is decreased, the promotion is cancelled.

Price Item Selection:
Using the filters if necessary, select the price items to be included in the promotion.
Items can be added or withdrawn at any stage.

Agent Selection:
Using the filters if necessary, select agents to be included in the promotion.
Agents can be added or withdrawn at any stage.

Student Countries:
Typically used for country specific "Direct Booking" enrolments, eg. promotion for students only from Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

Typically the student country would be selected in tandem with the agent.
In the example above (no agent selected), all students, regardless of agent, would be eligible for the promotion.

Typically the agent(s) would also be added, so in the example above, if the promotion was to apply only to direct bookings, then the Direct Booking agents would also need selecting. Below is an example of the promotion being only for Direct (USD) Students. (Multiple agents may also be selected).

School Promotion Price Items/Languages:

Add the "Default Promotional Item Name" before completing the accounting codes.
This is the name that will appear on the invoice. If the name is created incorrectly, changes are automatically updated to the Price Item.

Schools used in the promotion are automatically displayed, and if the school has a default CC/Dept entered in the school record then these will be preset. Alternatively, for each school, enter CC/Dept/Nom as appropriate, then select OK/Create, or if there are several entries to which the Nom code is to applied, select "Create All".

As each promotion has a unique Price Item for each school, statistics will clearly show the income effect against schools, agents, countries etc. Nominal codes also provide the facility to charge each promotion to different areas of the business, if required.

Language Names/Web
If these are in use, Foreign Language Names can be added and maintained from this screen.

Audit
All additions/removals are tracked and a log retained, and an Excel output is provided.
Note: Groups are excluded from Promotions.

Sample Booking entry, showing a highlighted promotion line:

Booking screens and invoices are sorted to show the promotion immediately below the related price item:

The Promotion Name and the Price Item Name are shown on the Finance screen.

Price Item browse screen, shows promotion price items at end (in red).
Not Promotion Price Items only show if the "Hide Promotional Items" flag is unticked: