01
Which terms apply?
Entitlements are collected for the line along both axes — who is buying and what is being bought — from customer to buying group, product to brand.
Skönto · the deduction engine
Every line shows its working
For every order and invoice line, Skönto answers four questions — which trade terms apply, at what rate, which survive, and where the result is booked. Then it writes the answer down, so your auditors read it too.
skönto — resolution trace · INV/2026/00347
line 7flue liner 6 m · brand Ethos · 8 × 240.00
① collect4 entitlements apply
rebate 15% — customer · Browns Appliancescustomer axis
bonus 10% — product category · Hearth & Flueproduct axis
discount 5% — brand · Ethosproduct axis
ppd 3% — payment term · 14 dayscompanion
② ratefixed · ladder qty ≥ 8 · rate card Ethos × tier A · fixed
③ reconciledifferent axes compose — nothing is displaced
④ bookdiscount → price 228.00 inline
rebate 273.60 → 080200 · bonus 182.40 → 080210 · ppd 54.72 → 080200
booked · order and invoice agree
Specimen — one line, resolvedVerified behavior · engine test suite
The mechanics
Four questions, answered per line
02
At what rate?
Each term carries its rate source: a fixed rate, a quantity ladder stepped by ordered volume, or a brand-tier rate card resolved per line and per customer.
03
Which survive?
Overlapping terms compete only within one axis, and resolve by the rule you chose — add up, best rate, lowest rate, most specific, or broadest.
04
Booked where?
Discounts reduce the price inline. Every other type books as its own deduction line to its account — target entity first, then attribution, then default.
The correctness property
Two axes that compose, never compete
Terms attach along two independent axes — who is buying and what is being bought. Terms from different axes both apply; competition happens only within one axis. A negotiated customer rebate can never be silently dropped because an unrelated product rule was “more specific.” That class of margin leak simply cannot occur.
Customer axis — who is buying
- Head office · Browns Group
- Branch · Browns Appliances, Thames
- rebate 15% — attributed here
Product axis — what is bought
- Brand · Ethos
- Category · Hearth & Flue
- bonus 10% + discount 5% — attributed here
Invoice line · F-2210
Both axes apply: 15% + 10% compose, 5% hits the price — each recorded, each booked.
Reconciliation
When terms overlap, you choose the rule
sum
All apply — rates add up. The default.
max
The highest rate survives.
min
The lowest rate survives.
most specific
The closest agreement wins — a branch beats its head office.
broadest
The widest agreement wins — the head-office term rules them all.
Specificity ranks by level, tie-break by tree depth — a child category beats its parent, a branch beats its head office
Rate sources
Where the percentage comes from
Fixed
15%
A flat rate on the term — with an optional individual amount per entitlement, for the one customer who negotiated harder.
Quantity ladder
Stepped rates by ordered quantity — the ladder climbs with the order, per line.
Brand-tier rate card
| T1 | T2 | T3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethos | 2% | 5% | 8% |
| Hatiba | 1% | 3% | 6% |
| EXA | — | 2% | 4% |
The rate for the line's brand at the customer's tier — own tier, else the category's, else the brand's public rate.
Attribution
Negotiate once, at any level
- customer
- delivery address
- buying group
- customer category
- customer tag
- product
- product category
- brand
- payment term
Exactly one target per attribution — a payment term may ride along with another. Skönto applies the term automatically everywhere below it: branch roll-ups where the head office is invoiced, and cooperative groups where members share a category's terms.
The guarantee
Order and invoice agree by construction
Quotation, order and invoice run the same calculation engine — a shared applier — so they cannot diverge. Each line records the entitlements applied, the percentage each contributed, and the resulting amount.
1 shared engine0 driftevery line audited
“Skönto is specifically designed for provisioning… The system is highly flexible and can meet every requirement.”
Mark Coory — CEO, Capisco Aust PtyUnder the hood — boring, proven technology
Watch it resolve your terms
Bring your gnarliest agreement — the tiered one with the year-end true-up. We'll trace it live on a personal demo instance.