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Prior to September 2024, you could only calculate for a period of a year or the specified calculation period. Now you have additional options on the Amounts Per setting in a rule that can be used to calculate and pay out rebates in smaller intervals within a period of a year. This includes calculating and paying out in periods of quarters, months, or for a fiscal year. |
Of the many variations of calculating rebates, a primary differentiator is the period of calculation and payout. This page explains how to calculate those and pay or receive rebates quarterly over a specified periodin quarterly periods
With the Quarterly option, you can choose when your year starts, in other words, when you want the quarters to start. Then you can calculate either from the rule validation date or a specified date from which your quarterly periods should begin.
Calculations are only allowed for 12 months, regardless of when your year starts.
With quarterly rebates:
Example 1: Start the quarters and calculation on the rule start date
This is a straightforward use case, so in the results, you get 12 rows, three for each quarter.
Example 2: Start the quarters on the rule start date but start the calculation on a different date
Example 3: Start the quarters in a different month to the rule start dateThe cumulative total is calculated for the transactions resets to zero every quarter.
The quarters start on the specified start of the year unless the calculation period is different.
When the calculation period starts in the middle of a quarter, the cumulative total from the start of the quarter
to the start of the calculation period
The start of the first quarter is the validation period start date, and the same day is used for the subsequent quarters (every three months). For example, if the validation period starts on February 10, 2023, the quarter start dates will be February 10, 2023, May 10, 2023, August 10, 2023, November 10, 2023, February 10, 2024, and so on. However, if the validation period starts on a day that not all months have, only the affected month will be adjusted. For example, if it starts on March 31, 2023, the quarter start dates will be March 31, 2023, June 30, 2023, September 30, 2023, December 31, 2023, March 31, 2023, and so on.
The calculation period might not start on the same date as the validation period. In this example, the year starts in January, but the calculation starts in August.
Then, the transactions in the calculation period are added to that cumulative total and put into brackets accordingly. This ensures the calculation starts in the correct bracket.
In this case, you get the same total whether you calculate the individual months separately or the whole year in one calculation.
If the calculation period spans multiple quarters, the cumulative total is reset to $0 at the start of each quarter (as defined by the validation start date).
In the rule setup, click the Amounts Per dropdown list and select Quarter. By default, the quarterly calculation uses the same start date as the rule. If you want to change this, select Other, then select the month.
For example, suppose the rule setup uses the Percentage of Value calculation method, the Value bracket basis, and three brackets exist. The ruleyear starts in January.is calculated and used as the starting point. Then the rebate is calculated until the end of that quarter, and following in a regular pattern with other quarters. Hence, in some cases, the results would have more than four quarterly periods.
When the calculation period starts outside the rule validation date, the calculation period is trimmed to the rule validation period. The quarters are calculated as above.
Example: Same rule, different quarterly year, same calculation date range
In this basic example, two calculations are run for the same rule, yielding different results. The same calculation date range is applied to each calculation. The calculation start date is the same as the rule start date. The only difference is the date on which the quarters start.
(A) Where the quarterly year starts on the rule date
In the rule setup Brackets section, select Amounts per > Quarter.
Select the On the rule start date option. This means the quarters start on the same date as the rule start, which in this example, is 1st January. The first quarter will be from January to March, the next will be from April to June, and so on. At the start of each quarter, the cumulative total will reset to zero.
Click Calculate, enter the transaction date range and click Calculate. In this example, you start on the same date as the rule and run for the whole calendar year (12 months).
In the results, you can see the brackets are applied to the quarters. At the start of each quarter, the total resets to zero. There are 12 bracket rows, 3 for each quarter.
(B) Where the quarterly year starts on a different date
In the rule setup Brackets section, select Amounts per > Quarter.
Select the Other option, then select the date. This option allows you to set a date different from the rule start, for example, 1st February. The first quarter will be from February to April, the next from May to July, and so on. At the start of each quarter, the cumulative total will reset to zero.
Click Calculate, enter the transaction date range and click Calculate. Just like in example (A) above, you start on the same date as the rule and run for the whole calendar year (12 months). However, in this example, the quarters start on a different date (1st February), so some of the transactions (1st to 31st January) will fall outside the range of the quarterly year.
In the results, you can see the brackets are applied to the month of January and reset to zero for the start of the first quarter on 1st February. From there, the quarters are calculated as usual, resetting the total to zero each time. There are 15 bracket rows: the first 3 rows are for the month of January, and then there’s 3 rows for each quarter.
