The (Calendar) Quarter option is available for indefinite rebate rules.
First, the cumulative total is calculated for the transactions from the start of the quarter up to the start of the calculation period, where:
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).
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Using the figures in the example above, where both the validation and calculation periods were within one calendar year and the start date is March 11:
In the first quarter:
The cumulative total is $60 (1 month, March), and the calculation period total is $70 (where did this come from).
Since you are starting from $60, you are in the 1% bracket. So, the first $40 worth of transactions in the calculation period ($100 bracket limit less $60 cumulative total) gets a rebate of 1%, which is $0.40 ($40*0.01).
That leaves $30 worth of transactions ($70-$40) in the 2% bracket, which results in a rebate of $0.70 ($30*0.02).
Therefore, the total rebate amount is $1.10 ($0.40+$0.70).
In the second quarter:
The total of the calculation period is $75.
So those transactions would get a rebate amount of 1%, giving a total of $0.75.
The total for the whole calculation period is $1.10+$0.75 = $1.85
With my proposed changes, a calculation from to would reset the cumulative total to $0 at . This would give the same result as calculating - and - separately and adding the results.
The Month calculation is shown in the Multiple Periods graph. The calculation starts at the beginning of the cumulative period, so the transactions start from $0. At some point, that period will reset, and the total will reset back to $0 for the start of the next period. Then the calculation process repeats. Only the first few transactions of each period are in the first bracket, the next transactions will be in the next bracket and so on.
This option works with prior periods as well, as in the second graph, so if the calculation period does not start at the beginning of one of the cumulative periods, a prior transaction amount is used as the starting point.
Of the many variations of calculating rebates, a primary differentiator is the period of calculation and payout. This page explains how to calculate and pay or receive rebates in quarterly periods.
With the Amounts per > Quarter option, you can choose when your year starts, in other words, when you want the quarterly periods to begin. This can be the same as the rule validation date or a different specified date.
Calculations are only allowed for 12 months, regardless of when your year starts.
With quarterly rebates:
The cumulative total resets to zero every quarter.
The quarters start at 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 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.
Setup
In the rule setup Brackets section, select Amounts per > Quarter, then select where thequarters start:
On the rule start date: The quarters start on the same date as the rule starts (validation period start date). For example, if this is January 1, the first quarter will be from January to March, the next will be from April to June, and so on.
Other: This option allows you to set a date different from the rule start date. For example, if you select February 1, the first quarter will be from February to April, the next from May to July, and so on.
Example
In this basic example, two calculations are run for the same rule, yielding different results. The same calculation date range (Jan 1, 2022 to Dec 32, 2022) is applied to each calculation. The calculation start date is the same as the rule start date (Jan 1, 2022). The only difference is the date on which the quarters start.
(A) Where the quarterly year starts on the rule date
Suppose you start the calculation on the same date as the rule and run for the whole calendar year (12 months). Your quarterly year also starts on the rule start date.
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
Suppose you start the calculation on the same date as the rule and run for the whole calendar year (12 months), however, the quarters start on a different date (February 1). In this case, some of the transactions (January 1 to 31) 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 February 1. 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.
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