Standing, quoted and isolated discounts
The three ways a below-contract price shows up, and why the distinction changes what you do about it.
A standing discount appears on essentially every invoice for a SKU over a long period. That is not an error; it is your real price, and your contract should say so at renewal.
A quoted discount is tied to a specific job or purchase order and should stop when that job ends. The failure mode is the opposite of overbilling: a quote follows the SKU onto unrelated jobs and the supplier eventually claws it back.
An isolated discount is a one-off. It is usually a keying error, and it is the least interesting of the three unless it repeats.
Related terms
- Price variance — The difference between the unit price a supplier billed and the contracted price in effect on the invoice date.
- Supplier scorecard — A per-supplier summary of billing accuracy, variance dollars, and how quickly claims are settled.
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