Discount Approval Request
Asks internally for a price concession, with the margin and what you got back for it.
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| Customer | [customer] |
| Requested by | [name] |
| Date | October 14, 2026 |
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| List price | $ [amount] |
| Price requested | $ [amount] |
| Discount | [enter both prices] |
| Margin at the requested price | [margin %] |
1. Why this is justified
[the commercial reason — volume, term, strategic value, competitive position]
2. What we asked for in return
[add one concession per line — a discount given for nothing sets the new price]
3. Approval
| Approver | [who must approve] |
| Approved / declined | |
| Signature | |
| Date |
What is a Discount Approval Request?
A discount approval request is the internal form a salesperson completes before offering a price below the published rate. It states the discount asked for, what it costs in margin, and what the customer gives back in return. Without one, concessions get agreed on calls and remembered differently by everyone, and a year later nobody can explain why one account pays list price and a similar one pays fifteen percent less.
Sales teams with published price lists use these, along with distributors, agencies, SaaS vendors, equipment suppliers and anyone whose reps negotiate. The requester is the account owner; the approver is a sales manager, commercial director or finance depending on the size of the concession. Finance uses the completed forms to reconcile actual realised prices against the rate card, and to explain gross margin movement at month end. It also creates the audit trail an auditor or an acquirer will ask for when they want to know how pricing decisions were made.
Approval thresholds are internal policy, but two external rules constrain what you can agree. Competition and antitrust law in the EU, UK, US, India and Australia restricts discounts that amount to discriminating between competing customers without objective justification, or that are conditioned on a buyer not dealing with a rival — the risk rises sharply if your business has a strong market position. Public sector and regulated buyers may also have procurement rules on pricing transparency. Where a discount is large or structural, check it against the competition law and procurement rules that apply to your market before offering it.
The form does not change the price. Nothing binds until the approved figure appears on a quotation, order acknowledgement or contract signed by someone with authority — a salesperson who tells a customer a discount is ‘approved internally’ has created an expectation, not a term. It is also not a substitute for delegated authority limits: if your policy says a director must approve anything over a stated percentage, a completed form signed by a manager does not cure that. And it does not record what the customer was told; keep the quotation with it.
What to put in a Discount Approval Request
These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Business name | For example: Barton Supply Co. |
| Your address | For example: Unit 7, Barton Road, Columbus, OH 43212 |
| Account owner | For example: Sarah Chen |
| Customer | For example: Northgate Fit-Out Inc. |
| List price | For example: 425,000 |
| Price being asked for | For example: 37,80,000 |
| Margin at the discounted price | For example: 18.4% |
| Why the discount is justified | For example: Framework supply across eleven sites for two years. Volume moves us past the mill’s next… |
| What we asked for in return | One per line |
| Approval required from | For example: Operations Manager |
How to write a Discount Approval Request
State the list price and the price requested
Give both figures, the currency, the quantity and the unit, and calculate the discount as a percentage and as a cash amount. ‘12% off’ means nothing to an approver until they see it is £4,800 on this order. If the deal spans a term, show the total value of the concession over the whole term, not just the first invoice, because that is the number that actually leaves the business.
Show the margin before and after
Put the standard gross margin and the margin at the requested price side by side, using the cost figure finance recognises rather than one you estimated. Include any delivery, installation or support cost that is bundled into the price. An approver looking at a 10% discount on a 60% margin product is making a different decision from one looking at 10% on a 14% margin.
Say what the customer gives in return
A concession with nothing on the other side is a price cut. Name the exchange: a two-year commitment instead of annual, payment in thirty days instead of ninety, a larger single order, removal of a bespoke requirement, a reference or case study. ‘Customer asked for it’ is not a justification. ‘20% uplift in committed annual volume, contracted’ is.
Name the competitive or commercial reason
Explain briefly why the discount is needed — a named competitor's quoted price, a tender threshold, a first order into a target sector, an exit from a loss-making bespoke spec. If you are matching a rival's quote, say whose and for what, and note whether you have seen it. Approvers who understand the reason approve faster and can spot when the same reason appears across a dozen forms.
Record the approver, the limit and the expiry
Show who approved it, their authority level, the date, and how long the approved price stands — thirty days, or until a stated quotation reference is signed. Say whether it applies to this order only or to the account going forward, because that is the ambiguity that turns a one-off into a permanent rate. File the approval against the customer record, not in an inbox.
Common mistakes
- Quoting the discount only as a percentage, so the approver never sees that it is a five-figure cash concession over the contract term.
- Using an out-of-date or salesperson-estimated cost, which makes the margin line meaningless and hides the fact that the deal is below cost.
- Approving a discount for one order without stating it is one-off, so the customer treats it as their standing price on every reorder.
- Letting the salesperson tell the customer before approval is granted, which leaves the manager choosing between an unprofitable deal and a broken promise.
- Filing approvals in email rather than against the account record, so nobody can reconstruct at renewal why this customer pays what they pay.
Frequently asked questions
Who should approve a sales discount?
Set thresholds rather than naming one person: a rep may hold a small band, a sales manager a larger one, and a commercial or finance director anything beyond that or any deal below a stated margin floor. Tie the bands to margin impact rather than headline percentage, since the same percentage means very different things across a product range. Write the thresholds down and apply them without exceptions.
What should a discount approval form include?
Customer and opportunity reference, product and quantity, list price, requested price, discount as percentage and cash, margin before and after, contract term and total concession value, what the customer commits to in return, the competitive reason, requester, approver, date, expiry and whether it is one-off or ongoing. Anything less and the approver is guessing.
Is it legal to give one customer a better price than another?
Usually yes — differential pricing based on volume, term, cost to serve or negotiation is normal commercial practice. It becomes risky where competition law applies: discriminating between competing buyers without objective justification, or tying a discount to exclusivity, can be an abuse where a business holds a strong market position. Check the competition and antitrust rules for your market before adopting a structural discount scheme.
How do I stop discounting from creeping up over time?
Measure realised price against list by rep, product and quarter, and review the approved forms rather than the outcomes alone. Require a stated exchange for every concession, put an expiry date on every approval, and make one-off status explicit. Publishing the average discount by team, without naming individuals, tends to slow the drift on its own.
Should the customer see the discount approval form?
No. It is an internal document containing your cost and margin data, and sharing it hands the buyer your floor. The customer sees the quotation carrying the approved price. If they ask for evidence that a special price was authorised, a line on the quotation such as ‘price approved under reference DA-2026-118, valid to 30 April’ gives them the assurance without the internals.
This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.