01Guide · Secure early payment discounts
AICTIONBOT™ · Guide
Secure early payment discounts: which money is lost this week, and who can save it.
An early payment discount rarely expires in accounting. It expires at the approval that sits with someone who has left, at the goods receipt nobody posts, and at the payment run that comes one day too late. The Discount Radar reads your open items list and shows which discount is due in the next days, what of it is blocked and which payment run still saves it.
Free, no account, no AI and no daily limit. Your open items stay in your browser, nothing is uploaded or stored.
02Check now · open items, open issues, payment run
AICTIONBOT™ Workbench · no AI · in the browser
Discount Radar
Result: key figures, a deadline bar with payment run days, the follow-up list per person and a payment run proposal, to copy or as CSV. With “Load sample data” you see the result straight away, without your own file.
Open items Required
Open issues optional · linked · several files
Fits as it is: a list of missing goods receipts, the rerouting list from the Approval Matrix Checker or your own block list.
Deadline strip Discount deadlines and payment runs
Red: blocked, with the reason from the open issues. Yellow: free, must go into the marked payment run. A deadline at the weekend needs the payment run before it.
Findings
Follow-up list by person Linked
Where the names come from: the open issues from the neighbouring tools. The Approval Matrix Checker says who a stuck approval belongs to. The Document Match says where the goods receipt is missing.
| Resolve with | Documents | Discount at risk | Deadline | Reasons |
|---|
Payment run proposal
| Payment run | Documents | Amount | Discount |
|---|
Open items, line by line
| Document | Vendor | Amount | Discount | Discount until | Payment run | Due | Open issue | Result |
|---|
03What the radar finds
What it checks for every open item.
It calculates from the reference date over a window, 10 days by default, with your payment run days, Tuesday and Friday by default.
- Blocked, discount expiringDiscount deadline within the window, but a payment block or an open issue. With the reason and the person who can solve it. Stop.
- No payment run before the deadlineThe invoice is free, but there is no payment run before the discount deadline ends. Urgent payment or a special run, otherwise the discount is gone.
- Into the payment runFree and within the window: the radar names the last payment run that still secures the discount.
- OverdueNet due date passed. If blocked, with the block reason and contact person.
- Discount lostSum of all discounts already expired, with the effective annual interest rate of the most expensive one. This shows what the discount would have been worth as financing.
- Lost on arrivalThe invoice arrived only after the discount deadline. That belongs in the conversation with the supplier, not in accounting.
- Open credit noteNegative items older than 30 days: money that belongs to you and can be offset.
04In the chain · inputs
Four checkers, one chain.
Open issues come from the neighbouring tools, several files at once: the rerouting list of the Approval Matrix Checker for invoices stuck with people who have left, and a list of missing goods receipts from your ERP or the Document Match for invoices without goods receipt. They are matched by document and order number. So next to every endangered discount it says why it is stuck and who can solve it.
- Delivers clean-up listVendor Master X-rayWhich supplier is duplicated, incomplete or suspicious?
- Delivers query sheet per documentDocument MatchDo requisition, order, confirmation, goods receipt and invoice fit together?
- Delivers rerouting listApproval Matrix CheckerWho may approve, and are they still here?
- HereDiscount RadarWhich discount expires, and who saves it?
| Input | Required | Columns |
|---|---|---|
| Open items | required | invoice, vendor, purchase_order, invoice_date, received, amount, discount_pct, discount_days, net_days, block (or discount_until, due_date) |
| Open issues | optional, several files | document, purchase_order, reason, owner |
CSV with semicolon, comma or tab, or Excel. Common alternative column names are recognised, in English and German.
From the archive, anonymised and rounded: 16 findings on late payments. After a system change around 6,500 invoices worth more than 75 million could not be paid, more than 300 discounts per quarter were not taken, more than half of the invoices were paid late. The cause almost always lay before the payment.
05Questions and answers
What businesses ask us most.
Which list do I need?
The open items list of your vendors from accounting, as CSV or Excel. Either with discount percentage and discount days, or directly with discount and due dates.
Is my data uploaded?
No. The radar calculates entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server or stored. You do not need an account.
Does the radar take public holidays into account?
No, public holidays and value dates are not taken into account. The discount is calculated on the gross amount. Plan one day of buffer for deadlines around holidays.
Does the radar pay invoices?
No. The result is a check sheet with a payment run proposal. The radar pays nothing and changes nothing in your systems.
What does the radar cost?
Nothing. The Discount Radar is free, with no account and no daily limit, because it calculates without AI.
Check now
Check first, then let it run.
Free, no account, no AI and no daily limit. Your open items stay in your browser, nothing is uploaded or stored.
Check discounts nowPart of the AICTIONBOT™ Workbench
More tools for your purchasing.
Check price increases against official figures, match invoices against order and delivery note, check contracts for clauses and deadlines, screen suppliers against sanctions lists. Free in the browser, as a Windows app, as a Mac app and on the iPhone.
Guide by Dario Kulić, KULIC Advisory, Cologne. Twenty years of purchasing in large companies. Not legal or tax advice. Last updated: October 2026.