Use this article to understand what an off-invoice (OI) discount is, how it differs from a deduction taken on a payment or an early payment discount, and how Confido categorizes OI line items for cash application and reporting.

An off-invoice (OI) discount is a discount or allowance built directly into an invoice as its own line item — for example, a distributor program fee or an EDLP (Everyday Low Price) discount agreed to in your trade terms. It reduces the invoice's net balance before the invoice is ever paid, rather than being deducted later when a payment comes in.

Example: An invoice is issued for $1,500 and includes a $400 off-invoice discount as a line item. The invoice's net balance is $1,100 ($1,500 gross minus the $400 OI line) — that $1,100 is the balance the customer will actually pay.
​

This section explains how an off-invoice discount differs from the more common kind of deduction you'll see in Cash Application.

Most deductions — short pays, chargebacks, EDLP taken at the check level, and similar items — are applied to the payment, not the invoice. They show up as negative lines when a check or remittance is applied in Cash Application, alongside the invoice(s) it's paying.

An off-invoice discount is different: it's already baked into the invoice itself, so it reduces the invoice's balance before Cash Application ever sees it. Using the example above, Cash Application only sees a $1,100 balance to apply — the original $1,500 gross amount and the $400 OI line aren't visible at the payment-matching stage, because Cash Application only cares about the invoice's final balance, not how that balance was calculated.
​

This section clarifies a common point of confusion: early payment discounts are not off-invoice discounts, even though both are discounts a customer takes.

An early payment discount (sometimes called a cash discount or terms discount) is a separate terms item that appears on the payment, not the invoice — for example, a negative line reducing the amount paid because the customer paid within an agreed early-pay window. Unlike an OI discount, it isn't part of the invoice's own balance; it's a deduction taken at the time of payment.
​

This section explains how Confido categorizes an off-invoice line item once it's pulled in from your ERP.

Confido uses two separate mapping columns to categorize incoming activity: Deduction Items and Invoice Items. Deduction Items map Confido's standardized deduction reasons to the GL item or account Confido pushes to your ERP when it posts a credit memo or journal entry (see How to Map Deduction Reasons to GL Accounts). Invoice Items instead pull and categorize line items directly from your ERP's invoices, and are what Confido uses specifically to identify and categorize off-invoice discounts.
​

In your ERP, an off-invoice line item is typically represented by a non-inventory item — a conceptual line (like Off Invoice or a retailer-specific allowance such as DFI Allowance) rather than a physical product for sale. If one of these appears as an unmapped product on an invoice line, it generally means the OI/allowance item hasn't yet been categorized in Confido — reach out to your Confido CSM if you're unsure whether it should be mapped as an Invoice Item or excluded.
​

This section explains how to see off-invoice activity in the Deductions view, since it isn't shown by default.

Because an OI discount is embedded in the invoice rather than the payment, it's excluded from the Deductions view by default. To include it:

Once selected, off-invoice line items will appear alongside your other deductions in the table.

Who this applies to: any user working with Cash Application, deductions, or trade spend reporting. Available on all plans; no special permissions beyond standard Cash Application access are required to view off-invoice deductions. Mapping Invoice Items or Deduction Items requires Settings access.