In finance and economics, discounting is the process of finding the present value of an amount of cash at some future date, and along with compounding cash forms the basis of time value of money calculations. The discounted value of a cash flow is determined by reducing its value by the appropriate discount rate for each unit of time between the time when the cashflow is to be valued to the time of the cash flow. Most often the discount rate is expressed as an annual rate (wikipedia.org).

With the help of Zen Cart Discount coupons you can Manage orders' discounts.

You can perform such basic operations as:

1. Refresh data forces Zen Cart list of discount coupons to update. It is useful when you're changing connection or have any doubts e.g. whether were the latest data displayed or not.
2. Add coupon calls blank Edit Coupon form, which is used to create a new coupon. The description of Edit Coupon form see below.
3. To edit coupon you can double click on it or use "Edit coupon" button. It calls Edit Coupon form for selected coupon.
   
4. To clone coupon clock on clone button . It calls Edit Coupon form for selected coupon. Please see below for options.
5. You can Delete coupon from your store. Pay attention that you won't be able to undo delete from store option.
6. To Adjust columns width use icon.
7. You can Export coupons to EXEL and Print coupons report using corresponding options.

When you press Add, Clone or Edit buttons Store Manager calls Edit Coupon form.

First of all you have to enable active checkbox to make Zen Cart coupon available.

Coupon Properties includes:

• Date added and date modified;
• Start and end date;
• Coupon name;
• Description;
• Coupon code;
• Coupon type - % off, $ off or Free Shipping;
• Coupon amount - enter your coupon discount or calculate it;
• Minimum order - set min. order amount;
• Uses per coupon - set limits per coupon;
• Uses per customer - set limits per customer;
• Valid Product list - make discount for curtain product;
• Valid categories list - make discount for curtain category / subcategories.

Click Ok button to save this entry, or click on cancel button to discard this entry.

Also you can configure the way your discount coupons are displayed at the main Zen Cart Discount Coupons page. There is a gray box on top of all columns that says : "Drag a column header here to group by that column".

Whenever you drag any column header there, discount coupons will be grouped in Categories by this selection. You can Expand/Collapse any category by doubleclicking on it. When any category is opened, you'll be able to see full description of orders.

There's also a possibility to build a "category tree" using this filter type. Let's say you want all your orders grouped by Coupon type and each Coupon type by different Coupon amount. You simply have to drag Coupon type header into the grey field and drop it behind Coupon amount. You can also set Coupon type as a category with subcategory Coupon amount. Just drop Coupon type ahead of Coupon amount and you’ll see the result.

When you drag Column header back into the table, its column of values will be placed where you drop it.