The Loop Discount

OVERVIEW

This article describes the Loop Discount feature, how to configure it, and which considerations merchants should keep in mind when deciding on the configuration (on or off).

Important: Before reading this article, Loop suggests reviewing the following articles first to understand the accounting discrepancies that Loop's exchanges create in Shopify:

  1. Exchange Accounting Overview (Basic)
  2. Exchange Accounting Overview (Advanced)

In this article:

What is the Loop Discount?

The Loop Discount is a setting that helps merchants control how value is stated on exchanges. Having the Loop Discount on or off could make reconciliation easier depending on merchant reporting needs or preferences.


How it works

The following sections visualize the Loop Discount being on and off on exchange orders in the Shopify admin.

Loop Discount: On

Enabling this setting discounts a new exchange order by the value of line items returned.

This means a couple of things:

  • Even exchange orders (orders that exchange a product with a variant of the same price) are discounted to $0, plus tax. The exchange cancels out the value of the items being returned.
  • Upsell exchange orders show a remaining balance to reflect what the customer owes beyond the return value.

Loop Discount: Off

This configuration creates new exchange orders in Shopify with full total values and does not apply a discount. Exchange orders will have the full subtotal, tax, and total amounts for the new product(s). On any exchanges with upsell, the upsell amount will be included in the totals on the exchange.

This image shows an exchange order from the customer's view. The top shows the new exchange item, its quantity, and its price. Beneath this is a subtotal row that reflects the product's value, a tax row with a tax value, and a total row that combines both values.
In this example, the customer requested an even exchange with no upsell, showing the full monetary value of the exchange item, its tax amount, and the total for the exchange.

Reporting effects

The Loop Discount does not impact any of the following. All of these events will occur on all returns for exchange:

  • On the original order, the sale plus tax will be reversed when a product is marked returned.
  • The positive sales adjustment will still be present on the returns and net sales columns and must be removed through reconciliation.
  • On the exchange order, new tax values will be included.

Here are the Shopify fields that are impacted depending on the Loop Discount configuration:


Loop Discount: On Loop Discount: Off
Gross sales Accurate Accurate
Discounts Inaccurate - overstated by the amount of return value Accurate
Returns Inaccurate - understated by the amount of Shopify's return order adjustment Inaccurate - understated by the amount of Shopify's return order adjustment
Net sales Inaccurate - for orders that contain tax, this value will be overstated by the amount of tax on the returned items Inaccurate - overstated by the amount of Shopify's return order adjustment AND the exchange order amount
Tax Accurate Accurate
Total sales Inaccurate - overstated by the amount of Shopify's return order adjustment Inaccurate - overstated by the amount of Shopify's return order adjustment AND the new exchange order

Tips: For a reminder about Shopify's positive return order adjustment, review Loop's exchange accounting overview.

Below are images of reports pulled for exchanges, one with the Loop Discount enabled and one without the Discount. They exemplify the discrepancies from the chart above.

Loop Discount: On

This image shows a Shopify report with rows for the original order, Shopify's order adjustment, and the new exchange order. Each row has column values for gross sales, discounts, returns, net sales, shipping, tax, and total sales. The Discounts, Returns, Net Sales, and Total Sales columns are highlighted to show which reporting values are incorrect as a result of using the Loop Discount.
A Shopify report for an order and resulting exchange that utilized the Loop Discount.

The image above shows the following:

  • Original order: Because there are no refund values to offset Shopify's positive order adjustment, the Returns, Net Sales, and Total Sales columns are also incorrect. Thus, the Discounts, Returns, Net Sales, and Total Sales columns require reconciliation to show correct numbers.
  • Exchange order: The exchange row contains the gross sale amount for the new exchange item and the Loop Discount, which manifests as a negative value in the Discounts row, inflating discount values.

Loop Discount: Off

This image shows a Shopify report with rows for the original order, Shopify's order adjustment, and the new exchange order. Each row has column values for gross sales, discounts, returns, net sales, shipping, tax, and total sales. The Returns, Net Sales, and Total Sales columns are highlighted to show which reporting values are incorrect as a result of not using the Loop Discount.
A Shopify report for an order and resulting exchange that did not use the Loop Discount.

The image above shows the following:

  • Original order: Because there is no transaction (refund) row to offset Shopify's positive order adjustment, Returns, Net Sales, and Total Sales are incorrect and require reconciliation to show correct numbers.
  • Exchange order: The exchange row contains full amounts for the new exchange item, inflating Net Sales and Total Sales by the amount of the discount and the Shopify order adjustment.

Configuring the Loop Discount

This section describes which merchants may want to use the Loop Discount and how to enable it.

On or Off?

Should a merchant turn on the Loop Discount or leave it off? There is no wrong answer; however, Loop suggests certain configurations based on the merchant's general needs:

Turn the Loop Discount on Turn the Loop Discount off

Shopify Accounting:

  • If the merchant uses Shopify as a source of truth and wants to take a quick look at their day-to-day sales figures and have them be fairly accurate.
  • When the Loop Discount is on, net sales will only be overstated by the taxes on the return.

Shopify Accounting:

  • If the merchant uses Shopify as a source of truth and wants to reconcile more easily.
  • When the Loop discount is off, no adjustments need to be made to the exchange order; the only necessary adjustments are against the original order. This can make it easier to reconcile quickly, but the totals will be more off pre-reconciliation.

Third-party Accounting:

  • If the merchant uses a third-party system that preserves sales and tax on the original order. The Loop Discount would prevent a duplicate sale in this case.
  • If the positive order adjustment pulls into the third-party system.

Third-party Accounting:

  • If the merchant needs the full exchange order value recorded on an order in a third-party system.
  • If the positive order adjustment is not pulled into the third-party system.

Tax reporting:

If the merchant uses Shopify for tax reporting.

Tax reporting:

If the merchant uses Avalara for tax reporting. Refer to the Loop + AvaTax article for more information.

For questions or to confirm how the merchant has configured the Loop Discount, contact support@loopreturns.com.

Configuration instructions

To enable the Loop Discount:

  1. Log in to the Loop admin and go to Policy settings > General on the left.

    This image shows the navigation menu on the left side of the Loop admin. There are numbered steps guiding users to click the Policy Settings tab, then the General settings sub-tab beneath it.

  2. Scroll down to the "Exchange Accounting Options" section.

  3. Toggle on the setting called "Enable the Loop Discount", doing this will turn the toggle blue.

    This image shows the Exchange Accounting Options section within the Loop admin's general policy settings. The setting called Enable the Loop Discount is shown, along with a toggle that has been turned on.

  4. Click Save on the bottom right to keep any changes.

    This image shows the banner that appears on the bottom of the page when making changes in the Loop admin. It says Unsaved Changes on the left, then has Cancel and Save buttons on the right. The Save button is highlighted blue.


Next steps

Important: Merchants must reconcile their accounting numbers regardless of how the Loop Discount is configured.

Once the merchant has decided how to configure the Loop Discount, Loop suggests reviewing the Accounting and Reconciliation Overview article, which contains step-by-step instructions merchants can follow to reconcile their accounting numbers!


FAQ

How do I know if the Loop Discount is on for my store? If you don't know whether the Loop Discount is on or off for your Loop instance, please reach out to support@loopreturns.com to confirm.

How do I know if my Loop plan covers this feature? Check the Pricing page on Loop's website to check if the Loop Discount is included in your plan.

Please reach out to support@loopreturns.com with any additional questions.

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