Until now every discount needed a staff member to open the discount list and tap Apply on each order. An automatic discount applies itself the moment an order qualifies — useful for happy hours, standing category promotions, or a spend threshold like "฿50 off over ฿500".
This article covers the automatic method only. For discount types, codes and the rules that apply to every discount, see Discounts — Item, Order & Delivery.
Setting one up
Go to Settings → Discounts → Add discount, then:
Type — choose Amount off items or Amount off order.
Method — choose Automatic.
Value — a percentage or a fixed ฿ amount.
Applies to — for item discounts, pick the menus, categories or items it covers. Leave it empty to cover everything.
Conditions — set a Minimum order requirement (spend or quantity), a Schedule for the days and hours it runs, and a Date range.
Combinations — tick which other discount types this one is allowed to stack with.
Maximum usage — optionally cap how many times the discount can be used in total.
Set Status to active and save. From then on it applies on its own.
When the discount appears
This differs by channel, and it is worth knowing before you test:
Channel | The discount appears |
QR ordering, takeaway, and other prepay channels | As soon as the item is in the basket |
Dine-in on the POS | When the items are Sent |
On dine-in the bill is what has been sent to the kitchen or bar, so a discount lands together with the items themselves. Nothing is lost — it simply shows on Send rather than on the tap that added the item.
Which discount wins
If more than one automatic discount qualifies, Papaya picks the one that gives the customer the most:
Item discounts — the best offer wins per line, so different lines can take different discounts.
Order discounts — a single best discount applies to the order.
An item and an order discount can both apply, if the Combinations settings on each allow it. The order-level percentage is calculated on the bill after item discounts, so nothing is discounted twice.
Amounts stay correct as the bill changes
Previously a discount stored the ฿ amount worked out at the moment it was applied. Add another item and a "10% off the bill" kept its old figure.
Now the amount is re-derived whenever the order changes — and this applies to discounts applied by hand too, not just automatic ones. A 10% discount on a ฿400 bill becomes ฿57.50 when the bill grows to ฿575. Fixed-amount discounts hold their value while the bill covers them, and reduce if the bill drops below.
Seeing what happened
The order's Action log records each change:
Discount applied — an automatic discount started applying
Discount removed — it stopped qualifying, for example when the happy hour ended or the items changed
Discount recalculated — an existing discount's amount changed because the bill changed
These rows are attributed to System rather than to a staff member, because nobody chose them. The action that triggered them — the item added or removed — sits directly above with the staff member's name.
Not yet supported
Delivery discounts — Automatic cannot be selected for them
Buy X get Y — these still need to be applied by hand
Discount codes — still on the roadmap
FAQ
Do staff need the "Apply discounts" permission? No. Automatic discounts apply regardless, because no staff action is involved. Applying a discount by hand still requires the permission.
Can staff remove an automatic discount? They can remove it from the current bill, but it will apply again on the next change to the order if it still qualifies. To stop it for good, set the discount to inactive in Settings.
What if the happy hour ends mid-order? The discount is removed the next time the order changes.