[ic] Rounding and discounts

[Jeff Boes]

N.E.S.T. Solutions wrote:
>
> Basic mathematics rules
> 49.50 * 0.95 = 47.025
> 49.5 * 3 * 0.95 = 141.075
> 141.075 / 3 / 0.95 = 49.50 (here you forgot the 95%)
>   
Nope. As I wrote earlier,

> However, this brings up an oddity: if I ask, "what is the 
> *discounted* price of each item?", the calculation of
>
>     $141.07 / 3 = $47.025, which rounds to $47.02
>   

What I'm experiencing is in recording the order in the database at the
end of the transaction. The per-item actual price is calculated by
dividing the total for that item by the quantity, and rounding so it
fits into two decimal places. As a result, I get $47.02.

Even if I calculated the per-item price by $49.95 * 0.95, I would get
$47.025. The problem here is not in understanding how the math works,
but in explaining to my client why the customer is charged $141.07, but
the database shows three items of $47.02 each.

Likewise, a customer might wonder why they pay a one-penny penalty for
buying three items at one time, rather than three items on three
separate occasions.

I'm in the process of digging through our discount formula. It used to
look like this:

  sprintf('%0.2f', $s * $Scratch->{discount_percent})

where $s is the subtotal calculated by (quantity * item_price). I think
it needs to be:

   $q * sprintf('%0.2f', $p * $Scratch->{discount_percent})

where $q is the quantity and $p is the per-item non-discounted price.
However, this led to some other glitches, so I can't declare victory
just yet.

-- 
Jeffery Boes  <><
jeff at endpoint.com