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How HC handles promotions and discounts

How HC maps discount types — line-level, order-level, gift cards, and bundles — to your ERP and WMS.

The short answer

Discounts come in several forms in Shopify, and HC maps each one differently depending on how your ERP is configured to receive them. Line-level discounts stay on the line they belong to; order-level discounts are either apportioned across lines or posted as a separate negative line; gift cards are treated as a payment method rather than a discount; and bundles are split into their component SKUs before anything reaches your ERP or WMS.

How it works

Line-level discounts

When a discount is applied to a specific line item, HC maps it directly to that line in the ERP payload. This is the simplest case: the discount amount sits alongside the line it belongs to, and most ERPs handle this natively.

Order-level discounts

When a discount applies to the whole order rather than individual lines, HC has two options depending on your configuration:

  • Apportioned: the discount is spread across line items proportionally to their value. Each line carries a share of the discount, so the ERP sees adjusted line amounts rather than a separate entry.

  • Separate line: the discount is posted as a dedicated line item with a negative value. This is common for ERPs that expect a distinct discount row.

Which approach is used is set in your stream configuration. If you are unsure which applies to your setup, check with your HC contact.

Gift cards

HC treats gift cards as a payment method, not a discount. When a customer pays with a gift card, HC passes it as a payment line in the financial payload to your ERP, separate from any promotional discounts on the order. This distinction matters for reconciliation: gift card redemptions affect your liability account, whereas discounts reduce revenue.

Bundle products

If you sell bundles in Shopify, HC splits them into their component SKUs before posting to your ERP or WMS. The bundle SKU itself is not passed downstream; only the individual components are. This ensures inventory depletion and fulfilment instructions are applied at the right level.

What this means for you

  • Whether an order-level discount is apportioned or posted as a separate line is set in your stream configuration. If you are unsure which applies to your setup, check with your HC contact.

  • Gift card redemptions reach your ERP as payment lines and affect your liability account, whereas discounts reduce revenue, so reconcile them separately.

  • Your ERP and WMS see component SKUs, never the bundle SKU, so inventory depletion and fulfilment instructions apply at component level.

  • Shopify promotions vary significantly in structure (percentage, fixed amount, buy-X-get-Y, automatic versus code-based, and so on). Before running a new promotion type at scale, place a small test order and verify the ERP posting looks correct. Unexpected structures can cause mapping gaps that only appear in production. See Running a promotion or sale event.

Checking a discount yourself

If a discount is not appearing correctly in your ERP:

  1. Find the order in the HC Control Panel and open the event (see How to find a specific event in the Control Panel).

  2. Compare the source payload (what Shopify sent) against the destination payload (what HC posted to your ERP).

  3. If the gap is not obvious, contact HC support with the event ID, the discount type, and the expected ERP structure.

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