Entering a purchase with a zero budget line
You may want to enter a purchase with a discount or where the amount due has been cancelled out.
In this article:
Splitting a purchase over multiple budget lines
When entering a purchase, you can split the purchase amount over multiple budget lines or categories. Find out more in this separate help guide article.

Entering a deduction / allowance / discount
The typical way to record a discount or allowance is to record the full amount, and then add an additional line showing the discount underneath this.
Example
A supplier provides a 10% discount. So if the total purchase is £400, you add a second line showing the discount (-£40), and the total purchase will correctly sum to £360.

Example
You have an invoice to pay to HMRC for tax.
An employee would be due to pay £132.34 of National Insurance (NI). However, because of their National Insurance allowance, they don't need to pay the £132.34 and a budget line of -£132.34 is added to the Invoice to Pay.
This reduces the amount paid to HMRC.

It's not possible to simply add a zero line, e.g. if an employee simply doesn't pay any tax / pension / NI.
When the total amount owed is zero
It's not possible to enter a purchase where the overall amount is zero (i.e. no money is due). Instead:
- If the zero amount owed is because the money is being gifted back, click here.
- If the zero amount owed is because of a supplier refund / credit note, click here.
- If the zero amount owed is because the customer is also a supplier, click here.
To help you better understand the Purchases module, please visit the module overview page here.