Multiple prices and costs - D-Tools Forum

RandyB · 07-22-2008, 05:46 PM

Does anyone have a need to permanently store more than one cost and/or price for items in your catalog?

We understand that everyone has varying item costs, depending mostly on differences between vendors.

We also understand that everyone has varying price levels, depending on who you are selling to.

However, for estimating, do you really need to store all possible costs, or do you just need to store a baseline which can then be changed as needed at a project level, perhaps by applying a rule (e.g. 10% discount off default cost for a volume discount).

And for price levels, let's assume there is one default price, which is stored. Can all other price levels be calculated by applying a rule (e.g. 10% off default price, or 50% margin on cost), or do you need to be able to set a unique second (or third or fourth) specific price for each item in your catalog?

The current pricing model in SI5 allows you to set three associated cost/price levels. The fundamental question here is: do you set the second two cost/prices by applying a formula to all items, or do you change the cost/prices on an item-by-item level?

All input is greatly appreciated. If you wish to respond privately, please send me an email to beta@d-tools.com.

Best regards,

Randy Bownds
Program Manager
D-Tools, Inc

avzone · 07-22-2008, 06:26 PM

Prices should be changed item-by-item. Applying a rule such as 10% only works if all items have the same margin, IMHO.

Also, IMHO, QB database pricing should be updated via QuickBooks since this is where all the vendor bills are entered and paid.

I have to admit we don't use the feature. Mainly because we don't work with builders directly, much less discount.

RandyB · 07-22-2008, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by avzone

Prices should be changed item-by-item. Applying a rule such as 10% only works if all items have the same margin, IMHO.

It will always be possible to change the prices of individual items on an estimate. You will also always be able to change the default price in your catalog, any time you want.

What we're wondering is, do you need to store multiple prices in the catalog, and say, "on this project, use price level 3, which is stored in the catalog."

Or, is it OK to say "Price level 3 means a 10% discount off default price". Rather than storing the resulting price for every item in your catalog, we could just store one default price and rules for calculating other prices. This is a much more flexible system and saves you the hassle of managing multiple prices.

fryeguy · 08-06-2008, 10:02 PM

I'm guessing most users do not maintain the multiple pricing feature. We certainly do not. A 10% equipment discount across the board on a project or discounting line items is a more practical approach.

I would prefer to have a list of approved pricing schemes that can be chosen from the options for the project. These schemes would be created at the administrator level with formula options.

It would be valuable to limit the use of the different pricing schemes through user rights. Example: Jim is a new salesperson and you don't want him tweaking prices without approval. He creates a proposal for a client at his approved pricing scheme. Then, in an attempt to close a competitive bid he determines a 10% equipment discount is in order. He has to go to the sales manager who can apply the "10 Discount" scheme to the project.

fryeguy · 10-10-2008, 12:38 AM

In addition, multiple costs seem to me to be totally unnecessary.
Maybe some companies get discounts based on quantity purchases but I don't think this is valid for estimates.

JordanC · 10-10-2008, 09:29 PM

This is a feature I have never taken advantage of. With all the new products, old products, changing pricing, I have just found it barely possible to keep on top of one level pf pricing per active item. IMO.

fryeguy · 10-10-2008, 10:24 PM

What, you mean to say you don't have someone full-time managing your data and nothing else?

Seriously though, you are absolutely correct. Who can keep up with all that?

gotp · 10-26-2008, 07:06 PM

I dont use it either, i cannot think to enter a second or third price when entering a new product. That said the idea of a catagorie based discount by precent would be helpful as long as i can control who applies the discount, my example would be, TV's may get a 3% or speakers get a 10% and so on. accross the board discount could not work.
But I would also want a check box in reports to display the discount as a item at the end to calculate total discount, this way i could represent MARP and at the end a BIG discount.
This could be a nice sales tool to show the customer we are price contscience. :-)
1.5 cents.

grichards · 10-27-2008, 05:06 PM

it seems to me that the three cost/price levels in the current version of SI are not very versatile.
I can see wanting to maintain list and MAP pricing by default for an item. but cost and sale price is a different story.

I think multiple pricing levels are useful when a user is trying to account for quantity pricing or various pricing tiers from a vendor, but being stuck at three levels won't allow you to account for all vendors so its a lost cause. I'm thinking it would be a useful feature to allow users to define cost/price rules in a similiar way to defining Zones, Locations, etc. then allow the user to apply those cost/price rules to their products as needed.

In short my suggestion would be:
Maintain single Base Cost, single Base Price, MAP, and List at the item level.
Allow users to define Cost/Price rules to adjust for their needs in estimates.

Another note, the current database design seems like it might be limiting the SI features. Is the development team intentionally bypassing BNF rules for database design? fields like priceA, priceB, priceC in a single table are a big no-no in any db table IMHO. there's a few examples of this issue in the MasterDB tables. versatile data model = versatile application.

Thanks for listening.

Jack Frost · 11-15-2008, 05:03 AM

I do not maintain price levels but 'update' the select products that are involved in a given bid/estimate for that price level upon use. it's a pita to keep this all in check. As far as e.g. price level C is a x% discount ... I think this would be acceptable as long as I had both options to either discount off of the selling price of Price Level A or markup from cost.

A little off topic but: When changing price levels in a project (i.e. start a proj as default Price Level A then change to B) it would be nice if it updated all the products in said project. This is a pain to handle manually as it requires changing the price level for each item as opposed to just 'update from master table'

J.