Organizing Your Pricing Structure

Inform implementation frequently involves the conversion of the pricing structure from your previous system. Complexity varies based on the type of business and the number and types of groupings used to set prices.

For JanSan and paper distributors, this typically involves using the sales history and cost of a product to set margin pricing. This type of pricing is usually driven by the salesman, who sets the price for the product based on the cost, profit margins, and the individual customer. For this structure, the use of a Price Matrix is typically not necessary, although some distributors may find it helpful.

For plumbing and electrical distributors, this typically involves the grouping of customers and products into Customer Categories and Product Lines, which can then be used to set price formulas in the Price Matrix. However, situations may arise requiring more refined groups and price settings. To begin, we will look at the ways that customers and products can be grouped for pricing. Then, we will look at how these groups can be used to set prices.

Group Type	Location to add or delete customers	Description	Example
Customer Category	Customer > Master	Groups usually reflect the type of business run by customers.	"Schools", "Retail", "Industrial", "Contractors"
Price Contract	Sales > Pricing > Price Contract	Method of grouping different customer types together and linking them to one vendor for a set period of time.	"State Police", "Fairfield County Schools", "Dept. of Transportation"

Group Type	Location to add or delete products	Description	Example
Product Line	Product > Master	Groups of similar products, products that require similar materials, or products that are purchased from the same vendor.	"Pipes", "Paper Products", "Amtrol Parts", "Kohler", "Chemicals"
Price Group	Product > Master	Method of grouping unrelated products together under a set pricing structure. Helpful for grouping products within the same product line for pricing.	"Standard", "Discounted", "Clearance", "Kohler Faucets"

Customer Category or Product Line groupings are required for each new customer or product, making them easy to use when setting pricing formulas. Price Contract and Price Group settings give you more selective control over the customers and products that the price formula affects. You can add new groups at any time to refine your pricing structure.

These groups can now be used to set up your Price Matrix. The Price Matrix is a collection of formulas set to calculate the price of a product based on different purchasing scenarios. For example, if you want all contractors to pay 10% less than the list price each time they purchase a product from your Cabinets product line, you can set the formula so that the price will be automatically calculated when a sales order or sales quote is generated. For more information about setting up and maintaining your Price Matrix, see the Price Matrix Master page.