Setting Special Price Levels

May 2020 special prices article.jpg

Setting prices and reviewing them periodically can be a daunting and time-consuming task without the right system. In many cases, a single universal price cannot be used for all customers or situations. Thankfully, AutoFluent® has pricing tools to enable you to quickly enact price changes, or to apply very specific markups to particular customers. There are multiple ways to set prices based on margins or markups. In our previous blog article about Item Groups, you learned how to use Item Groups to set prices for a group of items based on margins or markups. In this article, we’ll talk about Special Price Levels, which allow you to give customers special pricing for any combination of items. 

Let’s define what Item Groups are so that you can decide which price tool will work best for your needs. All your inventory items are divided into Item Groups. Each Item Group can have it’s own Markups (or Margins if that’s what you prefer). If an Item Group does not have any markup information filled out, it will use the “System Default Markups / Margins” Group. For stocked items, you can determine the markup for each Standard Price Level. Let’s say all your batteries are in the Item Group “Batteries.” You can set all your stocked batteries to be marked up 30% for the Retail price level, 25% for Wholesale, and 20% for your Commercial customers. For Outside Parts, the markups will be based on the cost of the item - ignoring the Normal Price Levels. For example, an item that costs $5 can be marked up 100%, while a $50 item can be marked up 60%.

What’s the difference? Special Price Levels are more tailored to specific customers or groups of customers. Like Standard Price Levels (Retail, Wholesale and Commercial), they can be assigned to specific customers. However, instead of only pertaining to an Item Group, Special Price Levels can pertain to items belonging to multiple Item Groups, Manufacturers, Item Types, or even Catalog Numbers. You can make the rules very specific (a single item) or unspecific (all parts or all labor). 

Let’s look at an example at Mike’s Auto Shop to see how Mike setup Special Price Levels, and how they have helped him. Mike charges all his customers a 100% markup for all his oil filters - whether they are Retail, Wholesale or Commercial customers - and therefore utilizes Item Groups to set that 100% markup for his Oil Filter Item Group. But Mike offers his customer Bailey Enterprises special pricing (80% markup) for FRAM parts. But for oil filters (including FRAM filters,) he only marks up the price by 70%. Mike only wants 2 customers - Bailey Enterprises and Howard Construction - to have this type of pricing, which means he will configure a Special Price Level.

To configure a Special Price Level, open the Setup Entry and find the Price Level window. Then select the Special Price Levels tab. Click New at the top left corner to create a new Special Price Level. Mike will call this Price Level “FRAM.” He hits Save Changes, and then enters the pricing rules.

Each Special Price Level can have many rules. The rules are ranked by Priority 1-4, with Priority 1 as the highest. AutoFluent® will automatically calculate prices based on the highest priority rule that is applicable for each item. First, for the example above, he selects Retail Price from the Normal Pricing dropdown. The Retail Price will then be used for all items not referred to in the rules below. He then saves his changes and adds 2 rules to his FRAM price level:

  • After clicking the New button in the Rules section, he clicks Item Group (which is Priority 2) and selects his oil filter group. 

  • He selects Average Cost from the drop-down.

  • He enters 70% for the Markup, and he hits Save Changes.

  • After clicking the New button again, he selects Manufacturer (which Priority 3) and selects FRAM.

  • He selects Average Cost again, enters 80%, and hits Save Changes.

Finally, in Customer Entry, he assigns the new FRAM price level to Bailey Enterprises and Howard Construction. The next time they come in, they will get a 70% markup for all oil filters and an 80% markup for all parts that are not oil filters. Because Item Groups are always of a higher priority than Manufacturers, the oil filter rule will take precedence over the FRAM rule.

Do you have customers with special pricing needs? We can help! Contact AutoFluent® Support to see what Special Price Levels can for you and your customers.

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