image of distributor comparing pricing structures

Complex Features for Distributor Pricing Strategies

Contract, Advertised, Special, Quantity Break, Warehouse, List Price & Columnar Pricing

Accolent ERP Delivers Complex Features for Distributor Pricing Strategies

Accolent ERP software for wholesale distributors delivers a number of complex features that can support any distributor pricing strategies. These complex pricing features are very powerful but are designed to be very flexible yet easy to maintain.

  • Complex Distributor Pricing Strategies

    • Supports very complex distributor pricing strategies
    • By combining various distribution pricing strategies and features, allows for very detailed and nuanced pricing schemes to be implemented
    • Pricing can be easily maintained and updated

  • Contract Pricing

    • Contract pricing is the top tier of the pricing system hierarchy; if applied, no other discounts are allowed
    • Contract pricing discounts can be specified as:
      • percent discounts off list price
      • percent markups from standard cost
      • specific dollar amounts
      • specific quantity break levels
    • Contracts may be for a specific quantity at a given price, and the system keeps track of quantity sold under the contract
    • May be assigned to specific customers or groups of customers and can have expiration dates
    • Ship-to customers may have their own contracts or can inherit their associated bill-to contract
    • May be applied to specific products or to product categories or sub-categories; different pricing may be set up for different units of measure
    • With the appropriate permissions, may be overridden during order entry

  • Advertised Pricing

    • Advertised pricing can be used to discount products temporarily on sale
    • Specified by product and allows a start date and an expiration date for the sale
    • Like Contract pricing, normally overrides all other pricing features

  • Special Pricing

    • Applied after all other discounts are taken
    • Defined as a percentage discount on top of the normal discount price
    • May be overridden in order entry

  • Quantity Break Pricing

    • Applies discounts based on the quantity sold
    • Allows standard quantity breaks or detailed pricing:
      • Standard quantity breaks are defined through tables and expressed as percentage discounts off the list price at specified break levels
      • Standard quantity break tables can be assigned to as many products as desired
      • Detailed pricing allows the assignment of specific dollar amounts, (rather than just percentages off list price), for each quantity break level
      • Detailed pricing involves tables for each product and so is not as easy to maintain as Standard quantity break tables, which may be applied to groups of products
    • Works in combination with other discount methods

  • Discount by Warehouse

    • Discount by warehouse allows for a discount based on the selling warehouse
    • When used with other pricing features, warehouse discounts are combined with other discounts and applied as a single discount

  • Pricing by Price List (Matrix Pricing)

    • Like contracts, price lists can be priced by a discount, or a markup to cost or at a fixed price
    • Discount by Price List for each product is a set of discounts for various Price Tiers (e.g., Gold customers get 10% discount, Silver customers get 8% discount and Bronze customers get 5% discount)
    • Because many similar products can share the same Price List the Discount by Price List system is easy to maintain
    • By changing a price list discount, all products that use that price list will automatically use the changed price
    • Similarly, moving a customer from one pricing tier to another will affect all price discounts for that customer

  • Columnar Pricing

    • Columnar pricing allows quantities from different line items on the same order to be combined to give a cumulative discount quantity break
    • If the products on two different line items belong to the same Columnar Discount group, then the quantities of the two different line items may be combined for purposes of determining the combined quantity break discount

  • Pricing Methods and Calculations

    • Some products may be priced using Standard quantity breaks, others may use discounts by Price List and some may use a combination of both
    • Accolent ERP’s ability to combine discounting methods allows a dimension not offered in most systems
    • The interaction between price list discounts quantity break discounts can follow one of four possible specific methods
      • Method 1: discounts by warehouse and discount by price list are combined and applied to the list price of the product, and then the discount by quantity break is applied
      • Method 2: only the combination of the discounts by warehouse and price list are applied
      • Method 3: applies the lower of (i) the combination of the discount by warehouse and discounts by price list and (ii) discount by quantity breaks
      • Method 4: applies the higher of (i) the combination of the discount by warehouse and discounts by price list and (ii) discount by quantity breaks

image of person debating pricing in his distribution company

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