.2.3.11 Price Rules
.2.3.11.1 Introduction
The Price Rules tab in the catalog manager allows one to create very complex pricing structures based on basic price data and variables such as the customer, product, or quantity involved. For example, it would be possible to specify quantity discounts, special discounts for a particular group of products, for a particular group of customers, or pricing based on average cost rather than list pricing if certain conditions are met.
.2.3.11.2 Using Price Rules
.2.3.11.2.1 Series of conditions and actions
Price rules are a series of rules which help determine the prices of products. Each rule is a series of conditions and actions. When Open for Business needs a price for a product, such as in an order entry or ecommerce application, it will search through all price rules and use the applicable ones to generate the price.
.2.3.11.2.2 Provides flexibility
The use of price rules allows for far greater flexibility in pricing than would be the case with traditional systems. You can use factors such as products, product catalogs, quantity ordered, and identity of the customer to determine the final price. The actual price can be based on List Price, Default Price, Average Cost, or Promotional Prices, as entered in the Product - Prices screen.
.2.3.11.3 Price Rules tab
.2.3.11.3.1 Maintaining price rules
The Catalog Manager Price Rules tab provides the screens for maintaining price rules. Click on the 'Price Rules' tab, and you will see a list of rules shown, along with their active dates. There is a link to toggle between viewing all rules or currently active ones. You can click on any rule to view it, or create a new rule.
.2.3.11.3.2 Price Rules Screen
By clicking on a rule or creating a new rule, you are taken to the price rules screen. The price rules screen has three sections: general rules information, conditions, and actions.
.2.3.11.3.3 IMPORTANT:
Price rules will only be run if an item has a List Price associated with it.
.2.3.11.3.4 General Rules section
The general rules information section allows you to enter a name for your rule and the range of dates for which it is valid. It is possible, for example, to enter price rules that will start at a future date (such as a Summer sale), or to 'sideline' old rules in the system but keep them around in case they are needed again. There is also a toggle button next to 'Sale Price'. This will tell Open for Business if the result of the price rule is a sale price, thus allowing the calling application to highlight it as such if necessary.
.2.3.11.3.5 Conditions section
.2.3.11.3.5.1 Included conditions
The conditions section specifies a series of conditions for activating the price rule. The conditions include a field, a comparison operator (equals, not equals, greater than, less than), and a value.
.2.3.11.3.5.2 All conditions must be met
For a price rule to execute, all of the rule's conditions must be met. As the price rule is run, Open for Business will test each field against the value to see if it is true. You can use the rules to specify any of the following.
Product or products for which the rule is applicable (using fields 'Product,' 'Product Category,' 'Product Catalog.')
Website for the rules ('Website.')
Quantity of purchase ('Quantity.')
Identity of customer ('Party,' 'Party Group Member,' 'Party Classification,' 'Role Type.') Party refers to a partyId. Party Group member refers to the partyId of a Party Group (such as a corporation) and would be true if a party were part of the party group. Party Classification and Role Type are set in the party manager. See Party Manager documentation for additional details.
Price point of the product ('List Price.')
Currency of the store ('CurrencyUomId.')
Product Feature on the Product being purchased ('ProductFeatureId')
.2.3.11.3.5.3 Examples
For example, you can use Product and Quantity conditions to set quantity-based pricing. You can use Party or Party Group Member to specify a discounted price for special customers. You can use Product Category or Product Catalog to limit any of these rules to a specific portion of your product range.
.2.3.11.3.6 Actions Discussion
Once the conditions are met, the actions are what determine the final price of the product. You can specify any of the following actions:
.2.3.11.3.6.1 Flat Amount Modify
Modify the price by a flat amount.
.2.3.11.3.6.2 Flat Amount Override
Regardless of the established price, override it with the Amount given here.
.2.3.11.3.6.3 Percent of Average Cost
Take the assigned percentage times the established Average Cost. For example, if you wanted to have 100 percent margin over the Average Cost, enter 200 for the value.
.2.3.11.3.6.4 Percent of Default Price
Generally the same as the List Price, the Default Price is the one assigned in the absence of other calls. In this case, the Price Rule calls for a percentage of the Default Price.
.2.3.11.3.6.5 Percent of List Price
Assign a percent against the established List Price.
.2.3.11.3.6.6 Percent of Margin
This refers to List Price - Average Cost. Some companies like to do margin based pricing and not just list or cost based pricing; this makes such possible.
.2.3.11.3.6.7 Promo Amount Override
Use the 'Promotional Price' for this item as fixed amount, overriding all other price actions; this is not an adjustment of any existing price but rather a replacement of that price.
.2.3.11.3.6.8 Wholesale Amount Override
Charge only the Wholesale Price, whatever that might be.
.2.3.11.3.6.9 Multiple actions
When multiple actions are specified, all the actions will be run and the final price determined from that. If there is a Flat Amount or Promotional Amount override, however, these will be used to obtain the final price, and all other actions will be ignored.