Defining Supplier Prices and Catalogs

The price that you pay for an item might differ depending on the supplier from whom you purchase the item and whether a discount applies to the item. You can maintain supplier prices for items and provide discount information so that the system retrieves the correct unit cost for an item when you enter a purchase order.

The price for an item might vary depending on the supplier from whom you purchase it. For example, one supplier might charge 1.00 for an item while another supplier might charge 1.25 for the same item. You can enter the price that each supplier charges for an item.

You might receive a discount for an item based on the quantity that you purchase. Discount rules may also be called quantity breaks. Pricing on quantity breaks provides lower per unit prices based on higher quantity thresholds. For example, you might receive a 20 percent discount if you purchase 100 or more items. You can have the system apply a discount to the price of an item by creating price rules and attaching them to the items and suppliers to which they pertain.

You can enter prices for an item based on the supplier from whom you purchase the item. For example, a clock from AAA Supply Company might cost 5.00. If you purchase the same clock from Acme Supply Company, it might cost 7.00. When you enter a purchase order, the system can retrieve a unit cost for an item based on the price that you entered for the supplier.

You must enter supplier prices by catalog. A catalog is a group of items along with the price for each item. Each catalog is unique to a supplier. You can enter all of the items that you purchase from a supplier in one catalog, or you can create multiple catalogs to classify a supplier's items by seasonal changes, different product lines, and so on.

If you enter item prices for a supplier without specifying the name of a catalog, the system automatically creates a default catalog for the supplier. You might want to use default catalogs if you plan to maintain only one catalog for each supplier.

A supplier might charge a different price for the same item depending on the time of year that you purchase the item. For example, the same calendar might cost 10.00 in January and 5.00 in October. You can enter the same item at a different price in multiple catalogs, with different effective dates for each price.

When you enter an item on a purchase order, the system searches the supplier's catalogs to retrieve a unit cost. It searches the default catalog first (if it exists), and then all other catalogs in alphabetical order. After the system locates an item, it verifies the effective dates. If the current date falls within the effective dates, the system enters the unit cost on the purchase order.

The system retrieves the unit cost for a purchase order detail line based on either the transaction unit of measure (UOM) or the purchasing UOM for the line. You use system constants to specify which UOM the system uses for price retrieval.