5 Managing Conflicts
Conflict checking is done when regular price changes and clearances are approved, unapproved, and optionally, when submitted. It can also occur when an approved price event is modified, depending on the change. This is because adding a new or updating an existing price event, or removing a previously approved event may impact the projected calculation of other price events that were previously approved, referred to as "future retail". When a conflict occurs, the user who took the action that resulted in conflict checking being executed (that is, the user approving the event) will have a notification raised and displayed in their task bar (). Clicking on the icon on their task bar will provide a hyperlink to take the user to the event that has the conflict so that they can determine how to resolve the issue.
Note:
If the price event with the conflict was initiated from the batch upload or via web service a notification will not be raised.
Conflicts can also occur when an item is first ranged to a location if the inherited price changes and clearances for that item/location combination result in an invalid retail price. For these types of issues, a conflict is not raised. Instead, an exclusion is created for the item/location on the event that caused the conflict so that the other item/locations on the event are not impacted. This exclusion will be visible in the price change or clearance UI, when it occurs. The same errors that result in conflicts being raised for an event may also result in the exclusions being created.
Below is a list of the conflicts that may arise. For each conflict described below, the message displayed in the Conflicts screen is noted, as well as some recommended actions for resolving the conflict. The descriptions below are all in terms of approving or unapproving an event, but if you have the system option Run for Submit set to checked, then the approval related conflicts will also apply for events being submitted.
Note:
Conflict checking does not apply for promotions.
Multiple UOMs for Fixed Price Change
Ensures that, for a regular price change created with a change type of Fixed Price, only one selling unit of measure (UOM) will exist across all of the item/locations in the price change at the time the change goes into effect, if a UOM has not been specified for the event.
For example, if you have an item that is selling by eaches in one location in a zone and that same item is selling by kilos in another location in the zone, then creating a price change for the item at the zone level to set the new price to a set amount, say 2.00 USD, without specifying a UOM for the price change, will raise a conflict, as it is assumed you don't want to sell that item for 2.00 USD per each and 2.00 USD per kilo at the two locations.
Message Displayed
Single Unit Price Change
Not all items/locations have the same selling UOM. A selling UOM must be selected for this price change.
Multi Unit Price Change
Not all items/locations have the same Multi Unit Selling UOM. A Multi Unit Selling UOM must be selected for this price change."
Recommended Action
To avoid this conflict, you should either specify a UOM for all fixed price events where you have items and/or locations that may have differences, or process those price changes by location to manage the updates separately.
If you have set the system option to use a single UOM across all of Pricing, then this conflict should never arise and the UOM defined on system options will be used. Similarly, if you don't price items in different selling units of measure. However, if Pricing is unable to find a single, unique UOM to use when validating the event for approval, a conflict is raised and the price event will not be able to be approved. If a single, unique UOM is found, the price event is updated to reflect that value.
Duplicate Price Change
Ensures that the new price change you are attempting to approve does not result in a duplication with another price change for the same item/location/effective date combination.
The only exception to this rule is when the effective date of the price change is equal to the current date. This is to allow for emergency corrections to an incorrectly setup price change that may have been inadvertently sent to the selling solutions. If this occurs, then the last one processed "wins" and that is the price change sent to the selling solutions.
Message Displayed
An approved price change for this item/location/date already exists.
Recommended Action
Review the conflicting event and determine which one you want to retain. If you want to retain the current event, then you will need to update the other event to have a different date, or move it out of approved status. Then, you can attempt to re-approve the current event. If you do not wish to retain the current event, you either update the effective date or delete it from the price change group. If you don't make any updates and the price change remains in worksheet or submitted status, it will eventually be deleted in a batch process based on the setting of the Expired Price Changes and Clearances system option.
Duplicate Clearance
Ensures that the new clearance you are attempting to approve does not result in a duplication with another clearance for the same item/location/effective date combination.
The only exception to this rule is when the effective date of the clearance is equal to the current date. This is to allow for emergency corrections to an incorrectly set up clearance that may have been inadvertently sent to the selling solutions. If this occurs, then the last one processed "wins" and that is the clearance sent to the selling solutions.
Message Displayed
An approved clearance for this item/location/date already exists.
Recommended Action
Review the conflicting event and determine which one you want to retain. If you want to retain the current event, then you will need to update the other event to have a different date, or move it out of approved status. Then, you can attempt to re-approve the current event. If you do not wish to retain the current event, you either update the effective date or delete it from the clearance group. If you don't make any updates and the clearance remains in worksheet or submitted status, it will eventually be deleted in a batch process based on the setting of the Expired Price Changes and Clearances system option.
Duplicate Reset
Ensures that the new clearance reset you are attempting to approve does not result in a duplication with another reset (or price change) for the same item/location/effective date combination.
Message Displayed
A reset cannot be added for an item/location that already has a reset in place.
Recommended Action
Review the conflicting event and determine which one you want to retain. Usually the current event can be deleted, as the previously created reset would suffice to reset the item to regular price, regardless of the system option setting. But if the conflicting event is a price change that also has the correct new regular price that should be used for the reset, that may be the preferred event to retain. Delete the event that you do not need. If you don't make any updates and the reset or price change remains in worksheet or submitted status, it will eventually be deleted in a batch process based on the setting of the Expired Price Changes and Clearances system option.
Approved Reset Not Allowed with Approved Markdown
Ensures that there are not approved markdowns and approved resets - both unexecuted - for an item/location combination at the same time regardless of effective date. This conflict can occur when you are attempting to approve either the markdown or the reset event. It can also occur even if the markdown has an effective date prior to the reset date, as it is required that all markdowns are executed before a reset is created and approved.
Additionally, this conflict also may occur when approving a price change, if you have the Reset Clearance with Price Change system option set to checked, as that means that the price change will also act as a reset event for an item/location on clearance when it goes into effect. It is generally assumed when you have this system set to checked you aren't also creating separate reset events, but if you do choose to do that, then a conflict could also occur if you approve a markdown when there is an unexecuted reset for the item/location with this system option set to checked.
Message Displayed
The messages displayed for this conflict differ slightly based on whether it is a markdown or a reset that is being approved and one whether the system option for Reset Clearance with Price Change is checked.
Reset Clearance with Price Change = Checked
If the conflict occurred when approving a price change, then "A price change cannot be approved for an item/location that has an approved clearance markdown in the future."
If the conflict occurred when approving a markdown, then "A markdown cannot be approved for an item/location that has an approved price change in the future." or "A markdown cannot be approved for an item/location that has an approved reset in the future."
If the conflict occurred when approving a reset, then "A reset cannot be approved for an item/location that has an approved markdown in the future."
Reset Clearance with Price Change = Unchecked
If the conflict occurred when approving a markdown, then "A markdown cannot be approved for an item/location that has an approved reset in the future."
If the conflict occurred when approving a reset, then "A reset cannot be approved for an item/location that has an approved markdown in the future."
Recommended Action
This often occurs when you are trying to reset an item to regular price too close to the end of its current season and some zones may not have yet finished executing their markdowns for the current season. First, consider if the items need to be reset - it is not required to reset an item to regular price. But, if you do need to reset it, then it is recommended that you wait to reset item/locations off clearance until it is closer to the time that you want to reintroduce the item for a new season to avoid this conflict.
If you determine that you need to add another markdown for an item/location combination that has an approved reset, then you need to first remove the reset (or price change) from the future retail timeline by moving it back to a worksheet status or deleting it and then you can approve your markdown. Once the additional markdown has been executed, you can re-approve the reset event or price change.
Alternatively, you can remove just the current item/location combinations that had the conflict with the reset (or price change) from the markdown by changing the zone used for the event. This may work for situations where the reset (or price change) was created using zones from a different group than is being used for the clearance or the parent item has SKUs at different points in their lifecycle.
Otherwise, if the markdown is the issue and it is the reset (or price change) that needs to be approved, them the markdown should be unapproved or deleted until after the reset (or price change) executes, at which point it can then be re-approved.
Price Change Allowed Only After Clearance Reset
Ensures that price changes created for item/locations either go into effect before the item goes on clearance, or will go into effect after the item has been reset from clearance. This conflict could arise when approving either a price change or a clearance event.
Note:
If the Reset Clearance with Price Change system option is checked, then the price change is also considered a reset, so this rule would not be triggered unless two events had the same effective date.
Message Displayed
The price event would cause a price change to take effect during a clearance.
Recommended Action
Ensure your price change has an effective date either before the first markdown for an item/location, or on or after the effective date for the reset event. Adjust the dates of either the price change, markdown, or reset in order to resolve the conflict.
Future Retail Cannot Be Negative
Occurs when the addition or removal of a price event from the price timeline would result in the calculated future price for an item to be calculated as a negative price. For example, you have an item/location with a current price of 10.00 USD, and an approved price change that is due to go into effect in 7 days that will increase the price 100% to 20.00 USD, and also an approved price change that is due to go into effect in 14 days that will decrease the price by 11.00 USD to 9.00 USD. If you were to unapproved the price change that is due to go into effect in 7 days, then the second price change would have its future retail recalculated to -1.00 USD, which is not allowed.
Message Displayed
This price event will result in the retail price being negative on a future date.
Recommended Action
Instead of unapproving a price event to make a change, change the event without unapproving it, if you have privileges to do so. Or if you need to unapproved the price event to either update the dates or price because you have insufficient privileges to update approved price events, then you will need to adjust the future price change first - or move that event to worksheet status - prior to making your update. It is also helpful to use consistent price change types for changing price, where possible, to prevent confusion on price calculation due to varying change types as were used in the example above. For example, consider always using a percent change or fixed price.
Initial Markdown Increases Current Regular Price
The first markdown must be less than or equal to the regular retail. This can occur when a fixed price markdown is used, instead of a discount type of percent or amount, and the regular retail price that will be in effect at the time of the markdown's effective date hasn't been properly considered.
If you have the conflict rule Clearance Retail must be less than or equal to Regular Retail disabled (Rule Enabled set to ‘No’ in the Conflict Rule Configuration spreadsheet), then this rule will not be executed. This is usually done to correct errors in price due to a previous price change.
Message Displayed
The clearance retail must be less than regular retail for this item/location.
Recommended Action
Ensure you've reviewed all pending price changes for the item/location prior to creating the markdown. Update the price you are using for your fixed price markdown. Or use a discount type of percent off or amount off for the markdown.
Markdown Increases Current Clearance Price
Once an item is on clearance, all subsequent markdowns must decrease the price of the item. This can occur when a fixed price markdown is used, instead of a discount type of percent or amount, and the clearance price that will be in effect at the time of the markdown's effective date hasn't been properly considered.
If you have the conflict rule Clearance Retail must be less than Previous Markdown disabled (Rule Enabled set to ‘No’ in the Conflict Rule Configuration spreadsheet) , then this rule will not be executed. This is usually done to correct errors in price due to a previous markdown.
Message Displayed
Clearance retail must always decrease.
Recommended Action
Ensure you've reviewed all pending markdowns for the item/location prior to creating the markdown. Update the price you are using for your fixed price markdown. Or use a discount type of percent off or amount off for the markdown.
Resetting Item Not on Clearance
This conflict is raised when an item/location not currently on clearance is placed on a reset event. This helps prevent more than one reset from executing for an item/location, potentially sending confusing updates to the selling solutions. This could occur regardless of the setting of the system option Reset Clearance with Price Change. However, if that system option is checked, then creating a reset outside of a price change could also raise a conflict with a price change that is scheduled to go into effect prior to the reset.
Message Displayed
This item/location will not be on clearance at the time of this reset.
Recommended Action
Remove the item/location from the unnecessary reset, move the reset to worksheet status, or delete it.
New Item Location
When new item/location relationships are created in Merchandising, Pricing helps to provide the correct selling price to Merchandising for the new relationship in real time, but the establishment of the future retail price, as well as inheritance of new events that item/location may now be eligible for, will only be available after a background process has been run on the Pricing side. If you try to create and approve a price change or clearance that impacts this new item/location relationship prior to this process running you may encounter the error below.
Message Displayed
The Item Location combination has not yet been fully brought into Pricing. Please try again at a later time.
Recommended Action
You can still create your event, but will need to wait until after the process has been run to approve it. To prevent this issue from occurring in the future, you could look at modifying the frequency at which this background process is executed.
Data Locked
If another user has initiated the conflict checking process for the same event at the same time that you are, you may incur an error when trying to approve or save updates to an already approved event.
Message Displayed
Unable to process the price event at this time due to data being locked by another price event.
Recommended Action
First, if another user is updating the event, then best practice is to wait a few minutes for their updates to be completed and try again to see if you still need to make an update. If this continues to occur when you try again later, then you may need to contact your support team for assistance.
Regular Retail below Pricing Cost
It will provide the user with the option to allow or reject any Price values (regular unit retail) which are less than the Pricing Cost. In case the ‘Rule Enabled’ column is set to ‘No’, the Unit Retail will be allowed to be less than the Pricing Cost on the effective date. However, when this is set to ‘Yes’, a conflict (‘Regular unit retail cannot be less than cost’) would be triggered during approval or submission (if the ‘Run for Submit’ option is checked) in case the value of the Unit Retail is less than the Pricing Cost on the effective date.
Message Displayed
Unable to process the price event at this time due to the retail value being less than the pricing cost.
Recommended Action
In case an event fails this validation, it would be flagged with a ‘Conflict’. The user must then resolve the conflict by updating the unit retail value or override the conflict (based on associated privileges) before the event can be approved.
Clearance Retail below Pricing Cost
It will provide the user with the option to allow or reject any Price values (clearance unit retail) which are less than the Pricing Cost. In case the ‘Rule Enabled’ column is set to ‘No’, the Unit Retail will be allowed to be less than the Pricing Cost on the effective date. However, when this is set to ‘Yes’, a conflict (‘Clearance unit retail cannot be less than cost’) would be triggered during approval or submission (if the ‘Run for Submit’ option is checked) in case the value of the Unit Retail is less than the Pricing Cost on the effective date.
Message Displayed
Unable to process the price event at this time due to the retail value being less than the pricing cost.
Recommended Action
In case an event fails this validation, it would be flagged with a ‘Conflict’. The user must then resolve the conflict by updating the unit retail value or override the conflict (based on associated privileges) before the event can be approved.
Technical Issues
It should be an exception, but if some type of processing error occurs in the background processing during conflict checking, you may see an error that suggests you need to contact the system administrator.
Messages Displayed
An unexpected error occurred during conflict checking. Contact your system administrator and provide the associated price event ID to resolve the issue.
An unexpected error occurred during processing. Contact your system administrator and provide the associated price event ID to resolve the issue.
Recommended Solution
As the messages state, if this occurs, you should contact the system administrator providing the price event ID that was being approved at the time that the issue occurred, if known.