Creating Deal Pricing, Discounts, and Promotions

Deals are an efficient way to offer flexible pricing options across multiple customers with only a single record entry. Discounts and Promotions are great for short-term pricing changes. More information for each option is contained below.

Deals

The Deal Pricing feature is designed to offer flexible pricing options on Sales Orders and can be an excellent way to price items across multiple customers with a single Deal entry. For example, if the desire is to setup pricing orders for all customers with the same User 1 field value, the same pricing order must be created for every customer with the same User 1 field value. In Deal Pricing, this can be accomplished with a single Deal. If there is a Deal based on "List Minus %" on a large group of items for instance, the deal will automatically update every time an Item Master "List Sale Price" is changed; a user is not required to update the Deal. This is true for every deal type except "Set Price $" which works the same way as the pricing orders, by setting a firm price. There are some disadvantages to using Deal Pricing. For example, it is not easy to get a list of valid Deals for a given customer or item because of the multiple ways a Deal price can be created. Also, updating Deal prices is a manual process in DEACOM and multiple items or quantity breaks cannot be entered on the same Deal - these all require separate entries.

Deal pricing happens automatically and is not indicated as a separate line item on the sales order like Promotions are. Be sure to understand the hierarchy process for Deals. A Deal for a single Ship-to Company for all items is higher in the ranking than a Deal for all customers for a single item (unless the "Override Other Deals if Lowest Price" flag is checked and it is a lower price). More information on Deal Pricing and the associated sub-hierarchy may be found in the Understanding the DEACOM Pricing Hierarchy Best Practice page.

Deal Pricing can be activated based on:

The Customer chosen, the Billing Group that the selected Customer belongs to, the Sales person selected, or the selections on the Sales User 1-5 items.
The selected Item, Category, Sub-category, or Item Search 1-5 selections.

This means the Deal Pricing feature can be used for very specific or very general combinations. In addition, Factors, Minimums, and date ranges can be added and the Deal can be applied based on a specific Facility or Currency selected on the order.

When items are selected during Sales Order line entry, the system will evaluate the Pricing Hierarchy to see if any applicable pricing conditions or rules, including Deals, are applicable to the item and quantity being added to the order. If an appropriate, valid deal is found, it will be applied to the price for the quantity and item specified. Deal pricing can have multiple layers of pricing possible or multiple deals valid for the same sales order line. In addition, users have the ability to specify whether the system will apply Deals to each individual line or a group of lines/items on the Sales Order.

Discounts

Similarly to Promotions, Discounts can be set up to be added automatically during Sales Order entry or manually by selecting from a list of applicable Discounts via the "Available Promotions" button. Unlike Promotions, Discounts do not add line items on Sales Orders. Instead, they apply the appropriate discount amounts to existing line items on the order. When items are selected during sales order line entry, the system will evaluate the Pricing Hierarchy to see if any applicable pricing conditions or rules, including deals, are applicable to the item and quantity being added to the order.

Promotions

Promotional items can be a wonderful way to set up short-term changes to pricing in DEACOM. Promotions can be dollars off items, dollars off order, percentage off, or buy one get one types of promotions. Promotional Codes can be set up to be added automatically during Sales Order entry or manually by selecting from a list of applicable promotions and always add an additional line to the Sales Order, either immediately below the line added or at the bottom of the order. Once a promotion is added, the dollar amount and/or quantity to be ordered will be automatically adjusted as the order is modified. Promotions are not part of the DEACOM Pricing Hierarchy and fire regardless of the pricing option used.

Configuration

Promo item - A separate, unique Item Master record representing the promotional code line item that will be added to the Sales Order. Promo items are required for all promotional types with the exception of buy one get one free.
Items, customer records, categories, brokers, Sales User 1-5 fields - Since Deals and Promotions can apply to items, customer records, Categories, Brokers, and Sales User 1-5 fields, these will need to be setup prior to use the deal pricing option. For more information, refer to Designing a Part Numbering System and Creating Parts, Managing Customers, and Managing Brokers and the Brokerage Process.

Process

Creating deals

Navigate to Sales > Maintenance > Deal Pricing
Click the "New" button to display the Edit Deal form and enter a Description.
Select a "Deal For" to specify what customers or types of customers that this pricing will be applicable for.
Select the item or group of items that the pricing will be applicable for.
Enter the type of pricing method to use in the "Deal Type" field; use "Set Price" if the exact price should be entered here.
Enter the price or factor in the "Factor" field. The "Expression" field may also be used enter conditions that will be used instead of the "Factor" field when applying Deal Pricing. If the "Deal On" field is set to "All Items", the user can enter Item Master Fields and User Fields into the expression for more customer-specific deals. See the Deal Pricing Encyclopedia page for additional information.
Specify a start and end date for when the pricing will take effect, then click the "Save" and "Exit" buttons to create the Deal Pricing record.

Multiple deal pricing rules may be setup as required by the company and will be used subject to the Deal Pricing sub-hierarchy. When creating Deals, keep the following in mind:

The "Average Cost Plus $", "Last Cost $", "Quoted Cost Plus $", and "Standard Cost Plus $" differ from the other Deal Types in that they add their factor after converting the cost to the sales unit. For example, if an item stocked and sold by the gallon has a cost of $5.00 and a Deal is set to add $1.00, this would appear as $6.00 on the Sales Order. If the sales unit were changed to a 5 gallon bucket, this would appear as $26.00 on the Sales Order.
The system uses a sequence, or hierarchy, when attempting to find costs associated with the "Average Cost Plus $", "Last Cost Plus $", and "Standard Cost Plus $" Deal Types. Therefore, if a Deal Type of "Average Cost Plus $" is used and the average cost is $0, the system will next try the Last Cost. If the Last Cost is $0, the system will then finally check the Standard Cost.

Creating discounts or promotions

Navigate to Sales > Maintenance > Promotions and Discounts.
Click the "New" button to display the Edit Promotion and Discount form. See the Promotions and Discounts page for details on all the fields available to this form.
Fill in all appropriate fields.
Once all the appropriate information has been entered, click the "Save" button to complete the process.

Using discounts

Discounts can be set up to be added automatically during Sales Order entry or manually using the "Avail. Promos" button on the Sales Order header. Unlike Promotions, Discounts do not add line items on Sales Orders, but instead apply the appropriate discount amounts to existing line items on the order. Discounts are applied to Sales Order lines using the following methods and calculations.

When a Discount is applied, the “Discount” field (or_linedisc) on the order line is adjusted. Once this is done, the system then applies the Discount to the “Unit Price” (or_price) field. Discounts do not directly adjust the “Unit Price” on sales order lines.
As indicated previously, Discounts that are not set to trigger automatically can be added manually through the “Available Promos” button. Doing this will set the “Discount” field on the order line to the selected option, then call the Reprice function on each order line. If the new Discount is higher, it is accepted; otherwise the user will receive a prompt. The Reprice function attempts to preserve manually selected Discounts. If a lower Discount is activated, or the line no longer qualifies for a Discount it will be removed.
The system only accepts 1 Discount per line; and automatically prefers lowest over most specific. There is no option to choose which rule applies.
If the “Discount” (or_linedisc) field is overridden manually, the Discount amount entered will continue to be applied to the line, but automatic Discount rules will no longer be evaluated.
If the “Unit Price” (or_price) field is set manually, the amount in the “Discount” (or_linedisc) field is forced to 0, and no pricing hierarchy rules will be applied, including Discounts.
When a Discount is applied, the “Pricing Method” field (or_prictyp) field does not change, since Discounts are not part of the DEACOM Pricing Hierarchy. The “Pricing Method” field reflects only the Pricing Method used according to the DEACOM Pricing Hierarchy or manual price entry.

Using promotional codes

Promotional codes can be automatically added to Sales Orders, as indicated previously, or manually using the "Avail. Promos" button on the Sales Order header. When adding Promotions manually, the system will present the list of promotional codes limited to the ones that will work on the Sales Order being created. If no promotions are available based on the criteria selected, the system will present a message indicating no qualifying promotions are available.

When applying promotions marked for flexible pricing, the system will display the Enter Price form. This form indicates the minimum and maximum price or percent values that can be applied for the selected promotion. The minimum and maximum value vary based on the values set in the "Factor" and "Expression" fields on the Edit Promotion and Discount form. The different minimum and maximum values are defined in the list below. Note that the "Buy One Get One" type is not applicable for flexible pricing.

If "Type" is set to "Dollars Off Item" or "Dollars Off Order," and the value in the "Factor" field is greater than 0, the minimum will be 0 and the maximum will be the value entered in the "Factor" field.
If "Type" is set to "Dollars Off Item" or "Dollars Off Order," and the value in the "Factor" field is less than 0, the minimum will be the value in the "Factor" field and the maximum will be 0.
If "Type" is set to "Percent Off," and the value in the "Factor" field is greater than 0, the minimum will be 0 and the maximum will be the value in the "Factor" field.
If "Type" is set to "Percent Off," and the value in the "Factor" field is less than 0, the minimum will be the value in the "Factor" field and the maximum will be 0.
If "Type" is set to "Expression," and evaluates to greater than 0, the minimum will be minimum will be 0 and the maximum will be the expression evaluated value.
If "Type" is set to "Expression," and evaluates to less than 0, the minimum will be expression evaluated value and the maximum will be 0.

If/when promotional codes are re-fired during shipment, the weight from the selected lot will be used to calculate promotion based on unit if the part is a catch weight part. Promotions may also be used when entering orders in the eCommerce and the Point of Sale applications.

FAQ and Diagnostic Tips

Can negative promotions be added automatically to sales orders?

Yes, this can be accomplished by using a "Type" of Expression on the Edit Promotion and Discount form and entering the appropriate expression in the "Expression" field. An example would be -1 * or_quant * 45.

Can promotions automatically be added to backorders?

Yes, this can be accomplished via the "Add Promotion To Backorder" field on the Edit Promotion and Discount form.