The info for X lines is NOT finished ( i has to assume ) so remember to check back and ask the help desk periodically.
There are TWO input forms - one for adding NEW PARTS - we will NOT deal with this in this article. We will deal with how to UPDATE data you already have in your system for X lines ( purchases from other than CARQUEST )
Important - if you don't know Excel ( or equiv. ) you are limited from using the full potential and you will do things slower. Excel is NOT an easy program to learn quickly - it takes time - start now.
To have an effective stable of X lines you are going to consider how you are going to document what you are doing. If you just want one or two lines - then you can stay less methodical. Consider having a word doc. file to write down what you do for each line. What is you discount from jobber. What formula will you use for pricing ( much like your own competitive position sheet for each X line). Will you use a VARIABLE MARKUP? What is that? The more something costs typically the less margin/markup you can make on the line. In Excel you can sort the data by cost and set markup formulas to decrease as the cost increases - for example is you have a broad line with many different misc items you can BAND the parts into cost groups. here is just a sample of what you could do:
Cost from-to Base Price
$0 to $5 cost * 250%
$5 to 20 cost * 200%
$20 to $100 cost * 175%
$100 and up cost * 166%
Since you have SLIGHT variations for different customer groups - you can add or subtract their discount. For this example lets assume you set walk in retail price as your base price and for each additional customer group you deduct 5% which is very easy to do in excel.
Do you want your retail pricing to end in a 9? Then you use the Excel function of CEILING and set to .10 and deduct one penny ( eg. =ceiling( A1*2.5, .1 ) -.01 ) where you are taking what is in cell A1 and 250% - and set the value to round to .10 then deduct one cent -- like I said --if you know Excel basics - this is SO MUCH easier ).
If you set your prices up first with better logic - you don't have to do as many dumb things for exceptions latter on.
Most companies you deal with will e-mail you the price updated for their lines. Most have had 5 to 10 years of doing this so they have their process down pretty good. When the writer started doing this in 1996 it was very uneven in company procedure and logic. Still remember battles with Draw Tite hitches who would send excel data that looked like their price list ( dumb ) with data for part numbers on TWO LINES. Norton Abrasives was similar - but time and pressure have gotten then to smarten up and provide clean data.
You may want to keep the original ( virgin ) data and keep your work in progress as a separate file name just in case you goof up and have to do it again. Again we urge you to get organized as this becomes very difficult as you add more X lines to your stable of data to maintain.
So- what have we got --
-suppliers to send you updated price files as they change
-you have a spot to save date in such a fashion you know what it is?
-you have a quick list for what you do on each X line for markup logic and any other additional work you need to do to the line
Now - lets go to part # 2 - and send clean data for updating
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