Application Overview

Future Price function is used to update the price, standard cost and user-amount fields in the item master file.  By using this function, the user can enter a date when the item price, cost, and user-amount will become effective without immediately impacting the item file.  On the effective date, the user can post the future price transactions and make them effective.

The future price function allows the user to enter future price transactions well in advance of the effective date. You can make the posting of future prices a Deferred Processing procedure, recurring on a daily basis, to further automate this process.  This way you do not have to manually post Future Price transactions on, or after if you forget, the effective date.

The Future Price function has two different modes.  One mode allow you to update the Item prices and the other to update Price Codes.  Each allows standard maintenance functions of add, change, delete, list and post.  Also, you can import prices from a CSV file for each.  The Price Code maintenance also allows you to export the price codes.  Items and their prices can be exported using the Export Processor located in the Util-setup menu of the main menu.

Future price is a very helpful function if the user has thousands of items to update in a short period of time.  For example; if new pricing will be effective for 5,000 items at the beginning of a new year, there is simply not enough time to make all the changes in just a few days with the traditional method.  You cannot make changes to the item file well in advance because any changes immediately update the item price and cost.  This is why the user may need to use this Future Price function.

If you can use the “Mass Price Change” function to update your price by a fixed percentage, then you do not need to use the Future Price function.  If you only have less than a few hundred items’ price to update, you may not need to use the future price function since you can probably take care of the changes in a day or maybe even a few hours.

Run Instructions

Before you can use this function, it must be setup as per the Global Setup instructions.

Select Future Price Maintenance from the pull down COP Maintenance menu.  You can select the Item mode to change the prices for items or Price-code to change the price codes.

The following options are available in the Item mode:

Add a new Future Price

Change a Future Price transaction

Delete a Future Price transaction

List (Edit List) Future Price transactions by starting and ending dates

Post Future Price transactions

Import prices from an ASCII file

Future Price Maintenance Screen – Change Mode

Reminder:        The FOB Cost and Landed Cost in the Future Price Function refer to the “Standard Cost”.

Use standard Add, Change, Delete and List function to maintain future price.  For fields 4 – 8, you only need to enter a value in the “New Price/Cost” column.  The “Old Price Cost”, “Variance” and “% Change” are calculated and displayed for your reference. 

Field 6 is a user definable field.  Refer to the System Manager manual on how to use this field.

The following options are available in the Price Code mode:

Maintenance of Price Codes

List (Edit List) Price Code transactions by starting and ending dates

Post Future Price Code transactions

Export Price Codes or Future Price Codes to an ASCII file

Import prices from an ASCII file

Price Code Future Price Maintenance Screen

Once you have completed entering, editing, listing, and verifying your future price transaction (for either mode), you can perform the post function on the effective date.  Posting of future price does not require entering any parameters.  The system simply looks at all future price effective dates and compares them with the internal system date.  The transaction’s effective date on or before the system date will be posted and the inventory item master file will be updated.  If future price postings need to be done on a frequent basis, you can setup future price posting as a daily recurring deferred process.