Products/Pricing
Contents
Overview
Emersion's product pricing features allows service providers to manage product price point information at a very granular level. Emersion provides a number of different ways to apply pricing to products. These include:
- Date driven pricing - Define the product price that will apply within a date range. E.g. The default product price is $50.00 but between the 1st and 10th of the month, the price will be $40.00.
- Multiple quantity or bulk pricing - Pricing varies based on the quantity purchased at the time of sale.
- Pricing by account - Define product prices for a single account without affecting the default price for other accounts.
- Pricing by account profile - Define product prices for accounts in an account profile without affecting the price for accounts in another profile.
This suite of articles on pricing pertains to the pricing of products contained in the Products module. Unless relevant, these articles do not cover pricing for subscription based services, including service features, which - in part - leverages the underlying framework of the Products module to operate.
Product Pricing Hierarchy
When determining what price to charge for a given sale, the system follows a defined set of rules. The diagram below explains these rules.
Service providers have a large degree of flexibility as to where and how they charge a customer for a product. The price obtained by the system can be different for similar sales. If that is the case, it will be based on where the price was set in the system. Knowing these rules, or being able to refer to them will assist users in troubleshooting any issues arising where it is not immediately evident where a price for a given sale came from.
The system will first look for a custom book at the child account level.
If there are multiple active books concurrently that apply, the lowest price will be chosen. In the event that no custom book can be found the default price book will used.
Remember: The reason why a specific price, for a specific customer, on a specific date, for a specific product may vary based on where the price was configured and where in the hierarchy the system found the price.
Download the Emersion Pricing Hierarchy for Products and Services (PDF)
Case Studies
Below are some typical case studies to help illustrate the way the price is determined by the system.
Case Study 1:
MyISP has a business customer who is currently in an account group called AC1. The customer is in the 'Business' account profile, along with all other Organisation accounts. There is a Price Book mapped to the account group containing a sell price for an ADSL modem of $40.00 (ex GST). There is also a custom price book mapped to the Business account profile that has the price for the same modem listed as $45.00 (ex GST). The price in the default price book is $50.00 (ex GST).
In this case, there are 2 active custom price books that are linked to the customer account. The price book associated with the account group takes precedence, therefore the cost to the customer upon sale of the modem is $40.00 ex GST.
Case Study 2:
Globex Corporation has 2 custom price books mapped directly to their customer Initech. In one price book, the cost of the a mobile hands-free car kit is set at $60.00. In the other, it is set to contain $75.00. Both price books are active.
In this case, there are two active price books at the same node (customer level). The lowest cost applies, therefore the price of each hands-free car kit sold to Initech will be $60.00.
Case Study 3:
The Umbrella Corporation has a customer account Massive Dynamic that is currently in 2 account groups, called 'Gold' and 'Platinum' respectively. The Gold account group has a custom price book containing a price for a Cisco router at $1500. The Platinum account group has a custom price book containing a price for the same router at $1200. In addition, Massive Dynamic has a custom price book mapped to their account directly, pricing the router at $1800.
In this case, the system will retrieve the price from the price book mapped directly to the Massive Dynamic account. Therefore during a sale, the cost of the router to Massive Dynamic will be $1800.
Case Study 4:
Vehement Capital Partners attempts to sell a VoiP handset to Trunk Enterprises. The sales assistant cannot find the handset in the Product list when creating the purchase in Emersion. There are no custom price books used by Vehement Capital Partners. All customers get default prices. The Vehement Capital Partners knows the item was available in the Product list the last time she made a purchase, but it has 'disappeared'.
In this case, the reason the item is no longer in the list is because the item is no longer saleable. e.g. The 'Saleable To' date of the price point for the handset is in the past.
Product Pricing Articles
- Price Books - All prices for products are gathered into one or more price books.
- Price Points - Set the price of your product.
