Price lists — customer-specific prices, quantity breaks and discounts
Write down what each customer pays — fixed contract prices, quantity breaks, trade discounts — and let every order and quote line price itself, with a chip saying why.
Section 01
What price lists are for
1 minute
Most manufacturers do not sell at one price. Trade accounts pay less than retail, a key account has a contract price on the three products it buys every month, and everyone gets a better rate at fifty than at five. When none of that is written down, it lives in the salesperson's head — and every order starts with them typing over the catalogue price from memory.
A price list writes it down. It is a named set of rules — a fixed price, a discount off the catalogue, or a markup on it, per product or for everything, from a quantity upward. A customer has one default list; an order or quote can pick another. Every line on an order then prices itself for that customer and shows a small chip saying why, so the number can be explained to the customer and put right if someone typed over it.
- Lists live under Sales → Price lists; a customer's default list and blanket discount % are on the customer record
- Prices resolve as you build a sales order or quote, and re-resolve when the quantity, customer, currency or list changes
- A price you type always wins, and always says so — nothing silently overwrites a hand-entered figure
- Nothing is retroactive: saved lines keep their price when a list changes
Section 02
Setting up a list
3 minutes
Click New price list, give it a name (Trade 2026, Key accounts, EU distributors) and a currency, and press Create. The list opens straight away so you can add rules.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | Appears in the price-source chip on every line the list prices, so name it the way you would say it to the customer. |
| Currency | The currency of the list's fixed prices. A EUR list holds EUR prices. Percentage rules have no currency — they scale whatever the catalogue price converts to. |
| Valid from / Valid to | Optional. A list outside its dates is ignored as if it did not exist — orders fall through to the next rule in the order below. Use it for a promotion or a contract year. |
| Active | Untick to switch a list off without deleting it. The page shows Live or Not live and why. |
Rules
Each rule says: for this product (or all products), from this quantity, charge this.
| Rule field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Product | Leave empty for a list-wide rule (every product). A rule for a specific product always beats a list-wide rule for that product, whatever the quantity. |
| From quantity | The rule applies once the line quantity reaches this number. Add several rules for the same product at 1, 10 and 50 to build quantity breaks; the highest break the line reaches wins. |
| Fixed price | A price per unit in the list's currency — a contract price. |
| Discount % off catalogue | The catalogue price less this percentage. Typical for a trade list: one rule, all products, 10%. |
| Markup % on catalogue | The catalogue price plus this percentage — for a channel that pays over list, or a catalogue kept at cost. |
Trade 2026 (GBP) with three rules: All products · from 1 · 10% off, Door (Double) · from 1 · £850, Door (Double) · from 10 · £800. A trade customer ordering 1 door pays £850; 12 doors pay £800 each; a door closer with no rule of its own gets the catalogue price less 10%. Anything on the list that has no rule at all is charged at catalogue.
Putting customers on the list
At the foot of the list, Customers whose default list this is lets you add customers by name. A customer has one default list, so adding them here moves them off any other. The same setting is on the customer record under Pricing → Default price list, beside a Discount % that applies wherever no list rule does.
Section 03
How a line's price is chosen
2 minutes
This is the whole rule, in the order it is applied. The first step that produces a price wins, and the chip under the price names it.
| # | Source | When it applies | Chip |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A price you typed | Always. Typing in the unit price marks the line manual and nothing re-prices it until you click use list price. | Manual Existing price |
| 2 | The document's price list | The list chosen on the order or quote itself, if one is; otherwise the customer's default list. Within the list: a rule for the product beats a list-wide rule; then the highest quantity break the line reaches. Only live lists count. | Trade 2026 (qty ≥ 10) Trade 2026 −10% |
| 3 | The customer's discount % | When no list rule covered the product: the catalogue price less the blanket percentage on the customer record. | Customer −5% |
| 4 | The catalogue price | The product's own sale price. Also what a customer with no list and no discount pays. | Catalogue |
A number nobody can explain is a number the salesperson types over. With the reason beside it, "why did the price change?" has an answer (the line crossed a quantity break; the customer moved lists), and a contract price that someone overrode is visible as Manual rather than hidden in a column of figures. The reason is saved with the line and shown again on the order and quote detail pages.
Section 04
On sales orders and quotes
2 minutes
Once your company has at least one price list, a Price list field appears on the sales-order and quote forms (it is hidden until then, so companies that price from the catalogue never see it). Picking the customer fills it with their default list; leave it alone unless this document is a one-off deal on another list. Blank means "the customer's default list", or catalogue prices when they have none.
- Adding a line prices it at once; the chip appears under the unit price.
- Changing the quantity re-prices the line — a line that crosses a quantity break moves to the break price on its own.
- Typing a price turns the chip to Manual with a use list price link beside it; click the link to discard the typed figure and take the resolved one.
- Editing an order re-prices only lines that were priced by a rule. Lines saved before pricing existed open as Existing price and do not move unless you ask.
- Converting a quote carries the quote's list and every line's price and reason onto the sales order.
- The order and quote detail pages show the list used and the chip on every line.
Section 05
Lists and orders in different currencies
1 minute
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Fixed price, list currency = order currency | Used exactly as written. A EUR list on a EUR order never touches an exchange rate. |
| Fixed price, list currency ≠ order currency | Converted at the rate for the day, and the chip carries an · FX mark; hover it for the original figure and the rate used. |
| Discount % or markup % | The catalogue price is converted to the order currency first, then the percentage is applied. |
| No exchange rate for that day | The line shows No price rather than a guess. Add the rate under Settings → Currencies and the price fills in. |
Section 06
What pricing never does
1 minute
- It never re-prices a saved line on its own. Changing a rule, moving a customer between lists or deleting a list affects future documents only. Open an order in Edit and click use list price if you want a line to follow the new rule.
- It never overwrites a typed price. Manual wins until you say otherwise.
- It never guesses a rate. Missing exchange rate means no price, shown as such.
- It does not price purchases. Supplier prices live on the supplier link of each product; this feature is for what customers pay.
Deleting a list drops its customers back to catalogue prices (less their discount %) for new documents. Orders already raised keep their prices and their chips. If a list is merely finished for the year, untick Active or set a Valid to date instead, so the history stays legible.