Pricing Enhancements for Discount Groups: The Best of What's New in SAP Business One version 9.3 Part 8

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In a recent Vision33 TOTAL Care webchat, host Carl B. Lewis, Chief SAP Business One Ambassador at Vision33, demonstrated one of the new features in SAP Business One version 9.3: Price Control Enhancements for Discount Groups. The enhancement is one of many new features that Vision33 has been covering over the last few weeks in anticipation of the latest release (for those that missed the previous entry read Blanket Agreements: The Best of What’s New in SAP Business One Part 7).

There have been many pricing control enhancements made to SAP Business One over the years. To ensure that users are taking advantage of all the options available, take note of Lewis' explanation of the interrelationship between several key areas including: Discount Groups, Special Prices, and Guarantee of Lowest Price for the customer. This ensures that when a user runs special pricing programs the customer will always obtain the lowest price available.

Setting Up a Discount Group in SAP Business One 9.3

From the main menu, go to Modules>Inventory>Price Lists>Discount Groups. Discount Groups is an enhancement added in SAP Business One version 9.3. Under the type field of the Discount Groups form, users will see that it is possible to specify whole groups of discounts now via the inventory item groups in the type dropdown menu (All BPs, Customer Group, Vendor Groups, and Specific BP).

In the example, Lewis choses a group discount which will be applied to ‘All BPs.’ Choosing the active timeframe of today only by specifying the ‘From’ and ‘To’ dates, he then selects the group ‘J.B Printers.’ Any item in that group is given a discount of 50% as seen by the number in the 'Discount %' column. Users can also create new groups as well, and there’s the flexibility to drilldown into other properties.

Once a customer learns of the discount pricing through advertising or through a sales person for example, and they wish to order a product from a discounted group, then the user would set up a sales order by going to Modules>Sales – A/R>Sales Order. From the ‘Sales Order’ form, the user then selects that customer's record from the ‘List of Business Partners.’ Next the user must select the item number associated with the product that the customer wishes to purchase and enter it into the “Item No.” At this point, users may notice that the 'Discount %' does not reflect the previously specified 50%. Users will note that ‘Unit Price,’ ‘Discount %,’ and ‘Price after Discount’ appears as blue colored text; this is an alert that there is a special price. It's here where the pricing enhancements for discount groups comes in.

Pricing Enhancement for Discount Groups

For this scenario, the objective is to ensure that the customer will get greater than their standard special price discount - 50%. In SAP Business One version 9.3, it is now possible. To do so, user needs to drill into the customer record within the application, then right-click and go to ‘Special Prices for Business Partners.’ Here it is possible to see that 'Distributor Sales Price' has been selected from the 'Price List' field. This results in the 25% standard discount from their price list. However, to ensure that they get the 50% discount for this today only pricing, and then return to their standard 25% discount price the day after users must take an extra step.

Users must go to 'Business Partners Master Data' of the customer in question, then go to the 'Payment Terms' tab, and take note of new fields including: 'Effective Discount Groups' (in this case set to ‘Lowest discount’) and 'Effective price,' listed as ‘Default Priority’ which means SAP Business One is going to follow its normal pricing schemes; their price list, special discounts, quantity discounts, seasonal discounts, and things like that. However, if the user wishes to guarantee that they get the lowest price – regardless of what their normal priorities are then the user must set the 'Effective Price' as 'Lowest Price.' Once the settings have specified, then the user must select the update button to update the business partner record.

Now going back to the sales order of the customer, users will note that it is not possible to refresh the sales order, however, it is possible to retag the customer in the sales order (the same one) and the document will update. At this point it is possible to see that the 50% discount has been applied. With this simple new feature, users can now ensure that when they run special pricing for a promotional timeframe these customers will be included.

For more information on Pricing Enhancements for Discount Groups and to see it in action - and to access many other useful SAP Business One resources - watch the video demo hosted by Carl Lewis during a Weekly Webchat.