Common Attributes of Price Lists
Service price lists are similar to the item price lists in the Price List and Discount Menu (1.10). Create and maintain them in Service Pricing Maintenance (11.17.1) or Service Price List Copy (11.17.4).
While service price lists are similar to other price lists the system uses, there are some important differences.
• Service Attributes. Service price lists can indicate special service attributes: work code, service group, and service category. This enables you to tailor them to service needs.
• Price List Type. When you create a service price list, you select a price list type (C, R, or E). These types have special meaning in service activities. Type C is for contracts, type R for repairs in Call Activity Recording (CAR), and type E for expense costs in CAR.
Each price list type is discussed individually in:
Some aspects of pricing are common to all types and are discussed first.
Effective Dates
You can specify start and end effective dates when you set up price lists. Effective dates enable you to set up prices ahead of time and phase them in when appropriate.
When the system searches for a valid price list, it compares the transaction date with the price list start and expiration dates. The price list is valid if the transaction date falls on or between the effective dates. If the system finds more than one valid price list, it selects the one with the latest start date that has not expired.
If you use price lists with open-ended dates together with price lists that use start and end dates, you can get unexpected results. The system selects price lists with open-ended dates first. Instead of open-ended dates, set dates beyond the range of expected business operations with a start date of 1/1/1950 and end date of 12/31/2999.
Currency
You can base price lists on a currency. The system uses a price list only if the currency on the contract or call is the same as the price list currency. If it finds no price list with the correct currency, the price defaults to zero.
Define each customer with the appropriate currency. Currency on a contract or call normally defaults from the customer associated with the end user.
You can create price lists in different currencies using Service Price List Copy. This program enables you to quickly create alternate price lists from one base price list, automatically recalculating prices based on a currency conversion factor.
Units of Measure
The system checks units of measure only for items on contracts and items consumed during service recorded in Call Activity Recording. For the system to use a price list, the UM of the item it is pricing must match the UM on the price list. This enables you to set up different prices depending on the unit of measure of the activity. For example, you can offer a lower price when a case of fluid is consumed than when an individual unit is consumed.
See
Service Units of Measure for information on special service units of measure.
Amount Types
Service price lists support three of the amount types other pricing structures use. The amount type determines the way the system calculates the price.
• Discount %. Discounts are percentages the system takes from the item list price in the item master.
• Markup %. Markups are percentages the system adds to the item GL cost at the relevant site.
• Price. A type P price list specifies a price amount.
Because of the way the system uses service price lists, not all amount types are valid on each type of list—repair, contract, and expense cost. How the system uses amount types is discussed in the following sections on each kind of price list.
The amount type is not part of the unique index that defines a price list. This means that for any combination of key fields, you can define a price list with only one amount type.