Inventory Item Pricing - Overview

Learn the basics of inventory item pricing in AroFlo Office

Updated on October 7th, 2024

If your business sells items from your inventory, you can set flexible pricing options using the Pricing tab on the inventory card.

The pricing tab is used to record the actual cost of the item and set the sell value.

Both item cost and sell areas have simple and detailed options. 

 

Item cost pricing

Set your costing for the item, unit type, and basis for your markup calculations.

Simple Cost pricing

Simple cost pricing is your basic costing for the item and basis for your markup calculations.

Simple Cost Pricing Fields

Cost Setting
Description
Cost Used to record the true cost of the item, i.e. what you paid for it.
Unit Type

Select the unit type that the item is consumed/sold.

If you leave this blank, the unit type of the item will be saved as ‘Each’.

 

This can be handy if you have suppliers that use a single part number or product code for different packaging formats. For example:

  • 24562: Hose Clip 10mm, each
  • 24562: Hose Clip 10mm, box of 20.

You would create a separate inventory card for each of these formats.

 

More info

Start typing in the field to bring up results as you type. You can also enter your own unit type if you need to.

 
 
Calculated Cost Type

This field takes figures from your bills and uses them as a basis for your markup calculations. You can choose from:

  • Maximum: The maximum you've ever paid for the item.
  • Average: The average of all the prices you've paid for the item over the past 12 months.
  • Last: The most recent price you've paid for the item.
  • Set: This allows you to manually enter a set cost for the item.
  • --- This setting disables the Calculated Cost Type function.
 
 
 
 

Detailed Cost pricing

Detailed cost pricing lets you set different unit types depending on how you purchase and sell the item, as well as set a cost per unit.

This is useful for if how you purchase your item differs from how you use it, e.g.

  • you may purchase a 4m roll of cable, but then supply it per metre
  • you may purchase a box of four items but then use the items individually
 

How does this appear on Purchase Orders?

In this example, the first item is a roll of cable that is sold by the metre; the second item is a pack of 4 items, and the third item is a 9 metre length of pipe.
 
 

Detailed Cost Pricing Fields

Cost Setting
Description
Purchase Cost Used to record the true cost of the item, i.e. what you paid for it.
Unit Type

Select the unit type that the item is purchased in, e.g. per box or per metre.

Where does this unit type show?

This unit type is shown next to items when added to purchasing transactions:

  • Purchase Orders
  • Work Orders
  • Bills
  • Credit Notes for Bills
  • RFQs
 
 
Purchase Contains

How many units contained within the purchase, e.g. 10 = box of 10

Quantity x Purchase Contains = Total units

Example

If you have 1 roll of cable that is 600 metres in total in stock, this would be recorded as follows:

Purchase Unit Type = Roll, Quantity = 1, Purchase Contains= 600m.

 

Purchasing Contains accepts up to 4 decimal places, i.e. 1.5111

 
Unit Type Select the unit type contained within the purchase, e.g. each, or per metre
Unit Cost How much each unit costs you, i.e. Purchase Cost/Purchase Contains
Unit Type

This is the same unit type as the Purchase Contains unit type.

Where does this unit type show?

This unit type is shown next to items when added to selling transactions:

  • Quotes
  • Invoices
  • Credit Notes for Invoices
 
 
Calculated Cost Type This field takes figures from your bills and uses them as a basis for your markup calculations (as explained in Simple Pricing above).
Default Task Unit Type

Select how you use this item, i.e. do you use it as you sell it (e.g. per metre) or do you use it how you purchase it (e.g. per roll).

Where does this unit type show?

This unit type is shown next to items for selling or purchasing transactions:

  • when added to Tasks
  • within the Inventory List
 
 

Further examples

This field defaults to the Unit Cost Unit Type, as you would generally use the item the same way that you charge it out.

Examples

  • You purchase a 6m roll of cable, but use and charge the item per metre (same unit type for Purchase Cost and Purchase Contains)
  • You purchase a box of smoke alarms but use and charge the item as each (different unit type for Purchase Cost and Purchase Contains).

In these scenarios, your purchase orders for these items would have a unit type of m/box, and your quotes, invoices and tasks would have a unit type of m/each.

 

However, there may be certain scenarios in which you need to change the Default Task Unit Type to ‘Purchase’.

Example

You purchase a tin of paint, use the item by the tin, but charge per square metre (different unit type for Purchase Cost and Purchase Contains).

In this scenario, your purchase orders for this item would have a unit type of tins, your quotes and invoices would have a unit type of m2, but your tasks would have a unit type of tins.

 
 
 
 
 

See Unit Pricing for further examples and scenarios of where ‘Purchase Contains’ and unit types come into play.

 
 
 

 

Item Sell pricing

The Sell area lets you set up either simple pricing or detailed pricing for an item.

Simple Sell Pricing

Simple sell pricing is used to apply the same Sell price settings across Quotes, Tasks, and Invoices.

Simple Sell Pricing Fields

Default Markup Type Setting
Description
Not Set This is the default. If you leave this option in place, the item markup will be determined by the Business Unit markup.
Cost + Markup Used to set a markup (%) which is applied to the Cost to calculate the Sell price.
Calculated Cost Type (Max, Avg, Last, Set) + Markup Used to set a markup (%) which is applied to the nominated Calculated Cost Type to calculate the Sell price.
Sell Used to set a fixed sell or 'list' price, such as RRP. A sell price has no direct link to the Cost or Calculated Cost.

The Markup % and Sell values are linked. Changing one will re-calculate the other.

You can unlink the Markup % from the Sell value by clicking the Lock Pricing to Default Markup Type button ().

Example: Setting a Cost price of $100, you could specify a Markup % of 25% (giving $125) when markup % is used, or an unrelated RRP such as $300 when Sell price is used.

You can then set Client Default Markups to charge one client based on the Markup % and another based on the Sell price.

 
 
 
 
 

Detailed Sell Pricing

Detailed sell pricing lets you configure different price settings on Quotes, Tasks, and Invoices. This is useful when you want to sell an inventory item for a different price in each scenario.

For example, with higher value items you may wish to apply different price settings based upon your business scenario:

  • Quote: Use Cost + Markup on a quote when you get special pricing for larger quoted work.
  • Task: Use Average Cost + Markup for standard do-and-charge work.
  • Invoice: Use fixed Sell when you sell items across the counter at a set RRP amount.
 

Detailed Sell Pricing Fields

Area Setting Description
Quotes Default Markup Type

Quote pricing is applied when adding material items to a quote based on one of the following settings (as explained in Simple Pricing above):

  • Cost + Markup
  • Calculated Cost Type (Max, Avg, Last, Set) + Markup
  • Sell
  • Not Set

If quoted material items are added to a task, the same quote pricing will apply when an invoice is generated from the task.

 
Labour Unit Rate If you quote for labour with a UR (Unit Rate), you can enter the value for this item here. UR is the time taken (in hours) to install this material item. This UR value is automatically added to a quote when you select the item.
Labour Line Markup If you add a percentage markup to labour, this can be entered here. This markup is automatically added to a quote when you select the item.
Tasks   Used to set a different Sell price which is applied to inventory items booked on a task, and which are included in part/final invoices generated from the task.
Invoices Used to set a different Sell price which is applied to inventory items that are added directly to an invoice (not included on the task), such as a part or final task invoice or counter sale invoice.

A quicker way to edit Sell Price

The Sell Price set in the process above is shown in the Manage > Inventory views, (e.g. when you search for the item in inventory).

If the inventory item is set to use Sell pricingyou can edit the sell price directly within the inventory list.

If the inventory item is set to use Cost + Markup or Calculated Cost Type + Markup, the sell price will be greyed out in the inventory list. In this case, you will need to edit the Cost (ex) or Calculated Cost (ex) fields in order to update the sell price.