Pricing issues plague most distributors, but Eclipse does exactly what it's supposed to do. It's understanding WHY it's doing what it's doing that I hope to help you with in this article.

First, let me say it's very hard to determine why an item was priced a certain way when it is not currently priced that way. The matrix Expiration Date could have been changed, the matrix formula could have been changed, the product Sell Groups could have been changed, or the Price Date on the order could have been changed. But if you want to know how an item is CURRENTLY being priced, you're reading the right article.

 Start Here in Matrix Maintenance:

What matrix did you expect to be used? Before looking into why it was not, you should start by opening the matrix you think should have been used.

Note the Effective Date and Expire Date. Note the Best Price Check flag. Note the Expire Quantities: if there are any in Original, are there any Remaining?

Continue Here in Sales Order Entry:

Open the sales order with the problem pricing.

From the body tab, go to Edit Order>Pricing

This window shows the Price Date and Price Class, (if you have SPA it shows Customer Size/Category too.)

Is the Price Date outside of the Effective Date and Expire Date from the matrix you expected to be used?

Matrix Pricing

With a line item selected in Sales Order Entry, go to Inquiries>Matrix Pricing

Eclipse will display the matrix used for pricing the sales order.

Note the Best Price Check - if this is not the matrix you wanted to be used, the Best Price Check unchecked (or No) would be why the system stopped on this matrix instead. (see the article on pricing in the last newsletter).

Pricing Audit

With a line item selected in Sales Order Entry, go to Inquiries>Pricing Audit

The Pricing Audit shows how Eclipse calculated the price for the item. It only works if the item is currently being priced the same as on the order you are looking into. The pricing audit shows how Eclipse steps through the entire pricing hierarchy, what matrices it finds, the price and cost overrides it looks at, and the final result. You can even see it dropping one matrix over another that has a lower price, or stopping at a matrix that has Best Price Check set to No. To read the report you want to ignore lines that say "Checking for..." and pay attention to the indented lines that indicate "Found.." and what they say after that about why the matrix was used or skipped. The last lines of the report indicate which matrices were used for Price and Cost.

Last Price

With the line selected, use Ctrl+K on your keyboard to display the Last Price Verification window. This window shows the price, cost, and formula used the last time the customer ordered this item. Did the last sale use the matrix you expected? You can drill into the last sale from here with Ctrl+L.

Customer Item Inventory History Ledger

With a right click on the item go to Inquiries>Customer Item Inventory History. Change the view in this window to Selling Price / COGS. Was the "correct" matrix used in the past, then stopped? If so, maybe the Maintenance Log of the "correct" matrix will show that someone made a change. 

Price Sheet Maintenance

Some companies have branch or territory specific Price Sheets, and your order may be in a Price Branch with a different price basis for the product than what you expect.

From the Body tab, with the item selected, go to Maintenance>Additional Product Maintenance>Price Sheet Maintenance. Here you can see the current values for all the basis names for the product. Is there a different Price Sheet you were expecting to be used?

Product Group Maintenance

From the Body tab, with the item selected, go to Maintenance>Product Maintenance. From here go to Pricing>Group Maintenance

If there are two Group matrices and both have Best Price Check set to No, Eclipse will use the first matrix it hits (see the Pricing Audit above). The system will hit the sell groups in the order they are listed here. Rearranging the sell groups you can put the one you want used before the other so that it is hit first.

Last Resort:

Eclipse Support

Enter a service request online and provide them with a test order that is priced "wrong", and also tell them the matrix you expect to be used. Maybe they can figure it out if you can't.

An "Eclipse Visioning / Planning Deep Dive" session was held in snowy Denver in late February with select members of the Enhancement Committee, the Eclipse Users Group Board of Directors, and active Ideas Site participants.  Meeting with our group were five product development representatives from Epicor/Eclipse.  We discussed 52 ideas as possible candidates for future releases, prioritized each idea, and then discussed the top ideas in detail.

The top five ideas included:

• Further development of the Product Life Cycle
• An enhanced item selection process in order entry
• Modernization and new features for the RF process
• Building customizable workflows into item creation and other processes
• Development of a price analysis tool to identify profit opportunities

Look for more information on these ideas in the upcoming months, and ultimately their inclusion in future releases of Eclipse!

If you haven't visited the Ideas Site lately, it remains a great way to add your voice to the enhancement discussion.  All new ideas are reviewed by the Enhancement Committee during our regular monthly meetings.

Two recent ideas are:

Capability to "Browse and Select" Local Attachments when E-mailing from Eclipse - This idea is to create the ability to add attachments to e-mails generated in Eclipse (such as when e-mailing order acknowledgements or bids).  The process could be similar to the way attachments can be uploaded to Eclipse service requests.

Notes on Job Management Forms Need to Draw Attention - Notes are often added to Job Management bids to provide additional information to the customer, specify color of fixtures, or explain freight charges.  Currently these notes blend in with other text and can be easily missed.  This idea would have notes print in bold font to make them more noticeable. 

Please visit the Ideas site today to vote on these ideas and add your own thoughts.  With your help we can ensure that Eclipse remains the best product to fit your needs!