Markup for items

[chrisits]

In some cases we wish to bill our customer with a different rate than the price we get from our supplier. Is there a way to set a Markup for items we sell to our customers?

Thanks.

[Support Team]

Yes, you can define a discount/markup rate (in percentage or amount) for the Charge. When entering a new charge, you should select the Item and set the price (the price may be taken automatically from the Item). Then you can set the discount/markup in by selecting it in the pull down menu (where it says "without"), and set the percentage. This will be taken into account when calculating the total amount for the Charge.

HTH

Dina

[raymond]

small "bug" with the discount/markup feature... the markup (or discount) is not done per piece but on total... this doesn't make sense. When someone enters a quantity and a quantity price, the discount/markup should be on a per piece basis. The problem with the way it currently works is that if we go back and change the quantity at any point, the discount/markup is incorrect...

e.g. -- qty 1, price $221, markup $19, total $240 -- if we then decide to sell them 3 units, we have to MANUALLY look at the markup, divide by the number of pieces, multiply by the new number of pieces and manually update the markup filed. This is particularly a problem when we go from 17 pieces to 23!!!!

thanks!

//ray

[Support Team]

Hi ray,

Thank you for your feedback.

Actually the markup in this case behaves as expected. Let me explain - when choosing to use markup on a given charge, you can choose to use a percentage (%) markup or a fixed-price markup (money).

The percentage option is dynamic since the markup is calculated against the charge total (Quantity X Price). Whenever you update the price per unit of this charge record, or update the quantity - the markup is automatically recalculated (so if you have a 10% markup - it will always be added to the current charge total: Current Qty. X Current Unit Price).

The fixed-price markup option means exactly this - you set a fixed amount for the markup. The markup value in this case is fixed and isn't related to the total charge price - if you change the price per unit or the quantity the markup remains the same and exactly as you typed it.

I hope this makes more sense now. Thanks for your input.

Regards,

Sherry

[raymond]

that is even goofier than what we had first thought... so if we use percentages, it behaves like all accountants would expect (quantity x price x discount/markup %) but if dollars is selected, the formula actually shifts (quantity x price + discount/markup $'s)? that absolutely makes no sense! I really needs to be consistent... (!)

So in the example that we used where the product cost $221 and we want to charge the client $240, I have to enter a markup of 8.597285% if we want to be able to change the number of items and properly charge the client.... I understand that items themselves can have a dollar markup but because CommitCRM is not an inventory tracking system, this method won't work for us (we get different pricing for particular items every time we order them...).

How about this for a fix: change the way the current system calculates the discount/markup $'s so that the formula stays the same as % (i.e. quantity x price x discount/markup $'s) and add another category in the drop down list do do "fixed/total adjustment" where a positive or negative amount can be applied to the whole charge (i.e. quantity x price + discount/markup $'s). Seems to me an easy way to "get-er-done"!

thanks!

//ray

[raymond]

another observation ("bug")... if adjustments are made to a charge (using discount/markup), the total column in the table list of charges does not reflect discount/markups in the actual charge... this is a problem when running reports or exporting to other programs.

thanks again!

//ray

[Support Team]

Hi ray,

We appreciate your feedback; you raised some interesting suggestions. I see your point, however, we believe that the way the system calculates the markup/discount against the charge total price is the right way to calculate discounts and markups and we believe that it should stay this way. (i.e. if you set a percentage discount/markup it will automatically be calculated each time you change the total amount; when you set a fixed amount of money for the markup/discount - the system will leave it exactly as it was entered without trying to automatically adjust the amount since you have specifically set this exact amount).

Using the discount/markup field in order to reflect a new price for the item, is not the "natural" purpose of this field. If you wish to change the item's price (upwards or downwards), perhaps you can do this by adjusting the charge's "price" field, rather than using the discount/markup feature.

So in the example you provided, if the product costs $221 and you want to charge the client for $240 per item, you should change the "price" field in the charge itself to 240. This will calculate the total price by calculating the "price" x "quantity". This way you can determine the item price on-the-fly, in order to use different pricing for particular items every time you use them. This means that there is no need to use the "markup/discount" at all in this case.

I hope this makes more sense now.

As for the the display in the list - when viewing the charges list, you have two columns for the total price - the "Total" and the "Charge Total". Only the Charge Total shows the total price, including the discount/markup calculations. In case this seems confusing, and if you do not use the "Total" column that much, you may consider moving the "Total" column to the right, so it will not be visible in the main view (click the column header and drag it to the right). Anyway, reports usually show the "Charge Total" so this should work fine for you.

Thank you for your input!

Sherry

[raymond]

> So in the example you provided, if the product costs $221 and you want to charge the client for $240 per item...
this doesn't work because we need to put in the actual cost of the product (which changes each time we order) -- we do this so that we can export to another program and that the bookkeeper can track items purchased/sold... what we need is a way to apply a fixed markup in dollars per product sold... as it is, we have to manually recalculate and re-enter the value any time the number of items is changed. Again, the fix is to simply add another option/formula in the drop down list (the easiest would be to keep the "without", "Discount" and "Markup" list the same but add something like "*" or "#" to the "%" and "$" drop down list).

cheers --

//ray

[Support Team]

Thanks for the additional input. I logged your comments together with the request.

Neta