Special Prices for Business Partners in SAP Business One - Overview

Welcome to the topic on special prices for business partners in SAP Business One.

In this topic, you will learn how to set up special prices for business partners.

It is highly recommended you take the training on period and volume discounts before starting this course topic.

I/ Business Scenario

Imagine that some customers receive special prices because of their relationship with your company. 

Sometimes these prices are set up in relation to a particular price list, such as the price list assigned to that business partner.

Other times, the prices are set up specifically for this business partner without referring to any price list.

This is done using special prices for business partners.

II/ Special Prices for Business Partners

Special prices for business partners enable you to give a discount (or surcharge) on items for a specific business partner.

The special prices are very flexible.  You can create a special price with or without reference to a price list, and it does not even have to be the price list associated with the customer.

You can set a standard percentage discount or surcharge for the business partner that will default into the rows as you add items for special pricing.  You can change this percentage after adding the item.

You can even set the special price to be updated and recalculated when the price list it references is updated.

Just like period and volume discounts for price lists, special prices for business partners can have period and volume discounts.

You double-click on the special price to open up fields to enter dates for when the price is valid.

When you double-click a second time, you can then define a volume discount based on a quantity scale for the validity period you just defined.

Just as with period and volume discounts, any item belonging to a unit of measure group will allow you to set prices by units belonging to that UoM group.

Once you have defined a special price for one item, you can choose copy discounts to copy the date range and percentages for other items selected for that business partner.

III/ Pricing in Business One

Special prices defined for a business partner override all other prices in a marketing document.  This is because they are the most specific price that can be defined in SAP Business One.

It is the first price the system searches for. 

If a special price for this business partner is not found then the system will search next for discount group, then period and volume discounts for the price list assigned to the document, and finally for a price in the price list.

For a special price to apply to an item in a document, the date must be within the validity period and the unit of measure in the row must match the unit of measure in the definition of the special price.

IV/ Copying special prices

One nice feature of special prices is that once you set up a special price, you can copy that price to other business partners

For copying special prices from one business partner to other ones the following copy rules exist:

• Replace All Items: The system copies all the special prices and possibly overwrites existing ones.
• Replace Only Existing Items: The system overwrites all the special prices that exist in the source business partner (BP) and target BP records. It does not add any new special prices.
• Do Not Replace Items: The system adds new special prices, but does not change existing ones.

In the transaction you choose the business partner who currently has the special prices you wish to copy, then choose the target business partners by code, business partner group or business partner properties.

V/ Update Special Prices Globally

There is a transaction to update all the special prices globally inside SAP Business One.

The transaction contains four tabs each with a different choice on how to update the prices.  You select the relevant tab to: change the discount by increasing or decreasing the discount percentage, change the item prices by a percentage, refresh special prices from their linked price list or delete existing special prices.

On all these tabs you have selection criteria to choose prices by business partners, customer or vendor group, or business partner properties.

VI/ Summary

Here are some key points:

• You can use special prices for business partners to set a discount or surcharge on items for a specific business partner.
• The system searches first for special prices for business partners before looking for any other price type. If it finds a special price for the business partner, then that price will be used in the marketing document row.
• The price can be with or without reference to any price list.  The price list referenced does not have to be the price list associated with the business partner.
• You can set a standard percentage for the business partner that will default into the rows as you add items for special pricing.  You can change this percentage after adding the item.
• You can set the special price to be automatically recalibrated when the price list it references is updated.
• The same options available in period and volume discounts are available for special prices. You can set a validity period and/or prices based on a quantity scale. If an item belongs to a UoM group, you can set quantity discounts by unit of measure; however the unit of measure in the row must match the unit of measure specified in the discount in order to apply.