Creating Price Families 

Use

In a price family you establish defined price relationships for a group of articles. To do this, you specify a master article for each price family to be the lead article in sales price calculation. Subordinate articles, which are dependent on master articles for sales price determination are organized into family groups. A family group groups subordinate articles with an identical price relationship. You also decide on a reference article for a family group. The reference article represents the family group in certain functions.

The following diagram shows the basic structure of a price family.

Procedure

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       1.      In the initial screen of Pricing, choose Environment ® Maintain Price Families.

This calls transaction PRFAM and takes you to the initial screen for maintaining price families.

       2.      You can display existing price families, change them and create new price families.

To display a price family in the overview, enter its key. Choose  with the tooltip Display.

To change a price family, first display it and then choose  Change or Price Family ® Change. Choosing Price Family ® Display or  Display takes you back to display mode.

When you change a price family, you have access to the same options as when creating a new one. These are described in the following:

       3.      To create a price family, choose  Create or Price Family ® Create.

A dialog box appears. Enter the key, the name of the price family, the article number of the master article and the sales unit required. Confirm your entries. Your entries will appear in the Overview group box on the entry screen. The key for the price family also appears in the overview tree for the family groups on the left-hand side of the entry screen.

If you enter the key of a price family that does not exist when displaying price families, you will be asked whether you wish to create a price family with this key. If you answer in the affirmative, you will be taken to the same dialog box and the key will already be entered in the appropriate field.

By choosing Goto ® Header Data or  Header Data, you change the name of the price family, the master article or the sales unit at a later point in time.

       4.      Now you create the family groups for the price family.

To do this, choose  Create in the overview tree of the family groups and then enter the key and the name of the new family group in the dialog box that appears. Once you release the data, the family group appears in the overview tree and in the Overview group box on the input screen.

You can now create all the family groups for the new price family and then carry out the subsequent maintenance steps for a family group. Select the family group you wish to maintain. Alternatively, you can carry out the maintenance steps straight after you have created a family group.

By choosing Goto ® Header Data or  Header Data, you change the name of the family group again at a later date.

Within a price family, the key for a family group is unique. A key for a family group can, however, be used in several price families.

       5.      You maintain the settings for the family group on the Group Data entry screen.

In the Price Relationship group box, indicate whether you want to use a percentage price ratio or an absolute difference in price to the master article for the family group.

If you enter an absolute price difference, you also need to enter a currency. If you carry out sales price calculation for the current price family for a distribution chain that has a different sales currency from this currency, the specified price difference will be converted to the sales currency. It may therefore make sense to enter different price relationships for these distribution chains.

In the Control group box, you determine whether price point rounding should be performed when determining the prices of subordinate articles and whether a price change is permitted for subordinate articles in the sales price calculation.

       6.      If necessary, you can enter different price relationships for certain organizational levels.

To do this, choose the  Create function on the Group Data input screen in the application toolbar for the Diff. Price Relationships table. Enter the organizational level in the dialog box that opens. Once the data has been released, you can enter the different price relationship. For the absolute difference in price, the sales currency valid for the specified distribution chain is entered automatically. The different price relationship appears in the Diff. Price Relationships table when you release the data again.

To change a different price relationship, select the relevant entry in the table and choose  Change or double-click on the row in the table. You can now change the price relationship in the dialog box that opens. To delete entries, select the rows to be deleted and choose  with the tooltip Delete Selection.

       7.      Assign the required articles to the family group.

There are two options for assigning articles:

                            a.      To assign them to a particular family group, select the group and go to the Article input screen. Choose the  function that has the tooltip Create Article Assignment from the application toolbar for the Article table.  In the new input-ready rows that appear in the Article table, enter the article number of the article and the sales unit of measure required.  Choose  with the tooltip Select Article to select several articles in one step. The sales unit for the articles specified in the dialog box is taken from the master data for the article.

                            b.      Choose  Mass Maintenance or Goto ® Mass Maintenance. On the left-hand side of the input screen you will see the tree of family groups and on the right-hand side the article worklist. Choose  Selection and fill the worklist with the selected articles. You assign the articles by selecting them in the worklist and then using drag&drop to place them in a family group in the overview tree on the left. You can add new articles to the worklist at any time or delete the worklist using  Delete.

In the Article input screen for the Article table it is quite simple to move articles from one family group to another using the functions  Cut and  Paste. You can copy articles from one price family to another using the  Copy function.

An article with a certain sales unit can only appear once in a price family.

       8.       Determine the reference article for the family group.

To do this, select the relevant article in the table and choose  with the tooltip Determine Reference Article.

If sales prices that differ from the price relationship are only permitted at family group level for a family group, the sales price in the pricing table and in the details screen for price family calculation can only be changed for the reference article.  The sales side fields are not ready for input for the other articles in the family group. If you have set price point determination to take place for price determination, the price point group is determined for the reference article.

       9.       Save your entries.

You can also save your entries after each part step as saving does not quit the input screen.

   10.      You activate the price family by choosing Price Family ® Activate from the menu or choosing  Activate.

When you activate a price family, the system performs various checks. The price family is only activated if no errors occur. Messages regarding activation are collected in a log, which you can view by choosing Goto ® Log.

During activation, a check is performed to see whether articles in the price family – together with the sales unit – already exist in another active price family. If this is the case for at least one article, the price family cannot be activated. This check is also performed if more articles are added to an active price family or if the master article is changed.

If activation is successful, it is saved automatically.

   11.      It is optional whether you carry out a sales price calculation for the price family.

To do so, choose  Price Calculation or Goto ® Price Calculation. A selection screen appears on which the master article for the price family is defaulted for sales price calculation. Choose the organizational levels for which you want to calculate and choose  with the tooltip Execute to perform sales price calculation.