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Price Per Piece Categories

The Price Per Piece Categories control which items have their prices and quantities automatically converted from per-piece to package units when a supplier delivers prices and quantities per individual piece.

What is this for?

Some suppliers deliver prices and quantities per individual piece in their catalog and stock data, even though you only purchase and sell the goods in package units (e.g. VPE).

Example: A supplier delivers cable ties at €0.05 per piece with an availability of 5,000 pieces. You, however, only trade this item in packages of 100 pieces. Without conversion, the item pool would show a purchase price of €0.05 and a stock of 5,000 – both based on the wrong unit.

merchantCENTRAL converts these values automatically during import:

  • Price = Price per piece × Quantity per package unit
  • Quantity = Piece quantity ÷ Quantity per package unit (rounded down)

The Price Per Piece Categories define which item categories (and optionally manufacturers) this conversion applies to for a specific supplier. They act as a targeted allow list: only the combinations entered here are converted.

Prerequisites

For the conversion to run for an item, all of the following conditions must be met:

# Prerequisite Where to configure
1 The Prices Per Piece flag is enabled for the supplier. Supplier Card
2 The Package UOM Code is set (e.g. VPE). Setup
3 The item exists in / is linked to the item pool (Item No. resolved). Item Pool
4 The item has a unit of measure matching the Package UOM Code, with Qty. per Unit of Measure > 1. Item → Units of Measure
5 The item's category (and optionally the manufacturer) is entered in this supplier's Price Per Piece Categories. This page

No entry, no conversion

If no Price Per Piece Categories are defined for a supplier, nothing is converted – even when the Prices Per Piece flag is set. The categories must therefore be maintained for the conversion to take effect. Add at least one row for every item category that should be converted.

Opening the Page

  • Via the Supplier Card → Price Per Piece Categories action (The action is only visible when Prices Per Piece is enabled for the supplier.)
  • Or via search (Alt+Q): Price Per Piece Categories

When opened from the Supplier Card, the list is already filtered to that supplier; new rows are automatically assigned to it.

Fields

Field Description
Supplier Code The supplier this rule applies to. Pre-filled automatically when opened from the Supplier Card.
Item Category Code The BC item category whose items should be converted.
Manufacturer Code (Optional) Restricts the rule to a specific manufacturer. Leave empty to apply the conversion to all manufacturers within this category.

How it works

During import, merchantCENTRAL checks for each item whether its category/manufacturer combination is allowed:

  1. Exact match – Supplier + Item Category + Manufacturer match → convert.
  2. Category match (wildcard) – Supplier + Item Category match and the entry's Manufacturer Code is empty → convert for all manufacturers in this category.
  3. No match → no conversion, the per-piece price is kept unchanged.
Supplier data record (as delivered by the supplier)
        │
        ├─ Supplier "Prices Per Piece" = No  ───────────►  no conversion
        │
        ├─ Category/Manufacturer NOT in the list  ──────►  no conversion
        │
        └─ Match in the list
                 │
                 ├─ Item has package UOM (Qty. > 1)?  No  ►  no conversion
                 │
                 └─ Yes  ►  Price × Qty/package,  Stock ÷ Qty/package

Step-by-step setup

  1. Enable Prices Per Piece: Open the Supplier Card of the relevant supplier and tick Prices Per Piece.
  2. Check the Package UOM Code: In Setup, make sure the Package UOM Code is set (e.g. VPE).
  3. Check item units of measure: Ensure the affected items have a unit of measure with this code and a Qty. per Unit of Measure > 1 (e.g. VPE = 100 pieces).
  4. Enter categories: Open the Price Per Piece Categories from the Supplier Card and add one row per item category to be converted. Leave the Manufacturer Code empty to cover the whole category – or enter a manufacturer to scope the rule.
  5. Run the import: Start the data import for the supplier and check the result in the Supplier Data.

Scoping by manufacturer

You can combine both variants: a wildcard entry for the whole category (manufacturer empty) and – where needed – additional exact entries with a manufacturer. The exact match takes precedence over the wildcard.

Example

Starting point

  • Package UOM Code (Setup): VPE
  • Item Cable tie 200 mm with unit of measure VPE = 100 pieces, item category ACCESSORIES
  • Supplier delivers: Net price €0.05, Available 5,000

Entry in the Price Per Piece Categories

Supplier Code Item Category Code Manufacturer Code
MYSUPPL ACCESSORIES (empty)

Result after import

Value Before (per piece) After (per package) Calculation
Net price €0.05 €5.00 0.05 × 100
Available quantity 5,000 50 5,000 ÷ 100

About rounding

Prices are rounded to 2 decimals. The quantity is rounded down – a remainder that does not form a full package unit is not reported.