Price Engine
The merchantCENTRAL Price Engine turns supplier offers and your own Business Central data into calculated price lists: one purchase price list per vendor for purchase orders and requisition worksheets, and one sales price list per sales channel with margin, rounding, fees, competitor strategy, and safety limits. Every calculation — including every rejected one — is logged and can be explained step by step.
What does the Price Engine do?
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Purchase price truth | One automatically maintained purchase price list per vendor (MC-<VendorNo>) — withdrawn offers close automatically |
| Rule-based sales prices | Trade margin or markup, margin hierarchy, fee tables, gross B2C lists, foreign currencies, price points, quantity tiers, campaign prices |
| Safety net | Minimum price, maximum change, minimum markup and minimum contribution — violations are rejected instead of published |
| Repricing | Match, undercut or premium against the central competitor prices — always inside the margin corridor, every adjustment attributed in the log |
| Price Cockpit | One row per item and channel with traffic-light status, daily work views, and mass actions |
| Simulation | A complete dry run without writing anything, with delta preview and selective apply |
| Approvals | Large price changes park as proposals in the approval workbench instead of going live immediately |
| Works standalone | Price on the item unit cost or BC purchase price lists — no supplier connector required |
Good to know
The Price Engine calls no external services and needs no credentials — all input data lives in Business Central. It only maintains the sales lists configured in its own setup and the MC-* purchase lists; manually maintained price lists are never touched.
Quick start in 5 steps
- Install and set up the hub — the Price Engine requires a configured merchantCENTRAL hub (Initial Setup)
- Activate the license — module
PRICEENGINE, included in every supplier connector package; a demo can be started right on the setup card - Define the rules — one line per sales channel in the Price Calculation Setup: cost source, margin, rounding, safety limits
- Simulate — the dry run shows what the engine would publish, without writing anything
- Automate — create the job queue entries on the setup card — done
Topics in detail
- Initial Setup — from installation to the first calculated price
- Price Engine Setup (reference) — master switches, purchase lists, queue
- Price Calculation Setup (reference) — all rules per price list
- Price Cockpit — the daily work
- Simulation & Approvals — dry run and approval workbench
- Repricing — competitor prices and strategies
- Calculation Log — why is the price what it is?
- Category Margins — margin overrides
- Supplier Cost Setup — discount, freight, insurance
- Troubleshooting — when a price is missing or stands still
Manual as PDF
The complete user manual (29 pages, German) is available as a PDF: Handbuch merchantCENTRAL Price Engine