Import a vendor's price list

Your vendors already tell you what everything costs: they send a price list. Florio reads that file as it arrives, shows you what it would change in your catalog, and changes nothing until you say so. After that, costs and prices in the catalog follow the list, and every part on the list can be picked onto a proposal, a service call or a job’s materials, whether or not it was in your catalog before.

Before you start

You need to see the catalog, and you need the right to bring price lists in. Admins and managers hold it by default. An admin can give it to another role under Admin, then Roles.
Dealer cost on these screens shows only to people who may see costs. Everyone else sees the list without it.
Have the file as the vendor sent it, Excel or CSV. Do not tidy it first: Florio reads the layout the vendor uses, and remembers it for the next list.

Import the file

Open Catalog and choose the Price lists view.
Press Import a price list.
Choose the Vendor. Vendors come from your accounting connection, so the list belongs to the company you actually order from.
Choose the file, or drop it on the dialog.
Check List dated. Florio reads the date from the file or its name where it can. Change it if the list says otherwise: it is the date the list takes effect, and it decides which list wins when two lists carry the same part.
Press Read the file.

Nothing changes in the catalog at this point. A file that was already brought in is recognised, and Florio offers to open it.

Check how the file was read

The first list from a vendor opens on a page that shows what Florio made of the file. Later lists in the same layout are read the way you saved, and the reading can be opened again from the vendor’s page.

Columns. Each column has a role: Model, Part number, Description, Dealer cost, List price, MAP, Pack, UPC, Maker, and so on. Click a column’s role to change it, or choose Leave out.
Rows. Each row is an Item, a Line, a Section, a Sub-section, a Note, Terms, or Not orderable. Click a row’s label to change it. A heading that tells you something (“click here for pricing”, “double check unit of measure”) is read as a note, so it never names the rows after it.
Headings: Brands and Categories. Every heading of the list, in one tree, with the brand and the catalog category its rows take. New parts from a heading land in its category. See Brands within one list.
Packs. How this vendor writes the unit a part is ordered in, and how many pieces that is. A box of ten priced per box and a part priced each are not the same price.
Sold as One, Ordered as Parts and Trims and Grilles. Parts the list sets rows under whose figures add up to it, the trims and grilles the list carries, and the sections whose speakers need a trim. See Sell a part as one and order it as its pieces.

When the first rows read as items with the right figures, press Save and review. The reading is saved for this list, and the next edition of it is read the same way. If a later file arrives in another layout, Florio stops here and asks you to check it, so a column that moved is never read as something else without you seeing it.

Brands within one list

One maker’s list often carries other brands: a docking brand as a line of its own, an amplifier brand as a few sections, a mounting brand named only in its rows’ names. Florio gives each row its brand from the list itself, so the parts it makes carry the right maker.

A line, a section or a sub-section. Many lists group their sections under a plain heading above the shaded ones. Florio reads those three levels, and you can change any heading’s level with its row label.
A brand per heading. In Headings: Brands and Categories, choose a heading’s brand, or New brand for one your catalog does not have yet. A line’s brand passes to its sections and sub-sections unless they name their own. Left as they are, rows are the list’s own maker.
Brand by a Word in the Name. For a brand no heading names, add a rule: rows whose name says a word are that brand. The card lists the rows each rule catches before anything is applied, and a rule wins over the heading’s brand.
The next list. The brands, the categories and the rules are kept with the list’s reading. A later list goes straight to the review, unless it has a heading the reading has not seen: then it stops on this page, shows only the new headings, and asks you to give them their brand and category.

The vendor stays the company you order from: the brand is the part’s maker. On a part’s page, the Sources panel says where a brand came from, for example “brand from the line” and the line’s name.

Brands and parts by column

Some lists name their brands in columns, not headings: a Brand column that says the distributor’s own name or “Partner”, and a Product line column beside it. The same list often says each row’s category and the countries it ships to. Give those columns their roles on the reading page (Line, Category, Ships only to) and Florio adds two cards, and a Becomes column that shows what applying does with each row: Part, On the list, or Not sold here.

Makers and Lines: Brands and Parts. Each value of the maker column, with its lines under it. Give a value or a line its brand (choose The line’s name for a value like “Partner”, so every partner line is its own brand), and say whether its rows become Parts or stay On the list. A line takes its maker’s brand and choice unless you set its own. Parts on Applying counts what will become a part.
Kept on the List, and Not Sold Here. A rule keeps a category on the price list, for example rows whose category says Shading. And rows whose ships-to column does not name your country are not orderable: they show in no picker. Choose the country once in that sentence.
The next list. Everything here is kept with the list’s reading. Next month’s list goes straight to the review, and its new rows on your chosen lines become parts. A new maker, or a new line under one whose rows stay on the list, stops the list here until you choose.

A list with a Maker column and no line column (a distributor’s list with one brand per row) shows the same card with one level, Makers: Brands and Parts: say for each brand whether its rows become Parts or stay On the list. Rows whose brand cell is blank are one more value, No value, chosen the same way. A new brand on a later list stops it here only when you have chosen brands this way.

A pack written as CS can be set to Case: one unit, sold and charged as written, with what is inside kept in its name.

Review and apply

The review compares the list with the last edition of the same list and with your catalog. The tabs across the top are the kinds of change: New, Cost changed, List price changed, Dropped, Needs attention, and the rest. Each row shows its List price, also for a row that stays on the list and so has no price of its own yet.

What Applying Does says it in words before you commit:

Costs. A part’s cost follows the list, unless somebody edited that cost by hand in Florio. A hand-edited cost is kept.
Prices. A price goes up when the list price goes up, including a price you set by hand. A price comes down only where nobody set it by hand. Nothing is left at or below cost, and nothing automatic goes below MAP.
The first list never lowers a price. The first time a list describes a part you already sell, a lower list price does not lower your price. The row reads First list: price kept, and the part shows under Prices to review as Above list, so a person decides.
Packs. A row priced in another pack than your part does not move anything. It reads Pack differs.
Dropped from the list. Parts the last list had and this one does not are marked no longer listed. They stay in the catalog and keep their figures.
The vendor. A part the list carries that has no Suggested vendor yet gets this list’s vendor, so purchasing suggests it. A suggested vendor somebody already chose is never changed.

Rows under Needs attention wait for a decision and are not applied until somebody decides: a number that appears twice at two prices, a row close to a part you have that differs only by spacing or punctuation (never two numbers the same list carries, such as a 1.5 ft and a 15 ft cord: those are two parts), a pack Florio does not know for this vendor, a row with a list price and no dealer cost. Three more come with brands: a number the list puts under two headings with different brands (choose the brand), a number listed twice at the same figures under two different names (choose the name), and a part this list gave one brand last time and another brand now (keep its brand, or change it to the list’s; a change is recorded in your name). The review also counts the list’s rows by brand.

Rows that are Not in your catalog come with a choice: add them to the catalog now, each with its brand and category, or keep them on the price list. When the reading chooses which rows become parts (see Brands and parts by column), adding them adds the ones it chooses and names them, and the rest stay on the list. Kept rows are not parts yet. They can still be found in every picker, and become a part the first time somebody picks one.

When the review reads right, press Apply list. Apply This List? names the list, counts the costs that follow it, the prices that move and the rows that wait, and asks once more. Applying takes effect right away and is recorded in the activity log. Discard this list removes the file that was read and changes nothing.

Several lists under one vendor

Some vendors send more than one list: a second brand, or a second product line, ordered from the same company. Each is its own list under the one vendor, with its own name, reading, date and history.

When you import a file, Florio offers the list whose saved reading fits it. If the file reads like none of the vendor’s lists, or shares few of its numbers with them, Florio asks whether it is another list from this vendor or a list you have in a new layout.
A new list is named after the maker Florio read from the file. Change the name on the vendor’s page.
A number that appears on two of a vendor’s lists takes its figures from the list dated later. The review shows this under On another list from this vendor, and the vendor’s page shows each list’s own row for the number.
A number is marked no longer listed only when none of the vendor’s lists carries it.
The markup used where a list gives no list price is the vendor’s, for all of its lists.

The Price lists view shows one row per list. Open one to see the vendor’s page: what is on the list, which rows are parts, the lists brought in, and how the file is read.

Pick from a price list

Every picker that searches the catalog also searches the lists you have applied: the proposal builder, the change order composer, a service call’s parts, and a job’s materials.

Type two characters or more. Under the catalog’s own matches, a band headed “On a Price List” shows rows that are on a vendor’s list and not in your catalog yet, with the vendor and the list’s date. Pick one and it is added to the catalog with its cost, price and pack from the list, and goes onto the line you were building. Nobody has to stop and create the part first.

A cost from an old list

A vendor’s list goes out of date. Florio tells you when a part’s cost rests on one that has.

A part is flagged while every source of its cost is a list dated more than your company’s limit ago. The limit starts at 180 days; ask Florio support to change it. The flag shows in three places:

In a picker. A row from a list past the limit carries an Old list chip under its date. You can still pick it. Where a vendor has more than one list, the row names the list.
Under Prices to review. The reason reads Cost from an old list, with the vendor, the list and its date underneath.
On the part’s page. In the Sources panel the chip sits beside the date, with the line “The only source of this cost, and over 180 days old”.

The flag clears by itself when a newer list carries the part, or when somebody edits the cost by hand. A person who may not see costs still sees the chip, because the price was set from the same list.

Add parts from links

When a distributor sells a part you do not have yet, you can add it from the link to its page instead of waiting for their next price list. This works for the distributors your company has set up for it; ask Florio support to add one. Each part joins that distributor’s list in your catalog, so it is ordered from them and shows on their vendor page like any other row of the list.

Open Catalog and press Add from links. The Price lists view has the same button.
Paste one part a line: the link to its page, then its cost, then its price, for example link - $148.10/$320.00. Two amounts after the link, or three cells copied from a spreadsheet, work too.
Florio shows each line before anything is read: the vendor, the part number it took from the link, the cost, the price, and how far the price is over cost. A line it cannot use says why, and a price under half your company’s markup is shown in the warning colour.
Press the read button. Florio reads each page in the background, about half a minute a part. You can leave the page and come back: the paste stays under Earlier pastes for a month.

When the pages are read, check each row:

A row shows the part’s first picture, its name, maker, model and number, and what the page gave. Click the name to open it. Tick Keep under any other picture you want on the part (a distributor often shows a sibling or another finish), and change the name, maker or model where the page has them wrong.
The category comes from the distributor’s own category once you have mapped it (see Catalog categories). Otherwise Choose a category; Florio offers to use your choice for that distributor category from then on.
A row priced at or below cost, or under half your markup, is not ticked. Tick it to add it at that price.
A part already in your catalog says Already a part. If the pasted cost or price differs, tick Update its cost and price to change them through the list’s review.
A page that is Not found, a site Florio has no reader for, or a page that Couldn’t read says so in words. Florio tries a page that does not answer again by itself, three times; after that, Read again or Leave out is yours.

Then press the add button under the list; it counts the ticked parts. They join the list with their ticked pictures, the maker’s details and guides, their category with its install hours, and client text Florio drafts a few minutes later (it appears in Pictures and text, as every draft does). Nothing already on the list changes or drops off, and the activity log records the add. Rows you did not tick are left out.

Good to know

A part’s page has a Sources panel: what each vendor’s list says about the part, and which one its cost is following. It is read-only.
The date a list was applied and the list’s own date are two different things. Both are kept and shown.
Dealer cost never appears on anything a client sees.
Importing a list does not place an order or change one already placed.
A price cell that reads POA (price on application) has no price: the vendor quotes each order. Such a row cannot be ordered from the list.