If you sell, buy, or manage stock in BOS Enterprise, prices matter. Fortunately, BOS Enterprise gives you one place to view and manage the different prices linked to your items: The Pricing Module.

In this guide, we’ll walk through the main price types, explain when to use each one, and show how price lists help you give the right customer the right price.

The Four Main Price Types

1. Supplier Prices

Supplier prices are the prices your business pays when buying goods from suppliers. If more than one supplier provides the same product, you can store a supplier price for each supplier.

2. Cost Prices

Cost prices usually match supplier prices for items you buy. However, they can also include costings or assemblies, where BOS Enterprise adds several item and service costs together to calculate the final product cost.

You can base the cost price on the highest or lowest calculated cost. Using the highest cost can protect you when cheaper suppliers run out of stock. Using the lowest cost may help you stay competitive, especially when customers compare prices.

3. Inventory Prices

Inventory prices help you value the stock you have on hand. This value matters for insurance claims, stock reports, tax calculations, and understanding your true profitability.

For example, you may buy planks at R100 each and later buy more of the same planks on special for R65 each. Your storeroom now holds stock bought at different prices. BOS Enterprise helps you choose a valuation method so you can calculate stock value in a consistent way.

If you do not track each item individually, your cost of sales usually follows this formula: opening stock plus purchases plus direct costs, such as labour, less closing stock. Therefore, the valuation method you choose can affect your profit and the tax you pay.

4. Selling Prices

Selling prices are the prices you charge customers. You can enter them manually, or you can let BOS Enterprise calculate them by adding a markup to a cost price.

Why Price Lists Are Useful for Selling Prices

Not every customer buys the same number of products. A loyal customer who orders every month may deserve a different price from a customer who buys once a year. Price lists make this easy to manage.

You can create multiple price lists, assign them to customers, and choose which items belong to each list. You can update these prices using the Batch Update feature, such as increasing a selling price by 10% or reducing it by 10%.

When you add an item to a transaction, BOS Enterprise first checks:

• If the customer on the transaction is linked to a price list.

• If the item is linked to a price list.

• If the price list is active.

• If the price list currency matches the transaction currency.

• If the VAT, quantity, and roundup settings match the selling price settings.

If the all the conditions are true, the price list price is used, otherwise the normal sell price is used. You can always check which price was applied by viewing the Item Summary. The Detail tab shows the normal selling price and any price-list prices.

How Prices Apply to Transactions

When you create a transaction, you choose which price type the transaction should use in the Items & Inventory section. For example, quotations usually use selling prices, while work orders should use cost prices.

If an item does not appear when you add it to a transaction, check whether the item has the correct price filled in on its Costing & Pricing tab. For example, an item without a selling price may not appear when you view a list of items to add to a quotation.

Customisable Markups for Customers

You can also set markups for general estimates, estimate types, or customer transactions on a customer’s Accounting tab. These markups can increase or decrease prices and can override other adjustments. You don’t have to manually edit each customer records because these adjustments can be set using Batch Updates.

Quick Tips to Remember

• Regularly review the Pricing History tab of items and investigate large discrepancies.

• Regularly review Selling Prices and investigate any red numbers in the Profit column because you’re selling those items at a loss.

• Use price lists to reward loyal customers or manage special customer pricing.

• Check the Item Summary when a transaction price does not look right.

• Limit access to pricing information so only authorised users can change prices. Separate user-access rights are required to view item prices, and to view customer’s accounting tabs.

Ready to Check your Prices?

Take a few minutes today to review your item prices and customer price lists in BOS Enterprise. Clean pricing helps your team quote faster, avoid mistakes, and protect your profit.

Too busy? Focus on reviewing the prices of one or two items per day. Small updates can make a big difference.