How to: Handle manufacturer surcharges on products.

Environment: Comsense Advantage & Comsense Enterprise

Security Requirements:

• Advantage
  • Discounts Maintenance 
• Enterprise
  • Inventory/Purchasing
    • Product Master
      • Create a new Product Master
      • Open a Product Master
      • Save a Product Master

In this article: 

1. About Manufacturer Surcharges
2. Add Surcharges in Comsense
3. Manufacturer Defaults Discounts
   1. Add the Surcharge to Manufacturer Defaults
4. Special Discounts & Net Prices
   1. Add the Surcharge to Discounts & Net Prices
5. Managed Products with Maintain Discount or Maintain Net Cost
   1. Add the Surcharge to Managed Product
6. Project Discounts
   1. Add the Surcharge to the Project Discounts Window
   2. Add the Surcharge to an Additional Discount String

About Manufacturer Surcharges

Manufacturers may announce surcharges to their products for tariffs, material cost fluctuations, or other market reasons. Surcharges are an additional fee and are not catalog price adjustments. You must update any surcharges from our supported manufacturers using discount strings rather than in catalogs.

*Note: Purchase orders do not show the surcharge as a separate charge. Purchase orders include all discount amounts in the unit price.

You may need to address surcharges in multiple areas of Comsense, including:

• Manufacturer Defaults Discounts
• Special Discounts & Net Prices
• Managed Products with Maintain Discount or Maintain Net Price
• Project Discounts

Modifying discounts can be a large task for organizations with a large amount of configured products. We recommend modifying discounts during off-hours or at a time of low system usage to maintain system performance.

Add Surcharges in Comsense

Discount String

You must add surcharges as a negative value in the discount strings for the affected manufacturer's products e.g. if the surcharge is 7%, add -7 to the product's discount string. The negative value in the discount string adds a cost percentage rather than deducting a cost percentage.

Net Price

For any net pricing, you must manually calculate the price increase and add the amount to the value in the Net Price field e.g. if the net price is $72 and there is a surcharge of 7%, the new net price is 72 + (72 x .07) = 72 + 5.04 = $77.05.

Manufacturer Default Discounts

The Mfg Defaults tab in the Discounts window is the first area you must review and add surcharges. The system uses default discounts for any products that do not have special net prices and discounts, managed products with maintained discounts or maintained net price, or project discounts.

Add the Surcharge to Manufacturer Defaults

*Note: If more than one division uses the same discounts, see Group the Divisions in Catalog Settings before proceeding.

In the Discounts window, Mfg Defaults tab:

1. Select the Mfg Code
2. Select the division or division group

3. Above the Search line item, click the Checkmark

4. In the Discount String field, add the surcharge percentage as a negative value to the existing discount string
   • E.g. ",-7"

5. Repeat steps 1-4 for all product categories and manufacturers

Special Discounts & Net Prices

Special discount strings or net prices override manufacturer default discount strings. You must review and update any special discount strings that the surcharge affects. Special discount strings and net prices are accessible in any tab other than the Mfg Defaults tab of the Discounts window.

Add the Surcharge to Special Discounts & Net Prices

1. In the Discounts window, enter the Mfg Code
2. Select the division or division group
3. Above the Filter line item, click one of the Discount tabs
   • E.g. Hardware Discounts tab, Option Discounts tab, Door Discounts tab, etc.
4. Click the Checkmark
5. Scroll right
6. For each manufacturer, review any products with the Has Disc. or Has Net columns checked

7. Select the product line item & review the discount information
8. Verify with the manufacturer if the surcharge applies to these products
9. Add the surcharge

Manage Products with Maintain Discount or Maintain Net Cost

Maintain Discount and Maintain Net Price are checkboxes in the Product Master window. Each checkbox makes the system use the discount or net price from the Product Master window. Maintain Discount and Maintain Net Price override cost calculations from any buying programs or specific discounts and net prices established in the Discount window. If your organization has any affected brands in the system as managed products, you must review all products with the Maintain Discount or Maintain Net Price setting and update accordingly.

Add the Surcharge to Managed Product

We recommend opening the managed product from the Managed Products Management window. Using the Managed Product Management window allows you to filter the products with the User Maintained checkbox.

1. In the Managed Product Management window, click the Product Code

2. In the Product Master window, click the Cost tab

3. On the cost line item, click +

4. Review the Maintain Discount and Maintain Net Cost checkboxes

5. Add the surcharge

6. Repeat steps 3-5 for each warehouse

Project Discounts

Any projects with special discounts do not adopt the surcharge. If any projects require the new surcharge, you must manually update the discount string from the Project Pricing window. You can either add the negative value to the existing discounts in the Project Discounts window or enter the negative value in the Add Disc String field in the Component Costing by Manufacturer tab.

Add the Surcharge to the Project Discounts Window

1. In the Project Pricing window, click Project Discounts

2. In the Discount Structure field, add the surcharge percentage as a negative value to the existing discount string
   
   • E.g. ",-7"

3. Click OK

The project pricing will update.

Add the Surcharge to an Additional Discount String

In the Pricing window, Click the Component Costing by Manufacturer Tab and Enter the surcharge percentage as a negative value e.g. "-7".