Applying Templates to Orders

Templates facilitate the retrieval of price lists and discounts.  They are entered on orders in the same manner as price list and discount codes; however, they are not stored on the order.  They only retrieve the correct price list or discount value—which is then stored on the order.

Templates can be entered on both sales and quote orders in the sales/quote order maintenance, shipping/billing, and the post billing conversations.  To be applied, all conditions (pricing method, order characteristics, and pricing dates) must meet the template's criteria.

To use a pricing template the order's price code must be 'A' (price list).  If the price code is 'A,'  the system will search for a price list or price list template.  Discount templates can be used and will be applied regardless of the price code.

Template Hierarchy

To find the correct template, the system refers to Reference File category G86 - Pricing/Discount Template Priority.  This category allows you to define a template hierarchy structure to determine the order in which to search multiple templates for a valid price list or discount.

Note:    A template hierarchy structure can only be defined for the following template types:  price lists, line discounts, and volume discounts.  You cannot establish a priority for header discount templates since header discounts cannot be defaulted onto orders (they must be manually entered on the order header).

Template values will be retrieved if the order's characteristics (company/location, salesperson, etc.) match the values of the key fields and the pricing date of the order falls within the effectivity dates of the template.

For example, if price list templates (TM001, TM002, and TM003) are all listed in the template hierarchy and a match is found on template with the highest priority (TM001), the system will retrieve the template value (price list or discount) and not continue the search.  If a match is not made with the template that has the highest priority, the Continue flag indicates whether or not to continue searching through other templates on the list.  This process continues until a match is made, the flag indicates that the search should discontinue, or the system reaches the last record in the template priority category.

Example:  Template Retrieval

This example will demonstrate the retrieval process for a price list template.  Assume that the following data has been already been set up in the Reference File categories and Pricing/Discount Template Relationship Maintenance conversation.

Assume that the following price lists were effective on the pricing date for the order.

If you enter the following sales order,

Once the sales order is entered, the system checks (in order of priority) all records on the Template Priority category to match the order characteristics with a template's key values.  If the key values match, the system retrieves the price list associated with the template.  It then attempts to find a price for the part being ordered.  If one is found, that price is used.  If a price is not found, the system will go to the next record in the template priority category and try to match the order characteristics with the template's key values.  The search continues until a price is found or all template priority records have been searched.

Note:    The entire template retrieval process is repeated for each line of the sales order.

Below is a discussion of how each individual sales order line is processed.

Line 001:  The first pricing template priority record (TMP01) is retrieved from Reference File category G69.  Because the values on the order match those on template relationship associated with TMP01, price list PRLST01 is retrieved.  The system then looks at price list PRLST01 to see if it has a price for Part 1.  Because it does not, and the Continue flag associated with template TMP01 is set to Y, it will attempt to match with another template.  The next match is with TMP02, which retrieves price list PRLST02.  That price list indicates the price of Part 1 is $7.

Line 002:  The first pricing template priority record that matches is TMP01, so price list PRLST01 is retrieved.  The system looks at price list PRLST01 to see if it has a price for Part 2.  That price list indicates the price of $10.

Line 003:  The first pricing template priority record that matches is TMP01, so price list PRLST01 is retrieved.  The system looks at price list PRLST01 to see if it has a price for Part 4.  Because it does not, and the Continue flag associated with template TMP01 is set to Y, it will attempt to match with another template.  The next match is with TMP02, which retrieves price list PRLST02.  That price list indicates the price of Part 4 is $12.

Line 004:  The first pricing template priority record that matches is TMP01, so price list PRLST01 is retrieved.  The system looks at price list PRLST01 to see if it has a price for Part 5.  Because it does not, and the Continue flag associated with template TMP01 is set to Y, it will attempt to match with another template.  The next match is with TMP02, which retrieves price list PRLST02.  The system looks at price list PRLST02 to see if it has a price for Part 5.  It does not, and because the Continue flag associated with template TMP02 is set to N, it will not attempt to match with another template.  Therefore, the part's warehouse balance price will be used.