Defining Auto Price Update Parameters

The information entered in the User Defined Auto Price Update screen determines how the system reads and processes pricing information from a vendor.

You can create a vendor-specific price update template that can be used each time you update prices from that vendor.

To define auto update parameters:

An asterisk (*) identifies the necessary fields for updating prices.

Display the character based system.

Note: The Auto Price Update functionality has not been incorporated into Solar Eclipse as of this release.

From the System > Printers menu, select Your Hold Entries to display the Spooler Control screen.
Position the cursor on the name of the update file and use the Process hot key to display the User Defined Upload Processing screen.
In the Processing Type field, enter Auto Product Price Updating and use the Begin hot key to display the User Defined Auto Price Updating screen.

In the Work ID field, do one of the following:

Leave the field blank - Does not save the template after this update.
Enter a name that identifies the vendor who sent the file or the price line being updated - Creates a new template for use with future updates.
Press F10 and select an ID - Uses an existing template.

In the Desc* field, enter a complete description for the update.
In the Br/Tr/ALL field, enter the branch or territory whose prices you want to update. Enter ALL to include all branches and territories.

If your company uses multiple price sheets for a price line, use this option to select the price sheet by branch.

In the Prc Upd Index* field, press F10 to select a criteria for the product file for searches in the vendor update file. This entry matches the product in the system to the product in the update file.

Price Update Index Search

You can search by the product's UPC number or by the data specified in the User Defined #1, User Defined #2, User Defined #3, or User Defined #4 field on the Price Updating ID Maint screen in Product Maintenance.

For example, Instead of using UPC numbers to identify its products, a vendor might use its own part numbers. One of those fields would contain that user-defined part number. Point to that field by selecting User Defined #1, User Defined #2, User Defined #3, or User Defined #4. If you point to one of those fields and it does not contain any data, the update will not work because there is nothing to match.

Note: For the bulk of your products, an entry in any of these fields will typically have been loaded during the initial Eclipse data conversion, through Mass Load/Update, or by creating products using a vendor supplied diskette and this program.

In the Upd ID Prefix field, if you have assigned a vendor prefix to the part number in the User Defined fields in the Data Format column, enter that prefix.

For example, in the electrical industry, instead of using a UPC number, multiple vendors might use a manufacturer's catalog number that is the same for each vendor. Assigning a vendor prefix, such as MEC for Macon Electric Co., makes these items unique to each vendor.

In the Upd UPC with Prefix (Y/N) field, enter one of the following:

Y - Uses a prefix to index products and stores the prefix with the part number.
N - Does not use a prefix with the part number. The default is N.

In the New Items Mode field, enter one of the following:

Prompt - Selectively adds new products to the file. The Auto Price Updating Product Matching screen displays every time the system encounters a new product. This update may take several minutes if the update file contains many new products. See Adding New Products While Updating Prices for more information.
Ignore - Updates existing products without adding new products. Unless the update contains a new line of products only, use Ignore mode the first time you run the update. Run it a second time for existing products that were missed by the update, after correcting the records. See Auto Updating Product Pricing Information for more information.
Add - Updates existing products and adds any new products in the update file. Run the update in Add mode only after you have updated the products. If the file contains a new line of products only, you can use Add the first time you run the update. See Adding New Products While Updating Prices for more information.

Note: We recommend running the update in Ignore mode the first time you run it.

In the Start or Elmt# field of the Data Format section of the screen, scroll down the list to find the data format to match in the update file.

For blocked records:

Start - Enter the number provided by the vendor for the data format you want to match.
Lngth - Enter the corresponding length of the field.

For variable records:

Elmt# - Enter the column number from the update file for the data format you want to match.
Lngth - Leave blank.

Data Format	Description of column information from update file
Prc Upd ID#*	Price update ID. This is a required field.
Description	Description of products.
Price Basis #1* to #5	Basis name you are updating. Price Basis #1* is a required field.
Weight	Weight of each product.
Load Factor	Cubic dimensions or the point value of each product.
User Dfnd ID #1- #10	User-defined data as defined in Product Maintenance on the Price Updating ID Maint screen (Files > Product > PU IDs hot key).
UPC #	UPC code of each product.
Pricing U/M	Unit of measure at which you sell the product.
Price Line ID#	Price line of the products.
Buy Line ID#	Buy line of the products.
Commodity Code	Commodity code assigned to the products.
Buy Package	Unit of measure at which you buy the product.
Desc - Line #2 to # 6	Additional descriptive information that appends to the product description in the product record.
Discount Class	Discount class assigned to the products.
Matrix Sell Group	Sell group for the products.
Keywords	Extra words added to the update file that you may want to use to match products during the update.
Prod Matrix Type	Product matrix type in Product Maintenance that overrides the customer price class used to price a product. This field is required only if the Valid Product Matrix Types control maintenance record is populated.
Prod Base U/M	Unit of measure in the UM field in Product Maintenance. If left blank, the system uses the unit of measure from the price line.

In the Dec# field, enter one of the following for numeric data:

The appropriate number of decimal places if the decimal point is not embedded, but the numeric data contains a defined number of decimal places.
A zero if the decimal point is embedded.

Use the following hot keys, as needed. An asterisk (*) identifies the hot keys required for updating prices.

Hot Key	Description
Begin	Begins processing the upload file. Ensure the update criteria are set properly before using this hot key.
New Profile*	Defines the data for an initial product record for each new product the system encounters during the update. See Adding New Products While Updating Prices for more information.
Rec Layout*	Identifies the User Defined Auto Price Updating format of blocked or variable for the file you are importing.
Del	Deletes the current work ID. You are prompted for confirmation of the deletion.
UM Table*	Defines unit of measure codes and assigns the corresponding quantity to the code.
Add'l Data	Transfers information from the update file to notes in the product record during a price update.
Scan	Ensures the price update runs as expected by checking the displayed information.

Press Esc to exit the screen. If you created a work ID the system saves the data as a template.