Product Options with price influences

Option Categories with price influences

BrokerForce™ supports product options like color and size with up to five categories of options. Option categories may be attributes such as frame, fabric, finish, thread count, resistance, or other. Options are not required.

Any option can have a virtually unlimited number of values such as the value of “Red”, “Green”, or “Blue” for color or “Small”, “Medium”, or “Large” for size. If sizes are used as an option, avoid the use of quotation marks as an abbreviation for inches. Use the ‘in’ abbreviation instead e.g. 3x5in. not 3"x5".

Options are configured as part of the vendor preferences on the Vendor form. Click the <Setup> tab on the vendor form to add or edit these preferences.

Any or all five option categories may be configured to also have a price influence if desired. Price influences include an addition to the price such as a percentage increase to the normal price, a fixed currency amount, or a change to a different price column.

Option 1 and option 2 as shown at right have special influences respectively. Only option one’s price influence will be discounted by the line item’s discount if a line item discount is entered. So, if option 1 adds $10 to the base price of $100, and there is a line item discount of 10%, the extended amount will be shown as $99. ($100 – 10%) + ($10 – 10%) = $99. Option 1 is also the only option that will be shown in the <Add> column on the printed order to the right of the price.

Only Option 2 can be configured to change the price column used to calculate the base price for the item. To configure option 2 to change the price column used for the respective line item, select the carat “^” symbol from the <Influence> drop list for option 2.

Options 1 and 2 have drop lists for recommended descriptions of options. Any option label of 8 characters or less can be used for any of the 5 options. Color, Size, and Fabric are shown above as labels for options 1, 2, and 3 respectively.

When the <Duplicate last item> check box is checked, the same item or style number will be automatically repeated on the next line when the user presses <Enter> after entering the item quantity on an actual order. When entering a line item detail on an order, focus will also jump to the first available option. In the example, this would mean that after an item number is entered, and the user presses <Enter> on the <Qty> control, the same item will be added to the order in the next row, and focus will move to the <Color> column to await user selection of another color abbreviation.

Options 3 through 5 can influence the price by a percentage or fixed amount. Percentage will always add to the original price before any other options. So, if more than one option has a percentage price influence, the second percentage will not be accrued on top of the first. So, if option 1 adds 10% to the base price of $100, and option 2 adds 25%, the extended amount will be shown as $135. ($100 ) + (10% of $100) + (25% of $100) = $135.

Option values have 3 components: An abbreviation up to 8 characters, a description of up to 25 characters, and a number if there is a price influence. In the case of percentages, this is entered as a decimal equivalent.

If any of the options 3 through 5 are setup, the order <Reports> drop list on the main Order form will default to “Order Options” instead of “Order” to show the extended number of options, their full description, and price influence if any when the order is printed.