Hierarchical Price List

Overview

Hierarchical Price List introduces a structured and flexible pricing model based on hierarchies of price sources, enabling management of complex pricing policies while fully leveraging the standard price calculation engine.

Business need

Sales prices often depend on multiple factors:

• customer-specific agreements
• customer price groups
• promotional campaigns
• time-based conditions

Managing these factors across multiple levels can be complex and hard to govern.
Hierarchical Price List addresses this with a controlled, hierarchical approach to price source determination.

Key features

Free and multi-level hierarchies

Define hierarchies with unlimited levels:

• each row is a hierarchy node
• nodes can reference a parent node
• each node is linked to a price source (customer, group, campaign, etc.)

This allows modeling any pricing structure without constraints.

Incremental pricing and exceptions

Set prices incrementally, starting from a general level and refining only where needed:

• general price list for a customer group
• exceptions by area, channel, or retail chain
• specific conditions for individual customers or promotions

The hierarchy automatically enforces priority, reducing duplication and simplifying maintenance.

Customer assignment

Hierarchies can be assigned to customers via a setup table, with optional start and end dates for temporary policies, promotions, or agreements.

Certification and governance

Only certified hierarchies can be used in price calculation, ensuring consistency, control, and error prevention.
If a customer is linked to a non-certified hierarchy, the system blocks the sales document and displays an error.

Price determination logic

• Hierarchies are evaluated from the most specific to the most general level
• Priority decreases moving up the hierarchy
• The search stops at the first valid price

This guarantees predictable behavior and high performance.

Non-invasive extension

The app integrates via a standard event from the pricing engine without modifying it.
Final price calculation always relies on the standard engine, ensuring compatibility with future updates.

Legacy and V16 compatibility

Works with both the legacy pricing engine and the V16 engine, enabling gradual adoption without technical constraints.

Benefits

• Scalable management of complex pricing policies
• Reduced configuration complexity and data redundancy
• Clear and controlled pricing priorities
• Governance through hierarchy certification
• Fully aligned with standard processes

Typical use cases

• B2B scenarios with multi-level pricing
• Frequent promotions and campaigns
• Retail or wholesale businesses with complex price structures
• Environments requiring strict pricing governance

Conclusion

Hierarchical Price List extends the standard pricing model with a flexible, governed hierarchical approach, while preserving the standard engine’s integrity.

It is ideal for organizations that need advanced pricing control without sacrificing simplicity or predictability.