Setting up cost-based (margin) price lists

Cost-based price lists calculate prices automatically from product costs — either purchase cost or unit cost — combined with a target margin or uplift percentage. This approach is common in B2B where prices need to reflect cost structures, or where a standard price list needs to guarantee a minimum margin.

Purchase cost vs unit cost

Norce has two distinct cost fields, and it is important to understand what each represents:

Purchase cost is what it would cost to buy the goods today — the current inbound price from a supplier. This is typically populated from a supplier price list or pushed from an ERP or supplier feed. It reflects market conditions at the time of purchasing new stock.

Unit cost is the calculated cost of goods already in stock, as recorded in the financial system. It is usually maintained by the ERP and reflects the average or weighted cost of the inventory currently on hand — taking into account when the goods were purchased, how long they have been in stock, and at what price.

In practice: purchase cost is forward-looking (what will new stock cost me?), while unit cost is backward-looking (what did my current inventory cost me?).

Price rules available

Margin rules are typically used when you think in terms of "what percentage of the sale price is profit." Cost plus rules are used when you think in terms of "how much above cost do I want to sell."

Margin calculation

For a margin rule, the sale price is derived from cost and the target margin percentage as follows:

Sale price = Cost / (1 − margin%)

For example, with a purchase cost of 60 and a target margin of 40%:

Sale price = 60 / (1 − 0.40) = 60 / 0.60 = 100

The margin is expressed as a share of the sale price, not the cost. This is different from a Cost plus uplift, where the margin is expressed as a share of cost:

Sale price = Cost × (1 + uplift%)

For example, with a purchase cost of 60 and a 40% uplift:

Sale price = 60 × 1.40 = 84

Step-by-step setup

1. Create the price list

Go to Pricing > Tools > New.

Enter the target margin or uplift percentage in the field that appears after selecting the rule.

2. Set a minimum product margin (optional)

Minimum Product Margin acts as a safeguard. Even if the price rule would produce a price below the minimum margin — for example because a product has an unusually high cost — Norce will raise the price to meet the minimum.

This is set at the price list level only and cannot be overridden per product.

3. Configure supplement charges (optional)

A Supplement Charge adds an amount on top of the cost before the margin or uplift is calculated. It can be set as either a percentage or a nominal (fixed) amount — and when both are set, the percentage takes priority.

For example, a 5% supplement charge on a cost of 60 gives an effective base cost of 63 before the margin rule applies. A fixed supplement of 10 would give an effective base cost of 70.

This is useful for logistics fees, handling costs, or supplier surcharges that should be baked into the calculated price.

4. Cost fallback behavior

The fallback order depends on which price rule is selected:

• Purchase cost rules — purchase cost is checked first. If it is not set (nil or zero), Norce falls back to unit cost.
• Unit cost rules — unit cost is checked first. If it is not set, Norce falls back to purchase cost.
• If both are zero or missing — the sale price is set to zero. The product will appear on the price list but with a zero price.

Typical B2B setup

A common pattern is:

1. A standard base price list with a margin rule covering the full product catalog.
2. Customer-specific or company price lists that inherit from the standard and apply an additional discount (e.g. Use standard price (pct discount) with 5% off).

This way, cost-driven pricing cascades from a single source and customer-specific adjustments are layered on top.

Related topics

• Price list inheritance and population
• Introduction to price lists
• Price methods
• How best-price evaluation works