The Price Change feature of MicroBiz allows you to alter the price and/or cost of multiple items at once. This feature can be a real time-saver for users with many inventory items, provided you can find something in common to group them.

Selecting Items to Alter 

The first section of this window is dedicated to choosing which items you will be altering. You can select items in a number of ways, including Department, Vendor, Style and SKU. Note that using multiple fields will narrow your search results (each field acts like an "AND" operator, with relation to each other), so it is something you use to fine tune (filter items out) your search criteria instead of expand it.

Figure 6-12

• Department –Use the drop-down menu to select a Department, or enter a value manually.
  • By default, "starts with" is selected, which means that anything typed in the Department field will trigger all Departments that begin with this value to be selected. For example, if you have Departments 001 and 002, and you enter "00" into this field, then both Departments 001 and 002 will be selected.
  • To select only the Departments listed in this field, be sure to check the "Exact Value" option to the right.
• Vendor –Use the drop-down menu to select a Vendor, or enter a value manually.
  • Check the "Exact Value" option to the right if you only want one Vendor to be selected (see details above).
• Style –Use the drop-down menu to select a Style, or enter a value manually.
  • Check the "Exact Value" option to the right if you only want one Vendor to be selected (see details above).
• SKU –Manually enter a SKU (or just part of a SKU) here.
  • If you wish to just search for one SKU, enter the exact SKU in this field
  • Select "starts with" from the drop-down menu to allow MicroBiz to include any other SKUs that start with the data entered here.
  • Select "contains" to allow MicroBiz to select any other SKUs that contain the data entered here (similar to the "Wild" search). For example, entering "123" will select both SKUs 123456 and 676123.

Changing the Cost of Your Items
The middle part of this window (Figure 6-12) is a single field where you can increase or decrease the Cost value of the selected items by a certain percentage (or leave them the same).

• To increase the cost of the selected items, enter a positive figure representing the % markup. For example, entering 50.000 will increase the Cost value for the selected items by 50% ($100 will become $150).
• To decrease the cost of the selected items, enter a negative percentage. For example, -50.000 will reduce the Cost value of these items by 50% ($100 will become $50).
• If you do not wish to change the Cost value, just leave this field at 0.000.

Changing the Price of Your Items

The third and final part of this window is for altering the various Price fields by either a percentage or exact number.

• Use absolute price amounts – Toggles the price change by percentage or exact values.
  • With this option unchecked, any value entered into the price fields will be interpreted as a percentage.
  • Enabling this option will allow you to enter exact figures (such as $1.00 instead of 10%) into the price fields.
• "Then" drop-down menus – These drop-down menus allow you to change how MicroBiz changes the prices.
  • In percentage mode (with "Use absolute price..." unchecked), the default selection is "Set margin for" and in absolute amount mode the default selection is "Increase current by."
  • For percentage mode:
• Set margin for – Uses the percentage value to change the profit margin for items.
  • This takes the current Cost of the item, and changes the selected price level to the Profit Margin percentage entered.
  • You can enter a positive or negative value.
  • For example, if the cost of an item is $10.00 and you set the margin for Price Level A to 50%, then it will set this price to $20.00 (50% represents the profit made for this price level).
• Set markup for – Uses the percentage value to change the price level for items as a "markup" of the cost.
  • This takes the current Cost of the item, and changes the selected price level to the Markup percentage entered.
  • For example, if the Cost of an item is $20.00 and you set the markup for Sugg. List to 50%, then it will set this value to $30.00 ($20 plus 50% of $20, or $10, equals $30).
• Increase current – Uses the percentage value to change the price level directly.
  • This takes the current value of the price level selected, and directly alters it by the percentage entered.
  • For example, if the Web Price of an item is $50.00 and you set the increase current field to 20%, the Web Price will be changed to $60 (it just increased by 20%).
• Don't Change – Ensures that nothing for this price level is altered.
  • For some selections, such as "Increase current", it won't hurt to leave "0.000" in the field if you don't want to change it. However, you don't want to accidentally change the profit margin to 0%!
  • Make sure to select this for any price levels that you don't plan on changing for the moment.
  • For absolute amount mode:
    • Increase current by – Increases the price level by the exact amount entered.
    • Decrease current by – Decreases the price level by the exact amount entered.
    • Replace with – Changes the price level to the exact value entered.
    • Don't Change – Ensures that nothing for this price level is altered.
      • You don't want to accidentally change all of your price levels to $0.00!
      • Make sure to select this for any price levels that you don't plan on changing for the moment.
• Browse Product – This button provides a shortcut to the Product Lookup window.
• Preview Change – Clicking here will give you a small report so you can see what items will be affected by the price change.
• Advanced Filter – Displays a window for more advanced filtering options.
  • If the options at the top of the screen aren't quite good enough, this window will give you more ways to select the exact group of items you are looking for.
  • This feature is used with the search criteria entered at the top of the screen, so if you only wish to use the Advanced Filter, then make sure to leave the basic search criteria blank.
  • To undo your Advanced Filter, click on the "Clear Filter" button (the Advanced Filter button becomes the Clear Filter button if it is in use).
• OK – Starts the Price Change!
• Cancel – Exits the Price Change window.
  • Once you have run your Price Change, you will click here to exit. This will not undo your Price Change.