Managing and Applying
Purchase Prices and Discounts in
Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012
An automatic process applying default purchase prices and discounts to purchase orders and
purchase requisitions is vital for ensuring an efficient procure-to-pay process. Microsoft Dynamics AX
2012 delivers comprehensive features that support a flexible process and provide essential and timely
information to the purchaser.
Prices and discounts can be maintained in different places within Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
depending on business requirements:
Prices can be directly associated with the products.
Pricing and discounting rules can be maintained in trade agreements from which prices and
discounts are deduced.
Prices and discounts can be associated with period- and commitment-based agreements.
The focus of this paper is on prices and discounts maintained using the trade agreements. Microsoft
Dynamics AX 2012 brings powerful tools that simplify and help secure the setup and maintenance of
the purchase price and discount rules in trade agreements.
All setup and maintenance of trade agreements is done in its own environment (a trade agreement
journal), where the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 security framework ensures management approval
of the changes before activation.
MAINTAINING THE TRADE AGREEMENTS
Trade agreements within Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provide high flexibility and
granularity for controlling purchase prices and discounts. The trade agreement types
include price, line discount, multiline discount, and total discount and can be specified for
a large range of trade agreement conditions (vendor/segment of vendors, item/segment
of items, product dimensions, storage dimensions, tracking dimensions, price break, unit
of measure, currency, and effective dates).
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 supports a large variety of functionality that provides
overview and transparency, and that simplifies maintenance and reduces the resources
needed to manage the trade agreements:
Select – Extracting active trade agreements into the trade agreement journal is simple
and precise.
Copy and revise – New trade agreements can be created manually or by copying and
modifying existing trade agreements in one process step.
Bulk editing – You can bulk update trade agreements when common changes apply.
Segregation of duties – Take advantage of the security framework and divide the
maintenance task into two required operations: entering trade agreements by the
clerk, and approval and activation by the manager.
Import – Import trade agreements using the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Application
Integration Framework (AIF), by using the Microsoft Office Add-ins for Microsoft
Dynamics AX 2012, or by using the Vendor catalog import feature.
In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, purchasing professionals can create and maintain
procurement catalogs for company employees to use when they order items and services
for internal use. The items within the catalog can be maintained by the vendor by
submitting a catalog maintenance request. A purchasing professional can then review the
product and pricing details before effectuation. The catalog maintenance request
indicates whether the product information is new, modified, or must be deleted.
Extract active trade
agreements with the
Select form
PURCHASE PRICES AND DISCOUNTS
Purchase prices and discounts can be deduced from trade agreements. This can be a
simple search for a valid trade agreement or a more complex calculation finding the
cheapest price and largest discount. The purchase prices and discounts are deduced from
the trade agreements when requested.
Deducing purchase prices and discounts from trade agreements is not always wanted
when updating a purchase order. Information is brought to the user when changes to an
existing order could impact the prices and discounts that have been manually entered or
transferred from another document. (This could be purchase prices and discounts on a
purchase order negotiated and agreed upon during a requisition process.)
By displaying timely and precise information, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 enables the
user to make conscious decisions—whether to keep the existing negotiated purchase
prices and discounts or whether to deduce the default purchase prices and discounts from
the trade agreements based on the new conditions.
Business policies can be enabled when Approval workflow for purchase orders is enabled.
The policies can be around the purchase prices and discounts and the feature ensures that
the right approvals have been given before a purchase can be confirmed.
Purchase prices and discounts can be obtained from purchase agreements or directly
from the product besides being deduced from trade agreements:
Purchase agreements are a contract between a company and its customer. The
purchase prices and discounts in the purchase agreement overrule any purchase
prices and discounts stated in any trade agreements that may exist.
The price is maintained directly for the product, which includes the option to update
the item automatically with the latest purchase price.
Preserve negotiated
prices and discounts
when condition
changes
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make
business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like and with familiar Microsoft software, automating and
streamlining financial, customer relationship and supply chain processes in a way that helps you drive business success.
U.S. and Canada Toll Free 1-888-477-7989
Worldwide +1-701-281-6500
www.microsoft.com/dynamics
CCAX2012BV059
© 2011 Microsoft Corporation