Pricing Strategies

What is this?

A pricing strategy is the core of Margin Master. It defines a set of ordered rules (called steps) that determine how future prices are calculated for your products. Each step targets a specific group of SKUs based on conditions (department, class, vendor, etc.) and sets a future price using a price level, rounding scheme, and optional adjustments.

Walk through it in the app: guide 2002 — Running the price changes, guide 2011 — Inside the Strategy Manager for reading and fixing the strategy itself, or lesson 2016 — Setting up your pricing for the map of all the building blocks. Margin Master can walk you through these steps live: turn on Training / Guide Mode from the Help menu, then type 2002 into the Lessons & Guides box — or ask Margin Master support to run it with you.

Strategies are executed top-to-bottom, with each step applying to the SKUs that match its conditions. You can have multiple strategies saved and switch between them.

Opening the Strategy Manager

1. Menu (hamburger) — strategy actions · 2. Current Strategy File · 3. Step list · 4. Step detail editor · 5. Get Premade Strategies · 6. Load / Show Affected / Up / Down / Delete

Menu: Strategy > Manage Pricing Strategy

The Strategy Manager window (960x600) has two main sections:

• Left panel -- Step list grid showing all steps in the strategy
• Right panel -- Detail editor for the selected step

Strategy Management

Strategy Selection

At the top of the window, a dropdown lets you select from your saved strategies.

Strategy Actions (Hamburger Menu)

Click the menu icon at the top-left for these actions:

Strategies downloaded from Strategy > Get Premade Strategies are read-only — see Shared (Premade) Strategies.

An Export to Excel button (top-right) exports the full strategy to an Excel workbook with three sheets: Strategy Steps, Custom Groups, and SKU Level Exceptions.

Strategy Steps

The Step List (Left Panel)

The step list grid shows every step in order:

Visual indicators:

• Inactive steps show with strikethrough text in gray
• Unsaved changes show with a yellow highlight background

Reordering Steps

Steps execute top-to-bottom, so order matters. Move steps using:

Bottom buttons:

• Up / Down buttons move the selected step. Hold modifier keys:
  • Default: Move 1 position
  • Ctrl: Move 5 positions
  • Alt: Move to top/bottom
• A hint label reads "Use CTRL or ALT modifier keys"

Right-click context menu:

• Move Up (1, 3, 5, 10, or To Top)
• Move Down (1, 3, 5, 10, or To Bottom)
• Move to Specific Position... (prompts for position number)

Adding Steps

Steps are not created inside the manager. Set up the selection boxes and the Future Price panel on the main window, then Strategy > Save Current Selection (the camera) - the saved selection becomes the last step of the active strategy. See Creating a Strategy Step.

Load at the bottom-left does the reverse: it closes the manager and puts the selected step's selection back on the main window so you can adjust it and save it again with Update Existing Rule. Show Affected loads the items the step priced on the last run - use it when the step changed the very values it selected on, so Load finds nothing.

Deleting Steps

Select a step and click Delete, or press the Delete key.

Step Detail Editor (Right Panel)

When you select a step, the right panel shows its configuration:

Step Name and Active Toggle

• Step Name text field -- editable name for this step
• Active toggle switch (orange slider) -- enables/disables the step

Future Price Setting

The "Set Future Price:" label shows the current price action configured for this step. This is configured through the Future Price Panel (see Future Pricing).

Rounding

• Apply Rounding label and checkbox -- toggle rounding for this step
• Rounding Scheme dropdown -- select which scheme to use (only enabled when rounding is checked)

See Rounding Schemes for details on configuring rounding.

Min/Max Strategy

• Enable Min/Max checkbox -- apply minimum/maximum price constraints
• Min/Max Strategy dropdown -- select which min/max strategy to use (only enabled when checkbox is checked)
• Instructions text (italic) -- describes the min/max rule in plain English

See Min/Max Strategies for details.

Conditions (SKU Targeting)

The "For the following Sku's" section defines which products this step applies to:

• SKU View dropdown -- choose the SKU scope (e.g., vendor SKUs vs. non-vendor, all SKUs)
• Conditions list -- shows the active filter conditions (department, class, vendor, etc.) with AND/OR logic
• No Decreases checkbox -- when checked, prevents price decreases for matched SKUs

Custom Groups and SKU Exceptions

Two highlighted sections provide access to:

• Custom Groups (yellow background) -- Manage custom product groups. Click "Manage Custom Groups" to open the group manager.
• SKU Level Exceptions (green background) -- Manage individual SKU overrides. Click "Manage Sku Level Exceptions" to open the exception manager.

Saving and Closing

When closing with unsaved changes, you'll be asked: "Do you want to Save your changes?" with Yes/No options.

Executing a Strategy

Menu: Strategy > Execute Strategy

This runs the active pricing strategy against your current data, applying future prices based on each active step's rules.

Execution Logging

Strategy execution produces detailed structured logs (StrategyExecutionDetailLog) for every step, including:

• Step timing -- start time, end time, and processing duration for each step
• Rule text -- the human-readable description of the pricing rule applied
• Load status -- whether the saved selection loaded successfully, and failure reasons if not
• Rounding scheme -- which rounding scheme was applied
• Min/Max impact -- if the step uses a Min/Max strategy, the log records how many SKUs were affected, increased, or decreased, plus the average adjustment amount
• Custom group details -- future price actions, store filters, batch sizes, and sample SKUs (first 5) for diagnostics
• SKU exception details -- exception block SKU counts, future price actions, and sample SKUs (first 10)
• Failure tracking -- exception type, message, and stack trace if a step fails

Strategy Load Error Handling

If a step fails to load (e.g., a saved selection references missing conditions or invalid data), a Strategy Load Error dialog appears with three options:

The dialog includes a countdown timer (10 seconds by default) that auto-executes the selected action when it expires. Changing your selection restarts the timer so you have time to review.

Your choice is saved to application settings and pre-selected the next time an error occurs. To configure the default action without waiting for an error, use the On Step Load Error submenu in the Strategy Manager's hamburger menu. An Apply Automatically (Skip Error Dialog) option is also available -- when enabled, the saved action is applied silently without showing the dialog at all.

Strategy Execution Summary

When a strategy run completes, the Strategy Execution Summary screen appears. It shows the strategy name and run time, processing time, total steps and SKUs affected, the run status, sitting margin and profit impact, and a per-step grid. The grid's Why column explains any step that priced nothing -- a selection value that is not in the current data, a rounding scheme that was not found, or the error that failed the step.

The Show this summary after each strategy run checkbox (also in Options > Miscellaneous) suppresses the summary for clean runs only. A run that stopped early or had a failed or skipped step always shows the summary, so errors are never silent.

Tips

Tip: Step order matters! Steps at the top execute first. If two steps target the same SKU, the later step's price wins.

Tip: Use the "No Decreases" checkbox cautiously. Blocking price decreases can hide pricing errors over time. Review these rules periodically.

Tip: Export your strategy to Excel before making major changes -- it serves as a backup you can reference.

Common Questions

Q: Can I have multiple strategies? A: Yes. Create as many as you need with New Empty Strategy or Copy Current Strategy. Only one strategy is active at a time.

Q: What happens if I delete a strategy? A: It is permanently removed. There is no undo. You will be asked to confirm twice.

Q: How do I know which SKUs a step affects? A: The Skus column in the step list shows the count. The conditions section in the detail panel shows the filter criteria.

Q: Can I copy a step from one strategy to another? A: Not directly. Copy the entire strategy, then delete the steps you don't need.