Auto GPM Following is an automated pricing intelligence feature in CStoreOffice® that monitors item cost fluctuations during invoice processing (EDI imports and manual entry). When an invoice cost change causes an item’s Gross Profit Margin (GPM) to fall outside of its configured acceptable range, CStoreOffice® automatically calculates a proposed new retail price based on preconfigured rules and thresholds.
Proposed retail prices remain pending on the invoice line and are never committed to the Price Book automatically. Store / Price Book managers must review, adjust, and selectively approve or reject proposed price adjustments during the invoice acceptance process.
Key Concepts
Configuration Source Priority
When an invoice line is created or cost-updated, CStoreOffice® resolves the effective GPM configuration in the following order:
- Item-Level Override: Configured directly in the Price Book item setup form.
- Category Settings: Configured in the GPM Range Management Report.
If Auto GPM Following is disabled at the effective level, or if no settings exist, no retail adjustment is calculated.
Auto GPM Following Parameters
- GPM From: The lower boundary (percentage) of the acceptable gross profit margin range.
- GPM To: The upper boundary (percentage) of the acceptable gross profit margin range.
- Target GPM: The specific margin percentage used to calculate the new retail price when the item falls out of range. Target GPM must be strictly between GPM From and GPM To.
- Minimum GPM Deviation Threshold: A percentage-point tolerance that prevents retail price changes when the item’s GPM is only slightly outside the acceptable range (for example, due to fractional pennies or rounding).
- Rounding Rule: The price-ending rule applied to raw calculated prices before displaying or saving them.
Calculations & Formulas
Step 1: Calculate Actual GPM After Invoice
When an invoice line is submitted or imported, the system evaluates the margin using the line's Invoice Unit Cost and the item's Current Unit Retail:
Actual GPM = ((Current Unit Retail − Invoice Unit Cost) / Current Unit Retail) * 100
Step 2: Evaluate Range and Threshold
- Within Range: If GPM From < Actual GPM < GPM To, no proposed retail is generated.
- Below Range: Deviation is calculated as
GPM From - Actual GPM - Above Range: Deviation is calculated as
Actual GPM - GPM To
If the resulting deviation is less than Minimum GPM Deviation Threshold, no price adjustment is proposed.
If the resulting deviation is more than Minimum GPM Deviation Threshold, the system proceeds to calculate a new retail price.
Step 3: Raw Retail Price Calculation
The system computes the raw retail required to achieve the Target GPM:
Raw Retail = Invoice Unit Cost - (1 - (Target GPM / 100))
Step 4: Apply Rounding Rule
The raw retail is rounded according to the selected rounding rule to establish the Proposed Unit Retail.
If the rounded Proposed Unit Retail is equal to the Current Unit Retail in the Price Book, no proposed update is created.
Step 5: Calculate Resulting GPM
The resulting GPM is calculated as:
((Proposed Unit Retail - Invoice Unit Cost) / Proposed Unit Retail) *100
Rounding Rules
Rounding rules are applied after raw retail prices are calculated:
| Rule | Rounding Logic | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| x.99 | Rounds up to the next value ending in .99. If already .99, the value is retained. | 10.34→$10.99 10.99 → $ 10.99 11.01→$11.99 |
| x.49 | Rounds up to the next value ending in .49. If already .49, the value is retained. | 10.34→$10.49 10.49 → $ 10.49 10.50→$11.49 |
| x.50 | Rounds up to the next value ending in .50. If already .50, the value is retained. | 10.34→$10.50 10.50 → $ 10.50 10.51→$11.50 |
| x.55 | Rounds up to the next value ending in .55. If already .55, the value is retained. | 10.34→$10.55 10.55 → $ 10.55 10.56→$11.55 |
| x.09 | Rounds up to the next value ending in .09. If already .09, the value is retained. | 10.04
→
$
10.09 10.04→$10.09 10.10→$11.09 |
| nearest 0.05 | Rounds to the nearest 5-cent increment. Halfway values round up. | 10.32→$10.30 10.325 → $ 10.35 |
| nearest 0.10 | Rounds to the nearest 10-cent increment. Halfway values round up. | 10.34→$10.30 10.35→$10.40 |
