What is a product?

Aaron Aldrich Updated by Aaron Aldrich

Product pricing overview

As a new user of shopVOX you'll want to not only set up users and the basic shop information you'll need to set up pricing aspects as well. In order to do that you should identify what you sell now and how do you get to the end price. Focus on the top 5-10 things first and expand from there. Use this quick guide to get an understanding of the direction you should take.

When creating estimates & orders keep this in mind; you add Products to your estimates/orders as line items. You DO NOT add Materials, Labors and the like. This fundamental concept is key to getting the hang of how and what you should set up to price with. Products can certainly contain materials and labors but you essentially always sell the product.

A Product has a product Type, a Category and a Pricing type.

The product type 

Basically this is a big group of like-minded products. Good examples would be Signs, Outsourced, Screen Printed, etc. Very large groups of things you sell.

The category

This is the group within the type. So if Signs is the Type then a category could be electrical as an example.

This image above shows the product, a sign cabinet, with the proper sign type paired with a category.

The pricing type

The way you sell this product. The idea is you may want to sell by a simple matrix, or maybe a simple formula such as area, or by the sum of the parts involved in the project. This is outlined below.

ShopVOX has three product pricing types. They are Basic, Formula & Grid.

Basic products

These are flat rate items sold by a unit of measure of Each or Hr. They can be a trinket or a labor charge. Ideally you want to add this to your transactions as a finished price, there are no pricing modifiers to consider or dimensions to enter just a quantity of items needed ( i.e. The dye-sublimated mouse pad is $12 and you sell 8 of them or one 18" x 24" yard sign with stake is $35.) They can be discounted as the quantity increases and linked to a pricing template.

The image above shows an example of, an A-frame with insert slots without sign faces or graphics. It costs you $52 and you sell it for 1.85x that amount. (You can hard code that info or enter the buying cost, buying unit and then the conversion. The conversion in this case is 3 A-frames per box. That gives you the cost per A-frame automatically. Simply set the price or mark-up. It has the ability to be modified by a template so you can add design time, sign panels, graphics etc.     

These could also be products to be priced based on the sum of the parts. (i.e Substrate, plus vinyl type, plus machine mode, plus fabrication, plus install etc.) The basic concept is you have no idea what the price may be until you pick the scenario and the parts. 

The image above shows an example of the product setup that will be priced based on the template alone. Notice there are no cost entered anywhere on the Product. This is normal especially as the template (notice the checked box Use Template) you build for it will determine the final price.      

Formula products

These are items that are sold at a flat rate based on a formula of some type. The selling price entered will be per the formula entered. (i.e Formula = Area and each sq. ft. is $8.) The product type adds dimensions that make sense for the formula as well as the ability to enter the qty of items needed. (i.e if you select Area as the formula,  width and height will be the logical fields given for estimating.) They can also be discounted as the quantities increase as well as be discounted by the overall size of the item entered. It too can be linked to a template. 

The image above shows an example of a formula Product setup such as a 13 oz banner that is printed, hemmed and with grommets. It cost you 1.87 per sq. ft (labor,overhead & materials) and you are selling it for 5.25 sq.ft. It has a minimum price of $65 so based on size it will default to the minimum price if needed.  Add pole pockets, wind slits, design time by linking it to a template built from your materials and labors.       

Grid products

For a complete overview of Grid pricing click here. These are items that look for a price within a matrix based on up to 3 parameters which you determine. (i.e a 1-color, front & back, white tee shirt is $27.)  Ideally the determined price is the finished selling price of that process. (i.e ink impression has a flat rate based on 1 or 2 colors, dark or white garments and how many locations. You can also augment these grids with the templates    

The image above shows an example of the setup for a grid product. In this instance this grid could be the impression pricing for decorating a garment. You could then, as in this instance, link the template to it which would allow you to add garments to the grid price already selected.

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