KB Article #6322
Upfront Pricing formulas give you the ability to display competitive part prices for non-OE specified parts to your CollisionLink buyers before they ask for a quote—incentivizing them to order your OE-part equivalents.
You can display upfront pricing to all shops or assign formulas to a specific shop, ensuring the correct OE part price is automatically displayed against the non-OE parts on their estimates. View the order in which pricing formulas are applied.
OEC is rolling this feature out to dealers in phases. Look for future communications when this feature is available in your area!
- PMA Part Pricing Formulas—These will be applied to non-OE specified parts that qualify for a manufacturer sponsored reimbursement program.
- Non-PMA Part Pricing Formulas—These are applied to non-OE specified parts that do not qualify for a program.
Upfront pricing will be applied using this hierarchy:
To set up upfront pricing:
- Step 1: Create your upfront pricing formula(s) and select the most common one as the default.
- Step 2: Set up default upfront pricing for shops
- Step 3 (Optional): Assign upfront pricing formulas to specific shops.
Step 1: Creating Upfront Pricing Formulas
With upfront pricing formulas, CollisionLink will calculate the part's OE price based on the OE list price, dealer cost for the OE part, or the estimated list price of the non-OE part.
To set up upfront pricing formulas:
- From the CollisionLink tab, click Application Setup.
- Click Modify Pricing Formulas.
- Select one of the following formula types from the I want to drop-down:
- Modify PMA Upfront Pricing: When applied to an estimate in CollisionLink Shop, the non-OE part lines in the shop's estimate will display the upfront pricing for any equivalent OE part that qualifies for a manufacturer program.
- Modify Non-PMA Upfront Pricing: When applied to an estimate in CollisionLink Shop, the non-OE part lines in the shop's estimate will display the upfront price for any equivalent OE part that does not qualify for a manufacturer program.
- Click Add Formula to start.
- Complete the following in the Add Formula section:
- Type an easy to recognize Name for the formula.
- Type an appropriate Description for the formula.
- Click the Field drop-down and choose one of the following options:
- Cost: Dealer cost
- List: OE list price
- Non-OE Est. List: Estimated list price for the shop of the non-OE part
- Click the Operation drop-down and select one of the following options to calculate the shop OE price:
- Plus: Increase the OE list, dealer cost, or non-OE estimate list price by a specified percentage rate.
- Minus: Decrease the OE list, dealer cost, or non-OE estimate list price by a specified percentage rate.
- Type the discount percentage in the Rate % field.
- Type a desired amount in the Minimum Markup % field. This will prevent the upfront pricing formula from going lower than the established percentage (above the dealer cost) for the OE part. Notes:
- The Minimum Markup % field does not include any reimbursements you will receive from the manufacturer.
- Selecting the Cost option from the Field drop-down will disable the Minimum Markup % field.
- Entering a negative value in this field will allow the upfront price to fall below dealer cost.
- To protect your profit, be sure not to enter a negative value in this field for your Non-PMA Upfront Pricing, as you will not receive manufacturer reimbursements for parts in this category.
- Click Add to save the formula.
- If you would like to create multiple upfront pricing formulas for shops you do business with, click Add Formula and repeat the steps 4 through 6 above.
- Click the option to the left of a formula to set it as your default. This formula will be used to apply Upfront Pricing to any shop that is not assigned a specific pricing formula.
- Once you have added all your formulas, click Save at the bottom of the Setup window.
- If you would like to add formulas for the other Upfront Pricing type (PMA Upfront Pricing or Non-PMA Upfront Pricing), select it from the I want to drop-down and repeat Steps 4 through 9 above.
- Once your formulas are added, your upfront pricing will display in estimates within CollisionLink Shop.
Step 2: Set Up Default Upfront Pricing
CollisionLink allows you to set up a default trading partner that will apply all established settings to any trading partners you add. Using CollisionLink's default trading partner, you can set up default PMA, non-PMA, and OEM-specific upfront pricing formulas for all added trading partners. (Click here for tips and tricks for setting up upfront pricing formulas.)
To set up default Upfront Pricing for all trading partners:
- Click Application Setup from the left-hand navigation menu.
- Click Trading Partner Configuration.
- Under the Default Trading Partner Settings heading, double-click the CollisionLink default row.
- The default trading partner settings window will open. Select a formula from the Upfront PMA Pricing Formula and the Upfront Non-PMA Pricing Formula drop-downs to apply formulas for all OEMs.
-or-
To apply upfront pricing formulas for specific OEMs:- From the I want to manage drop-down, select Default PMA Upfront Pricing or Default Non-PMA Upfront Pricing.
- For each OEM you wish to apply a default upfront pricing formula to for all added trading partners, select an upfront pricing formula from the OEM drop-downs.
- If you would like to add formulas for the other Default OEM Upfront Pricing type (PMA Upfront Pricing or Non-PMA Upfront Pricing), select it from the I want to manage drop-down and repeat sub-step 2 above.
- From the I want to manage drop-down, select Default PMA Upfront Pricing or Default Non-PMA Upfront Pricing.
- Click Save when complete.
Step 3 (Optional): Selecting Specific Formulas for a Shop
The default upfront pricing formulas you created in step 1 should apply to most collision shops you do business with. However, you may have some customers that you give a different rate to for OE parts and/or receive a different discount on non-OE parts from their aftermarket suppliers. CollisionLink allows you to add a specific formula to just these shops or apply a formula to a shop's parts for specific OEMs.
To add a formula to a specific shop:
- From the CollisionLink window, click Application Setup.
- Click Trading Partner Configuration.
- Double-click the trading partner to whom you wish to apply specific upfront pricing formulas.
- Select General Information from the I want to manage drop-down.
- Select a formula for both the Upfront PMA Pricing Formula and the Upfront Non-PMA Pricing Formula options.
- Click Save when complete.
You can also establish Upfront Pricing formulas for each shop depending on OEM.
To add an OEM-specific formula to a specific shop:
- From the CollisionLink window, click Application Setup.
- Click Trading Partner Configuration.
- Double-click the trading partner to whom you wish to apply OEM-specific upfront pricing formulas.
- Select Default PMA Upfront Pricing or Default Non-PMA Upfront Pricing from the I want to manage drop-down.
- For each OEM you wish to apply a default upfront pricing formula to for the selected trading partner, select an upfront pricing formula from the OEM drop-down.
- Click Save.
- If you would like to add formulas for the other Default OEM Upfront Pricing type (PMA Upfront Pricing or Non-PMA Upfront Pricing), select it from the I want to manage drop-down and repeat Steps 5 and 6 above.