True Value Price Levels

True Value stores price from the Do it Best catalog. Margin Master carries True Value's three variable-pricing programs, Level 1, Level 1.5 and Level 2, for every Do it Best SKU. A True Value store can keep pricing the way it did before its transition, and a store that has already transitioned can keep the same posture on Do it Best SKUs.

What the levels are

Each level is calculated on your computer from the item's suggested retail, every time you sync vendor data.

Every item gets a rule. Margin Master uses the most specific one it has for the item: the item's own rule, then its product group, sub category, category and department, then a rule for the whole catalog. The Do It Best Retail column is the suggested retail all three levels are calculated from.

Where the levels appear

The levels occupy the main table's existing level columns:

Because the levels use the existing columns, every pricing strategy step, selection and report that can price "to Level 1", "to Level 2" or "to Level 4" works unchanged. The step text reads "to True Value LEVEL1" instead of "to DIB LEVEL1" so the intent is clear.

On True Value levels, Set Future Price to always lists your four retail levels, whatever columns your view shows: Retail (suggested retail), TV Level 1, TV Level 1.5 and TV Level 2.

The levels are calculated when you sync vendor data and again when you build the main table.

Who gets True Value levels

Every True Value store, before and after its transition: set Primary Vendor/Buying Group to True Value on Options › Store Information. There is nothing else to choose. Do it Best stores get the Do it Best levels.

Column names follow: Level 1, Level 2 and Level 4 are labelled TV Level 1, TV Level 1.5 and TV Level 2 at the next main table build. A name you have typed yourself in the View Manager is never changed.

Assessing a new store

For a new True Value store, start with the True Value Store Assessment. It finds the level the store's prices fit, compares the options with the number of changes and yearly impact of each, and builds a starting strategy from the store's goals.

The True Value strategy

A store on True Value levels can create a ready-made strategy that prices every item at its True Value level:

1. Open Options › Store Information.
2. Pick your program under True Value Level: Level 1, Level 1.5 or Level 2.
3. Click Create True Value Strategy.

Margin Master adds a strategy named for what it is, for example TV 1.5 Program Level. It has one step that sets every item to that level. The new strategy does not become your active strategy until you choose it. Add your own steps after the first one to handle the items you price differently.

The step has no rounding of its own. To finish it, edit the step, turn on rounding and choose a scheme, usually TV-1. Any other rounding scheme is fine too, for example TV Level 2 rounded with your own scheme. The levels already sit on True Value's rounding, so TV-1 changes only the items True Value prices at suggested retail or a fixed retail, rounding them up to the next True Value price point.

The TV-1 rounding scheme

Stores on True Value levels also get a built-in rounding scheme, TV-1. It rounds the way True Value's variable pricing does: below $10 it rounds up to the next price on True Value's rounding table, and from $10 up every price ends in .99. Use it on your own steps so they round the same way the levels do. TV-1 is the default rounding scheme for True Value stores, and it is offered only to stores on True Value levels.

Pre-transition or transitioned

Watch it, or walk through it in the app: lesson 3008, Setting up a True Value store and its Store Assessment. Turn on Training / Guide Mode from the Help menu, then type the number into the Lessons & Guides box.

A True Value store's point of sale uses either True Value item numbers (before its transition) or Do it Best SKUs (after it). Under Primary Vendor/Buying Group = True Value, True Value store says which:

Either way the store is a True Value store, with the True Value price levels and the suggested retail. Items with no match show as Non-Vendor until the store re-sources or discontinues them.

A transitioned store can keep a few True Value item numbers. Items the POS has not renumbered yet are still found through the cross-reference. If a number is both a True Value item number and a Do it Best SKU, the Do it Best SKU wins.

Do not choose Transitioned before the point of sale transitions. About 4,000 True Value item numbers are also the Do it Best SKU of a different item, so those items would match the wrong products. The True Value Store Assessment checks for this and stops until the setting matches the POS.

When the store transitions its POS

1. On Options › Store Information, change True Value store to Transitioned.
2. Import the store's POS data again, so Margin Master sees the new Do it Best SKUs.
3. Open the True Value Store Assessment again: it now says "Read as transitioned".

Nothing else changes. Anything saved under a True Value item number stays under that number: SKU exceptions, and the items in custom groups (the assessment's Possible Selling-Unit Issues group included). Recreate the ones you still need with the Do it Best SKUs. Running the assessment again creates a new selling-unit group.

Troubleshooting