Margin Master
Margin Master 2026.1009.37496
Published October 10, 2026
Strategy & Pricing
Introduces a comprehensive assessment engine that analyzes True Value and converted Do it Best stores to recommend optimal pricing strategies. The system evaluates current pricing against True Value levels, identifies department-specific opportunities, calculates projected impacts, and generates complete strategy steps with rule text.
Added a comprehensive True Value Store Assessment tool that analyzes a new True Value store's current pricing position, compares all available pricing options with their financial impacts, and creates a customized starting strategy based on the store's ranked objectives and constraints.
The True Value Store Assessment now chooses the store's program level and department steps based on the number of price changes needed and the resulting sitting margin, rather than average price gaps. A busy indicator shows analysis progress through each phase.
Introduces an advanced pricing model for True Value stores that analyzes items by Do it Best product taxonomy (department โ category โ subcategory โ product group) and customer awareness groups (A/B/C/D/E) to generate 6-8 strategic pricing opportunities. This engine calculates the optimal balance between price changes and gross profit margin, providing stores with clear pricing paths tailored to product categories and customer price sensitivity.
The True Value Store Assessment now shows item descriptions and likely reasons for selling-unit issues (items priced far from suggested retail), making it easier to identify and resolve pack-size mismatches and other pricing anomalies. The tab is renamed from "Pack-Size Items" to "Possible Selling-Unit Issues" to better reflect what the tool detects.
The True Value Store Assessment now consolidates possible selling-unit issues (items priced under half or over double the suggested retail) into one custom group per store, making them easier to review and manage as a unit rather than as hundreds of individual SKU exceptions.
Fixed the rule text generated for "Possible Selling-Unit Issues" custom groups in True Value assessments to include the vendor type token (ACTIONVENDORTYPE~ALL), preventing creation failures when the step editor performs a round-trip validation.
The True Value Store Assessment now offers Simple and Advanced views, generates six to eight multi-step pricing plans with descriptive names (e.g., "Fewest changes," "Best value per change"), and displays step names that explain what each strategy does. Steps now select on taxonomy descriptions stores already have, with improved tooltips throughout.
The True Value Store Assessment now enables rounding by default and applies the store's chosen rounding scheme to all price-setting steps, so the projected margins and price changes shown on screen match what the store will actually get. Plans can be compared across different rounding schemes to see how TV-1, AF-1, AF-2, and other schemes affect margins and price changes.
The True Value Store Assessment now detects whether a store's POS has converted to Do it Best SKUs and clearly displays this throughout the application. Converted stores can now read leftover True Value item numbers still in their POS through Do it Best's cross-reference, ensuring all items are found regardless of which numbering system they use.
The Store Assessment engine now supports multiple vendors through configurable profiles, allowing Do it Best and Ace stores to run the assessment with their own price levels, awareness codes, and taxonomy fields. True Value assessments produce identical results to previous versions.
The Store Assessment, previously available only for True Value stores, now supports Do it Best and Ace Hardware stores. Each vendor sees its own price levels, awareness codes, and taxonomy fields, with vendor-specific rounding schemes and selection boxes added automatically when needed.
Cloud Sync & Vendor Data
Fixed an issue where rebuilding main tables after vendor or price-level configuration changes could use an outdated vendor catalog view structure. The rebuild process now refreshes the vendor data view first to ensure it matches the current vendor setup before processing store data.
User Interface
Updated the True Value Store Assessment screen to consistently use "current sitting margin" and "future sitting margin" terminology instead of "margin before" and "margin after," and enabled column header wrapping for better readability of longer, more descriptive column names.
The True Value Store Assessment now runs automatically when opened, shows a detailed explanation before creating any strategy, and includes blue help buttons on every tab that link directly to relevant documentation sections.
Fixed dialog windows appearing in the Windows taskbar when they shouldn't, and streamlined help icons on the Store Assessment screen to have one primary help button instead of multiple scattered icons.
Changed all user-facing terminology for True Value stores from "converted/not converted" to "transitioned/pre-transition" to align with preferred industry language. This affects displays throughout the True Value Assessment, Store Information settings, and documentation.
All training lesson narration audio has been re-rendered to incorporate updated pronunciation rules, ensuring consistent and accurate voice-over quality across the entire training library.
Added the True Value Store Assessment tool and three interactive training lessons that guide users through setting up True Value stores (pre-transition and transitioned) and using the assessment to create pricing strategies. The assessment analyzes a store's current pricing and suggests potential True Value pricing plans based on configurable goals.
Infrastructure & Internal
Updated the True Value Store Assessment feature to clarify that the analysis shows potential pricing plans (sample models) rather than recommendations, emphasizing that stores are responsible for their own pricing decisions. The terminology now refers to the top-ranked plan as "closest to the goals you set" instead of "recommended."
True Value stores are now configured with a single "Primary Vendor: True Value" setting, plus one choice indicating whether the POS has transitioned to Do it Best SKUs (Pre-transition or Transitioned). Stores previously set up as "Do it Best + True Value Levels" are automatically migrated to the new "True Value + Transitioned" configuration at startup.