Keep material costs current with supplier price files

Overview#

Distributors send price files: spreadsheets with each part's SKU and your cost. In TradesWork you import those files under Pricebook › Supplier Catalogs. Each file becomes its own draft showing which material costs change and how margins move. Nothing changes for technicians until you review and publish it.

The first time, SKUs are matched to your materials by item code. Anything that doesn't match waits for you to map it, and TradesWork remembers the mapping for the next file.

Live, automatic connections to distributor catalogs are coming soon. Today you import files yourself.

Before you start#

• You need pricebook.write. Only owners and admins can open this page. Other roles are sent to the home page.

• Give your materials codes that match the supplier's SKUs where you can. Matching by code saves mapping time.

• Get the price file from your distributor as CSV or XLSX. It needs a header row with a SKU column and a cost column.

Steps#

Add a supplier#

1. Go to Pricebook › Supplier Catalogs, or click the Suppliers & price files tab on the pricebook page.

2. In Add a supplier, enter the Name (for example "Ferguson HVAC") and, optionally, your Account number.

3. Click Add supplier. It appears in the Suppliers table with Account, SKUs, Mapped and Last file columns.

Import a price file#

The Import a price file card appears once you have a supplier.

1. Choose the Supplier the file is from.

2. Choose the file (.csv, .xlsx or .txt).

3. Decide on Recalculate rule-based prices from the new costs (otherwise prices hold and margins move):

   • On (default): cost-plus and flat-rate items reprice from the new costs when you publish.

   • Off: costs update, rule-based prices stay where they are, and margins move.

4. Click Stage as draft.

5. You land on the file's page with a summary like "1,240 rows: 980 matched, 112 cost changes staged, 260 to map." Rows with no SKU or no clear cost are skipped and counted.

How columns are found#

TradesWork looks for the header row in the first 25 rows and matches columns by name:

• SKU: "SKU", "Item number", "Part number", "Product code", "Catalog number", "Mfr part number" and similar.

• Cost: "Your price", "Net price", "Contractor price", "Cost", "Unit cost", "Price" and similar. "Your price" wins over plain "Price".

• Description and Unit (UOM) are read when present. A row with no clear cost is never guessed. It's skipped.

Map SKUs to materials#

1. On the file's page, the header shows the supplier, rows, matched, cost changes and "not mapped" counts.

2. The SKUs to map table lists each unmatched SKU, Description, Cost and a Pricebook material picker.

3. Choose the material from Choose material… and click Map. Its cost is staged in this file's draft (or in the working draft if this file's draft is already published or discarded).

4. Unmapped SKUs are kept. Next time a file contains them, they still need mapping, but mapped SKUs match automatically. When everything is mapped, the card says "Everything in this file is mapped".

Review and publish the cost changes#

1. Click Review cost changes on the file's page, or the draft badge in the Price files table.

2. The review shows Items affected, Prices up, Prices down and Avg. margin, then each item's price, member price, cost and margin before and after.

3. Click Publish N changes, or Discard draft.

Track your files#

The Price files table lists the latest 50 imports with File, Supplier, Rows, Cost changes, To map and Draft. The draft badge shows open, published or discarded. "no changes" means no mapped cost moved.

Settings that change this#

• Pricebook › Pricing Builder: the markup table and rounding used when prices are recalculated.

• Pricebook › Categories: category markup tables.

Tips#

• Import a new file each time your distributor updates pricing, then publish within the day so estimates use current costs.

• Turn recalculation off when you want to hold prices for a season and accept lower margins. The review shows exactly how much.

• If one SKU appears twice in a file, the last row wins.

Troubleshooting#

• "Choose the supplier this file is from." Pick a supplier first.

• "We couldn't find SKU and price columns. Check the file has a header row with them." Rename the headers to something like "SKU" and "Your price", or remove extra rows above the header.

• "This file was already imported; nothing changed." The exact same file was imported for this supplier before.

• "Map supplier SKUs to materials or equipment, not services." SKUs can only map to materials or equipment.

• A SKU didn't match my material. First-time matching uses the item code, not the name. Map it once by hand.

• I can't find the import card. Add a supplier first.

FAQ#

Q: Can I edit or deactivate a supplier? Not from this page yet. You can add suppliers; editing an existing supplier is coming soon.

Q: Does importing change prices right away? No. Every file becomes a draft you review and publish.

Q: Is my account number shared anywhere? No. It's stored for your reference. The audit trail records that it changed, not its value.

Coming from ServiceTitan#

• This replaces what ServiceTitan calls Pricebook Connect, under Pricebook › Supplier Catalogs in the menu.

• Same result: supplier costs flow into your materials and rule-based prices follow.

• Different: today you import the distributor's file yourself; live catalog connections are coming soon. Every update arrives as a draft with a margin impact before it goes live.