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What is a Price Mover?

Jill Fountain
Updated

Key takeaways

  • Price Movers show how the prices of the Products you buy changed over a date range, based on your closed invoices.
  • The homepage widget shows the top 10 price movers. The Price Movers page under Performance shows all of them.
  • You can view price movement by total spending impact, by dollar change in price, or by percent change in price.
  • An unusually large price change is often caused by packaging or conversion setup on an invoice, not a real price change.

What is a Price Mover?

A Price Mover is a Product whose price changed during a selected date range. Price Movers in MarginEdge compare the first and last invoice price for each Product in the date range, using closed invoices. Use Price Movers to spot vendor price increases or decreases, and to explain changes in cost percentages during P&L reviews. Price Movers are also referred to as price changes, product price tracking, or ingredient cost changes.

Price Movers are grouped by Product, not by vendor item. If you buy the same Product from two vendors, invoices from both vendors count toward the same Product.

Where Price Movers appear in MarginEdge

Price Movers widget on the homepage

The Price Movers widget on the homepage shows the top 10 price movers for the selected date range: the 5 largest increases and the 5 largest decreases.


 

MarginEdge homepage Price Movers widget showing the top 5 price increases and top 5 price decreases, with a View By selector for Impact $, Product $, and Product %.

Price Movers page

The Price Movers page shows all price movement for the selected date range, with filtering, sorting, and export options.

How Price Movers are calculated

Both the homepage widget and the Price Movers page let you view price movement three ways. Each view is described below.

Impact $

Impact $ is the total dollar effect of the price change on what you actually spent. It adds up the difference between each purchase's price and the first price in the date range, multiplied by the quantity bought.

example showing Impact $ view's value for one Product

Product $

Product $ is the dollar change in a Product's price from the first invoice in the date range to the last.

example showing Product $ view's value for one Product

Product %

Product % is the percentage change in a Product's price from the first invoice in the date range to the last.

Price mover-4.png

Example

A restaurant buys chicken by the case during one period.

  • First invoice price: $80 per case
  • Last invoice price: $88 per case
  • Cases bought at the new price: 5
  • Product $ shows an increase of $8.00 per case.
  • Product % shows an increase of 10%.
  • Impact $ shows a total of $40.00 (5 cases × 8.00).

Price changes under $0.01 or under 0.1% are not shown.

How to open the Price Movers page

  1. From the main menu, select Performance.
  2. Select Price Movers.

How to filter Price Movers

  1. On the Price Movers page, select the date button.
  2. Choose a date range. The default is the most current period.
  3. Select View By.
  4. Choose Impact $, Product $, or Product %.
  5. Select All Categories.
  6. Choose the Categories you want to include.
Price Movers page in MarginEdge showing the date range button, View By selector, All Categories filter, and Export as button above a table of Products with price changes.

How to sort Price Movers

  1. On the Price Movers page, select a column header to sort by that column.

How to export Price Movers

  1. On the Price Movers page, select Export as.
  2. Choose CSV or PDF.

How to see the price history and invoices for a Product

  1. On the Price Movers page, select a Product row. A graph of that Product's price over time appears, with a list of orders containing it below.
  2. Select an order to open its details.
  3. In the order details, select the invoice image to view the original invoice.
Price history line graph for a single Product on the Price Movers page, with a list of orders below showing Vendor, Invoice Date, Product Qty, and Unit Price.

Troubleshooting Price Movers

A Product shows an unusually large price change

Work through these checks in order:

  1. Open the Product's history. On the Price Movers page, select the Product row.
  2. Find the order where the price jumps. Select that order in the order list.
  3. Check the packaging on the invoice. Compare the invoice image with the packaging recorded on the order. For example, 700 each recorded as 700 cases makes the per-case price look extremely low.
  4. Check the packaging ratio. Confirm the number of units in a case is set up correctly for the vendor item.
  5. Check the conversion. Confirm the conversion between the vendor item and the Product is set up correctly.
  6. Check for a real price change. If the setup is correct, the change may be real, such as a large one-time discount, a sharp market swing, or buying a different case size.
  7. Still unsure? Submit a support request with the Product name and the invoice number.

Once the order is corrected, the Price Movers data updates.

A Product isn't showing in Price Movers

Work through these checks in order:

  1. Check the date range. Price Movers uses the invoice date. Widen the date range to include the invoices for the Product.
  2. Check how many prices are in the range. Price Movers compares the first and last invoice prices. A Product bought only once, or always at the same price, has no movement to show.
  3. Check that the order is closed. Price Movers uses closed orders only.
  4. Check the Category filter. Set the All Categories filter to include the Product's Category.
  5. Check the size of the change. Changes under $0.01 or under 0.1% are not shown.

Frequently asked questions about Price Movers

What's the difference between Impact $ and Product $?

Product $ shows how much a Product's price changed per unit. Impact $ shows how much that price change affected your total spending, based on how much you bought.

Does Price Movers show vendor items or Products?

Price Movers shows Products. Purchases of the same Product from different vendors are combined.

Does editing or deleting an invoice change Price Movers?

Yes. If an order is reopened, edited, and closed again, Price Movers shows the updated price. If an order is deleted, its price is removed from Price Movers.

Which invoices does Price Movers use?

Price Movers uses closed invoices with an invoice date in the selected date range.

Who can see Price Movers?

All users can see both the Price Movers widget on the homepage and the Price Movers page. Using a Shared Device does not allow access to the homepage or the Price Movers page.

How do I get notified when a price changes?

Set up a Price Alert. See How do I set up a Price Alert?

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