Work out cumulative discounts by account, group, product, and product group correctly in a single pass; freeze the order the moment it is placed and keep its total intact even if prices shift later.
In wholesale, price never fits into a single figure. The same product goes out to one dealer at this price and to another at a completely different one; during a campaign an extra discount piles on, and in some product group a separate reduction applies. Turning this by hand both wears you down and invites mistakes. A multi-layered discount engine works out the right price each time on its own and by the same logic.
At the center of this engine stand cumulative discount slots. A discount can be entered separately by account, by account group, by product, and by product group. Because up to five slots of discount can pile up, a trusted dealer, for instance, can get both a general account reduction and an extra reduction specific to a certain product group at once. The rules are set once, and the calculation runs by itself for every order.
As valuable as finding the right price is freezing that price at the moment of order. All prices and discounts in force when the dealer places the order are stored as a snapshot. Even if the list price shifts the next day or the discount rate is refreshed, that order stays under the conditions in which it was placed. This way no mismatch turns up between the invoice and the order.
Freezing at the moment of order protects both you and the dealer. The dealer's mind is at ease because they finished the purchase at the price they saw; and you are not forced to explain the totals of old orders even if the price changes afterward. Most arguments spring from exactly this question of 'which price was in force and when'; freezing answers that question right from the start.
Price groups make managing separate dealer clusters easier. You can group your dealers by size, region, or agreement type and tie a dedicated price list to each group. This way you handle hundreds of dealers not one by one but through a few smart groups, and settle a new dealer's price in seconds by assigning them to the right group.
Currency support, for its part, is vital for firms that work heavily with imports. When prices can be entered in a foreign currency and converted to the local currency at the current rate, your margin stays put even as the rate swings. When multi-layered discounts, order-time freezing, and currency management come together, pricing stops being a worry that always waits for a hand and turns into an order that runs safely in the background.