Published at: 2026-09-17
Pricing policy system overview
Learn how pricing policies turn promotion strategies into order discounts.
Overview
A pricing policy uses a rule engine to run promotions. It turns a company’s promotion strategy into rules that the system can evaluate and execute.
When sales users create orders, the system matches pricing policies by account, product, quantity, amount, and document conditions. After a policy matches, the system processes order amounts, product line prices, discounts, gift lines, and promotion allocation results.
From a user perspective, a pricing policy is not a manual price-editing tool. It is an automatic promotion matching mechanism during order entry. Sales users need to know whether the order matches a policy, how the benefit appears, and how to choose another policy when multiple policies are available.
Business value
Companies use promotion benefits to motivate downstream distributors, increase short-term sales, and improve sales performance. Pricing policies convert these promotion strategies into executable system rules.
Pricing policies support these business goals:
| Goal | Business purpose | What users see |
|---|---|---|
| Increase sales | Encourage downstream distributors to purchase more by offering promotion benefits. | After the order meets the conditions, the system applies a discount, reduction, or buy-and-get promotion. |
| Increase average order value | Use promotion thresholds, tiered benefits, bundle recommendations, and packages to increase order value. | The order receives the corresponding benefit after the quantity or amount reaches the threshold. |
| Expand market coverage | Promote new products to increase purchase intent. | New or specified products can participate in promotions during order entry. |
| Clear inventory | Promote slow-moving products to accelerate inventory turnover. | Specified products receive benefits after they meet rule conditions. |
| Respond to competition | Use promotions to improve market penetration and compete for share. | Policies can target specified accounts or products. |
Key concepts
| Concept | Definition | User-facing effect |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing policy | A rule-engine-based system for running promotions. | Determines whether an order can receive a promotion. |
| Pricing rule | A specific promotion method within a pricing policy. | Defines a discount, reduction, fixed price, buy-and-get promotion, or bundle promotion. |
| Order-level promotion | A promotion applied to the whole order. | Affects amounts or fields on the order master object. |
| Product promotion | A promotion applied to order detail lines. | Affects prices, amounts, or gifts on order product lines. |
| Gift rule | A rule for buy-and-get promotions. | Adds gift lines after the order meets the conditions. |
| Aggregation rule | A rule that calculates an aggregate value from document fields. | Helps evaluate order quantity, amount, or product bundle thresholds. |
| Quota limit | A limit on the benefit scope and cost. | Controls benefit usage by account, area, distributor, or all records. |
| Allocation details | Allocation results for promotion benefits on promoted product lines. | Helps users understand the real benefit impact on each order. |
How it works
The pricing policy process has these steps:
- The company enables pricing policies and maintains policies, rules, and applicable scopes.
- Sales users create orders and enter accounts, products, quantities, and amounts.
- The system matches pricing policies and pricing rules by order data.
- After the order meets the conditions, the system processes prices, amounts, discounts, or gifts by rule.
- The system records allocation results so users can review the promotion impact.
Full system and user-facing relationship
A pricing policy is not a single promotion button. It is a system that combines configuration and execution results. During order entry, sales users mainly interact with matched policies, product line promotion tags, policy switching, and allocation results.
| Component | Purpose | User-facing impact |
|---|---|---|
| System enablement | Enables pricing policy capabilities. | After enablement, orders can run promotions by pricing policy. |
| Basic settings | Defines the promotion modification type, priority, and other basic information. | When multiple policies match, the system uses priority to select the default policy. |
| Pricing rules | Define promotion methods and execution results. | Determine which benefit the order receives. |
| Applicable accounts | Define which accounts can use the pricing policy. | If the order account is outside the scope, the policy is unavailable. |
| Promotion products | Control which products display the Promo tag during order entry. | Help users identify products that may participate in promotions. |
| Aggregation rules | Provide aggregate values for rule conditions or threshold conditions. | Support quantity, amount, or bundle-based matching. |
| Quota limits | Control benefit distribution and cost. | Benefits may stop after the limit is exceeded. |
| Allocation details | Show the allocation results for benefit amounts or gift values. | Support review of order promotion cost and line-level impact. |
Main order operations
Sales users usually focus on these items during order processing:
| Operation | What to check | Description |
|---|---|---|
| View the Promo tag | Whether the product is in the promotion display scope. | If the product name shows a Promo tag, the product is in the promotion product display scope. |
| Confirm policy matching | Whether the current order meets policy conditions. | The system evaluates available policies by order account, products, and business fields. |
| Switch a product promotion policy | Select a suitable policy when multiple product promotion policies are available. | For product promotions, users can click Policy on the product line to switch to another available pricing policy. |
| Confirm execution results | Whether the benefit is applied to the order or product line. | After saving or submitting the order, check whether the price, amount, discount, or gift changes by rule. |
| View allocation details | How the benefit impact is allocated to detail lines. | For amount-based promotions, view benefit amount allocation. For gift promotions, view gift value allocation. |
[!NOTE] The Promo tag only indicates the promotion product display scope. The actual product scope for a promotion is defined in the pricing rule.
How to understand policy matching
Whether an order can use a pricing policy usually depends on these factors:
| Matching factor | What users can observe |
|---|---|
| Account scope | Whether the current order account is in the policy’s applicable accounts. |
| Product scope | Whether product lines in the order meet rule conditions. |
| Order conditions | Whether business fields on the order master object meet rule requirements. |
| Aggregation result | Whether quantity, amount, or product bundle values reach the rule threshold. |
| Policy priority | When multiple policies match, the system uses the policy with a higher priority by default. |
| Quota limit | Whether the benefit is still within the available distribution scope. |
If the order does not receive the expected benefit, first check the account, product, quantity, amount, and policy switching results. For rule scope or quota limit issues, contact the configuration owner to review policy settings.
Common promotion methods
Pricing policies can support these promotion methods:
| Promotion method | Result | Typical scenario |
|---|---|---|
| Discount | Adjusts the discount or benefit amount. | Applies a discount after a specified product or order meets the conditions. |
| Reduction | Reduces a specified amount. | Reduces the amount after an amount or quantity threshold is met. |
| Fixed price | Applies a fixed price. | Sells specified products at a unified promotion price during a campaign. |
| Buy-and-get promotion | Adds gift lines. | Adds gifts after quantity or amount conditions are met. |
| Bundle pricing | Reduces or reprices a product bundle. | Applies an amount-based benefit after multiple products meet a bundle threshold. |
| Bundle buy-and-get | Adds gifts for a product bundle. | Gives specified products after a bundle meets the conditions. |
Amount-based promotions usually affect price, discount, amount, or benefit amount. Gift promotions usually add gifts and create gift value allocation.
Usage boundaries
- Pricing policies are value-added services and must be enabled separately in Setup.
- After pricing policies are enabled, they cannot be disabled.
- Pricing policies are mutually exclusive with the legacy promotion feature.
- When multiple pricing policies match, the system selects the policy with the highest priority by default.
- A smaller priority number means a higher priority.
- Product promotions support switching to another available policy on the product line.
- The Promo tag does not mean that the pricing policy actually matches.