Ostendo Pricing & Discounts

Pricing and Discounting in Ostendo Continuum ERP

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Pricing is one of the most powerful drivers of profitability—and also one of the most complex to manage. Ostendo Continuum ERP delivers a sophisticated, rules-based pricing and discounting framework that allows businesses to control margins, automate promotions, and support complex customer and contract pricing structures without losing operational simplicity.

Built for manufacturers, distributors, service organisations, and project-based businesses, Ostendo’s pricing engine scales from straightforward price lists through to highly granular, automated pricing strategies.

Flexible Price Levels & Calculation Methods

Ostendo supports unlimited price levels, enabling organisations to define distinct pricing strategies for different customer segments, markets, or channels. Rather than maintaining static price lists, prices can be dynamically calculated using flexible rules linked to costs and margins.

Supported calculation methods include:

  • Standard sell price (with dollar or percentage adjustments)
  • Standard buy price plus markup
  • Last cost plus margin
  • Standard cost plus margin
  • Fixed price values

This approach allows businesses to respond quickly to cost changes while maintaining consistent pricing logic across the organisation. Quantity price breaks can be applied at each price level, automatically rewarding customers who buy more with better pricing. 

Quantity Breaks, Units of Measure & Multi-Currency

Pricing can be defined with multiple decimal places and up to five quantity breaks for both sales and purchases, ensuring precision even for high-volume or low-margin items. Customer pricing can also be defined by unit of measure, allowing the same product to be priced differently when sold individually, in cartons, or in bulk. 

For international businesses, Ostendo provides full multi-currency pricing. Pricing rules can be defined per currency, ensuring overseas customers see prices calculated correctly for their market and exchange context. 

Special Pricing & Contract Pricing

Ostendo’s Special Pricing capability supports detailed contract pricing arrangements and always takes precedence over standard price levels when applicable.

Special prices can be defined for:

  • All customers
  • Specific customers
  • Specific price levels

Each special pricing record can include:

  • Quantity price breaks
  • Effectivity (start and end) dates
  • Customer-specific conditions

This makes it ideal for negotiated contracts, tender pricing, and time-limited agreements, with automatic enforcement and expiry—no manual intervention required. 

Discounts & Promotional Pricing

Discounts in Ostendo can be applied at multiple levels:

  • Price level
  • Item level
  • Customer level

The system supports both cumulative discounting (stacking multiple discounts) and best-price discounting (applying the single most favourable discount), giving organisations full control over how discounts interact. 

Promotional pricing can be scheduled in advance using effectivity dates, ensuring promotions start and end automatically—perfect for campaigns, seasonal offers, and limited-time deals.

Automated Promotions & Order Pricing Matrix

The Order Pricing Matrix allows powerful automation of pricing rules directly at order entry. For example:

  • Buy three items, get the fourth free
  • Spend over a threshold to receive a percentage discount
  • Apply bonus stock during a promotional period

These rules are applied automatically based on order conditions, without requiring operator awareness, ensuring consistent execution of pricing strategy across all channels. 

Add-On Sales & Bonus Stock Pricing

Ostendo supports Add-On Sales Pricing, enabling businesses to promote complementary products or services when specific items are ordered. For example, ordering a printer can automatically trigger special pricing for ink or paper.

Add-on items can:

  • Use dedicated promotional pricing
  • Or inherit standard pricing rules

This flexibility supports both margin-driven upsells and strategic loss-leader promotions. Bonus stock promotions and specials price lists further enhance sales incentives. 

Price Overrides, Security & Margin Protection

While automation is powerful, Ostendo recognises that exceptions happen. Order line prices can be manually overridden for one-off deals or exceptional circumstances, with strict security controls governing:

  • Who can override prices
  • How much prices can be changed

Pricing warnings can alert users when margins fall below acceptable levels or when discounts exceed normal limits, protecting profitability while allowing justified flexibility. 

Pricing Hierarchy & Transparency

Ostendo uses a clear pricing hierarchy to ensure the most relevant price is always applied:

  1. Special pricing
  2. Customer-specific price levels
  3. Default pricing rules

This layered approach handles even complex scenarios predictably and transparently, while remaining simple for everyday transactions.

Comprehensive price history reporting provides full visibility into pricing changes over time, supporting auditability, margin analysis, and continuous improvement. 

Strategic Pricing Control with Ostendo

With its combination of dynamic price calculation, contract pricing, automated promotions, and robust controls, Ostendo Continuum ERP enables organisations to turn pricing into a strategic advantage—balancing flexibility, automation, and margin protection in a single, integrated system.

For organisations seeking to optimise pricing, reduce manual intervention, and improve profitability, Ostendo provides the depth and control required to support both operational efficiency and long-term growth.