Price agreements
The agreed price, on every order, for the whole term.
A foodservice distributor might hold 200 customer agreements, each with its own prices, its own term and a blanket PO it draws down week by week. Apex keeps each agreement as a record, prices every call-off from it, and shows how much of the framework is left.
What an agreement holds
One record per customer agreement, not a tab per customer.
Customer price lists
Agreed prices per item, with the term they hold for. Items not on the list fall back to your standard book.
Blanket POs
The customer's framework PO, its value or quantity, and its expiry. Each call-off draws it down.
Call-offs
Orders released against the framework, priced from the agreement and checked against what remains.
Terms
Payment terms, delivery terms and any minimum order, carried from the agreement onto each order.
Across the term
How an agreement runs from signature to renewal.
- 01
Set up
From a won tender, a signed quote or an agreement you already hold in the ERP. Prices and the blanket PO are recorded once.
- 02
Call off
Each order is priced from the agreement. A price that does not match the agreement is held for a person, not invoiced.
- 03
Draw down
Apex tracks value and quantity against the blanket PO and warns before it runs out, so the customer can raise the next one in time.
- 04
Review
Before the term ends, the agreement's volume and margin are summarized for the renewal conversation.
Where it usually breaks
Why agreed prices drift.
| Prices kept by hand | Prices kept as agreements | |
|---|---|---|
| Order entry | The clerk picks list price by mistake | The agreement price is applied to the order |
| Expired terms | Old prices run past the end date | The agreement ends and the book takes over |
| Blanket PO | Overrun found when the customer rejects an invoice | Drawdown shown on every call-off |
| Disputes | Credit notes after the fact | Price checked before the invoice exists |
Agents propose, people approve
The agent drafts. A person decides.
An agreement agent reads a signed customer agreement or framework PO, drafts the price list and drawdown terms from it, and points to the clause each value came from. A person checks it before the agreement is active.
Every agent stops at an approval gate until it has earned its way out of one. Nothing releases cash, commits spend or touches a customer without a person saying so.
Your dataModels that read your data run inside your environment, behind your firewall. No client data reaches a frontier lab.
Start here, keep the foundation
Start with price agreements. Add the rest without starting over.
Start with price agreements alone. Apex brings your customers, items, price lists and open orders down from the ERP into your Ferrata foundation, so existing agreements are loaded rather than retyped. When you add invoicing, the invoice uses the same agreement price the order did.
FAQ
Questions, answered plainly.
What is contract pricing management?
Contract pricing management means keeping the prices you have agreed with each customer, for the term you agreed them, and making sure every order and invoice uses them. Apex holds each agreement as a record and prices orders from it.
What is a blanket PO, and how does Apex track it?
A blanket PO is a customer's framework purchase order for a total value or quantity over a period, drawn down by individual orders called call-offs. Apex records the blanket PO, subtracts each call-off, and warns before the remaining balance runs out.
Can Apex use the customer price lists already in our ERP?
Yes. Apex is built to read customer-specific price lists from SAP, NetSuite or Dynamics and treat them as agreements. You can add the terms the ERP does not model, such as the blanket PO and the review date, in Apex.
What happens if an order comes in at the wrong price?
Apex compares it with the agreement. A mismatch is held for a person with both prices shown, rather than becoming an invoice the customer will dispute.
What happens when an agreement expires?
Orders after the end date fall back to your standard price book, or to the renewed agreement if one is in place. Apex shows which agreements end in the next 90 days so renewals start in time.
Does this work for distributors with hundreds of agreements?
That is the case it is designed for. Each agreement is its own record with its own items, prices and dates, and the list can be filtered by customer, end date or drawdown.
Related in Apex
- CPQConfigure, price and quote from the items and price lists already in your ERP.View
- RebatesTiered rebates accrued from invoiced volume and settled as credit notes.View
- RFQ and tender responseImport the buyer's line list, price it from your book, and submit on time.View
- InvoicingInvoices calculated in Apex, checked against the PO, posted to your ERP first.View
- DistributionCustomer price agreements, call-offs, rebates and freight on every order.View
From Ferrata Labs
- Swift, the order agentTurns customer purchase orders into clean sales orders.
- Ferrata in food and beverageRestaurants, distribution and procurement.
- Ferrata in manufacturingProduction, quality and procurement, on SAP, NetSuite or Dynamics.
- How it worksAssess, Anchor, a first agent live in under 90 days, then your team.
Start with price agreements, or talk it through first.
Thirty minutes with Ferrata Labs on one workflow. You leave with a view of where Apex fits, and an honest answer if the sequencing is wrong and you should fix something else first.
Your pricing, approval and billing rules are your advantage, and they stay yours. Apex is configured to the way you sell and bill. You are not handing over a playbook or fitting into a template.