PriceUpdater™

PriceUpdater turns cost pricing data into retail pricing, giving you printable wholesale and retail price lists and price tags. It runs on Windows and Macintosh computers alike.

With a few clicks of the mouse, you get instant calculated retail lists and printable price tags, based on your preferences as a retailer.

Tell PriceUpdater your desired markup percentage, your additional charges (such as freight per sq. yd), tell it you want large or small price tags — and you've got a simple viewpoint on your entire product line that goes straight to printed price tags and price lists.

Find Products Instantly

Find products with ease. Search by any criteria — product name, SKU, vendor, price, dimensions — you name it. Search by any combination of criteria.

Click the magnifying glass on any screen to start a search. Type what you're looking for into the corresponding fields. Click the magnifying glass again, and the items that match your criteria jump to the fore, allowing you to apply custom markup percentages and print them as a list or as price tags.

You can even specify retail prices arbitrarily, independent of any calculation. What you say goes with this program.

What's the Best Way to Learn to Use PriceUpdater?

Install it and play with it. Click the buttons and see what they do. PriceUpdater comes with make-believe pricing data. Under the PriceUpdater Menu, choose Test Drive PriceUpdater. Mess with the numbers and see what happens. Open your eyes for pleasant surprises.

Once you've gotten familiar with the program's principal features, graduate from make-believe to the real deal. Click the Update Now button on the main screen and tell the program to dump the sample pricing.

Create Your Own Price Lists

You can create your own price list from scratch. Just choose the command Create New List under the PriceUpdater Menu, and the program opens a fresh, empty copy of the pricing file, ready for you to enter new products and pricing.

Click the Pencil+ icon to create a new entry (called a record) for each of your products, and begin typing in product names, specifications, and their wholesale prices. After you've created your list, click the Print List button to get a printout, or click the Price Tags button to view, edit, or print price tags.

Use the Tab key on the keyboard to advance from left to right as you type in your product names and cost prices. To move in the opposite direction, hold down the Shift key while pressing Tab.

If you wish to average pricing, click the link Go to Tier Retail Pricing at the top of the Broadloom retail screen. This sorts and averages your entries and takes you to a new view of your pricing, averaged by price group.

Support for Multiple Product Lines

Broadloom Supports goods sold by the sq. ft or sq. yd. PriceUpdater automatically calculates retail prices, based on wholesale prices you supply. Products belonging to the same price group can be averaged and priced alike (Tier Retail Pricing).

Merchandise Supports pricing of goods sold by any unit of sale or measure, be it carton, palette, bag, ft, sq. ft, or each. PriceUpdater automatically calculates retail prices, based on the wholesale prices and the units of measure you supply. Uses: Furniture, tile, hardwood flooring, accessories, parts lists — you name it.

Cost prices (wholesale) can be supplied manually by typing them in one by one or by importing price lists that your vendors provide. The import method can save hundreds of employee hours per month.

Under the PriceUpdater Menu in the program, choose Import Data from a File. Indicate to the program which spreadsheet or other data file you wish to import into PriceUpdater. Choose only the columns you want to import from the spreadsheet by matching them up with the fields in PriceUpdater.

Save Your Eyes

Don't miss the full-screen view from the Price Tags screen. When rows and columns have all but blinded you, the Price Tags view can ease the strain. Click the Price Tags button on any retail screen. Choose Browse, and you can page through your products full screen, one by one, by clicking the card-file icon. The Price Tags view provides search capabilities and a built-in calculator for adding freight, installation, etc. to your prices, individually or by batch.

Getting Started Tip

Stick with the big buttons on the screens when you're getting started, and you'll stay on track. The small toolbar buttons and full menu commands have expert uses that experienced users will appreciate.

PriceUpdater is ShareWare

You get to try it before you buy it. If it doesn't suit your purposes, there's only one folder to throw away to completely eliminate it from your computer: PriceUpdater Corral.

Appreciate your interest,

Alex Standefer
MacMerlin Computer Services^SM

What's Installed on Your Computer

PriceUpdater is fully functional without additional software, aside from your computer's operating system. You don't have to own a copy of FileMaker Pro or buy any additional software to use PriceUpdater. It is provided here in "runtime" form. The developer edition of FileMaker Pro allows applications developers to bind just enough of the full FileMaker program to make a custom application stand alone. I have built PriceUpdater as a stand-alone program for both Windows and Macintosh computers.

The installation provides all of its files in a single folder called PriceUpdater Corral and does not litter your computer with other files in places unseen. However, quite a few files appear in the installed PriceUpdater Program Files folder. Almost all of these files are FileMaker components that enable the program to operate. The only file Windows users need to remember is PriceUpdater.exe. The only file Macintosh users need to remember is PriceUpdater.

For Windows users, double-clicking PriceUpdater.exe, inside the PriceUpdater Program Files folder, starts the PriceUpdater pricing program. Once installed, a shortcut to the PriceUpdater.exe file can be placed conveniently on the desktop: On the keyboard hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys simultaneously, and without releasing the keys drag PriceUpdater.exe onto the desktop and drop it. (This creates a shortcut while leaving the original in place.)

For Macintosh users, double-clicking PriceUpdater, inside the PriceUpdater Program Files folder, starts the PriceUpdater pricing program. Once installed, an alias to the PriceUpdater program file can be placed conveniently on the desktop or under the Apple menu: On the keyboard, hold down the Apple key and Option key at the same time, and without releasing the keys drag the PriceUpdater program file onto the desktop and drop it. (This creates an alias while leaving the original in place.)

Trivia

The most powerful spreadsheet program on the market was first engineered for Macintosh, not Windows. Can you name it? [Right you are, if you said Microsoft Excel.]

The first-ever automated Excel pricing system for Carpet One's web-based pricing files was engineered by . . . ? [Right you are, if you said MacMerlin Computer Services(SM) and Lowell Pearlman, Pearlman's Carpet One, Asheville, NC.]

The most user-friendly database on the market was originally written for Macintosh and now is available as well for Windows. Can you name it? [Right you are, if you said FileMaker Pro.]

PriceUpdater Version History

FileMaker versions:

PriceUpdater 8.8 update 2 (18 August 2008) LinkCaddy 2.8 and SmartLedger 2.8.2 have been included in the package. 8.79 (18 February 2008) The Import Merchandise and Import Broadloom files can now be opened and used independently to import cost pricing into PriceUpdater. A field name mismatch in the merchandise importation routine has been fixed. 8.78 (9 February 2008) International date formats and alternative currency symbols are now supported. Buttons added to the Your Logo Here screen make it easier to store logo images in the Image Library and retrieve them for reuse. Show Hole Punch Position button added to price tag screens prints a hole-punch position dot on the large price tags. Useful when you want to hang the price tag from a rearview mirror on your used car lot or from a drawer handle in your furniture showroom. Some fields named "Cut Sq Ft" have been renamed "Unit Cost" and "Unit Price" for clarity when dealing with merchandise not sold by sq. yard & sq. ft. For purposes of flooring & carpet, Unit means "sq. ft." Format All button added to price tag screens lets you apply text styling to all tags at once. 8.76 (27 October 2007) Fixed an issue where the Create New List command produced an unlikely dialog if sample test-drive records were present. 8.75 Trial period extended to a week; revisions to documentation; Web Page Create command added to PriceUpdater Menu; screen navigation & screen sizing reengineered for cross-platform consistency & reliability; new releases of LinkCaddy and SmartLedger incorporated in the package. 8.7 (12 April 07) Secure, online registration is now built in. 8.6 (5 March 2007) More consistent screen sizing, improved navigation. Cross-platform compatibility now includes Mac OSX, Mac "classic", and all known flavors of Windows from 95 to XP. 8.5b (9 January 2007) corrected some print dialogs and enhanced the Page Setup & Test command; SmartLedger™ added to the package (finance utility). 8.5a (1 January 2007) allows you to sort by clicking column headings with the mouse on the retail screens. The first click sorts ascending, a second click sorts descending. If in find mode, a click on a column heading completes your find request. 8.5 (7 September 2006) added several noncarpet files to the Carpet One import routine and corrected a misbehavior in the batch processing of promos. 8.4j (12 August 2006) provided a new option for multiple salseperson contact journaling. Double-click LinkCaddy.USR inside the PriceUpdater Program Files folder, and try the new interface "Sales Diary." 8.4i (17 May 2006) New Startup Options command under the PriceUpdater Menu lets you choose which screen the program opens with. If you are only working with merchandise pricing, this command will allow you to go directly to that screen each time you start the program. For improved speed and reliability with a variety of printers, please run the new Page Setup & Test command under the PriceUpdater Menu before printing from the program. Completing the test once for your printer results in many fewer prompts when you click the print button in PriceUpdater. Standard half sheet tag layouts have been corrected. 8.4h (2 May 2006) Misc. speedups; improved options screen for printing logos on price tags. 8.4g (April 25, 2006) New layouts for standard half sheet price tags; powerful new promo management features via Go to Promos command; a logo library for storing multiple logos to print on price tags; new options for rounding prices to nearest 99¢, nearest ten dollars, etc. 8.4e (February 25, 2006) Apply Update, a new command on the Download Pricing screen, lets C1 users update their links to online pricing by applying a small LinksUpdate file. Paid users, please contact the author to receive LinksUpdates by email. Price tag views now let you apply markup to additional charges, in addition to or instead of global extras; retail price rounding features now integrated with existing features; trash can button added to list views for deleting records. 8.4 (December 29, 2005) Create New List command instantly gives you a new, empty copy of the pricing file; Your Logo Here command lets you put your own logo on the price tags; Round Retail Price command allows rounding the selling prices to nearest 5¢, 9¢, or 99¢; download destination has a new name, "PriceUpdater Corral"; the web address organizer LinkCaddy™ has new features for postal mailing.

8.3a-h (February through October releases, 2005) enabled calculating averaged prices based on future effective pricing; users can now toggle between generic user interface and the Carpet One user interface. 8.3b (April 20, 2004) provided a download facilitator (LinkCaddy™); a command for removing duplicates; a command for backing up selected records; a paper-saving feature for choosing single-line retail printouts; options for finding similar items by clicking on the field of interest; a new button for recalculating averaged prices on the fly; an import assistant for getting data from files created by other programs; and automatic import of the new Carpet One combined core and noncore pricing spreadsheets. 8.2x (October 31, 2003) provided speed improvements and new import capabilities for Carpet One users: Select-a-Floor wood & laminates and the Liz Claiborne product line. 8.2t (May 20, 2003) corrected a minor error in the show by vendor automation. 8.2s (April 16, 2003) provided a simplified main screen for generic use and a multitude of enhancements for entering and finding information. 8.2q (February 15, 2003) added import capabilities for Carpet One hardwood & trim, and provided backup and restore features for applying personal preferences from one update to the next. 8.2k (October 27, 2002) brought various speedups and improvements to the program's overall behavior; fixed a problem with the pricing module for miscellaneous items (Product Line 3) where a price greater than $10,000 would not fit on a price tag. The program's usefulness was extended to just about any kind of merchandise ranging in price from pennies to millions of dollars. 8.1 (September 27, 2002) introduced generic price list creation whereby any unit of sale or measure could be calculated and printed on price tags and lists, thus extending the program's usefulness to non-carpet retailers. 8.0 (August 25, 2002) brought enhanced interactive intelligence and advisories to the user experience. The program now evaluated time-limited promotional items and processed only current-price items in group-price averaging; detected time-out of promotional pricing. Many aesthetic enhancements for an agreeable presence on the user's computer screen. 7.1 (March 8, 2002) improved ability to print identically on different brands of printers. 7.0 (March 8, 2002) introduced price averaging for product group pricing. 1.0 (December 18, 2001) was the first FileMaker version of put into use at Pearlman's Carpet One; delivered new features not found in the Excel version, including integrated price tag printing and ability to modify product prices individually or by groups; full-featured pricing automation for residential, commercial, and select-a-floor carpet in an all-in-one design.

Excel versions:
PriceUpdater 1.5 (November 28, 2001) adapted to active server page technology newly implemented on the members' website. Users download pricing files via their Web browser, into the Downloaded Pricing Files folder, in advance of opening the automated retail pricing spreadsheets. PriceUpdater 1.4 returned live update capabilities to the application and adapted to new columns inserted in the online pricing files. Installation was greatly simplified. PriceUpdater 1.2 (August 16, 2001) split into two programs, PriceUpdaterSAF to support the new select-a-floor pricing file, and PriceUpdater to continue support for the commercial and residential pricing files. PriceUpdater 1.1 (July 14, 2001) adapted to changed file locations on the Carpet One website. Button controls were added to enable selective listing of promotional pricing in the combined residential & commercial retail list. PriceUpdater 1.0 (March 24, 2001) established a milestone for C1 affiliates by obtaining live, on-line internet updates solely via Excel.