Pricebook re-costing for an electrical contractor, after three supplier price rises

01The problem

An electrical contractor sells switchboards, circuit protection, cable and lighting. Its three main suppliers raised prices in February, May and August 2026. The simPRO pricebook still holds the January cost and sell prices, so every quote and every fixed-price job is built on costs that are out of date.

Owners usually notice it like this:

1. Jobs that looked fine at quote stage finish with a thinner margin than expected
2. Nobody can say what a part costs today without ringing the supplier
3. Supplier price files arrive by email and are never loaded
4. The same part is sold at the same price whether it cost $4 or $5 to buy

In this sample, the pricebook has 1,400 lines and was last updated in January. Against current supplier prices, none of the 1,383 active lines had a cost within 1% of the supplier's file, and 1,382 lines sat more than one percentage point below their group's target margin. The last six months of billing (April to September 2026) is 11,000 lines, $1,835,368 ex GST, billed at a margin of 30.9%.

02The outcome

This is what the setup does and delivers:

1. Every pricebook line compared with the current supplier price, with a clear status: current, superseded or discontinued
2. A short set of cost and margin rules by group, so a new sell price is calculated the same way every time
3. A re-costed import file that updates existing simPRO items by part number only, with a backup of the catalogue exported first
4. An approval list for the large changes, with the decision and the reason for each recorded
5. A report showing what the last six months of billing would have earned at the new prices
6. A repeatable quarterly routine, so the next price rise takes an hour rather than a project

03Scope

Not included: payroll, STP or BAS lodgement.

04Walkthrough

4.1 The three price rises

Each supplier's rises hit some groups harder than others. Cable moved the most. The table shows the rise in each round, the combined rise, the target margin for the group, and the average margin the old sell price now earns at today's cost:

4.2 The three supplier files

Each file is matched on part number to the pricebook:

For renumbered parts the supplier's new number is recorded in a notes column, and the import uses the part number that simPRO already holds so that Update Only matches the existing item.

4.3 Cost and margin rules

4.4 Example lines

4.5 The approval list

279 lines changed by more than the rules allow, and went to the owner. 1,104 lines were within the rules and 17 are archived.

Largest proposed changes (per unit):

A capped line is brought up to the full price at the next quarterly update. A held line is listed with a review date, so it does not stay low by accident.

4.6 The import

1. Export the existing catalogue from simPRO (Export > Catalogue) and keep the file as the backup
2. Run a trial of 20 lines through Utilities > Import, with Update Only selected, and check the result in simPRO against the file
3. Import the rest. Update Only matches the part number and updates existing items. Rows that do not match are ignored, so nothing new is created
4. Compare the new catalogue export with the import file and record the numbers

The import file has the part number, description, cost price and sell price for each active line. If the business prefers simPRO to calculate sell from a markup, the file carries the markup instead, and the trial import confirms which columns the import accepts on that setup. In this sample the file has 1,383 rows, one for every approved active line. The 17 archived lines are not in it.

4.7 Margin impact on the last six months

The 11,000 billed lines from April to September were billed at the old sell prices. Each line's cost is the supplier price at the date of the job, so the cost rises step up in May and August. The "new" columns show the same lines at the re-costed sell prices:

By month:

This is an estimate of what the re-costed prices would have earned. Jobs quoted at a fixed price before the rises cannot be re-priced, so the real recovery is spread over new quotes from here.

One job, before and after: Switchboard upgrade, Moonee Ponds (job EJ4049).

4.8 Cross-check against Xero bills

Prices in the pricebook are checked against what the suppliers actually charged. A Xero export of September's bill lines is matched by part number to the new pricebook cost, and any line more than 1% away is raised with the supplier:

57 of 60 lines were within 1% of the new cost. 3 were above it, and went back to the supplier. The detail is in xero_bill_crosscheck.csv.

4.9 The quarterly routine

1. Ask each supplier for a current price file, or download it on the first Monday of the quarter
2. Export the simPRO catalogue as a backup
3. Paste the files into the workbook, which matches them on part number and applies the rules
4. Review the approval list and record each decision
5. Run a trial import of 20 lines, then the full import with Update Only
6. Cross-check a sample of recent Xero bill lines against the new cost
7. Save the workbook, the import file and the approval decisions together

05Checks

06Milestones

The fixed quote follows the US$300 health check, so the price is based on what is actually in your files. If the health check changes the plan, I re-quote before M2.

07Handover

1. The re-costing workbook (Excel) with the rules and the group margins
2. The import file and the approved decision list
3. A backup of the catalogue before the import
4. The margin impact report
5. A one-page quarterly SOP
6. A recorded walkthrough
7. Prepared by Manaz Afzal

08Files

A screen from the sample workbook, then every file in the work sample. Select the image to open it full size.

pricebook-recosting.xlsx › Summary