This series uses Dingli, a Patisco demo account. Every system screen and all the data shown here came from real operations in the system, including the exchanges between buyers and suppliers; they are not mock-ups. The people and dialogue are dramatized, and the illustrations are for illustration only. Screens are shown in the system's Chinese interface; Patisco is also available in English and other languages.
In the story: the same day, 12:15 p.m.
Two emails, one cassette
A-Zhe has just opened his lunchbox when two emails pop up.
Dana at Northwind in the US: "What's your best price for the 11-speed cassette, 11-32T? 500 pcs."
Jonas at Velostrada in Germany: "Same item, please quote. Usual terms."
The same cassette, DL-CS-11S. Velostrada is a distributor, with high volume and a long relationship. Northwind is a channel seller, with lower volume. The bike shop in Tokyo buys retail restocking quantities. Naturally, the three prices are different.
A-Zhe opens the shared folder and sees three files:
price_list_2025.xlsxprice_list_2025_revised.xlsxprice_list_2025_revised_Chairman_Lin_checked.xlsx
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
How it used to go
It already blew up once, last year. The price list A-Zhe sent Jonas turned out to be the bike shop column. Jonas's reply was a single line:
Interesting. So this is the price you give to shops?
A-Zhe still remembers that email.
The old way was this: one Excel file holds every price. To quote, you pick the column by hand, copy, paste, save a separate PDF, and send it. More customers, more columns. When a product's price changes, every version has to change. Miss one cell, and that's your next "Interesting."
At the next desk, A-Mei takes a salted plum from her drawer and quietly pops it in her mouth. A-Zhe doesn't notice.
How it goes in Patisco
Step one: set the price categories once.
Under [Trading Setup], in [Price category settings], Dingli defines three: distributor price, channel price, and shop price. The distributor price is the base, and the other two come from formulas: channel price is base plus 8%, shop price is base plus 15%.
From now on, when the base price changes, click [Recalculate product prices by formula…], choose [Overwrite all with formula], and the other categories are recalculated. You see a preview first, and nothing is written until you confirm. (Without that choice, the system only fills in prices that are still empty and leaves existing ones alone.)
Step two: one category can hold several quantity tiers.
Dana wants 500. Jonas usually takes 1,000 at a time. Within the same "channel price," you can set one price for 100 and another for 500, adding tiers as you like.
Step three: who sees which price is up to the trading terms.
Every customer gets a set of trading terms: currency, trade term, which price they see, [Rounding method], [Stock quantity visible]. Jonas only sees the distributor price. The shop in Tokyo sees the shop price, in yen.
Document 101｜Price lists and trading terms: A price list tells the buyer what each thing costs. Trading terms spell out what that price assumes: which currency, where the goods change hands, how payment works. "FOB Kaohsiung," for example, means the seller is responsible for getting the goods onto a ship at Kaohsiung port, and ocean freight and insurance from there are on the buyer. The same number under different terms can mean a very different real cost for each side, so a price should always be read together with its trading terms.
And so "sent the wrong column" stops being a thing. Not because A-Zhe got more careful, but because Jonas's screen only ever has his one price on it.
Step four: invite the customer, or give them a catalog of their own.
Once a customer accepts an invitation, they log in and see the catalogs Dingli has shared with them, with prices shown according to their trading terms. The models made for Velostrada's brand can go in a "Velostrada exclusive" catalog that only Velostrada can see.
At two in the afternoon, A-Zhe answers both emails. Dana and Jonas each click into their catalog and see two different prices.
Hsiu-Chin walks by and glances at the screen. "So I won't have to ask which version a quotation is from anymore?"
"In theory," A-Zhe says.
"In theory?"
"In practice, you'll find out next episode."
Before vs. with Patisco
| Before | With Patisco | |
|---|---|---|
| Where prices live | One Excel file, three versions | Price categories on the product, one copy only |
| Changing a price | Edit every version by hand | Change the base price, recalculate with [Overwrite all with formula], preview first |
| Showing the customer | Pick a column, save a PDF, send it | Customer logs into the catalog and automatically sees only their price |
| Where mistakes creep in | Sending the wrong column | There's no one else's price on screen to send by mistake |
A word for the boss: Set your pricing policy once and sales follows it. The same customer won't get a different price just because someone else did the quoting.
Further reading
- How to set trading terms so buyers see the price you want them to see
- Where to find price category formulas, and how channel and shop prices are derived from the base