Margin Master Screen
The Margin Master Screen has by far the most features and capabilities in the Margin Master Program. The Margin Master user interface has been designed to be flexible enough to allow everyone to quickly find the subsets of Skus needed to make intelligent pricing decisions. More importantly, the proper use of this screen will allow users to quickly manipulate their data to build an effective Pricing Strategy. The ability to work effectively within the Margin Master Screen is crucial to getting the most out of Margin Master.  The Margin Master screen has 6 major components. Below, we will review each one independently. The diagram below indicates each section - with the exception of the menus.

• 1. Top Section - Selection Tabs
• 2. Upper Middle - Button Bar
• 3. Center - Selected Sku List
• 4. Bottom Left - Summary Section
• 5. Bottom Right - Future Price and Rounding Tabs
• 6. Screen Menus

SECTION 1 - TOP SECTION - SELECTION TABS
The top section of the screen has four selection tabs. Each tab can be selected by clicking the tab name near the top of the screen. The selection lists work very simply by clicking the items that you would like to see. Where possible, the program will allow you to make multiple selections from the same list. Also, some selections allow you to make an exclusion selection by right clicking - instead of left clicking the selection. A left click, resulting in a check mark says include these items, and a right click, resulting in a Red X, means to include everything except this selection.  Building selections is meant to be very easy, and by using the various selection criteria across each of the tabs, you can build virtually any selection criteria. After building the selection criteria, Clicking Refresh Data - instructs the computer to go find all of the Sku's that meet all of the selection criteria.

Basic Selection Tab
The Basic Selection Tab has 8 selection lists. While the titles of the selection lists may vary based on your POS system, the concepts are the same. The available selection lists are Store, Department, Class, Ace Product Group, Ace Primary Vendor Number, Store Velocity Code, Ace RSC Velocity Code, and Ace Pricing Strategy.

Price Selection Tab
The Price Selection Tab has two main selection criteria - Current Price and Future Price. Also notice that each criteria has two selection opportunities. For Current Price, there is tab C1 and C2 and for Future Price, there is tab F1 and F2. The two sub-tabs located under each selection criteria both function exactly the same - they just enable you to include more than one Current Price and more than one Future price in any selection. This may seem confusing, but trust, there will be a day when you will be glad to have this functionality.

DISPLAY EXPLANATION
IS = TO IS EQUAL TO
IS > THAN IS GREATER THAN
IS >= TO IS GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO
IS < THAN IS LESS THAN
IS <= TO IS LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO
> AND < IS GREATER THAN x AND LESS THAN y
=> AND <= IS GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO x AND LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO y

SECTION 2 - UPPER MIDDLE - BUTTON BAR

The left has a selection of eight buttons.

• Go Back to Previous Selection Clicking this button will take you back to the previous screen.
• Show Profit Analyzer for Current Selection Criteria Clicking this button will open up a screen that gives you the ability to review where your overall gross margin dollars are coming from. You can view this information based on a selection of criteria made.
• Current Selection Summary Clicking this button will display a summary of the current selection criteria. This is useful if you have made a selection, and aren't quite sure what you are looking at.
• Selection Stats Clicking this button will display the same stats screen that is shown by clicking the one click stats button on the one click tab - only the stats will be for whatever the current selection is.
• Non Zero Future Price Clicking this button will display all items that currently have a non zero Future Price. This is a great way to identify all of the items with a pending change. Remember - items with a Future Price of Zero have no change!
• View Clicking the View Button will allow you to make changes to the current view selected for the Sku List section, and set a few other view options.
• Sort Clicking sort will display the Sort Sequence Screen - be sure to see the Full instruction for the Sort Sequence Screen elsewhere in this help information.
• Print The print button is where we start the process for exporting all data. The options are given to send the data to a printer, a text file or Excel. be sure to see the Full instruction for the Print Screen elsewhere in this help information

SECTION 3 - CENTER - SKU LISTING SECTION
The center section of the Margin Master screen looks like this;


The Sku List section shows the Sku's and related information that have met the above selection criteria.  Included in this section are many fields. Of particular interest are the Ace Retail, or Vendor Retail, Level 1 is the Middle Price, Level 2, is the Top Price. Also shown is the Current price as imported from your system. Also shown are Future Price, Annual Sales (Last 12), and the Annual Impact(Impact) values based on the Future Price change. The Impact is simply the Last 12 months sales units, multiplied by the change is retail price. Therefore, a 10 cent retail change on an item that sold 100 units in the last 12 months, would have an Impact of $10.00.

Screen Modification
One of the most important parts of this section is the virtually unlimited number of ways you can arrange the columns and sort the information. The same list of Sku's can show different types of information simply based on how it is sorted. The sorting for this section is controlled in the Sort Sequence Screen.  The columns displayed can be arranged using the View Options Screen. Click the View Button in the button bar to access the view options. Columns can also be relocated by dragging the header to the new location and dropping it. Right clicking the column header will also display a menu allowing you to insert or remove any of the available columns.

Scrolling the List
It is very easy using the right scroll bar to move around your list. By dragging the Scroll Indicator, the information will be displayed for the current row based on your current Sort Selections specified in the Sort Sequence Screen.

Quick Price Level Set & Quick Keys
The Future Price for an item can quickly be set by Right-Clicking on the desired price level. For example - to set a Future Price equal to Ace Retail, click the Ace Retail for the desired Sku - and the change is done.  Quick Keys is yet another way you can quickly manipulate a list of Sku's Future Prices.  First using the mouse, highlight any row in the Sku Display areas, then put the mouse away. Now use the arrow keys to navigate up and down. The Hot Key are available and will be applied to whatever row currently has the focus. Press the following Keys - and see what happens.

• [Enter] - Go to the Sku Detail Screen
• [`] or [~] = Set Future Price = Ace Retail
• [1] = Set Future Price = Level 1
• [2] = Set Future Price = Level 2
• [L] = Toggle Lock On/Off
• [Z] or [0] Set Future Price to Zero
• [C] = Set Future Price to Current Price
• [F] or [R] = Set Future Price = Rounded Future Price

There is an option available on the Options Screen that allows you to specify what happens after a quick key is pressed - Move Up, Move Down, or Nothing

Toggling Locks
For some Sku's, you may desire to "LOCK" them in at their current level so changes applied do not affect them. This can be done in one of two ways. First, by clicking on a displayed item and viewing the Sku Detail Screen. Second, a right click of the mouse in either the Current Price, or the Future Price columns, will quickly LOCK a price at either the current price, or a future price if one exists. If the Sku already has a lock - the lock will be removed.

Sku Detail
By Left Clicking on any line, you will see the Sku Detail Screen for the selected Sku. Be sure to see the separate section for more information about the Sku Detail Screen.

SECTION 4 - BOTTOM LEFT - SUMMARY SECTION
This part of the screen displays the total effect your price changes would have on your bottom line based on your last twelve months sales history. Depending on the View Selected or All Records option, you will see the totals for All records in the system, or for just those displayed above.  Other columns of interest here are, changes plus (+) and minus (-), these columns show the number of price increases and decreases respectively. The Avg column is the average price change. The Inv Value column reflects the impact of any changes on your inventory at retail. The remaining columns are Annual - which is the annual gross dollar increase or decrease. The last twelve columns are a month by month breakdown of the gross dollar increase or decrease - based on your actual sales. All numbers are listed by store and totaled.

Future Price Tab
After selecting and displaying a set of records that meet your criteria, you can quickly make changes to the Future Price for each of those items. This is done by using the Future Price tab on the bottom right of the Margin Master Screen.  Using the Future Price Tab, you can change what your target Future Price will be. By clicking the Apply button, Margin Master will set the Future Prices for each of the displayed items to the desired level.


For example: The section shown above would set the Future Price to Ace Retail when the Apply button is clicked. Since the plus/minus box is on no change, it would have no effect. It could have been set to +5% and the future retail would have been set to Ace Retail +5%.

Price Rounding
While Price Rounding is explained below, it is important that you understand how your selections made here can be affected by rounding.
The Basic Rules of rounding that Margin Master applies are:

• Before any rounding will take place, the Use Rounding Table Selection on the Rounding Tab must be selected. (It is selected by default)
• Rounding will not be applied when setting the Future Price to any SET price level (Ace Retail, Level 1, Level 2, Current Retail) unless the "force rounding on fixed levels" option is selected.
• Rounding will be applied when setting the Future Price to any SET price level (Ace Retail, Level 1, Level 2, Current Retail) plus or minus a percentage increase or decrease.
• Rounding will always be applied when Setting the Future Price to the Rounded Future Price.
• When a price is rounded, if it is determined to be the same as the current Retail, the Future Price will be set to $0.00 - effectively removing the Price Change
• The Rounding Rules established from the Rounding tab will determine how prices are rounded. It is possible to round some items with one set of rounding rules, and other items with another set of rounding rules.

Rounding Tab
The Price Rounding Tab determines if Rounding will be used, and if so, what rounding table will be used as rounding rules.  If you do not want to use rounding - simply select Do Not Use Rounding. By default - each time Margin Master is loaded, this value will be set back to Use Rounding Table. 

To change/edit your rounding table, click the Change/Edit button. The Rounding Rules window will be displayed. For complete information on Rounding, see the information about the Rounding Options Screen.  By default, the Ace 2003 rounding rules have been established, and are in effect.  CAUTION! The rounding rules will do exactly as you tell them to do. There is no integrity check within this screen, so if you set up bad, or incorrect Rounding Rules, you will get undesired rounding results. Be sure to check, and double check your Rules to ensure their accuracy.