Sourcing Management

📍 Where to find this module?
Main Menu > Catalog > Supplier Offers

Sourcing management allows you to centralize your suppliers’ offers, compare prices and lead times, and automatically calculate the selling prices of your standard products.

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1. General Principle #

Sourcing is based on a three-level hierarchy:

Produit Standard (ex : « Câble HDMI 2m »)
 ├─ Produit Spécifique (ex : « Câble HDMI 2m – Marque Alpha, Ref ABC123 »)
 │   ├─ Offre Fournisseur A — 5,50 € — Délai 3j — ★ Préférée
 │   └─ Offre Fournisseur B — 4,80 € — Délai 7j
 └─ Produit Spécifique (ex : « Câble HDMI 2m – Marque Beta, Ref XYZ789 »)
     └─ Offre Fournisseur C — 6,00 € — Délai 5j

• The standard product is the generic item used in your quotes and customer orders
• The specific product is the concrete variant purchased from a supplier
• The supplier offer contains the price, lead time, and conditions proposed by a supplier for a specific product

The selling price of the standard product is automatically calculated from supplier offers.

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2. Configure a Standard Product #

1. Go to Main menu > Catalog > Products
2. Create a new product or edit an existing product
3. In the “Standardization” block, check the “Standard Product” box
4. Configure pricing parameters:

5. Save the product

Note: A standard product cannot be attached to another standard product as a parent. Pricing parameters are only visible on standard products.

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3. Attach Specific Products #

1. Create a new product (or edit an existing product)
2. Do not check the “Standard Product” box
3. In the “Parent Standard Product” field, select the corresponding standard product
4. Save

The specific product now appears in the “Products” tab of the standard product record.

Important: The system verifies that the selected parent is indeed a standard product. If not, an error message is displayed and saving is blocked.

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4. Manage Supplier Offers #

Access Offers #

Three possible access paths:

• Main Menu: Catalog > Supplier Offers
• From a specific product: “Supplier Offers” tab in related lists
• From a supplier: “Supplier Offers” tab in related lists

Create an Offer #

1. Click “+” to add a new offer
2. Fill in the fields:

3. Save

Note: Multiple offers can exist for the same product and supplier, for example with different conditions or validity periods.

Preferred Offer #

Only one offer can be marked as “preferred” per specific product. If you check a new offer as preferred, you must first uncheck the previous offer.

The preferred offer is used first when the price calculation method is set to “Preferred Offer”.

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5. Automatic Selling Price Calculation #

Calculation Formula #

The selling price of a standard product is calculated as follows:

Prix de vente = Coût de référence ÷ (1 − Taux de marque% / 100)

The markup rate expresses the margin relative to the selling price (and not the purchase cost), in accordance with common usage in French ERPs and the margins displayed in quotes. It must remain strictly less than 100%.

The reference cost depends on the chosen calculation method:

Example: With a reference cost of €5.50, a markup rate of 30%, and rounding to 0.10:
5,50 ÷ 0,70 = 7,857 € → rounded to €7.90

Offer Validity #

An offer is considered valid if:

• Its purchase price is greater than 0
• Its “Valid From” date is in the past or not specified
• Its “Valid Until” date is in the future or not specified

Recalculation Trigger #

The price updates automatically when:

• You create, modify, or delete a supplier offer
• You change the parent standard product of a specific product (both the old and new parents are recalculated)

You can also force a recalculation:

• from the Sourcing dashboard, using the ↻ button on a line or “Recalculate selection”;
• from the product list, using the mass action “Recalculate catalog price” (a detailed summary indicates how many prices have been updated and, if applicable, why some items have not changed);
• on the product record, with the “Recalculate” button in the margin analysis widget, offered when the price is flagged as frozen (see Catalog Margin Analysis).

Understand Calculation Status #

After each recalculation, the “Calculation Status” field indicates the result:

Important: When the status is in error (missing offers, purchase price at 0, invalid markup rate…), the selling price is not modified: the last known price is kept as is, and only the status changes to error. Thus, a simple recalculation can never erase a legitimate price (imported or entered): the status signals that this price may no longer reflect the reality of costs and that the configuration must be corrected, then the calculation relaunched.

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6. Sourcing Dashboard #

The Sourcing dashboard provides an overview of the supply situation for your standard products.

Access the Dashboard #

From the product list, click the “Sourcing Dashboard” button in the action bar.

Note: This button only appears if the feature has been activated by the administrator in Settings > Kafinea Features.

Displayed Indicators #

The top of the page displays 4 indicators summarizing the situation:

• OK (green): standard products with a correctly calculated price
• Alerts (orange): offers expiring soon or single supplier
• Errors (red): products without specifics, without offers, or without prices
• Active Offers (blue): total number of valid supplier offers

Click an indicator to filter the table accordingly.

Standard Products Table #

The table displays all standard products with their number of specifics, active offers, selling price, reference cost, markup rate, and status. Use filters and search to refine the display.

Product Details (drill-down) #

Click the “⌄” button on a line to expand the sourcing tree: specific products → supplier offers. Each offer displays the supplier, price, lead time, validity dates, and visual indicators (★ preferred, ⏰ expiring soon, 💀 expired).

Recalculate Prices #

• A product: click the ↻ button on the relevant line
• Multiple products: check the desired lines then click “Recalculate selection”

AI Analysis #

Click “Analyze with AI” to get a summary of the sourcing situation with priority recommendations.

Sourcing Tree Widget #

On the standard product record, a graphical widget displays the sourcing tree in the summary block: the standard product in the center, its specific products, and the associated supplier offers. Colors indicate the status of the offers.

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7. Frequently asked questions #

My standard product price is €0 #

Consult the “Calculation Status” field on the product record to identify the cause:

• NO_SPECIFICS → create specific products attached to the standard
• MISSING_OFFERS → add supplier offers for the specific products
• MISSING_PRICES → verify that the offers have a purchase price greater than 0

Can I manually modify the price of a standard product? #

The price is overwritten with each automatic recalculation. If you manually modify the price, it will be updated again with the next modification of a supplier offer. To adjust the price, modify the markup rate or the supplier offers.

How to force the recalculation of a standard product’s price? #

The price is automatically recalculated when an offer changes. To force it manually, use the Sourcing dashboard (↻ button or “Recalculate selection”), the mass action “Recalculate catalog price” from the product list, or, on the record, the “Recalculate” button in the margin analysis widget — the latter only appears when the price is flagged as frozen (nothing to recalculate for an already up-to-date price or incomplete configuration).

How to manage seasonal offers? #

Use the “Valid From” and “Valid Until” fields to define the validity period of each offer. Only offers whose period covers the current date are taken into account in the price calculation.

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Glossary #

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Related references 🔗 #

• Products
• The Purchase Order Assistant
• Item families
• Suppliers
• Supplier Purchase Orders
• Catalog pop-up filtering
• Catalog margin analysis