How to Change Prices and Use Price Rules in QuickBooks Online

How to Change Item Prices and Use Price Rules: Video

            This video lesson, titled “How to Change Item Prices and Use Price Rules in QuickBooks Online,” shows you how to change the prices of products and services and use price rules in QuickBooks Online. This video lesson is from our complete QuickBooks Online tutorial, titled “Mastering QuickBooks Online Made Easy.”

Overview:

How to Change the Prices of Products and Services in the Products and Services List:

            QuickBooks Online Plus makes changing item prices easy. To change the price of an item, click the “Settings” button in the QuickBooks Online toolbar. Then click the “Products and services” link under the “Lists” heading in the drop-down menu.

            In the “Products & services” list, find the item whose price you want to change and then click the “Edit” link under the “Action” column in that item’s row to open the item’s product/service information pane. In the “Price/rate” field in the “Sales” section, change the existing price to the new price. When finished, click one of the “Save” buttons to save the changes.

How to Change Prices by Using Price Rules in QuickBooks Online Plus:

            Alternatively, you can use the price rules feature if using QuickBooks Online Plus or higher to create pricing rules that automatically change the prices of selected products and services for selected customers. When using price rules, the “Rate” of the item is changed when using the item in a sales form, so it doesn’t show any actual discount in the sales form itself. However, it is very easy to use and changes the rate based on the item’s default price. So, it is a convenient way to apply item discounts for selected customers if showing the discount in the form isn’t required.

Enable Price Rules:

            To enable prices rules in QuickBooks Online Plus or higher, click the “Settings” button in the QuickBooks Online toolbar. Then select the “Account and settings” command under the “Your Company” heading in the drop-down menu to open the “Account and Settings” window. Click the “Sales” category in the menu at the left side of the window. Then click into the “Products and services” section to the right to edit those settings. Then click the “Turn on price rules” toggle switch to set it to the “On” position. Then click the “Save” button at the bottom of this section to save your changes. Then click the “Done” button in the lower-right corner of the “Account and Settings” window to close it.

Open the Price Rules Page:

            To view your price rules, open the “Price Rules” page by clicking the “More” drop-down button that appears towards the upper-right corner of the “Products & services” page after adding items and then selecting the “Price rules” command from the button’s drop-down menu. Alternatively, click the “Settings” button in the QuickBooks Online toolbar, select the “All lists” command under the “Lists” heading, and then click the “Price Rules” link in the “Lists” page that appears.

Create a New Price Rule:

            To create your first new price rule, click the “Create a rule” button in the middle of the “Price Rules” page to open the “Create a price rule” window. After that, to create a new price rule in the “Price Rules” page, click the “New price rule” button in the upper-right corner of the page to open the same “Create a price rule” window. Then type a name for the price rule into the “Rule name” field.

Select to Which Customers to Apply the Price Rule:

            To choose to which customers to apply the price rule, select a choice from the “Customer” drop-down. Choices include “All customers,” “Select individually,” and any customer types you have created. Your selected customer choices then appear on the “Customers” tab below the rule.

            However, if you choose the “Select individually” choice, you must then click the “+ Add Customer” button that appears on the “Customers” tab below the rule to add a new customer row to the tab. Then use the “Customer” drop-down in the new row to select the customer to add. Repeat the last two steps until you have added all the desired customers to select onto the “Customers” tab. You can also click the trash can icon button under the “Exclude customer?” column in any row to remove the customer from the tab, if needed.

Select to Which Products and Services to Apply the Price Rule:

            To then choose to which items to apply the price rule, select a choice from the “Products and services” drop-down. Choices include “All products and services,” all item types you have created, “Select individual items,” and any product categories you have created. Your selected item choices then appear on the “Products and services” tab below the rule.

            However, if you choose the “Select individual items” choice, you must then click the “+ Add Product or Service” button on the “Products and services” tab below the rule to add a new item row to the tab. Then use the “Products” drop-down in the new row to select the item to add. Repeat the last two steps until you add all the desired items to select to the “Products and services” tab. You can also click the trash can icon button under the “Exclude product?” column in any row to remove the item from the tab, if needed.

Set the Price Adjustment Method:

            To then select the price adjustment for the selected items for the selected customers, make a choice from the “Price adjustment method” drop-down. If you select “Percentage,” then use the adjacent “Percentage” drop-down to select either “Increase by” or “Decrease by” and then enter the desired percentage into the following percent field.

            If you select “Fixed amount,” then use the adjacent drop-down to select either “Increase by” or “Decrease by” and then enter the desired fixed amount into the following field. If you select “Custom price per item,” then enter a custom price for each item on the “Products and services” tab below the rule within the “Adjusted Price” column that appears.

            To round prices if you select either the “Percentage” or “Fixed amount” choice, then use the “Rounding” drop-down to choose your preferred method of rounding the calculated prices. Optionally, to set a start date and end date for the price rule, click into either the “Start date” or “End date” calendar drop-down fields and then select the desired dates.

Save the New Price Rule:

            To save the new price rule, click the “Save” button in the lower-right corner of the window. To save the price rule and then either close the window to return to the “Price Rules” page or create another new rule, select either “Save and close” or “Save and new” from the drop-down button in the lower-right corner of the window. To cancel creating the price rule, click the “X” button in the upper-right corner of the window and then click “Yes” when asked to confirm you want to leave without saving your changes.

Edit and Inactivate Price Rules, If Needed:

            When you return to the “Price Rules” page, your rules appear in the Price Rules list. Note that the actions available in the “Actions” column for the price rule list include “Edit,” which lets you change the price rule’s settings in the “Edit a price rule” window, which is the same as the “Create a price rule” window, and “Make inactive,” which inactivates it.

Use the Price Rules in Sales Forms:

            When a price rule is in effect and you select a customer and item affected by the price rule in a sales form, the item’s rate is automatically recalculated according to the pricing of the rule and appears as the default “Rate” in the sales form. However, if needed, you can also click the drop-down arrow that then appears in the “Rate” field in the sales form to select a choice of any other applicable, calculated price levels to apply, like the default sales rate, if needed.