Example System — a concept walkthrough with illustrative data. Not a client engagement, and not a promised result.
Example System
Special Pricing Control Tower
A concept system for a wholesale distributor whose special-pricing process runs on email threads, a shared spreadsheet, and the memory of two pricing managers.
The problem it addresses
Distributors live on special pricing. A contractor wants a project price on 400 cases; a strategic account negotiates a customer-specific contract; a vendor offers ship-and-debit support to win the business. Each request is legitimate — and each one sets off a scavenger hunt: the rep emails a manager, the manager checks cost in the ERP, someone updates a spreadsheet, the vendor claim gets filed (sometimes), and the customer-specific price gets keyed into the ERP with no expiry date (often).
The failure modes are quiet and expensive. Requests sit unanswered while the customer buys elsewhere. Below-floor margin gets approved by silence. Vendor claims expire unfiled. And six months later, the company is still billing at a price built on yesterday's cost. This is the same pattern behind manual quote approvals and vendor claim management — two of the most common workflows we see in wholesale distribution.
The concept
One queue, every request owned
The concept system replaces the inbox-and-spreadsheet loop with a single operational queue. A rep submits a request with the customer, SKU, quantity, and target price. The system pulls current cost from the ERP, computes margin against the floor for that product family, and routes the request automatically: clean margins auto-approve, anything below floor goes to a named manager with the numbers attached. Approved requests generate the vendor claim with backup documentation and write the customer-specific price — with an expiry date — back to the ERP.
Nothing here replaces the ERP. The ERP stays the system of record for cost and price; the control tower is the operational layer around it — the same pattern as our workflow systems and system integrations.
Concept interface: the pricing queue
What a pricing manager would see on a Tuesday morning. Every row has an owner, an age, and a status that says what happens next — illustrative customers and SKUs, not real data.
Special Pricing Queue
Concept interface — illustrative data only
| Customer | SKU | Requested | Margin | Owner | Age | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garrison Industrial Supply | ABR-73014 | $18.40 / cs | 11.2% | D. Okafor | 2d | Margin below approval threshold |
| Piedmont Facilities Group | KIM-41455 | $96.00 / cs | 14.8% | D. Okafor | 1d | Awaiting cost confirmation |
| Blue Ridge Health Partners | MED-88312 | $212.50 / ea | 9.6% | S. Alvarez | 4d | Vendor response overdue |
| Copperline Contractors | BRK-22041 | $7.85 / ea | 16.1% | S. Alvarez | 6h | Ready to update ERP price |
| Summit School District | JAN-10932 | $24.10 / cs | 12.9% | M. Chen | 1d | Missing customer volume commitment |
Example System — illustrative data only. Not a client result.
Illustrative workflow: approval routing
The routing logic behind the queue — margin at or above the floor auto-approves; anything below goes to a named manager. Either path ends with the vendor claim filed and the ERP price updated with an expiry.
Illustrative workflow — concept routing, not a client implementation.
What it would change
Outcome categories, not invented numbers
We don't attach fabricated percentages to concept work. These are the categories of outcome a system like this is designed to improve — the things you would measure before and after.
Quote turnaround
Requests stop waiting in one person's inbox. Each request has an owner, a state, and an age — so the category of outcome to watch is how long customers wait for an answer.
Margin leakage
Below-floor pricing becomes a deliberate decision with a name attached, not an accident discovered at month-end. The category to watch is margin given away without approval.
Vendor claim recovery
Ship-and-debit claims get filed with the backup attached, before they expire in a spreadsheet tab. The category to watch is claim dollars recovered versus claimed.
Expired agreements
Customer-specific prices carry expiry dates and resurface for review instead of quietly rolling on at yesterday's cost. The category to watch is revenue billed at stale pricing.
Audit trail
Every request, approval, and exception is recorded. When a customer or vendor disputes a price, the answer is a lookup, not an archaeology project.
Does your special-pricing process look like this?
A Workflow Opportunity Review maps how it actually runs today and shows what a purpose-built system would change.