July 2016
HOW TO LOAD PRICING DATA USING THE FB5 FLAT FILE
QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE
The FB5 Flat File format corresponds to the B5 view, which comprises the pricing
fields. Use this format to add or modify pricing data. This format cannot be used to
populate net into stock prices for your distributors; this is only to populate your
published price columns. Below are some notes on key points and frequently-used
actions. Please contact your IDW Data Management Specialist or view the Training
video if you have any further questions.

* Notes:
o In order to load pricing data for an item, the item record must exist in the
IDW first (to learn how to create a new item in the IDW using a Flat File,
please view the B1 IDW Training Video and related Quick Reference Guide).
Once an item is created in the IDW, however, you may use the B5 Flat File
format to add or modify pricing data.
o Unlike some other Flat File formats, one record does not represent a single
item. Rather, each record represents a single price column, and one item
might have multiple prices, potentially on multiple price sheets.
o Each record’s uniqueness is determined by the combination of its Item ID,
price sheet, and price column.

E.g. If you want to populate a list, Column 3, and cost price for the
same item on a single price sheet, you would need to create three
different records. To create those three price columns for two different
price sheets for the same item, you would need six records, etc. This
may take some getting used to and is not immediately intuitive, so if
you need any assistance, do not hesitate to contact your Data
Management Specialist.
o If you are going to provide pricing for an item, you must populate both a list
price and a Column 3 price (sometimes known as “blue book price”). For
now, those are the only required prices; however, we also recommend
populating a published distributor cost, as that can be important to some of
your customers.
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July 2016
o This Quick Reference Guide and associated training video go through these
mandatory fields only; however, fields such as published cost or Internet
Minimum Advertised Price (IMAP) may also be important to your distributors.
Should you find the need to populate these additional fields, we recommend
that you ask your Data Management Specialist for assistance.

To access and download the documents needed: Log into the IDW. Go to
Advanced  Information  Documents. Select the following:
o IDEA Pricing Data (B5) Flat File format
o Product Descriptor Database (PDD) (Version used in training video
associated with this Quick Reference Guide is 5.03.00)

Mandatory fields:
o Record ID – Holds the static value of “FB5.05.04”. You need to create
multiple records at once, because you are creating a list, Column 3, and cost
price column for this one item, and each record represents a price.
o Usage Indicator - Holds a character which tells the IDW to load the data to
either the test database or the production database.

To load to test, enter a “T”.

To load to production, enter a “P”.
o IDW Private ID - This is a code that tells the IDW to which account to load
the data.

If you do not know your private ID, you can find it by looking at your
company settings in the IDW. Log into the IDW. Go to Advanced 
Company  Company. The field called “IDW ID” contains the value
you populate in the Seller ID field. This number is private and is only
visible to you and other permitted users of your IDW account.
o Time Stamp - Enter the current date in YYYYMMDD format.
o Update Status - Indicates if the record is being added as new, if it is
changing, or if it is to be deleted. If the record is new or being changed, use
‘C’. If the record is being removed, use ‘D’.
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July 2016
o IDW Item Control Number - Used to identify the item in IDW. Typically, the
UPC Number is the IDW Item Control Number. This field may be left blank,
in which case the UPC Number, EAN Number, and then Catalog Number will
be used (in that order) for the IDW Item Control Number.
o UPC, GTIN, EAN, and Catalog Number fields - Used to identify the item.
Typically, an item has either a UPC or EAN, so do not fill in both.

If you are editing the data in Excel, please be careful of any leading
zeroes. If the cells are formatted as “Numbers” or “General,” and
your UPCs or EANs contain leading zeros, there is the danger that
they will be dropped. To prevent this from happening, always make
sure that the cells are formatted to “Text” first. It is a good practice to
format the entire worksheet to “Text” before you begin filling out any
data.
o Price Sheet Number - In order to reference a price sheet in the Flat File, you
must first set up the price sheet in the IDW code tables.

Log into the IDW. Go to Advanced  Code Tables  Price Sheet.
Click on “New”.

Fill in the name of the Price Sheet you want to create, the Zone
(e.g. “USA” for USA or “CAN” for Canada), and the price sheet
description, which will help you know exactly what your price
sheet is.
o You may also choose to fill in a zone description, though
this is not a mandatory field.

Select the currency from the drop-down menu. If the price
sheet you are creating is replacing a previous one, select it from
the “Replace Price Sheet” menu.

All authorizations from the previous price sheet will be passed
on to the new one, and the IDW will automatically insert the
new price sheet’s effective date as the old price sheet’s
expiration date. If you choose not to replace the other price
sheet, then you must expire it manually, and you must manually
set up the pricing authorizations for the new price sheet.
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July 2016


Fill in the price sheet publication date, and the effective date in
a month/day/year format, using four digits for the year. If there
is an expiration date for your price sheet, you may enter it now.
You can also choose not to enter an expiration date for the
price sheet at this time and simply expire it when needed later
on. Once you have finished entering all the information for your
price sheet, hit “Save”.
Now that you have set up the new price sheet in the IDW code tables,
you can use that price sheet information to populate the Flat File. Go
back to the Flat File, and fill in the name of the price sheet you just
created in Column M, “Price Sheet Number”.
o Pricing Zone Code – The price zone for the price sheet created in the
previous step.
o Price Effective Date - This will determine if the price is stored as current
pricing or future pricing.

*Note: This field does not refer to the effective date of the price
sheet; rather, it refers to the effective date for the price of the item
itself. An item may have a different price effective date than the price
sheet on which it appears, but there are certain data validation rules
that govern the relationship between the two effective dates. For
example, you cannot have an item price effective date that is earlier
than the price sheet effective date. Also, the item effective date, not
the price sheet effective date, determines if an item’s price is stored as
current pricing or future pricing. Keep these notes in mind when
considering how distributors are going to view and extract your
pricing data from the IDW.

In the video tutorial associated with this Quick Reference Guide,
current pricing is loaded. However, it is recommended that you load
future pricing ahead of a price increase, so that your distributors can
prepare their systems accordingly and not sells items at a lower price
than what they can buy them for. For the examples in this guide, we
will assume that the price for this item is the same as the price sheet
effective date, as is most often the case, and we will enter that date
here.
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July 2016
o Price Currency - Enter the three-digit currency code you used when you set
up the price sheet.
o Price - Enter the price. In this example, the first record will hold the List Price,
the second record will hold the T3 Column 3 Price, and the third record will
hold the published cost.
o Price Unit of Measure - Enter a price unit of measure for each price. You will
enter a code that represents common configurations of pricing (e.g. per
each, per hundred, per thousand, etc.)

A list of available price units of measure are located in the ”Code
Tables” tab of the PDD, or in the B5 Flat File template.

*Note: A different price UOM can be used for each price column, but
you will not pass the data Excellence checks, which are required for
Data Certification.
o In the next four columns, you tell the IDW what kind of price you are
populating:

Price Column Code – The code you use to identify the price column
in your data. Traditionally, these codes are ‘L’ for List, ‘T3’ for Column
3, and ‘C’ for cost, though there are more available (e.g. ‘P4’ for
Minimum Advertised Pricing, or MAP, pricing).

A comprehensive list of available price columns is located in the
“Code Tables” tab in the PDD, or in the B5 Flat File. Access
the list, then search for “Output Price Column”.
o *Note: You do not need to use these traditional price
column names. You may use your own proprietary
codes. However, if you are planning on doing so, you
must set up a cross-reference in the IDW so that when
distributors extract your pricing, they understand what is
meant by each price column code.

Proprietary Price Columns - To set up your proprietary price columns
in the IDW and create a cross-reference that links those codes to the
more widely-recognized price column codes.
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July 2016

Log into the IDW. Go to Advanced  Code Tables  Price
Column.
o To create a new price column, click “New”. Enter the
name of the price column you want to create, which can
be up to five characters in length. You may also give
your price column code a description if you wish. When
you are finished, click the “Save” button.

Now that you have created a new price column code, go to
Advanced  Code Tables  Cross References. Click on the
“Prc Col” tab, and then click “New” to create a new crossreference. From the “Price Column/Description” drop-down
menu on the left, select the custom price column code you just
created. On the right drop-down, select the “Legacy
Column/Description” you want to link it to. When you are
finished, click the “Save” button. You may now use your
proprietary price column code in your IDW data.

Price Column Code - Enter the names of the price column(s) you
created. If you are not using proprietary price column names, simply
enter the legacy output price column codes from the PDD.

Output Price Column - Contains the legacy output price column
names from the PDD, which is the price column code typically used by
distributors in their business systems.
o Type of Price - Contains the code that designates the type of price being
communicated in the pricing column. It indicates if the price is a resale price
or distributor cost.

A list of permitted values is located in the “Code Tables” tab in the
PDD, or in the B5 Flat File. Access the list, then search for “Output
Price Column”.

“NETPP” means that the price is a resale value, and “NETPC” means
that the price is a cost. The number on the end represents the price
column number. “NETPP3” is the third column resale price, which is
the same as the Column 3, or T3 price. “NETPC0” would be the first
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column published cost, which is the same as the distributor cost, or ‘C’
price. The higher the number on the end, the greater the discount.

Finally, your highest cost must still be less than your lowest resale
price, or you will receive an error from the IDW when you try to load
your pricing data. In other words, prices are expected to go highest to
lowest, with List being the highest price. Then, each of the trade
column prices will be less than the previous column. (List must be
higher than T1 (if used); T1 must be higher than T2; T2 must be higher
than T3, etc.)
o Class of Trade - A list of acceptable values is also located in the “Code
Tables” tab. The most commonly-used values are “NECTUSR” for a resale
price and “NECTDIS” for a published distributor cost. Unlike with the type of
price, there is no number to distinguish between multiple resale or cost
columns (e.g. every resale price you have will have a class of trade of
“NECTUSR”).
o The next four columns are not mandatory in all cases, but they are
mandatory if you are trying to populate price breaks. If you are not planning
to set up a price break structure, these four fields are still mandatory for the
column 3 price column, as this is the only price which requires a price break
in the IDW.


Price Break Type - There are four types of price breaks that you can
specify:

Q – Quantity (the most common type of price break)

P – Package level

V – Monetary value

W - Weight
Price Break UOM – The unit of measure identifying the type of price
break, which can be used to specify the units associated with a
quantity break.
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July 2016

A list of acceptable units of measure is located in the “Code
Tables” tab in the PDD, or in the B5 Flat File. Access the list,
then search for “Quantity UOM”.

Price Break Column Number - Populate a sequential integer, starting
at 1, which designates the order of price break quantities from lowest
to highest.

Price Break Beginning Quantity - Populate the quantity or monetary
value associated with the price break. (e.g. If you are offering a price
break if the customer buys 500 eaches of an item, then assuming you
have used “EA” as your price break unit of measure, you would enter
the number 500 here. If you are establishing a price break by
monetary value, then here you would enter the dollar amount the
customer needs to buy before they receive a price break.)

In the video associated with this Quick Reference Guide, we
show you what this would look like if we were to populate a
number of price breaks for an item. To save time, the data is
pre-populated.

As you can see, this item has a List Price, and it also has three
resale prices populated. The type of price field is “NETTPP”
which indicates a resale price, and the number on the end
indicates the relative price discount amount. Therefore,
NETPP1 would be the highest resale price, NETPP2 would be
the second-highest resale price, etc.

The price break type is by quantity, so we populate a ‘Q’ in that
field. The price break unit of measure is by the each, so we
populate the field with ‘EA’ for each. The price break column
number indicates the order of the price break, from the lowest
quantity to the highest. Therefore, the first resale price, called
T1 here, gets a price break column number of 1. The next
lowest resale price, called T2, gets a price break column
number of 2. Finally, the T3 price has a price break number of
3. If there was no T1 price, and there was only a T2 and T3
price, then the T2 price would have a price break column
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July 2016
number of 1, and the T3 price would have a price break column
number of 2.

The price break beginning quantities get larger and larger for
each resale price.
o Price Sheet Description and the Price Sheet Effective date - You may
populate these columns with the information you used when you set up the
price sheet in the IDW code tables.
If you have any questions or suggestions to improve our training videos or Quick
Reference Guides, please contact your IDW Data Management Specialist.
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