This guide explains how to set up pricing in a sourcing event in the Strategic Sourcing module: how lots, line items, pricing columns, and characteristics fit together, every setting available per lot, and best practices for building pricing structures that suppliers can fill in reliably and you can compare and analyze afterwards. You configure everything described here in the Pricing step (step 4) of the event creation wizard, or later on the Pricing page of the event workspace.

Pricing in a sourcing event has three building blocks that nest inside each other. A lot is a container with its own currency, settings, and pricing table; suppliers price each lot separately. Inside a lot, line items (also called materials) are the individual goods or services you want quoted, organized under commodity groups. Finally, pricing columns define what suppliers must enter for every line item, for example Unit Price, Lead Time, or Tooling Cost. Characteristics are structured attributes (such as Color, Diameter, or Certification) that describe and differentiate line items. An event can contain multiple lots, and in multi-round events each lot belongs to a specific round.

To create a lot, open the Pricing step of the event wizard. If no lot exists yet, a default lot is created automatically; use the add-lot control next to the lot tabs to create more (new lots are named Lot 1, Lot 2, and so on until you rename them). Each lot appears as a tab with two views: Line Items and Pricing Columns. From the lot's menu you can Rename the lot, Save as Template to reuse its structure in other events, or Delete Lot. Deleting removes all materials and pricing columns in that lot, so the platform asks for confirmation. Every lot has a mandatory currency (US Dollar, Euro, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, or Australian Dollar); all prices in the lot are quoted in that currency. You can also add an optional category and a note to guide suppliers about the materials or pricing requirements for the lot; suppliers see the note when they price the lot. Lots from a previous round are shown as locked and cannot be restructured.

Open Lot Settings in the Pricing step to configure how suppliers interact with a lot. The table below lists every lot setting, its default, and what it changes.

To add line items, use the Line Items view of the lot. First insert a commodity group. This groups the materials and brings in the characteristics defined for that group. Then add rows under the group. Each line item has an item number (unique within the lot), an item name, an optional description, a quantity, and a unit of measure; quantity and unit are always required. Right-click a row for grid actions: Insert Row Above, Insert Row Below, Duplicate Row, and Delete Row. You can also import line items from a spreadsheet. The import assistant analyzes your pricing sheet and lets you map each spreadsheet column to a role: Commodity Group, Item Name, Unit of Measure, Quantity, Characteristic, Pricing, Dimensional Pricing, or Ignore.

Characteristics are reusable, structured attributes that describe line items, for example Material, Diameter, Color, or Certification. Each characteristic is defined once in your master data with a name, a data type (Text, Number, Integer, Decimal, Currency, Percentage, Date, Date & Time, or Yes/No), and an optional unit of measure. Characteristics belong to commodity groups: when you insert a commodity group into a lot, you can include its characteristics, and each one becomes a column in the line items grid where you fill in a value per line item. To add one manually, right-click the grid and choose Add Characteristic Column...; you can search existing characteristics or create a new one on the spot. Manage Characteristics... lets you define the characteristic set for a commodity group, including which ones are required. A characteristic that is not defined for a line item's commodity group shows as not applicable. You can drag characteristic columns to reorder them, and Remove Characteristic from Lot removes the column from all commodity groups in the lot.

The Generate Variants dialog creates multiple line items from characteristic combinations, so you never type repetitive rows by hand. Right-click a commodity group and choose Generate Variants..., then:

Characteristics are the backbone of price analysis, so invest in them before you publish. Follow these rules:

Pricing columns define what suppliers must enter for each line item in the lot: they are the columns of the pricing table. To create one, open the Pricing Columns view and click Add Column. Each pricing column has a name (for example Unit Price or Lead Time), an optional description shown to suppliers as help text, a data type, and an optional unit of measure. The table below lists the available data types.

Three column options control behavior: Required field (suppliers must fill the column before submitting), Editable by supplier (turn off to lock the column so suppliers can see but not change it, useful for values you pre-fill), and Primary pricing column (see below). You can also set a Default Value and Validation Rules: minimum value, maximum value, and decimal precision. Drag column headers to reorder the columns suppliers see.

A calculated column computes its value automatically from other columns; suppliers cannot edit calculated columns. In the Add Pricing Column dialog, enable Calculated field, choose an Operator (Sum, Product, Average, Minimum, or Maximum), and select the Operand columns to combine. Calculated columns require at least one operand, and only numeric columns (Currency, Number, Decimal, Integer, Percentage) can participate. A calculated column may use another calculated column as an operand; the platform evaluates them in dependency order and rejects circular references when you save. Example: a Total Cost column with operator Product over Unit Price and Quantity multiplies the two values for every line item as the supplier types.

The primary pricing column is the column the platform uses for total price calculations and comparisons: pricing analysis, supplier comparison, negotiations, simulations, and award totals all read the primary column. Each lot has exactly one primary column. Choose the column that represents the decision-relevant price (typically the calculated line-item total or the unit price), and keep the same primary column meaning across lots so cross-lot comparisons stay valid.

Pricing columns determine both what suppliers must provide and what you can analyze later, so design them deliberately:

Bulk discounts let suppliers offer volume-based price reductions. Enable them per lot with the Allow Bulk Discounts setting. Suppliers then define discounts on their side when responding; you do not configure the tiers yourself. A supplier discount has a type and a reduction method: the type is Tiered (a different reduction per quantity band) or Threshold (the reduction applies once a quantity threshold is reached), and the reduction method is Percentage or Fixed Amount. Each tier specifies a minimum quantity, an optional maximum quantity, and the reduction value. Submitted bulk discounts appear in the supplier's pricing response and feed the pattern analysis in the pricing analysis view, and award simulations can include or exclude them.

Templates let you reuse pricing structures across events; manage them under Templates in the buyer navigation. A Column Template is a reusable set of pricing columns. Start from a preset (Blank, Simple Pricing with unit price and quantity, Full Pricing with price, quantity, discount, and total, or Service Pricing with daily rate, days, and expenses) and adjust. A Pricing Template bundles up to three parts: a material group (a published collection of line items), a column template, and lot settings including currency. Templates must be published before they can be applied. In the Pricing step, use Apply Template on a lot; applying a column template replaces the lot's existing pricing columns, and applying a pricing template applies its materials, pricing columns, and lot settings. The platform warns you before overwriting. You can also create a template from a finished lot with Save as Template.

Suppliers see one pricing tab per lot with your line items, characteristic columns (read-only for them), and pricing columns. They can edit only columns marked editable, watch calculated columns update as they type, decline individual items when partial bids are allowed, propose their own line items when supplier line items are allowed, and add bulk discounts when discounts are enabled. Validation blocks their submission until required columns pass your validation rules. For the supplier-side walkthrough, see the article "Enter pricing and bulk discounts" in the supplier collection.