Overview

The BRC Core Price Book feature provides automated calculation and storage of Business Central prices in a flat, queryable table that can be efficiently exported to external systems. Instead of calculating prices on-demand for millions of Source-Asset combinations (typically Customers and Items), the Price Book pre-materializes all possible prices based on your configured rules and pricing logic.

When to Use Price Book

The Price Book system is designed for scenarios where you need to:

Key Features

Zero-Downtime Recalculation

When price calculations are in progress, your external systems continue to access the current published prices without interruption. The Price Book uses a generation-based system where new calculations are prepared in the background and then activated atomically when complete.

Benefits:

Calculation Modes

The Price Book supports two calculation modes optimized for different scenarios:

Permutation Mode (Default)

Calculates prices individually for every Source-Asset-variant-unit of measure combination.

When to use:

Characteristics:

Batch Mode

Groups customers by their pricing attributes (Customer Price Group, Customer Discount Group, etc.) and calculates once per group, then expands results to all customers sharing those attributes.

When to use:

Characteristics:

How Batch Mode Works

Batch mode optimizes price calculation by recognizing that many customers share identical pricing attributes:

  1. Grouping: Customers are grouped by:

    • Customer Price Group
    • Customer Discount Group
    • Currency Code
    • VAT Business Posting Group
    • Allow Line Discount setting
    • Prices Including VAT setting

  2. Calculation: Prices are calculated once per unique group (typically 50-300 groups instead of millions of customers)

  3. Expansion: Results are efficiently copied to all customers within each group

  4. Special Cases: Customers with customer-specific price list lines are automatically detected and calculated individually to ensure accuracy

Example Scenario

Without Batch Mode:

With Batch Mode:

Configuration

Creating a Price Book

  1. Search for BRC Core Price Books in Business Central
  2. Create a new price book entry
  3. Configure:
    • Code: Unique identifier for the price book
    • Description: Descriptive name
    • Currency Code: Currency for price calculations
    • Calculation Method: Choose Permutation or Batch mode

Selecting Calculation Method

When creating or modifying a price book, choose the appropriate calculation method:

Permutation Mode:

Batch Mode:

Defining Sources and Assets

Configure which customers (Sources) and items (Assets) should be included in price calculations. The Price Book uses generic terminology because Sources can represent Customers, Customer Price Groups, or Customer Discount Groups, while Assets typically represent Items or Item Discount Groups.

On the Price Book Card page:

  1. Sources Section: Define which customers to include in price calculations

    • Source Type: Select from All Customers, Customer, Customer Price Group, or Customer Disc. Group
    • Source No.: Specify the specific customer, price group, or discount group (if applicable)
    • Source Filters: Add additional field-level filters to narrow the customer selection
    • Included Customers: View count of customers matched by your filters

  2. Assets Section: Define which items to include in price calculations

    • Asset Type: Select Item or Item Discount Group
    • Asset No.: Specify the specific item or discount group (if applicable)
    • Asset Filters: Add additional field-level filters to narrow the item selection
    • Quantity Breaks: Configure quantity breaks for volume pricing
    • Permutations: View total calculation combinations for this asset configuration

Scheduling Automated Updates

The Price Book includes built-in scheduling directly on the Price Book Card page. Configure automated recalculation in the Schedule section:

  1. Update Type: Choose how frequently to update:

    • Manual: No automatic updates (calculate on demand only)
    • Minutes: Recalculate at a specified minute interval
    • DailyTime: Recalculate once per day at a specific time

  2. Update Every: (Available when Update Type = Minutes)

    • Specify the number of minutes between automatic recalculations
    • Example: Set to 60 for hourly updates

  3. Update At: (Available when Update Type = DailyTime)

    • Specify the time of day to run the calculation
    • Example: Set to 02:00 for nightly price updates

The Price Book system automatically manages the underlying job queue entries based on your schedule configuration.

Running Price Calculations

Manual Calculation

To immediately calculate or recalculate a price book:

  1. Open the BRC Core Price Books page
  2. Select your price book
  3. Choose the Calculate action
  4. Monitor progress through the Background Monitor

Viewing Calculation Status

Check the price book card for status information:

Monitoring Progress

During calculation, monitor through:

  1. BRC Core BM Action Entries: View background job progress
  2. Job Queue Entries: Check job queue status
  3. Price Book Card: View last run statistics

Using Price Book Results

Accessing Calculated Prices

Query calculated prices through:

  1. BRC Core PB Results page: View all calculated prices
  2. BRC Core PB API: Query prices via API for integration
  3. Direct lookup: Use the lookup codeunit in custom code

API Integration

The Price Book provides APIs for external system integration:

Query: BRCCorePBBulkAPI
- Optimized for bulk exports
- Filters automatically to active generation
- Returns flattened price data

Example Use Cases:

Understanding Results

Each price book result includes:

Performance at Scale

Batch Mode Performance

Typical performance improvements with Batch mode:

Customer CountUnique GroupsPermutation TimeBatch TimeImprovement
10,000302 hours15 minutes8x faster
100,0007520 hours45 minutes27x faster
1,000,0001508 days3 hours64x faster
3,000,00030024 days9 hours64x faster

Actual performance varies based on item count, variants, UOMs, and quantity breaks.

Optimization Tips

  1. Use appropriate filters: Limit calculations to relevant Assets and Sources using the filter capabilities
  2. Schedule during off-hours: Configure the Schedule section to run large calculations during off-peak times
  3. Monitor group distribution: View how Sources distribute across pricing groups
  4. Test before production: Verify batch mode accuracy with a sample before full deployment
  5. Review permutation counts: Check the Permutations field in the Assets section to understand calculation scope

Troubleshooting

Calculation Failures

If a price book calculation fails:

  1. Check Background Monitor: Review BRC Core BM Action Entries for error details
  2. Review Job Queue: Check job queue entry error messages
  3. Verify Configuration: Ensure item and customer filters are valid
  4. Check Permissions: Confirm job queue user has appropriate access

Incorrect Prices in Batch Mode

If batch-calculated prices don’t match expectations:

  1. Verify pricing is standard: Ensure no custom pricing PTEs are active
  2. Check Source-specific rules: Review price list lines for unexpected Source-specific entries (e.g., customer-specific pricing)
  3. Compare modes: Run a small test in both Permutation and Batch mode to identify differences
  4. Review grouping logic: Sources with different VAT groups, discount settings, or “Prices Including VAT” flags create separate groups

Performance Issues

If calculations are taking too long:

  1. Review Asset/Source scope: Consider narrowing filters in both the Assets and Sources sections
  2. Check quantity breaks: Excessive quantity breaks multiply calculation volume (visible in the Quantity Breaks field)
  3. Consider Batch mode: If using Permutation with large Source base (many customers)
  4. Optimize scheduling: Use the Schedule section to run calculations during off-peak hours
  5. Check Estimated Runtime: Review the Estimated Runtime field on the Price Book Card for time expectations

Advanced Scenarios

Incremental Updates

For scenarios where only certain Assets change frequently:

  1. Create multiple price books:
    • Full Catalog: Complete price list with all Assets and Sources, updated weekly
    • Fast Movers: High-change Assets (items) only, updated daily using Asset Filters
  2. Configure Source and Asset filters appropriately for each price book
  3. External systems merge results from both sources

Multi-Currency Pricing

To support multiple currencies:

  1. Create separate price books per currency
  2. Configure appropriate currency code on each
  3. Schedule calculations to maintain synchronization
  4. Export to currency-specific external systems

Testing New Pricing

Before rolling out new pricing rules:

  1. Create a test price book with identical configuration
  2. Switch calculation method if testing Batch mode
  3. Run calculation and review results
  4. Compare with production price book
  5. Activate when satisfied

Summary

The BRC Core Price Book provides efficient, scalable price materialization for external system integration. Choose Permutation mode for maximum accuracy and custom pricing support, or Batch mode for dramatically improved performance with large customer bases using standard Business Central pricing. The generation-based system ensures your external integrations never experience downtime during price recalculations.