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- Keep one product table and a separate customer-price table.
- Write down which price wins when more than one rule applies.
- Check both the generated prices and the recipient before sending.
Use two tables with different jobs
The product table holds SKU, description, pack quantity, unit, and image reference. The price table holds customer or price-group ID, SKU, currency, price, and effective dates. This avoids repeating a product description in dozens of customer workbooks. It also makes a description change independent of a negotiated price change.
Decide which rule takes precedence
A customer might have a negotiated item price, a group price, and a general list price available at the same time. Write down the order your business uses. For example, a negotiated price may take precedence over a group price; that is a business decision, not a default to assume. Flag an absent price rather than substituting zero.
| Case to test | Expected decision to record |
|---|---|
| Negotiated and group prices both exist | Which rule wins? |
| Price has expired | Reject or use an approved fallback? |
| Product has no customer price | Hide, flag, or fall back? |
| Pack quantity changed | Reconfirm the applicable unit |
Generate a preview for two customers
Choose customers with overlapping products but different prices. Produce both outputs and compare the same SKUs side by side. Confirm that shared descriptions update in both versions while the intended prices remain different. Include an unavailable product, an expired price, and an item with no image in the trial.
Use a naming and approval step
Put the intended customer or price group and effective date in both the filename and the document. Before distribution, compare the recipient with the customer identifier used to generate it. A correct calculation can still become a pricing problem if the wrong PDF is attached to an email. Keep the approved source snapshot with the output.
Choose software after defining the rules
Catalog builders and InDesign-connected publishing systems can reduce layout work. Ask the vendor to demonstrate your two-customer example, including missing prices and an update. A successful first catalog does not establish that the next pricing cycle will follow your precedence rules. If the tool cannot express them clearly, keep that logic in a reviewed data preparation step.
Sources
Updated October 30, 2026. Based on the linked documentation; the tools have not been benchmarked by NarrowTools. Editorial policy