Sales prices and price lists in Business Central

Pricing in Business Central went through a substantial redesign a few years ago. The old per-customer / per-item discount-and-price tables — scattered across multiple objects, hard to maintain at scale — were replaced by a unified price list model. Most new tenants run the new model exclusively; some upgraded tenants still carry historic structures. Understanding the modern model and how prices resolve at the line is essential.

The price list. A price list is a header carrying a code, a description, a status (Draft, Active, Inactive), a currency, a start/end date, a definition (Sales or Purchase, Price or Discount), and a source — Customer, Customer Price Group, Campaign, All Customers, or specific Salesperson. Underneath the header are price list lines, one row per item-and-variant-and-unit-of-measure with the price or discount.

Price vs discount. A price list can be a price list (sets the absolute unit price) or a discount list (applies a percentage discount on top of an underlying price). The two compose: a customer-specific discount list applies on top of the standard price list.

Source priorities. When a sales line is created, the system finds the best applicable price by checking sources in priority order:

1. Customer-specific price lists (highest priority).
2. Customer Price Group the customer belongs to.
3. Campaign active for the customer.
4. All Customers (lowest priority, the default catalogue).

Within each source, the most-specific item / variant / UoM line wins. Higher-priority sources override lower; an active customer-specific price beats the catalogue price.

Effective date. Price list lines respect start and end dates, so promotional pricing can be set in advance and expires automatically. The system uses the order date (configurable to posting date) to decide which prices are valid.

Customer Price Groups. A customer price group is a tag attached to customers (or defaulted from a customer template) used by price lists to apply the same prices to many customers without listing each one. Common: "Distributors", "End-Customers", "Strategic Accounts", with different price lists.

Currency. A price list is currency-specific. A customer transacting in EUR uses the EUR price list; the same customer in USD uses a separate one.

Migration from old structures. Older BC tenants may still have the legacy Sales Price and Sales Line Discount tables in addition to price lists. The Feature Management page lets administrators enable the new model and run a migration that converts the old data into price lists.

Operational discipline.

• One catalogue price list for All Customers. Maintain it cleanly.
• A handful of customer-price-group lists for major customer segments.
• Customer-specific lists only for genuine exception pricing — strategic accounts, contracted prices.
• Time-bounded promotions as separate lists with start/end dates.

Avoid scattering customer-specific prices across many sources. The clearer the source hierarchy, the easier troubleshooting and audit.