Reading supplier price lists and applying cost prices from a set date

When a supplier raises prices, they usually send you a price list as a PDF or Excel file. Until now you typed the new cost prices in item by item. In the Price inbox, Univents reads the list, matches every line to one of your items and shows you the previous and the new cost price. Nothing changes until you click Apply.

Requirements

• Plan: The price inbox is included from the Growth plan. Without Growth, nothing can be uploaded or applied. A cost price from a date, by contrast, you schedule on every plan directly on the item — the price inbox is not needed for that.
• Permission: You need the permission to edit in the inventory.
• Supplier on the item: Only items on which the sender of the list is a supplier are applied — as the preferred or as an additional supplier (Inventory › Catalog › item › Price & Stock tab › Suppliers).
• Supplier item no.: It’s best to fill in the Supplier item no. field on the item. That is the most reliable way for Univents to match the lines — see Supplier orders. For an additional supplier, the item no. in its entry under Suppliers counts.

Upload a price list

1. Open Inventory and click Price inbox below the row of key figures.
2. Click Upload price list.
3. Choose the file: PDF, JPG, PNG, WebP, CSV, XLSX or JSON, up to 25 MB. Save older Excel files (.xls) as xlsx or csv first.
4. Optionally choose the supplier under Supplier (optional). If you leave it empty, you choose it later in the review list — only then are the lines matched to your items.
5. Click Upload. The review list then opens. Reading continues there, even if you leave the page.

The Price inbox page shows all received lists with supplier, source (Uploaded, By email or From supplier), date received, status and “n items read, m matched”. If a file already exists as a list, Univents doesn’t create it again — Open existing list takes you to the existing one.

What reading costs

• Excel, CSV and JSON are read immediately and free of charge.
• PDFs and photos are read by AI. The actual usage is charged to your workspace’s AI credit. The upload dialog says so: “Read with AI and charged to your AI credit.”
• When you upload yourself, the upload is your start signal — the AI begins right away.
• If the AI credit is empty, the list shows AI credit empty. Processing resumes by itself after a top-up.

Univents doesn’t read very long files in one go: if a file has a great many pages, it’s better to ask the supplier for Excel or CSV. If only part was read, the review list warns you with “Read incompletely” and names the page.

A dedicated address for price lists

Instead of uploading, suppliers can also email their list to a dedicated address.

1. Open Integrations and there the Incoming email tab.
2. On the Address for price lists card, the owner clicks Set up address. The address looks like preise-<code>@in.univents.app. You’ll also find the address to copy at the top of the Price inbox page.
3. Give it to your supplier. They send the list as an attachment (PDF, photo, Excel, CSV or JSON).

Every accepted list appears in the price inbox, and you get a notification (“New price list from …”). If the sender isn’t a stored supplier, it says “from an unknown sender”. Univents recognises a supplier by the sender address stored on the supplier contact (also as an additional address).

For emails, the AI never starts on its own: Excel, CSV and JSON are read immediately, PDFs and photos wait for Start reading (approx. … €). The button names the estimated cost; the actual usage is charged. The list gives the reason, for example “The sender isn’t linked to a supplier” or “The sender could not be verified”. That way nobody can use up your AI credit with a forged sender address.

The address doesn’t accept emails without a suitable attachment, system messages, or more than 30 emails per hour. The card counts these under Rejected and says why. How to rotate or pause the address is described in the article Receiving enquiries by email — operation is the same.

Suppliers send the list themselves

If a supplier has access to the partner portal (they get it with your supplier order), the Send price list button is available to them on the Orders page — provided your workspace has the price inbox in its plan. Excel, CSV, JSON, PDF or photo up to 25 MB. The list lands in your price inbox with the source From supplier. Because the supplier is clearly known, the AI reads a PDF or photo here without a click. A daily limit protects your credit: once it’s reached, the list waits for your click on Start reading.

The review list

Open a list that is Ready for review. At the top you’ll find:

• Supplier: If it’s still open, choose it here. Univents then matches the lines again.
• View file: the original, for cross-checking.
• Valid from: the date from which the new cost prices apply. It’s pre-filled with the date from the list, but never a day in the past — cost prices are not changed retroactively. If the list states an earlier date, the note “Valid from … per list” appears.
• Notes: foreign currency, “only gross prices”, read incompletely.

Below that is the table with Item per supplier, Item no., Matched item, Cost before, Cost new, Change and Note. With the filters All, Applicable, With note, Not applicable and Applied you keep track.

How matching works

Univents only matches among this supplier’s items (preferred or additional supplier), and only unambiguously, never “roughly”:

1. learned match via item no.,
2. this supplier’s item no. on the item (never another supplier’s),
3. learned match via name,
4. the item’s name, exactly.

If two items fit, the line stays open: “Several items match — please choose one”. With Choose item you correct or add any match by hand; with Remove match you take it back. When you apply a list, Univents remembers your matches for the next list.

Why a line can’t be applied

For every blocked line the reason is shown, for example:

• No item matched or Several items match
• This supplier is not on the item: Add it to the item under Suppliers (as an additional supplier, see Multiple suppliers per item). Then the line can be applied.
• The item has no supplier set
• Different currency than your business
• Net price missing — the list only shows gross prices
• Payroll items, tickets and packages with automatically calculated cost price have no cost price of their own.
• Pack size missing

Lines with a note such as Large change — check unit and pack (from 30 %) are not preselected: check them before you tick them.

Apply

1. Tick the lines that should count (or select all applicable ones).
2. Click Apply (n).
3. The dialog states the number and date: “Apply n cost prices from …? Item names and descriptions stay unchanged.” Confirm with Apply.

What happens:

• The new cost price applies from the chosen day. Until then, Univents calculates with the previous one. This is the same mechanism as Price from date on the item, see Adjust prices in bulk.
• For which supplier: If the sender is the item’s preferred supplier, the new price becomes the item’s cost price — like a planned cost price on the item. If it is an additional supplier, the price applies only to orders and line items with that supplier, like Purchase price from … in its entry under Suppliers. The preferred supplier’s cost price stays unchanged.
• The item’s name, description and base cost price stay unchanged.
• Open drafts for events from that day pick up the new cost price as soon as they are recalculated. Sent documents stay as they are.
• If a cost price was already planned for the same day and the same supplier, applying replaces it — the line tells you this beforehand.
• At most 500 lines are applied per run. The rest stays selected, Apply more continues.
• If a line has changed since loading, it isn’t applied and the dialog says so.

An applied line carries Applied from …. There is no undo button; a wrong price is corrected like any planned cost price — on the item or in the supplier’s entry under Suppliers.

Discard

With Discard you finish a list without applying anything. No cost price changes, and the matches from this list are not remembered. Univents deletes the file after 30 days; the row stays as a record.

When reading doesn’t work

The list shows the reason, for example “The table’s columns weren’t recognised” (then the AI reads it once you click Start reading), “The file has too many pages. Please send it as Excel or CSV.” or “The file doesn’t look like a price list.” With Try again you start a new attempt. Univents tries up to three times per section; used-up or aborted calls are not charged to you.

With the AI assistant

In the chat you can have price lists shown and a list reviewed. Every change — changing the supplier or a match, Apply, Discard — is shown by the assistant beforehand on a confirmation card (for applying, with item, previous and new cost price). Nothing happens until you click. You start reading PDFs in the interface.

Good to know

• Price lists by email: The review list shows “Sender not verified — check supplier and prices” and preselects no rows. The reason: the sender of an email can be forged. So check the supplier and the prices before you tick any rows.
• Item appears more than once: If an item appears several times, the list says “Item appears more than once — pick one row” and nothing is preselected. If you select two rows for the same item, Univents rejects the apply and changes nothing.
• Photos: Photos can be up to about 3.7 MB. Larger photos are rejected with “Photo too large — please send it as a PDF or make it smaller.” This applies to upload, the partner portal and email.
• JSON files: A JSON file may have at most 200 different fields; more than 3,000 items are cut off, and the review list points this out.
• Apply gets stuck: If a list shows “Being applied” for more than 5 minutes (for example after an interruption), you can Apply or Discard it again.

Frequently asked questions

Does applying change my sales prices? No. Only cost prices change, and only from the chosen day. You adjust sales prices as usual, for example with Adjust prices in the catalog.

Can I choose a date in the past? No. “Valid from” is today at the earliest, so that open drafts for events already planned don’t silently change their margin. After the first apply, the list’s date is fixed.

Why does a line show another supplier? The item no. is also stored on an item of another supplier (Same item no. at: …). It isn’t applied — the list never makes decisions about the supplier. If you also buy the item from this supplier, add it to the item under Suppliers and match the line.

Does my supplier see what I do with it? No. In the portal they only see the file name and date of their uploads, no prices and no status of your adoption.

Does uploading Excel cost anything? No. Excel, CSV and JSON are free. Only PDFs and photos use AI credit.