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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-03-14
Setup Considerations: Item Pricing

Setup Considerations: Item Pricing

You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of procurement item pricing in Workday. It explains:
  • Why to set it up.
  • How it fits into the rest of Workday.
  • Downstream impacts and cross-product interactions.
  • Security requirements and business process configurations.
  • Questions and limitations to consider before implementation.
Refer to detailed task instructions for full configuration details.

What It Is

You maintain pricing for items you procure on:
  • Purchase Items; the standard pricing for a generic item and the supplier pricing of associated supplier items.
  • Supplier Contracts; the exact price expected every time you order that item and unit of measure (UOM) from the contract.
  • Catalog Items; the supplier pricing for a supplier item.

Business Benefits

Item Type
Business Benefits
Purchase items
With generic and supplier pricing, you can also:
  • Set up supplier pricing for ordering and just-in-time.
  • Enable linear price calculation when you pay the same price for a base unit, regardless of the unit of measure (UOM) and quantity you order in. Then, you only have to load 1 price for multiple setup UOMs.
  • Set up supplier pricing for combinations of these values during a defined date range (advanced pricing):
    • Supplier contract
    • Ship-to location
    • Company
Catalog items
With supplier pricing for specific supplier items, you can also:
  • Add the catalog items on purchase item tasks to consolidate item maintenance.
  • Use segment-based security to secure the usage of catalog item pricing.
Supplier contracts
With a price for the quantity and UOM of an item:
  • That contract price always takes priority on procurement transactions.
  • You can add the supplier contracts on purchase item tasks to differentiate pricing by companies and ship-to locations during a defined date range.

Use Cases

Use Cases
Description
Centralized pricing and packaging information for manufacturer items with multiple suppliers
Use purchase items.
When you configure suppliers on the
Supplier Information
 tab on purchase item tasks, each unique supplier entry displays as a procurement option on the
Search Catalog
 task for requestors.
If you opt into the
Requisitions Experience Unification
 feature from the
Maintain Feature Opt-Ins
 report, we direct you from the
Search Catalog
 task to the catalog search in the
Requisitions
 worklet for a more streamlined requisitioning process. See Create Requisitions in the Requisitions Worklet.
Pricing for a UOM and quantity of an item that's a part of a contractual agreement
Use supplier contracts.
You can add:
  • Purchase items on any contract type.
  • Catalog items on only catalog-type supplier contracts.
Contractual pricing on purchase orders and invoices created off the supplier contract
Use supplier contracts.
Supplier pricing for specific items provided by a supplier
Use catalog items.
Requestors can browse these available goods using the
Search Catalog
 task.
If you opt into the
Requisitions Experience Unification
 feature from the
Maintain Feature Opt-Ins
 report, we direct you from the
Search Catalog
 task to the catalog search in the
Requisitions
 worklet for a more streamlined requisitioning process. See Create Requisitions in the Requisitions Worklet.
Contractual pricing that varies by company and shipping location
Set up supplier contract pricing on purchase item tasks instead of using contract goods lines.

Questions to Consider

Questions
Considerations
Do you track supplier pricing for the items you procure?
With purchase items and catalog items, you can set up supplier pricing for ordering and just-in-time UOMs.
Do you have contractual pricing for items?
With supplier contracts, you can set up contractual pricing for the UOM and quantity of an item. When you create purchase orders and invoices directly from supplier contracts, Workday recommends that you use supplier contract goods lines for pricing.
When you use contracts to track spend and pricing that varies for an item, you can define supplier contract pricing on the purchase item task.
How does pricing for an item vary?
You get the most pricing flexibility on the
Create Purchase Item
 task.
You can set up general supplier pricing for the item on the
Supplier Information
 tab.
If your pricing varies for the same supplier item, you can use the
Advanced Pricing
 grid. Example: Supplier pricing varies by companies, ship-to locations, and supplier contracts. You can only apply a supplier contract at the header level of the item while applying advanced pricing. You can't apply advanced pricing to supplier contract lines.
You can also set up generic item pricing on the
Item Overview
 tab. This populates on transactions when there's no other valid price.
Do you and suppliers collaborate on pricing updates?
Suppliers can load catalog items with pricing into your Workday tenant using the Supplier Portal. They can also use integrations to load their supplier catalog, along with the associated prices.
Do you want to secure items to specific security groups?
You can secure catalog items with segment-based security.
In general, when should you use supplier contracts for pricing?
You can use supplier contracts for pricing when you:
  • Procure an item at the same price for a specific unit of measure (UOM) and quantity.
  • Create purchase orders and invoices based on contract lines.
Do you manage contracts through a group purchasing organization (GPO)?
You can configure Multi-Supplier and Multi-Participant supplier contracts to populate on supplier items. This enables multiple companies to order the same item from different suppliers, using the same contract. It also enables you to control which companies can access the contract.
In general, when should you use purchase items for pricing?
Use purchase item tasks for pricing when you track pricing for individual items from multiple suppliers. You can set up purchase item pricing for standard purchase item UOMs and supplier:
  • Just-in-time UOMs.
  • Ordering UOMs.
  • Pricing for specific combinations of companies, contracts, ship-to locations, and UOMs. This is advanced pricing.
To ensure data integrity when you enter pricing for supplier contracts on purchase item tasks, don't enter pricing on supplier contract lines.
In general, when should you use linear pricing for purchase items?
When you pay the same price for a base unit regardless of the UOM and quantity you order, use linear pricing for purchase items. Select the
Calculate Price based on Conversion Factor
 check box on purchase item tasks to enable linear pricing.

Recommendations

  • To ensure data integrity, don't add purchase items on the goods lines of supplier contracts when you add supplier contracts on purchase item tasks.
  • When you create purchase orders and invoices directly from supplier contracts, Workday recommends that you use supplier contract goods lines for pricing.

Requirements

You must associate a supplier catalog of catalog items to supplier contracts. If you don't, you can't use the catalog items in your tenant.

Limitations

Setup
Limitations
Catalog items
You can't set up pricing for combinations of these values (advanced pricing):
  • Supplier contract
  • Company
  • Ship-to location
  • UOM
You can only use catalog items with Workday Inventory when you associate the catalog items to purchase items.
Supplier contracts
For supplier contract lines, you don't have the pricing flexibility of purchase items. For pricing flexibility, add supplier contracts to the
Advanced Pricing
 grid on purchase item tasks. You can't add items as goods on supplier contracts and apply advanced pricing to those items.

Tenant Setup

In the
Procurement
 section of the
Edit Tenant Setup - Financials
 task, you can enable:
  • The editing of catalog items on purchase item tasks.
  • Restricted prompts so they only display UOMs you set up for items. This ensures users select UOMs already associated to a price.

Security

Workday secures:
  • Catalog items to the
    Catalog Load
     business process in the Supplier Contracts functional area.
  • Supplier contracts to the
    Supplier Contract Event
     business process in the Supplier Contracts functional area.
  • Supplier contracts amendments to the
    Supplier Contract Amendment Event
     business process in the Supplier Contracts functional area.
Configure these domains in the Procurement functional area for purchase items:
Domains
Considerations
Set Up: Purchase Item
Users with access on this domain can set up purchase items and view related reporting.
View: Purchase Item
Users with access on this domain can view a specific purchase item.

Business Processes

Business Processes
Considerations
Catalog Load
Configure to route catalog loads for review and approval.
Change Purchase Item Spend Category Request
Configure to route notifications for spend category change request approval.
Update Supplier Items Event
Configure to route supplier information of purchase items updated with a web service for reviews and approval.
Workday uses the
Import Supplier Items
 web service as an initiating action on the
Update Supplier Items Event
 business process.
Supplier Contract Event
Configure to route new or updated supplier contracts for review and approval.
Supplier Contract Amendment Event
Configure to route amendments made to supplier contracts for review and approval.

Reporting

Reports
Considerations
Inventory Spend Category Change Accounting Impact
Workday captures credit and debit worktags and amounts on this report. Use the report to assist with any necessary journal entries.
Find Change Purchase Item Spend Category Request
Enables you to view your submitted spend category change requests.
View Supplier Catalog
You can view supplier catalogs with details on each catalog item, such as base UOM and current default unit price.
Supplier Catalog Work Area
You can view all supplier catalogs in your tenant, load items for a supplier catalog, or drill into catalog item information for each supplier catalog.
View Purchase Item
You can view all the setup information for a purchase item.
Find Supplier Contracts
You can search for supplier contracts with values you know. Example: supplier, company, or buyer.
View Supplier Contract
You can view supplier contract information and pricing, whether you set up pricing on purchase items or catalog items.
You can use these data sources to build custom reports on items:
  • Catalog Items (Indexed)
  • Catalog Load Request (Indexed)
  • Index Procurement Item
  • Purchase Items (Indexed)
  • Procurement Items
  • Supplier Item Details (Indexed)
  • Supplier Item Import Request

Integrations

You can use these web services to update item pricing:
Item Type
Web Services
Catalog items
  • Submit Catalog Load Request
  • Import Catalog Load
  • Get Catalog Loads
  • Get Catalog Items
Purchase items
For general purchase item information, use:
  • Get Purchase Items
  • Put Purchase Item
For supplier information of purchase items, use:
  • Import Supplier Items
  • Get Supplier Items
Supplier contracts
  • Get Supplier Contract Amendments
  • Get Supplier Contracts
  • Put Supplier Contract Link
  • Remove Supplier Contract Line Hold
  • Submit Supplier Contract
  • Submit Supplier Contract Amendment

Other Impacts

On the
Edit Company Procurement Options
 task, you can enable UOM and price changes on requisitions for:
  • Catalogs Items
  • Purchase Items
  • Stocked Purchase Items

Connections and Touchpoints

Features
Considerations
Inventory
When you use Workday Inventory and catalog items, use catalog load or purchase item tasks to associate the catalog items to purchase items.
This ensures that you can use the
Put Away Inventory
 task in the Inventory functional area.
Supplier Accounts
On supplier portal tasks, suppliers can pick from a list of UOMs you set up in your tenant for invoice documents.
Workday offers a Touchpoints Kit with resources to help you understand configuration relationships in your tenant. Learn more about the Workday Touchpoints Kit on Workday Community.