Which price list was this booking on?
An agent in Brazil books twelve weeks of general English starting in March. The booking lands on the invoice at this year's standard agent rate. The agent replies that there was a promotion for the Brazilian market for bookings made before the end of January, and they booked in January. Nobody in accounts knew, because the promotion was sent out by the marketing manager to Brazilian agents only.
Meanwhile a direct student is quoted the high season accommodation supplement for weeks that fall in low season, and a key agent's special tuition rate was left off the invoice again.
Where prices really live
A school's prices tend to be designed by the sales and marketing side and applied by admissions and accounts. They are stored as documents, not as data.
- The annual agent price list, as a PDF, sometimes in several currencies.
- Market promotions, sent by email with their own conditions and booking windows.
- Seasonal supplements for accommodation and some courses.
- Individual agent rates agreed in a contract or an email thread.
- Direct student prices on the website, which may differ again.
Each quote or invoice is built by a person reading the right documents and applying them in the right order. It is the order that goes wrong most often: whether a promotion stacks on a special rate, and which date counts, the booking date or the start date.
What mismatched prices cost
Every mismatch means a corrected invoice, an email thread and some goodwill used up. Over-charging an agent who was promised a promotion makes them look bad in front of their student. Under-charging because a supplement was missed is money you do not get back. The sales team loses confidence in running promotions at all, because they know the rest of the school struggles to apply them.
What we build: one price source
- Every price, supplement and promotion is held as a rule with its conditions: which courses, which markets or agents, booking window, start window and minimum weeks.
- The order in which rules combine is set once, following your policy: whether promotions stack, whether special agent rates beat promotions, and so on.
- A quote screen for admissions and a quote form for agents both call the same price source, so a quote shows each component and the rule behind it.
- Invoices built in your student system or accounts package take their prices from the same source, through its API or an import.
- Each new promotion is entered once by the sales team, with a preview of the prices it produces, before it goes live.
- Printable price lists per market are generated from the rules, so the PDF agents see matches what the invoice will say.
| Price element | Condition held with it |
|---|---|
| Standard agent tuition | Course, weeks, year |
| Market promotion | Agent's country, booking window, start window |
| Seasonal accommodation supplement | Dates of stay |
| Key agent special rate | Agent, course, contract dates |
| Direct student price | Website channel, currency |
Your pricing decisions stay with you. The price source only makes sure that what you decided is applied the same way every time.
Quotes and invoices that agree
An agent gets a quote showing tuition, supplement and promotion as separate lines, and the invoice later matches it. Accounts stop issuing corrections for promotions they never heard about. Sales can run a promotion for one market for a short window without worrying about how admissions will apply it, and can see how many bookings it brought in.
Signs your price lists are out of step
- Promotions are sent to agents by email and applied from memory.
- Invoices get corrected after agents point out the right price.
- Accommodation supplements are applied to the wrong weeks.
- Nobody is sure whether promotions stack with special rates.
- Price list PDFs are made by hand each year.