PRD: Costing Management System¶

1. Goal & Overview¶

The Costing Management System (Pebble IQ - Costing) is the analytical core of the platform. it ensures pricing hygiene by managing the lifecycle of product costs, tracking competitive intelligence, and enforcing margin governance through multi-level approvals. It transitions costing from a static manual process to a predictive, data-driven engine.

2. Dynamic Price Lifecycle¶

Costing sheets are governed by strict validity states to prevent quoting based on stale data:

• Spot Price Tagging: Products with high market fluctuation must be tagged in the Master to enforce "Spot Price Only" quotes.
• Costing Bypass: Provision for senior users to skip formal costing and provide "Direct Rates" for rapid quoting.

3. Intelligence & Predictive Costing¶

The system moves beyond simple arithmetic to provide strategic pricing insights.

• Import vs. Domestic Arbitrage: Costing sheets must display the current Import Price. If Import Price < Domestic Price, the system auto-generates a "Request for Import" notification to procurement.
• Predictive Target Price: Computer-generated "Projected Price" based on:
  • Current Market Value (Index).
  • Last Quoted Price (Historical).
  • Competitor Price (Intelligence).
• Behavioral Analytics: Predictive costing suggestions tailored to specific Customer Behavior and Company History (e.g., price sensitivity vs. volume consistency).

4. Competitive & Negotiation Intelligence¶

• Loss Intelligence: If a customer discloses a competitor's price/name, it is captured. During the next quotation for that entity, the system displays: "Lost opportunity at ₹X (Competitor Y)".
• Negotiation Logs:
  • External: provision to log chronological conversations during the customer negotiation process.
  • Internal: Categorized internal requests for:
    • Rates Request
    • Clarifications
    • Operational Feasibility
• Broker Visibility: Real-time display of Broker Rates on the screen to manage net realization.
• Historical Context: System must display:
  • Last Quoted Price (for this customer).
  • Last Transaction Price (Closed Won).
  • Competitor's Last Known Price.

5. Advanced Pricing Logic¶

Granular control over final pricing components.

5.1 Customer-Specific Margins¶

• Logic: Margins are strictly defined at the Customer Level (e.g., Key Account = 10%, Distributor = 5%).
• Automation: The system auto-fetches the correct margin tier when a customer is selected.

5.2 Value-Added Premiums¶

• Audit/Documentation Cost: If Customer.RequiresAudit = True, add specific premium (e.g., +₹2/kg) to the base cost.
• Specification Difficulty: If Spec.Difficulty = High (hard to achieve parameters), trigger an auto-increase in the base rate.

5.3 Logistics & Freight¶

• Transporter Integration: Display live or contracted freight rates from the Transporter Master.
• Landed Cost View: Clearly show Ex-Works Price + Freight + Insurance = Landed Cost.

6. Governance & Approvals¶

Rigorous gatekeeping to protect project profitability.

7. Mermaid Workflow: Costing Intelligence Loop¶

graph TD
    subgraph DataIngestion["1. Cost Foundations"]
        DM[Domestic Price] --> CS[Costing Sheet]
        IM[Import Price] --> CS
        BR[Broker Rates] --> CS
    end

    subgraph Intelligence["2. Pricing IQ"]
        CS --> Comp[Competitive Intelligence]
        Comp --> PP[Projected Price Generation]
        PP --> PC[Predictive Costing Suggestion]
        PC --> Check{Price State?}
    end

    subgraph Validity["3. Lifecycle Check"]
        Check -- Spot --> Q[Allow Quote 24h]
        Check -- Active --> Q[Allow Quote X days]
        Check -- Inactive/Dormant --> Block[Block Costing Sheet]
    end

    subgraph Governance["4. Approval Gate"]
        Q -- Below Cost --> Appr[Manager Approval Required]
        Q -- Low Margin --> Appr
        Q -- Below Target --> Appr
        Q -- Standard --> Send[Send Final Quote]
    end

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