How to track supplier price rises over time in Xero

Short answer

1. Export bills with line detail from Xero.
2. Build a table of supplier, item, date and unit price.
3. Sort by item and date to see where the price moved.
4. Multiply the change by the quantity to see what the rise cost.

Before you start

Pick one or two suppliers first. Choose the ones you spend the most with. Tracking everything at once is slow.

You need:

• Bills coded by item. If lines have no item code, you will match on description, which is less reliable.
• Access to Business > Bills to pay and to reports.

The manual way in Xero

1. Go to Business > Bills to pay.
2. Filter by supplier and the last 12 months.
3. Export the bills to a spreadsheet.
4. If the export has only totals, open a report that shows each line. Check Xero Central for the right one on your plan.
5. Build a table with four columns: supplier, item, date and unit price.
6. Sort by item and then date.
7. Mark each date where the unit price rose. Work out the percentage: (new price - old price) / old price.

Limits:

• It is a lot of work for many items.
• You find the rise after you have paid, not before.
• Item prices saved in Xero are not a record of what you paid.

The manual way in MYOB

Run an itemised purchases report for the supplier and export it. Build the same table by item and date.

The Pulsify way

Pulsify does not keep a history of prices. It catches a rise on the next bill.

1. Upload the agreed prices under Database > Price Lists.
2. When a bill arrives at a higher price, the line shows “Price list: $X each”.
3. Ask the supplier if the rise was agreed. If it was, replace the list with the new prices.
4. Keep the spreadsheet of old lists to show the change over time.

Each time you click Replace and upload a new CSV, save the old file with a date in its name. Those files are your price history.

Worked example

Example Paint Wholesalers, 20L white ceiling paint.

Month	Unit price ex GST	Bought
July	$118.00	24
August	$118.00	30
September	$124.50	28
October	$124.50	26

The price rose $6.50 in September, which is 5.5%. You bought 54 tubs since. The rise has cost 54 x $6.50 = $351.00 ex GST so far. You now know to ask whether it was agreed.

Common mistakes

• Tracking item prices saved in Xero. They show what you set, not what the supplier billed.
• Comparing GST-inclusive and ex-GST prices in the same table.
• Looking only at the total. A price rise can hide behind a drop in quantity.

Next step

Try an invoice and see a price rise flagged on the next bill. See the price lists guide.