Supplier price increase checklist

Published 6 October 2026. Updated 6 October 2026.

A price increase notice looks simple: new numbers, effective on a date. In practice it is the point where distributors lose margin without noticing. The cost goes up in the system a month late, or goes in wrong, or goes in correctly and the sales price never follows. This checklist is meant to be worked top to bottom each time a supplier sends a new list.

It is written for a small distributor that keeps items and costs in QuickBooks Online, but nearly all of it applies to any system.

1. Read the notice, not just the spreadsheet

Many problems are written in the cover email and never reach the file.

• What is the effective date? Orders placed before it may still ship at the old cost.
• Does the increase apply to all items, or only to some product families?
• Are there changes in minimum order quantities, pack sizes or freight terms that do not show in the unit cost?
• Is there a stated end date for the old pricing, or for open purchase orders?

Write the effective date next to the file. If you update costs before that date, your reports will show margins that are not real yet.

2. Keep the originals

Save the supplier's file untouched. Save a copy of your current item list with costs and sales prices, dated. These are your evidence if a cost is later disputed, and your way back after an import.

3. Check the file is complete

• Count the item lines in the file and compare with your working table.
• Look for several sheets or sections, hidden rows and hidden columns.
• On a PDF, confirm the page count and that no page is cut off at the edge.
• On a scan, check a sample of rows for digits that are easy to misread, such as 1 and 7, or 0, 6 and 8.

4. Check the units

Before you believe a strange percentage change, check whether the unit changed rather than the price. Look for:

• Each versus box versus case
• Per 100 or per 1000 pricing
• Feet versus meters, or per roll versus per foot
• Quantity-break columns where you read the wrong tier

If an item moved by several hundred percent, assume a unit issue first.

5. Match carefully

The usual mistakes at the matching step:

• Colour or size suffixes that differ by one character, so a blue item is matched to the white one
• A supplier part number reused for a new product
• Leading zeros lost in a spreadsheet, so 00417 becomes 417
• Two of your items pointing to the same supplier number

Do not let a close match through on a guess. A row you cannot match with confidence should be held back and asked about. See how to match supplier SKUs to your items.

6. Compute the change with formulas

For each matched item, work out the new cost minus the current cost, and that figure as a percentage of the current cost. Use a formula in a spreadsheet so you can fill it down and re-run it. Sort so the biggest percentage changes are on top and read the top of the list against the source.

7. Look at the sell side first

Once the new costs are known, compare each one to the current sales price. Sort the results into three groups:

The below-cost group is the one to look at first, because it can be fixed by a sales price change and the loss begins on the first sale. Your own target margins come from your own business, so use your numbers, not rules of thumb. Whether you can pass on the increase depends on your agreements with customers, so check your contracts.

8. Handle new and dropped items

• New items are on the supplier's list but not in your item list. Decide whether to stock and add them. Do not add them by import blindly.
• Dropped items are in your item list but missing from the new file. They may be discontinued, renamed or simply left off. Ask the supplier before you make anything inactive, and check stock on hand.

9. Import only what you checked

Prepare the import file with checked rows only. Update the purchase cost only. Leave sales prices alone; set them in a separate step on purpose. Test with a row or two. QuickBooks Online's import cannot be undone, so the backup from step 2 matters. The steps are set out in how to update item costs in QuickBooks Online.

10. Close the loop

• Spot check a sample of imported items, including big movers.
• Re-run a margin report and confirm below-cost items are what you expected.
• Record the update date, the supplier and the number of lines changed.
• Tell whoever quotes and sells which items changed and when new prices start.

The most common mistakes, in short

1. Updating the cost on the wrong date
2. Reading the wrong quantity-break column
3. Missing a unit change
4. Matching a close but wrong SKU
5. Changing the sales price by accident in the same import
6. Never looking at the below-cost list
7. Forgetting items that vanished from the file

Where PriceListRadar fits

PriceListRadar does the mechanical work of steps 3 to 8. It reads the supplier's file in any layout, ties the row count to the source, matches rows to your QuickBooks item list, computes each change and percentage in code and puts below-cost items first. New items are shown to you, not added for you. Items on your list but absent from the new file are marked as possibly discontinued, not removed. Lines it cannot match come back as questions.

It reports what the supplier's file says and flags items where your sales price is under the new cost. It does not give pricing advice and does not replace your own reconciliation. A second, stronger AI model reviews every result, fixes what it can, and lists what is left for you to decide. Results are model output checked by code and by a second model; they are not verified by a person. An update of up to 100 price lines costs 12 credits. To try it on your next list, sign up.

Questions

How much notice should a supplier give before a price increase?

There is no single rule. The notice period, if any, comes from your agreement or the supplier's terms of sale, and some suppliers change prices with little notice. Check your contract, and ask the supplier in writing if it is unclear.

Can I pass an increase on to customers straight away?

That depends on your own customer agreements, quotes and any price commitments you have made. Check your contracts before changing prices on open quotes or standing orders.

Is it worth checking items whose cost did not change?

Yes, briefly. Compare a small sample of unchanged lines against the source, because a misread column can make a changed item look unchanged. Count the lines too, so nothing is silently dropped.