The Price Lock feature gives you full control over who can view and edit pricing information in Ply. You can decide which team roles: such as Managers, Members, or Technicians can access the Cost of Business, the Cost to Customer, or both.
| 💰 Cost of Business | 🧾 Cost to Customer |
What it is | What you paid to acquire the material from your supplier | What you charge your customer for the material |
Purpose | Your internal cost — the number that determines your margin | The sell price shown on invoices and job estimates |
Visibility | Typically private — most companies don't want techs to see what they pay for parts | Often visible to techs — they may need to quote or confirm pricing with customers in the field |
Example | You pay $45.00 for a compressor from Carrier | You charge $125.00 for that same compressor |
This feature helps maintain pricing accuracy, prevent unauthorized edits, and ensure that sensitive cost data stays private.
The gap between these two numbers is your margin.
Keeping Cost of Business private from techs prevents them from calculating or questioning your markup while still letting them see what customers are being charged
How It Works
Price Lock settings allow you to customize pricing permissions for each role.
View access: Choose who can see the Cost of Business or Cost to Customer.
Edit access: Choose who can modify these prices.
Users without permission will see blank fields or restricted pricing areas wherever those values appear (Catalog, Purchase Orders, Jobs, etc.).
Every combination of visibility and permissions is supported; for example, you can let managers see and edit both prices, while technicians only view Cost to Customer.
Material | 👔 Manager (Full Access) | 🔧 Technician (Customer Price Only) |
AC Filter 16x25x1 | $8.50 (cost) + $18.99 (customer) | 🔒 $18.99 only |
Capacitor 45/5 MFD | $22.00 (cost) + $54.00 (customer) | 🔒 $54.00 only |
Contactor 30A 24V | $14.00 (cost) + $35.00 (customer) | 🔒 $35.00 only |
Visibility | ✅ Cost of Business + ✅ Cost to Customer | 🔒 Cost of Business hidden · ✅ Cost to Customer only |
How to Configure Price Lock
Go to Settings → Procurement Purchasing → Price Lock Setting.
2. Under each role, select whether users can view or edit:
Cost of Business
Cost to Customer
3. Click Save Changes to apply your settings.
When to Use Price Lock
Use this feature if:
You want to keep business cost information private.
You need to prevent technicians or members from editing pricing.
You’re standardizing pricing permissions across multiple teams or branches.
📍Affected Areas
Price Lock applies everywhere these values appear
Area | What's Shown |
📚 Catalog | Material detail views and price fields in the catalog |
📦 Purchase Orders | Unit cost fields on PO line items and totals |
🔧 Jobs | Material pricing shown when assigning items to jobs |
📱 Mobile App | Price fields visible to techs in the field |
📊 Reports | Cost and margin data in any reporting views |
📋 RFQs | Pricing visible when reviewing supplier offers |
Notes
Price Lock affects visibility and permissions only; it doesn’t change pricing values or history.
You can adjust these permissions at any time in Settings → Procurement Purchasing → Price Lock Setting.
The feature applies across all modules where pricing appears.
Video Tutorial
Still need help? Contact Support!
Questions about configuring price permissions for your team? We're happy to help you find the right setup.