The Margin Monitor feature helps you keep an eye on your profit margins as costs change, so you don't have to manually recalculate pricing every time a supplier raises their rates.
You set a margin goal, either a percentage or a fixed dollar amount, and Ply compares each material's actual margin (between cost to business and cost to customer) against it.
Video Tutorial
Setting up Margin Monitor
Go to Settings → Procurement → Margin Monitor.
Set your margin goal as a percentage (%) or fixed dollar amount ($). This is your account default.
There's also a toggle that controls automatic price updates during PO reconciliation, separate from just showing the goal in your catalog.
How Ply Calculates Your Price
Margin Monitor supports two pricing methods, and each calculates your selling price differently: a Gross Margin (%) or a flat ($) markup.
Flat ($) Markup
Cost + Flat $ Amount = Price / 200 + 150 = 350
With the $ option, you set a specific flat dollar amount that gets added on top of your cost. Cost + Flat $ Amount = Price
Example: If your cost is $200.00 and your flat markup is $150.00
Cost: $200.00
Flat markup: $150.00
Calculation: 200.00 + 150.00 = $350.00
Gross Margin (%)
Cost ÷ (1 − Margin % ) = Price / 200 ÷ (1 − 0.20) = 200 ÷ 0.80 = 250
With Gross Margin, the percentage is based on the final selling price, not the cost.
Cost ÷ (1 − Margin % = Price
Example: If your cost is $200.00 and you want a 20% gross margin:
Cost: $200
Margin goal: 20%
Calculation: 200 ÷ (1 − 0.20) = 200 ÷ 0.80 = $250
⚠️ Note: The $ option is a flat dollar amount added to cost, it is not the same as a percentage markup. Gross Margin (%) is calculated from the final selling price, while the flat $ option is simply added to the cost, so the two methods produce different selling prices.
Margin Monitor during PO reconciliations:
This is the key behavior to
Toggle off: reconciling a PO does not change your catalog price, even if the new cost puts you below your margin goal.
Toggle on: reconciling a PO that puts a material below its margin goal automatically raises the catalog price to meet the goal.
⚠️ Margin Monitor only ever raises prices, never lowers them, and only for materials currently below their goal.
Fixing a single material manually:
Open the material in your Catalog and click Edit material price.
If the actual margin is below the target, Ply shows a recommended price to hit your goal (for example: "raise to $13.33 to hit 10%").
Click the recommendation to apply it, or set your own price.
You can also change it from the "edit material" option:
Fixing many materials at once:
In Catalog, select the materials you want to check (or select the whole page).
Click Other options → Raise to goal.
Ply raises the price of every selected material that's below its margin goal. Materials already at or above goal, and materials with a $0 cost, are skipped.
Confirm the dialog: "Raise client prices on [N] selected items to meet their margin goal? Prices are only raised, never lowered."
This confirmation appears for any selection, even if some selected materials are already at or above their goal. After you confirm, Ply only raises prices on the materials that are actually below their margin goal (shown in red). Materials already at or above goal (shown in green) are left untouched, even though they were part of your selection.
There's currently no way to filter your catalog to show only materials above or below their margin goal. If none of your selected materials are below goal, you'll see a message that no items need adjustment.
Best Practices
Set your account-wide goal first, then use Raise to goal periodically to sweep up anything that's slipped below it.
Turn on the PO reconciliation toggle if you want pricing corrected automatically as costs come in, rather than reviewing manually.
Materials priced at $0 won't be picked up automatically.
Still need help? Contact support!