Price list template for distributors (and why a list is not a price)

A distributor price list template needs more than a product name and a price. It needs the SKU and unit, the landed cost, a list price built from that cost, one column per customer price level, and a check that the lowest level still clears your minimum margin. The free Excel template below has all of that, with the formulas already in place.

It opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers. Yellow cells are inputs, green cells calculate, and the last column turns red when a price falls below your floor.

What a distributor price list needs

Most price list templates online are designed to look good on a counter. A distributor's list does a different job: it is where every quote starts, so it has to carry the cost and the rules as well as the price.

• The item

  SKU, description, category and unit of measure.

• The cost

  Supplier price, freight, duty and handling, adding up to landed cost.

• The prices

  List price, then one column per customer price level.

• The check

  Margin at the lowest level, flagged when it falls below the floor.

The unit matters more than it looks. A roller chain sold by the 10 ft box and quoted by the foot, or belts bought in packs of 10 and sold singly, cause more pricing errors than any markup.

How to make a price list, step by step

1. Start from landed cost

   Supplier price plus freight, duty and handling, per unit. See the landed cost guide.

2. Set a markup per category

   Fast movers that customers compare get less. Small parts nobody shops around for get more.

3. Add price levels

   One multiplier on list per customer type: contractor, OEM, distributor.

4. Set a minimum margin

   Check the lowest level against it. Fix the rule, not the single price.

5. Round and publish

   Round to sensible prices, then export one version per price level.

The template follows these steps. The Settings sheet holds the category markups, the level multipliers and the minimum margin. Change a rule there and every price recalculates.

A worked example

The 6205-2RS bearing in the template lands at $11.60. Bearings carry a 60% list markup, so the list price is $18.56. Each price level is a multiplier on list.

At the Distributor level the margin is 15.5%, below the 18% floor, and the template flags it. The same happens on the 6305-ZZ. Belts, fittings and seals at the same level stay above 22%, because their category markups are higher.

There are two honest fixes: raise the bearing markup, or give the Distributor level a smaller discount on bearings. Fixing the single price by hand is the wrong one, because the next cost update overwrites it and the problem comes back.

Excel, Word or PDF?

Keep the working price list in a spreadsheet, because it is the only format where the formulas live. Customers get a different file: export one price level to PDF or a clean sheet with SKU, description, unit, price and quantity breaks, and the date the prices are valid from.

Never send the working file. It holds your landed costs and the margin on every line, and a customer who sees both will use them in the next negotiation.

Why a price list is not a price

A price list is the starting point of most quotes, not the price a customer pays. Reps discount from it to win deals, customers have contract prices that override it, rebates come back after the sale, and freight terms change the margin on every order.

That is why two distributors with identical price lists can earn very different margins. What counts is the net price on each quote line, and a spreadsheet cannot see it. It does not know which customer is asking, what they paid last time, how much stock is left or what a competitor quoted yesterday.

Use the template to get the base right: landed cost, clear rules and a floor. When the list grows to thousands of items and dozens of price levels, price management software keeps the rules, recalculates when cost moves and holds the floor on every quote line, including the ones a rep discounts.