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The Margin Management feature gives you precise control over how product prices are rounded and maintained relative to your cost. Take a look at how you can automate pricing to preserve your profit margins!

Here is what you will learn in this article:

• Understanding the New Fields
• Enable Margin Management
• Margin Management for Departments
• Margin Management for Product Maintenance
• Margin Management for Mass Import
• Margin Management for Mass Product Editor
  • Filtering by Margin Variance
  • Adjusting Product Prices in Bulk

We have introduced two new fields across Departments, Product Maintenance, Receiving, Quick Add, and Quick Print: 

• Target Margin — sets the desired gross margin percentage for a product. 

• Margin Management — controls how the system rounds prices to hit that margin. 

When a product's cost changes, the system automatically recalculates and updates the Gross Margin field to match the Target Margin, applying the selected rounding rule. If no settings are configured at the product level, the product inherits the settings from its assigned department.

💡Please Note: Product-level settings always take priority. If a product has its own Target Margin and Margin Management values set, those are used. If those fields are left blank, the product falls back to the department-level defaults. 

Understanding the New Fields

Target Margin

Target Margin defines the gross profit margin percentage you want the product to achieve. It is expressed as a percentage (for example, 5%).

When Cost is updated on a product, the system will use the Target Margin to recalculate the selling Price. Then it will apply the Margin Management rounding rule (see below). The Gross Margin field will automatically update to reflect the result.

💡Please Note: The existing Gross Margin field on a product will be kept in sync with Target Margin whenever cost is changed. You do not need to manually update it.

Margin Management (Rounding Rule)

The Margin Management field controls how the Price is rounded after the Target Margin calculation. There are three options: 

💡Important Note: Rounding always rounds up to protect margin. A price will never round down below the calculated target margin price. As a result, when you apply Margin Management rounding, your Gross Margins will always be slightly higher than your Target Margin.

Enable Margin Management

To activate Margin Management so it can be used in your system, log into the Back End and go to Administration > POS Manager > Security. Scroll down to the bottom of the Initial Setup section and toggle the Margin Management setting to Yes, as pictured below. Be sure to click the Save button in the upper right when you're finished.

Margin Management for Departments

Department-level settings act as the default for all products assigned to a department. Any product without its own Margin Management or Target Margin configured will inherit the values of its Department.

To set your Department defaults for Margin Management, log into the Back Office and go to Administration > Departments. 

  

On the Departments page, follow these steps to set Margin Management for a Department:

1. Click on the Department you want to configure. 
2. To the right, click the Margin Management drop-list and select your preferred Rounding Rule. See the table above for descriptions of each rule. 
   
3. Enter your Target Margin percentage. The Target Margin percentage allows two digits after the decimal point, so for example, if you want a Target Margin of 5%, in the Target Margin field, it would be 5.00%, as pictured below.
    
4. Click the Save button in the upper right. 

All products in this department without product-level Target Margins (set in Product Maintenance) will now use these Department settings whenever Cost is updated.

Margin Management in Product Maintenance

To begin working with Margin Management in Product Maintenance, from the Back End, go to Products > Product Maintenance. 

1. From the Product Maintenance page, search for the product you want or scan it the UPC code then click on the product to highlight it.
2. Click on the Inventory tab.
3. The current Gross Margin for the product displays here. This will recalculate when you update the Cost or the Margin Management, as will the product's Price. You don't need to manually adjust this field.
4. Enter your Target Margin percentage. The Target Margin percentage allows two digits after the decimal point, so for example, if you want a Target Margin of 5%, in the Target Margin field, it would be 5.00%, as pictured below.
    
5. Click the Margin Management drop-list and select your preferred Rounding Rule. See the table above for descriptions of each rule. 
   
6. Click the Save button in the upper right.

💡Please Note: Product-level settings override department defaults. Use Product Maintenance to set unique margin rules for individual items.

How Cost Changes Affect Pricing:

• When you update the Cost on a product, the system recalculates the Price based on the Target Margin and gives you a success confirmation.
   
• The Margin Management rounding rule is then applied to the recalculated Price.
• The Gross Margin field updates automatically to reflect the actual margin achieved after rounding.

 💡Please Note: If both Target Margin and Margin Management are blank at the product level, the Department settings will be used. If neither is set at either level, no automatic price recalculation will occur. 

Margin Management in Mass Import

To begin working with Margin Management in the Mass Import tool, from the Back End, go to Products > Mass Import.  

On the Mass Import page, if you have data you are importing for Target Margin percentage and the Margin Management rounding selection, you can click on the Select Fields to Import drop-list and check the boxes for those two fields at the bottom of the list to include them in the import.

When importing products in bulk, you can apply a unified margin and rounding rule to all imported products at once using the Set Prices by Margin button in the Map Import Columns screen.

⚠️Important Note: The Set Prices by Margin option is only available when the import file does not include a Price column. If a Price column is mapped in your import, the Margin Management option will be disabled — the imported price values take precedence and cannot be overridden by the margin calculation.

Follow these steps to set prices using Margin Management when doing a Mass Import: 

• Begin a product import and proceed to the Map Import Columns screen (see the article linked below titled Mass Import for full details). 
• Click the Set Prices by Margin button in the lower right. The Update Price window will open.
• Enter a Margin percentage in the Margin field (e.g., 30.00%).
• Select a Margin Management rounding rule from the dropdown: No Rounding, Next X9 Cent Amount, or Next 99 Cent Amount (see descriptions in the Understanding the New Fields section above for full details).
• Click the Apply button to apply the settings to all products in the import. If you need to start over, click Reset to clear the settings from all products in the import.
• Once you're satisfied, click the Import button in the lower right to complete the import. 

Why Price and Margin Management Cannot Be Combined

If your import file contains a Price column and you map it during import, those prices are treated as authoritative. Applying a margin-based price recalculation on top of explicit prices would override the intended pricing in your file, so the system prevents this combination.

To use Margin Management for pricing on an import, ensure the import file does not include a Price column, or remove the Price column mapping before clicking Set Prices by Margin.

💡Please Note: Margin and rounding settings applied during import are one-time calculations for that import batch only. They do not automatically save as the product's ongoing Target Margin or Margin Management settings. To persist those settings, configure them in Product Maintenance or at the Department level after import, or import their fields directly.

Margin Management in the Mass Product Editor

The Mass Product Editor allows you to select multiple products and update their margin settings or prices all at once, saving time when managing large catalogs.

To begin working with Margin Management in the Mass Product Editor, from the Back End, go to Products > Mass Product Editor. 

Updating Target Margin and Margin Management in Bulk

You can select any number of products and apply the same Target Margin and Margin Management rounding rule to all of them at once. Follow these steps:

1. From the Mass Product Editor page, use the Filters (date range, department, vendor, section, etc.) or the Search to find the products you want to update.
2. Check the checkbox next to each product you want to update. Use the header checkbox to select all visible products.
3. In the toolbar above the list, enter the desired margin percentage in the Set Target Margin field.
4. Enter your Target Margin percentage. The Target Margin percentage allows two digits after the decimal point, so for example, if you want a Target Margin of 5%, in the Target Margin field, it would be 5.00%, as pictured below. 
5. Select a Margin Management rounding rule from the drop-list: No Rounding, Next X9 Cent Amount, or Next 99 Cent Amount (see descriptions in the Understanding the New Fields section above for full details). 
6. Click the Save button in the upper right.

💡Please Note: Applying a Target Margin in the Mass Product Editor updates both the Target Margin and Gross Margin fields for each selected product. It also recalculates prices using the chosen rounding rule — the same logic that applies when you update Cost on a single product.

Filtering by Margin Variance

The Margin Variance filter lets you quickly surface products whose actual margin differs from their target, so you can identify and correct pricing issues at a glance.

Available Margin Variance Filter Options:

• All Margin Variance — No variance filter applied — all products are shown regardless of margin status.
• Above Target — Shows products where the current Gross Margin is higher than the Target Margin. 
• Below Target — Shows products where the current Gross Margin is lower than the Target Margin.  
• Variance ≥ 5% — Shows products where the difference between actual and Target Margin is 5 percentage points or more (in either direction).  
• Variance ≥ 10% — Shows products where the difference between actual and Target Margin is 10 percentage points or more (in either direction).  
• On Target (±2%) — Shows products where the actual margin is within 2 percentage points of the target — effectively on track.  

💡Pro Tip: A common workflow: filter by Variance >= 5% or Below Target, select all results, then apply the correct Target Margin and Margin Management rule in bulk to bring those products back in line — all in a single Apply action. 

Adjusting Prices in Bulk

In addition to the Margin Management settings, you can increase or decrease the Price of all selected products by a flat dollar amount or a percentage at once using the Adjust Price toolbar controls.

Follow these steps:

1. From the Mass Product Editor page, use the Filters (date range, department, vendor, section, etc.) or the Search to find the products you want to update. The Margin Variance filter described in the section below can be particularly useful for adjusting Price in bulk.
2. Check the checkbox next to each product you want to update. Use the header checkbox to select all visible products.
3. In the toolbar above the list, use the Mode drop-list to choose $ (dollar amount) or % (percentage). See the table below on how adjustments to Price in bulk work for each of these modes.
   
4. Enter the value you want in the Amount field based on your chosen mode. 
5. Click the Increase button to increase Price for all selected products, or Decrease to lower them. 
6. Click the Save button in the upper right.

Related Topics

POS Manager Security

Departments

Product Maintenance

Mass Import

Mass Product Editor

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I did a Mass Import, and the initial margins were good, but none of the products kept the Margin Management settings. Why didn't they keep the settings?

A: Unless you are importing values for Target Margin and the Margin Management rounding rule within the product data itself, the Mass Import does a one-time calculation that applies to the imported products, but does not save the values in those fields. You can still follow the example given in the Department or the Mass Product Editor sections above to set the products the way you need for Margin Management.

Q: I have a question, but I can't find my answer here. How do I get more assistance?

A: If you need immediate assistance, the team is available 24/7. Feel free to contact our support team at: 877-752-0625. Or you can email us at support@marktpos.com and we will respond within 24-hours.