A Special Cost record is used to define the purchase price for a specific vendor, item, quantity, and currency combination. Special Cost records are stored in the Special file (File 72). Multiple Special Cost records can be created for a single vendor, item and currency in order to allow you to define different vendor prices based on the quantity of the item being ordered, the currency the order is being placed in, or the specific contract that you are purchasing against.
Special Cost records can be tied to specific contracts or agreements that you have made with your vendors, or they may not be associated with a specific vendor contract. The system assigns both a unique price record number and a contract number to special cost records as they are created, and this contract number can be used for sales reporting and for other purposes. Special Cost records also contain date fields (valid from, valid to) that are used by the system to determine the valid dates during which the special cost may be used.
Special Cost records can be set up as Active (meaning that they are automatically used by the system) or as Standby records (meaning they must be manually selected by the operator during PO Entry as appropriate). Since Standby Special Costs may only be selected during manual PO Entry, standby special costs will not be used by the PO Recommendations report, or by the code that creates vendor shipment and special order requisition lines at the end of the sales order entry process.