Stop 5 of 8 · Weekly
The price list
One Excel source becomes the Arabic and English price list, the list of what moved since last month, and the announcement to the shops.
One source, two documents, every month
Sherif's prices live in one Excel sheet: code, Arabic name, English name, unit, landed cost, margin, selling price. From that sheet he is supposed to produce a price list in Arabic for the shops, the same list in English for the file and the export customers, and some kind of note telling everyone what changed. In practice the Arabic list is three months old and two shops are still quoting from it.
The sheet is the only truth. Both lists come out of it, together, on the same day.
Before the upload
Delete the landed cost and the margin columns. They are the two things in that file that must never reach a customer, and nothing about laying out a price list needs them. The selling price stays, because the selling price is the document.
Keep the Arabic and English names in the file rather than asking for a translation. A shop in Mansoura orders by the name it has always used, and a fresh Arabic rendering of the product name is a support call.
The change list
A price list nobody compares is a price list nobody reads. Ask for the new list against the one published last month, in four groups: up, down, new, discontinued. Percentages calculated, reasons left blank. Sherif writes the reasons, one line each: freight, the exchange rate, a supplier increase, a packaging change. Those lines become the answer to every reply the announcement gets.
The announcement
Two versions, both in Arabic and English. A short WhatsApp message for the shops that names the effective date and the three changes that matter to them. A longer email for the business customers with the list attached. Both leave the company, so Sherif reads the Arabic against the English before either one is sent, checking the effective date, the prices quoted in the text and the validity.
[upload the price sheet with the landed cost and margin columns deleted] Build my price list from this sheet. English version first, then Arabic, both in the same message. Use the code, the name in that language and the unit exactly as they are in the file. Group by category, keep the same product order in both, and add a header line with the effective date left as [date]. Do not change any price and do not round anything.
[upload last month's published price list] Compare the new list to this one. Four tables: prices up, prices down, new products, discontinued. Each with code, name, old price, new price and percentage change. Leave a reason column empty for me to fill. Then tell me which five changes a retailer is most likely to ask about, judged by size of change and how often the product appears on the list.
Using the reasons I have written in the change table, write two announcements in English and Arabic. One WhatsApp message under 80 words for retailers, naming the effective date and the three changes that affect them most, plain and direct. One email for business customers, under 200 words, referring to the attached list. No apology, no promise about future prices, and never quote a price that is not in the file.