# Apply a Rate List

Attach one to a customer or vendor so it fills in by default, or pick one on a single document.

A rate list does nothing until something points at it. There are two ways that happens, and they behave differently when a price is edited afterwards.

![The record for Trade Tier 3 UK National Accounts, marked Active. A large panel reads 15.00 per cent, Markdown applied to all items, every item's sales rate is reduced by this percentage then rounded. Four tiles beneath read Direction Markdown, Rounding Never mind, Transaction Sales and Applies To All items. A Description panel reads Head-office negotiated rate for national account groups, above a How is a rate calculated link. An Activity Panel on the right shows one entry, Created rate list.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/rate-lists/rate-list-detail.png)

*A rate list record states its four decisions plainly: direction, rounding, which side, and what it covers.*

## Attach it to a contact

- **Open the customer or vendor**

  A Sales rate list attaches to a customer; a Purchase rate list attaches to a vendor. The Transaction Type on the list decides which contacts can take it.
- **Choose the rate list, and save**

  From then on every document raised for that contact fills its rates from the list rather than from the items.

## Or choose one on the document

Every sales and purchase document carries a rate list field of its own. Setting it there applies the list to that document only, which is what you want for a one-off agreed price.

> **Note:**
>
> **Line level is a separate setting**
>
> By default one document takes one rate list. Turning on **Apply rate list at line item level** under item preferences lets a single line take a different list from the rest, which is worth it only when one order genuinely mixes contract and standard pricing.

## What wins

| Situation | The rate that applies |
| --- | --- |
| No rate list anywhere | The item's own selling or cost price |
| A list on the contact | That list's rate |
| A different list chosen on the document | The document's list, for that document |
| A price typed on the line | What you typed. A line edit always wins |

> **Tip:**
>
> **Check the rate on the first document after attaching a list**
>
> Attaching a list changes what future documents fill in, not what is already raised. Raising one and reading the line is a five-second check that the list is doing what you meant.