Pricing design
Pricing Versions: Why Editing the Old Rate Is Not a Launch Plan
By the Orvlin team · · 2 min read
Pricing catalog versioning: what to decide
A product manager corrects a rate table and accidentally changes a draft for an annual customer whose negotiated deal was supposed to remain fixed. Catalog changes should not silently reinterpret every account.
Separate reusable catalog defaults from customer-specific agreements. A version describes a coherent offer; an effective date determines when it applies. Keep entitlement changes aligned with the same commercial transition where relevant.
An illustrative case
Version one charges a cent per request; version two charges 1.2 cents for new customers after November 1. An existing account can remain on version one until its renewal. Historical November reports should identify which version applied to each account.
The important caveat
An effective date alone is insufficient if the system resolves prices using today’s catalog during a replay. Save the contract and version association needed to reproduce historical calculations.
Review these decisions
- Make new versions immutable after activation.
- Review account eligibility before switching plans.
- Test changes near billing-period boundaries.
- Record approvals and a rollback strategy.
Frequently asked questions
- Can we correct a typo without a new version?
- Presentation copy can often be corrected independently. Changing the economic meaning of a rate, allowance or entitlement deserves controlled versioning and review.