Display your cost as a private code

Every dealer knows this moment. A customer is across the counter, you're about to quote a price, and you need to know what you paid for the piece. You don't want to walk to the back office, and you don't want your cost sitting on a screen or a tag the customer can read. For generations, dealers in the luxury trade have solved this with a cost code. Elefta gives you two ways to do it.

Option one: a numeric cost code on your tags

Elefta already supports a cost code based on numbers, built right into tag printing. On the tag printing page, choose to print your cost multiplied by any number you like. If you pick 3, a piece you bought for $4,750 prints on its tag as 14,250. To a customer it looks like any other number on the tag. To you, it's your cost times three, and only you know the multiplier.

Option two: a letter-based Cost Cipher

Some dealers prefer the classic approach: letters instead of numbers. With Cost Cipher, the account owner assigns a unique character to each digit from 0 to 9. A popular trick is a ten-letter word with no repeating letters. For example, MAKEPROFIT maps like this:

1 = M, 2 = A, 3 = K, 4 = E, 5 = P, 6 = R, 7 = O, 8 = F, 9 = I, 0 = T

With that code, a piece that cost $4,750 displays as EOPT, and a $12,800 piece displays as MAFTT. Anyone glancing at the screen or the tag sees a random string of letters. You see your cost.

How the cipher works

Rounding. Cost is rounded to the nearest whole dollar, so cents never appear. A cost of $899.60 becomes 900, which displays as ITT.

No separators. There are no commas or decimals, just the letters.

Instant changes. Change your code and every product updates right away. Nothing needs to be re-entered.

Safe rules. Each character can only be used once, and numbers and symbols like the dollar sign are blocked, so the code never gives itself away.

Live preview. Sample costs update as you type, so you can see how your code will look before you save it.

Who sees what

The code itself, meaning which letter stands for which digit, is visible only to the account owner. The owner is also the only person who can turn Cost Cipher on or change it. Everyone else on your team sees only the cipher on each product, the string of letters. So your staff can work with it every day, and the key stays with you.

Where the cipher shows up

Once it's on, the cipher appears wherever cost normally does: the product page, a column in your inventory list, printed tags, and CSV and PDF exports. You can also include it on share links and your webstore if you make it sharable. It behaves like any other attribute, so you can sort and filter by it. You never type a cipher by hand, because Elefta calculates it from your real cost. It works for every product type, including watches, jewelry, handbags, and accessories.

Setting it up

Go to Settings, then General, then Inventory, and answer yes to using a Cost Cipher. Enter a character for each of the ten digits, check the preview, and save. It's one of several ways to control how inventory details display in Elefta.