Price with a lookup matrix

Version

3.x

Updated

2 Aug 2026

View markdown

Audience: store admins · Scope: the Matrix calculation style · Last reviewed: 2026-07-21

What this does — Turns a price table you already have — a supplier price list, a size grid, a quantity-discount ladder — into a working price, without writing a single formula. You choose what the rows and the columns stand for, fill in the cells, and CBX looks up the cell that matches the customer's configuration.

Reach for a matrix whenever pricing is a table. Trying to express a price table as arithmetic is where formulas turn unreadable.

Before you start

• Read where prices come from and build a calculation — a matrix is one of the three calculation styles and is created, saved and attached exactly like the others.
• Decide the two inputs that drive the price, and have the questions they come from already built. A matrix can use one input or two — never more.
• Have your price table to hand. If it lives in Excel, keep it open: you can import it.

Steps

1. Go to Calculations, click Add, name the calculation, choose the product and pick the style Matrix.

2. Say what the rows and columns stand for. Above and to the left of the grid, each axis shows its current setting followed by a change link. Hover change to open the axis picker:

   

   • Questions — pick a question. This is the usual choice.
   • Calculations — use the result of another calculation of this product as the axis. Use this when the real driver is computed rather than entered (area, total weight, running total).
   • Ignore this input — collapse that axis. A matrix with one axis ignored becomes a simple one-dimensional lookup list.

   The axis label then tells you what CBX will read:

   Label	What it means
   Entry in <question>	The number the customer typed — the grid headers are numbers you fill in
   Selection for <question>	The answer the customer picked — the grid headers become answer drop-downs
   Result of calculation <name>	The value another calculation produced
   Ignored	This axis isn't used

   You cannot mix the two within one axis — an axis is either a question, a calculation, or ignored.

3. Fill the grid. Type the price into each cell. The blue + button to the right of the grid adds a column; the one below adds a row.

   

   The gear icon in the grid's top-left corner shows the edit icons — drag handles for reordering rows and columns, and an × on each header to delete it. Grey header cells are the parameters (the values looked up); white cells are the results.

   Write numbers with a dot as the decimal mark and no thousands separators.

4. Or import the table from a spreadsheet. Click Import from a spreadsheet and pick an .xls or .xlsx file. The first row and the first column go into the grey parameter cells — except on an axis whose question has predefined answers, where the parameters come from the answers themselves and the file's first row/column is ignored. Everything else fills the value cells.

   Importing replaces the whole grid, so import before hand-editing, not after.

5. Set the lookup behaviour under Advanced Settings (collapsed by default):

   

   Setting	What it does
   Lookup Value	What to do when the customer's value falls between two rows/columns — Exact Value, Next higher value (the default) or Next lower value
   Round Values to	Rounds the customer's value up before looking it up — 1 to whole numbers, 10 to full tens, and so on. Only applies when Lookup Value is Exact Value
   Multiplier	Multiplies the looked-up cell by a fixed number — the usual way to enter supplier prices and add your margin on top
   Question Selection Multiplier	Multiplies the result by the customer's entry in a question you pick — how you turn a per-unit table into a line total
   Calculated multiplier	Same idea, but the multiplier is another calculation's result

6. Save, then attach it — a calculation does nothing until it is used. Open the question or answer → Calculations → set it as the Price Calculation (or Recurring Price / Weight Calculation), or reference it from a rule or another calculation. See build a calculation for the attachment step in full.

7. Open the configurator and change both inputs. Watch the price step from bracket to bracket.

How a value is looked up

For each axis, CBX takes the customer's value and finds the matching header:

• an exact header match always wins;
• otherwise Lookup Value decides which neighbour to use.

Take a width table with columns 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and a customer who enters 25:

Lookup Value	Column used
Next higher value	30 — the customer never pays less than the bracket they fall into
Next lower value	20 — the customer keeps the cheaper bracket they have reached
Exact Value	none — unless Round Values to brings 25 onto a header first

Then the same happens on the other axis, and the cell where the chosen row and column meet is the result — multiplied by any multipliers you set.

Values outside the table clamp to the nearest edge: an entry below the first header uses the first, an entry above the last uses the last. Give your table a top row that is deliberately generous, or add a rule that stops the customer going past it.

Recipes

Quantity discount ladder. Rows = the quantity question, columns = ignored (or a variant question). Fill the rows with the discount or unit price that applies from that quantity onward, and set Lookup Value to Next lower value — a customer ordering 700 keeps the 500 rate until they reach 1000. That is exactly how the demo store's Discount by copies matrix works.

Size grid. Rows = the height question, columns = the width question, cells = the finished price. Set Lookup Value to Next higher value so an in-between size is charged at the next size up.

Answer × answer grid. Both axes are questions with predefined answers (material × finish, for example). The headers become answer drop-downs, no numbers involved, and every combination gets its own price.

Supplier list with margin. Import the supplier's spreadsheet untouched and put your markup in Multiplier (1.35 for 35%). When the supplier sends a new list, re-import and the margin survives.

Per-unit table. Keep the table as a unit price and set Question Selection Multiplier to the quantity question, rather than baking quantity into the grid.

Good to know

• A matrix is product-scoped, like every calculation. Copying the product copies its matrices and re-points the references.
• Grey parameter cells accept numbers only, on a numeric axis. If you need text keys, drive that axis from a question with predefined answers instead.
• Keep tables sorted — the drag handles under the gear icon exist for exactly this. An out-of-order table still looks up correctly, but it becomes very hard for a human to check.
• Author in the base currency and ignore tax. Currency conversion, customer-group overrides and tax are applied on top of the result.
• The calculation edit form lists where it is in use — check that before editing a shared table.

Troubleshooting

• The price doesn't move. The calculation is probably not attached yet (step 6), or the axis question is on a page the customer hasn't reached.
• Every configuration gets the same price. One axis is likely set to Ignored, or the question you picked isn't the one the customer is answering.
• The price jumps at the wrong point. Check Lookup Value — next higher and next lower shift every bracket boundary by one step.
• Round Values to seems to do nothing. It only applies with Exact Value; with either next mode it is ignored by design.
• The import filled the wrong cells. On an axis whose question has predefined answers the file's first row/column is ignored — strip that header from the sheet, or expect it to be dropped.