Quick start
The whole app is three steps:
- Create a formula.Pick a metal and purity, then decide how making charges, wastage, markup and tax stack on top of the raw metal value. A formula is just the math — it doesn't touch anything on its own.
- Track a product.On a product variant, set its weight and choose a formula. That variant is now “tracked” and will appear in Preview & Sync.
- Preview, then apply.Open Preview & Sync to see exactly what every tracked product's price would become, against today's live rate, before anything changes. Click Apply when you're happy.
Formulas
A formula computes the metal value as weight × purity × live rate, then layers your costs on top, in this order:
- Wastage % — a percentage of the metal value, standard for cutting/setting loss.
- Making charge — a flat amount, a per-gram amount, or a percentage of the metal value.
- Markup — a flat amount or a percentage of everything so far.
- Tax % (e.g. GST) — applied last, on top of everything.
Then, optionally:
- Round to nearest— snap the final price to a clean step (5, 10, 25, 50, 100). Leave on “Exact” to track the market precisely, which is what most bullion and coin sellers want.
- End in .99 — charm pricing on top of whatever rounding you picked.
- Minimum change to trigger an update — if the new price is closer to the current price than this amount, the app leaves it alone instead of nudging it a couple of units. Set to 0 to always track exactly (recommended for bullion).
- Stop-loss rate per gram — if the live rate drops below this, the app skips repricing entirely rather than following the market down.
Not sure what to use? Leave rounding off and the threshold at 0 — that matches what most real gold and silver sellers already do. Rounding and the change threshold are there if you specifically want cleaner-looking prices, not because you need them.
Purity presets: 24K / fine (0.999), 22K (0.916), 18K (0.750), 14K (0.585), 10K (0.417), sterling 925 (0.925), bullion .9999 (1.0) — or type any custom factor.
Weight units
Enter weights in whatever unit you already use. The app converts to grams internally, so everything downstream is consistent.
- Grams (g)
- Troy ounce (oz t)
- Pennyweight (dwt)
- Tola
- Vori
Rate sources
Set this in Settings. Three options:
- Live market rates — real gold, silver, platinum and palladium spot prices, included with the app. No key to bring, nothing to configure beyond your base currency.
- Manual entry — type your own per-gram board rate for each metal. Best if you price off IBJA or your own desk number. Rates are tagged with the currency you entered them in, so a later currency change never silently relabels them.
- Demo rates — simulated numbers for testing only. The app warns clearly before applying demo prices to a real store.
India city rates (available on both Starter and Pro): when using live rates you can choose a city-specific gold/silver rate for Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai or Bangalore instead of the global spot price. Platinum and palladium always use the global rate — no city-level data exists for those metals.
Preview & Sync
This is the safety net that most rate-sync apps don't have. Every sync starts as a dry run: a table of every tracked variant showing its current price, the new price, and the % change, against the exact rates shown at the top of the page.
Nothing changes until you click Apply— and the app applies exactly what you were shown. If the rates moved while you were looking, it asks you to refresh and look again rather than quietly substituting new numbers. Rows that would land on the same price show as “No change” and are left alone; stop-loss holds are flagged too.
Bulk import
The fast way to configure many products at once:
- Go to Products → Bulk import.
- Click Download current products as CSV. You get a spreadsheet with every product's SKU, current price, and any weight/formula already set.
- Edit it in Excel or Google Sheets. Fill in a weight column (
weight_grams, orweight_tola,weight_vori,weight_troy_oz,weight_dwt) andformula(must match a formula name exactly) for the rows you want tracked. - Upload it back.
You get a report: how many rows matched and updated, which SKUs weren't found in your store, and which formula names didn't match anything. Nothing fails silently. Leaving a cell blank keeps whatever was already set for that product.
On Starter, bulk import respects the 800-SKU cap — if an import would turn on more tracked variants than your plan allows, the extra rows are matched but left off, and reported to you, rather than silently dropped.
Automatic sync
Turn on the schedule in Settings and the app reprices in the background on its own — twice a day on Starter, up to five times a day on Pro. The frequency is controlled by your plan, so there's no cron to configure and no way to accidentally hammer your store with reprices.
Scheduled runs use the same formulas and stop-loss rules as a manual sync, and each one is logged in History exactly the same way. If your subscription lapses, automatic sync stops on its own rather than continuing to run.
History & audit trail
Every sync — manual or scheduled — writes a full record: which variants were updated, skipped or failed, and the exact rate snapshot each price came from. When a price changes, you can always answer “what happened, and at what rate?” This audit trail is the point: prices never change silently, and nothing disappears without a reason you can read back later.
Plans & limits
| Starter — $30/mo | Pro — $50/mo | |
|---|---|---|
| Tracked SKUs | Up to 800 | Unlimited |
| Automatic sync | Twice a day | Up to 5× a day |
| Formulas, stop-loss, rounding | Included | Included |
| India city rates | Included | Included |
| Bulk CSV import & export | Included | Included |
| Full audit-trail history | Included | Included |
| Priority support | — | Included |
14-day free trial on both plans. Manual Preview & Sync is unlimited on every plan — the plan only governs the SKU count and the automatic-sync frequency. Prices are launch pricing and may change before general availability.
FAQ
Do I need my own rate feed or API key?
No. Live gold, silver, platinum and palladium rates are included with the app — you pick a currency and you're done. There's nothing to sign up for and no separate rate-feed bill. If you'd rather price off your own board rate (IBJA, an in-house desk number), Manual entry mode lets you type your own per-gram rate instead.
Which metals and purities are supported?
Gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Purity ships with presets for 24K/fine (0.999), 22K (0.916), 18K (0.750), 14K (0.585), 10K (0.417), sterling 925 (0.925) and bullion .9999 (1.0) — and you can type any custom purity factor if yours isn't in the list.
How often do prices update, and is it automatic?
Two ways. Manual: open Preview & Sync any time, see every proposed change, and click Apply. Automatic: turn on the schedule and the app reprices in the background on its own — twice a day on Starter, up to five times a day on Pro. The frequency is set by your plan; you don't have to configure a cron.
Can the app change my prices without me knowing?
Only if you turn on automatic sync — and even then, every single run is logged in History, per variant, with the exact rate used. In manual mode the app never changes a price until you've seen the full preview and clicked Apply, and it applies exactly the numbers you approved, not a freshly recomputed set.
When the metal rate changes, does my sell price update too?
Yes. Each tracked product runs through its assigned formula every time you preview or sync, so the price reflects the current rate plus your making charges, wastage, markup and tax — automatically.
What happens if the metal market drops through my cost?
Each formula can set a stop-loss rate per gram. If the live rate falls below it, affected products are held at their current price and flagged in the preview instead of being repriced downward — so a sudden crash doesn't gut your margins before you've had a chance to react.
I weigh in tola / vori / pennyweight — is that supported?
Yes. Grams, troy ounces, pennyweight (dwt), tola and vori are all supported, both on the product page and as CSV columns (weight_tola, weight_vori, weight_troy_oz, weight_dwt). Conversion to grams happens once, at the moment you enter the weight.
How big a catalog can it handle?
Starter tracks up to 800 SKUs; Pro is unlimited. Bulk import matches by SKU against your live Shopify catalog, and for large stores it automatically uses Shopify's Bulk Operations API so a thousand-plus-SKU catalog is read reliably rather than timing out.
Does the app read my customers' data?
No. The app requests exactly one permission: writing product prices. It stores your pricing configuration and sync history — no customer names, addresses, orders or payment data, ever.
Do you support India city rates?
Yes, on both Starter and Pro. When you use live rates you can pick a city-specific gold/silver rate for Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai or Bangalore instead of the global spot price. Platinum and palladium always use the global rate — no city-level data exists for those two metals anywhere.
Does it round prices to clean numbers?
It can, but it's off by default. Most real bullion and by-weight sellers track the market exactly, so the default is exact pricing. If you want clean numbers you can round each formula to the nearest 5/10/25/50/100, add charm-price .99 endings, and set a minimum change threshold so tiny market moves don't nudge a price by a dollar or two.
How am I billed?
Through Shopify, on your existing Shopify subscription — no card details entered anywhere else. There's a 14-day free trial. Prices shown are launch pricing and may change before general availability.
Does it do diamond or gemstone pricing, POS sync, or buyback?
Not in this version. MetalRate Sync is built first for bullion and by-weight sellers, where reliable metal-rate repricing is the whole job. Diamond/gemstone granularity, POS sync and buyback calculators are on the roadmap, not in the app today — we'd rather be honest about that than list features that aren't really there.
Troubleshooting
- A product isn't in Preview & Sync.It needs both a weight greater than 0 and a formula assigned. On the Products page its badge should read “Tracked.”
- A price didn't update even though I applied. Check its status in the preview: “Stop-loss hold” means the live rate is below the floor on its formula; “No change” means the computed price was too close to the current one (check the formula's minimum-change setting).
- Bulk import says a SKU wasn't found. The app matches strictly by SKU against your live catalog — check the SKU in your CSV matches Shopify exactly (case and spacing matter).
- Bulk import says a formula name was unrecognized. Formula names must match an existing formula exactly, including capitalization. Check the Formulas page, or leave the column blank to keep whatever was already assigned.
- I turned on automatic syncing but nothing happens. Scheduled syncing needs an active subscription and runs on the app's server. Confirm your plan is active and give it up to one schedule interval to fire.
Support
Stuck on something, or want a formula set up for your exact catalog? Email metalratesync@gmail.com — real answers from the person who built the app.