For those that don't know what batch maintenance is, it's a way to set up changes to items for a later date in time. 

If you have a weekly sales ad and you need to put 1,200 items on sale starting next week and lasting for one week, you would probably want to do that work ahead of time. You do this work in a batch. You create a batch, you give it start and end dates, add a bunch of items and prices, and the system will automatically change the price at midnight on that day. This allows you to work on the batch well in advance of the time when the changes should occur. Batches can be created to edit any of the fields in item maintenance. For example you can have a future regular price change batch, a sales batch, a tpr batch, an instore batch, an allowance batch, etc. 

Most often batches are set to execute automatically. If the batch starts on 4/20, then on 4/19 at midnight the batch will execute for that day and move the information stored in the batches into the regular item database tables. 

Batches can be looked at like staging areas. You store the information off to the side and when the information needs to be active, it moves this information down to the item level and changes the item's actual pricing information. 

Do I need to do batch maintenance? If you run a convenience store, probably no. If you run a grocery store with a weekly or biweekly sales ad, probably yes.