Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows you to record the products and services related to a potential sale for each opportunity. When you configure price lists for your products, you also can set up Microsoft Dynamics CRM to automatically calculate the value of the potential opportunity by attaching the products to the opportunity. If you decide not to use products with opportunities, you can still track the potential value of the opportunity by simply entering a dollar amount in the estimated revenue field.
See Also
For more information on tracking the value of sales opportunities, see Chapter 6.
However, unlike opportunities, quotes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM must have attached products so that the total value can be calculated. By default, you cannot enter a total dollar amount for a quote. Microsoft Dynamics CRM must calculate it from the attached products.
You can attach products to a quote by using one of the following techniques:
Create a quote from an opportunity, which copies the opportunity’s products to the quote.
Get products from an existing opportunity.
Add existing products.
Create write-in products.
If you create a quote from an opportunity, Microsoft Dynamics CRM automatically copies the opportunity’s products to the quote and populates many of the quote data fields. However, you can also add products from any active opportunity to a quote by using Get Products. To do this, in the quote toolbar, on the Actions menu, select Get Products. A dialog box appears, allowing you to select an existing opportunity.
After you click OK, Microsoft Dynamics CRM copies the products from the selected opportunity to the quote record.
Tip
By default, Microsoft Dynamics CRM does not check for duplicate records when copying products from an opportunity to a quote, so if you have already added some of the products from the opportunity to your quote, you might see duplicate records when using the Get Products feature.
You can also add products to a quote manually, one product at a time. When you manually add products, you can select one of the products configured in your product catalog (as set up by your system administrator) or you can add a write-in product.
Tip
The product catalog defines all of the details about your products and services, such as the list price, the ability to sell in fractional or whole values, the estimated cost, and the inventory requirements. If your organization wants to set up the product catalog, your administrator can refer to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Help for additional information on the specific configuration steps.
A write-in product is a product that you add to a quote as you are creating it, without first needing to configure all of the details in the product catalog.
Whether you add an existing product or create a write-in product, you will need to specify details about the product, such as description, unit of measure, and quantity. On the quote product form, you can also enter other information about the product for the quote, such as a discount or tax. A single quote can consist of multiple products, which can be a combination of existing and write-in products.
Tip
Even though an order contains a ship to address, you can still specify alternate shipping addresses for the products in a quote by specifying an alternate address in the Address tab of the Quote Product record.
After you update a quote to reflect what you’re offering to the customer, you’re ready to send it to the customer for review. Remember that Microsoft Dynamics CRM creates a quote in Draft status, so you will need to activate the quote to indicate that you have presented the quote to the customer.
Tip
If you want to create a printer-friendly version of the quote, you can use the Quote For Customer Mail Merge template in Microsoft Office Word that is included in Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a starting point. However, this Quote For Customer file simply illustrates one possible quote output; you should not plan to use this quote for your customers. You can access this template by clicking the Print Quote For Customer button in the quote toolbar.
Setting up a product catalog in Microsoft Dynamics CRM takes some effort and requires administrator access. Therefore, in this exercise, you will add write-in products to the sample quote record, instead of adding a product from the product catalog. You’ll then mark the quote as active to indicate that it’s ready for the customer to review.
Note
BE SURE TO use the Internet Explorer Web browser to navigate to your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web site before beginning this exercise.
Open the quote record you created in the previous exercise.
In the navigation pane, click Write-In Products.
In the grid toolbar, click New Quote Product.
The New Quote Product window opens.
In the Product Description field, enter Microsoft Dynamics CRM User License.
In the Price Per Unit field, enter 500.00.
In the Quantity field, enter 5.
In the toolbar, click the Save and New button.
In the description field, enter Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server License.
In the Price Per Unit field, enter 2000.00.
In the Quantity field, enter 1.
In the toolbar, click Save and Close.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM closes the quote product window and returns to the quote record. On the Write-In Products link of the quote, you can see the two products that you just added to the quote.
In the left navigation pane of the quote record, click the Information link.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM did not update the amount of the quote yet. It still lists $0.00 for the total amount.
In the quote toolbar, click the Recalculate button.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM automatically calculates the total amount of the quote as $4,500.00 by summing the cost of the products attached to the quote.
In the quote toolbar, on the Actions menu, select Activate Quote.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM updates the quote status to Active and disables all fields on the quote form so that it can no longer be edited.
Tip
You can provide discounts on your quotes by discounting an individual product attached to the quote or by providing a blanket discount to the quote. You can assign quote discounts as a percentage of the price or as a fixed dollar amount. At the product level, you can only apply fixed dollar discounts.