Sales representatives create quotes for customers to document the proposed products, services, and pricing. Because companies from many different industries use Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the final output of a quote can vary from one organization to another. Some quotes might be just 1 page long, whereas other companies create 50-page quotes.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses the term products to represent what your organization sells. However, if your company provides services instead of products, you can still use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to track your quotes. For example, you could set up a product in Microsoft Dynamics CRM that represents one hour of consulting service. Then, when you create the quote, you could add the consulting product to the quote with a quantity that matches the number of consulting hours that the customer requires. For example, a quote could include 50 hours of senior consulting time and 25 hours of junior consulting time.
Tip
Microsoft Dynamics CRM automatically assigns a number to each quote when it is first saved. Quote auto-numbering can be configured by system administrators in the Administration section of the Settings area. By default, each quote is created with a three-character prefix (QUO), a four-digit code, and a six-character identifier—for example, QUO-1006-4JHFXD.
In this exercise, you will create a quote from an existing opportunity. Microsoft Dynamics CRM does not require you to create a quote from an opportunity; however, creating a standalone quote will not populate any of the data values as it does when you create a quote from an opportunity.
Important
In order to complete this exercise, you must first ensure that your system administrator has created at least one price list in your system. By default, Microsoft Dynamics CRM does not allow you to save a quote record without a price list.
Note
USE the Sonoma Partners Sample Opportunity record you created in Chapter 6. If you cannot locate the Sonoma Partners Sample Opportunity record in your system, select a different opportunity record for this exercise.
BE SURE TO use the Windows Internet Explorer Web browser to navigate to your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web site before beginning this exercise.
Open the Sonoma Partners Sample Opportunity record.
In the left navigation pane, click Quotes.
In the grid toolbar, click the New Quote button.
A new window opens. Because you created the quote from the opportunity record, Microsoft Dynamics CRM populates several fields in the quote with values from the opportunity, such as the name and the customer.
Select a price list. (The selection will vary depending on what has been configured by your system administrator.)
In the form toolbar, click the Save button.
