Microsoft CRM manages the entire process of generating quotations, orders, and invoices. An essential ingredient in developing quotes is the product catalog, which we describe in Chapter 7. The product catalog contains your list of products and their prices and discount structures. Microsoft CRM's quotation system draws from these products, prices, and discounts to create pricing specific to each customer.
After you generate a quote and give it to a customer, the best scenario is that the quote comes back as a signed order. The second-best scenario is that the quote comes back for revisions. Even after a quote is converted to an order, however, you can still revise it (until you send it to the accounting system). After an order goes to accounting, it becomes an invoice.
Although the logical flow is from quote to order to invoice, you can also create an order without creating a quote. And, in the same way, you can create an invoice without having created either a quote or an invoice. As you can see, you can start anywhere in the cycle.
In this chapter, we cover how to use Microsoft CRM to create a quotation, turn the quote into an order, and make the order into an invoice.
Several years ago, we met with a very large distributor of paper products. They had been in business for more than a hundred years and had a hundred million dollars of revenue. Their entire quotation procedure was a verbal system. They never even wrote down what price they had quoted. When the customer called back to order something, the salespeople would simply ask what price they'd been given! We never got the go-ahead on installing a quotation system because they didn't think such a thing could possibly work.
If your quotation system involves something more formal than just telling your clients their prices during a phone conversation, you need to generate a formal, written quotation.
Most quotes go through more than one iteration. Initially, you create a draft of your quote. You can continue editing your draft quote until it's ready to send. At that point, you activate the quote (also making it read-only) and send it to the customer.
You can make multiple revisions of an activated quote, and each revision is stored as a separate record. The quote is then either accepted if it's won or closed if it's lost. If it's accepted, it's recorded as part of the order history.
Most significant sales are preceded by a series of quotes or proposals.
(Many people confuse proposals with quotations. Proposals are quotations on steroids; they include a great deal more background, discussion, and analysis in addition to the more typical one- or two-page quotation. CRM doesn't have a built-in proposal system, but you can find third-party proposal systems that integrate with Microsoft CRM in Chapter 27.)
To create a new quote, follow these steps:
At the bottom of the navigation pane, click the Sales button.
In the upper part of the navigation pane, select Quotes.
The Quotes window appears, displaying all your existing quotes.
On the Quotes window's toolbar, click the New button.
The quote record appears, as shown in Figure 16-1, with General, Shipping, Addresses, Administration, and Notes tabs.
On the General tab, the quote ID is a unique, system-generated number that can help you identify the quote later. The revision ID is also created and maintained by the system and enables you (and the system) to track all the various versions of quotes that you have created and activated. The Quote ID and Revision ID fields are filled in after you save the quote. These fields cannot be filled in and will appear grayed out. For that reason, clicking the Save button (the disk icon) after you enter the Name, Potential Customer, and Price List fields is essential. You don't need to click Save and Close until you have filled in all the relevant fields in each of the five tab areas.
In the Name field, enter some text that describes what this quote is all about.
For example, you might type Microsoft CRM Training Class in Maui. After you save all the details of the quote, the text in this Name field will appear in the Quotes window.
In the Potential Customer field, select an account or a contact to associate with the quote.
To do so, click the magnifying glass to the right of the field to display the Look Up Records dialog box for Accounts and Contacts. Alternatively, you can select a customer from the Form Assistant on the right. Whichever method you choose, select the appropriate record from the list and click OK. The system returns you to the General tab.
In the Price List field, use the magnifying glass or the Form Assistant to select a price list.
In the Currency field, use the magnifying glass or the Form Assistant to select a Currency.
Now is a good time to click Save (the disk icon).
CRM displays the quote ID number in the Quote ID field. (If you were revising a quote, CRM would also populate the Revision ID field.)
In the Totals section of the General tab, enter the Quote Discount and Freight Amount.
Microsoft CRM calculates the total amount and displays it in the last field in the General tab. Several fields on this screen, such as Detail Amount and Pre-Freight Amount, are system generated. You can tell because these fields are outlined in black rather than blue.
Click the Shipping tab and fill in the following:
Enter information into the Effective From, Effective To, Requested Delivery Date, and Due By fields.
Each of these date fields has an associated calendar display (little grid box icons with a red oval in them) just to the right. (See Figure 16-2.) Clicking the calendar and then choosing a date is usually easier than manually typing a date directly into the field.
Enter the Shipping Method, Payment Terms, and Freight Terms.
Each of these fields has an associated drop-down menu. If your system is integrated with an accounting system, these fields can be filled in automatically.
Click the Addresses tab (see Figure 16-3) and enter the Bill To and Ship To information.
To look up this address information, click the Look Up Address button on the toolbar.
Tip
If the customer will be picking up the items, select Will Call for the Ship To option (the first option in the Ship To Address section).
If you want to associate your quote with an opportunity, start the quote from the opportunity screen or do the following:
Click the Administration tab. (See Figure 16-4.)
Use the magnifying glass in the Opportunity field to find and select that opportunity.
Click OK.
Click the Save and Close button to save your quote.
The system returns to the Quotes window.
When you first create a quotation, it's officially a draft. You can modify the draft as many times as necessary. But before sending the quote to a customer, you must activate the quote. Follow these steps to do so:
In the Quotes window, select the quote you want to activate.
The details of the quote appear.
On the menu bar (at the top of the screen), choose Actions
Activate Quote.
The quote now becomes read-only, and you can turn it into an order when the time comes.
To save changes and continue working, click Save (the disk icon); to save changes and close the form, click the Close button.
After you have activated the quote, it's no longer a draft and the system creates an official quotation. If the customer then requests a revision to the quote, you can modify that quote. The system stores an additional record with its own revision ID for each modified quote, so you may have a long series of quotes as you continue to revise activated quotes.
Opportunity records house all of your sales forecast information. By associating an opportunity with a quote, you allow the system to calculate the estimated revenue for the opportunity automatically. As you revise an associated quotation by changing products or discounts, those changes to the revenue stream are reflected in your overall forecast.
You can associate a quote with an opportunity or vice versa. If the opportunity doesn't exist yet, you need to create it before you can associate it with a quote.
We go through the steps of associating a quote with an opportunity record:
In the Opportunities window, select the opportunity that needs an associated quote.
With the opportunity record displayed, click Quotes in the navigation pane (under Sales).
If no quotes are yet associated with the opportunity, click the New Quote button in the window's toolbar. If quotes already exist, you can edit them if necessary.
Whether you're entering a new quote or editing an existing quote, proceed with entering the information as detailed in Step 4 of the "Creating a quote" section, earlier in this chapter.
Assemble the individual items you want listed in your quote by clicking Existing Products from the navigation pane or if you're quoting a custom product or something that isn't in the products list, select Write-In Products from the navigation pane.
Tip
Because we started this exercise from an opportunity record, the quote we just created is automatically associated with this opportunity. No need to do any further association!
After you finish developing a quote and activate it, it's a good idea to do a quick Microsoft CRM print. Follow these steps:
From the Quotes window, select the quote you want to print.
Your quote record appears on the screen.
Choose File
Print or click Print Quote for Customer in the toolbar.A preview of your quote appears so you can review it for accuracy.
When your previewed quote looks okay, you can send it to your printer by clicking the Print button.
Your bare-bones quotation prints, displaying the information from each of the tab areas of your quote.
In most cases, this information won't be formatted in your organization's style. The good news is that you aren't locked into a specific quotation format. The bad news is that you need to create a format rather than select from some canned ones.
Your system administrator or dealer can assist with the development of specially formatted printouts and reports.
A successfully presented quote becomes an order. Only a previously activated (status = active) quote can be turned into an order. The steps to change a quote into an order are easy:
In the Quotes window, click the active quote.
The details of the quote appear.
On the Quotes window's toolbar, click Create Order.
The Create Order dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 16-5. The Status Reason of the quote has automatically changed to Won. You can see the Status in the list of quotes as long as the View is All Quotes. The opportunity is no longer part of your forecasted sales because it's now a done deal. Today's date is automatically filled in, although you can modify this if necessary.
Select the Close Opportunity option and click OK.
The opportunity is closed and no longer appears in the list of Active Opportunities (that is, when the View is set to Active Opportunities).
The quote window closes and a new window opens showing the details of the newly created order.
When you're ready to ship your goods or services to the customer, you use the information in the order to generate an invoice to the customer. Follow these steps:
In the lower part of the navigation pane, click the Sales button. In the upper part of the pane, select Orders.
The Orders window appears.
Make sure the View menu (in the upper right) is set to All Orders.
Select the order you want to make into an invoice.
Click the Create Invoice button.
Microsoft CRM automatically generates and displays the invoice for you. Unless your system is integrated to a Dynamics accounting application, however, that invoice goes nowhere. Your invoice is typically printed (or delivered in some other electronic way) from your accounting system.
Click Save and Close.
One of the most compelling things about generating quotes, orders, and invoices is CRM's ability to integrate with accounting software. The extent or ease of this integration depends on the accounting software you're using. If you're using Microsoft Dynamics GP, for example, Microsoft has the integration you need. If you're using accounting software not from Microsoft, you'll probably need a third-party module to integrate the two. See Chapter 27 for information on sources for this type of integration.