NEIL PARKHURST

MB2-713 Certification (Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Sales) – in this post I am going to continue with my revision notes connected with the MB2-713 exam by looking at quotes.

Quotes are often required as a record of prices offered to a customer. (aka an estimate or proposal.) They can be created in their own right but often a quotation will be generated in relationship to an opportunity.

The Quote Lifecycle

1. Draft
   
   1. When quotes are first created they start off in a draft status.
   2. Draft quotes can be maintained.
2. Active
   
   1. Active quotes have (theoretically) been presented to the customer.
   2. Active quotes can be printed.
   3. Active quotes are read-only.
   4. Orders can be created from an active quote.
   5. Active quotes can be marked as won or lost.
   6. Active quotes can be revised, returning them to a draft status.
3. Won
   
   1. Status changes to won when a quote is accepted.
   2. Won quotes are read-only.
4. Lost
   
   1. Status changes to lost when a quote is rejected.
   2. Lost quotes are read only.
   3. Lost / Closed quotes can be revised, setting them back to draft.

In the following notes I will cover the steps involved in creating quotes, revising quotes, winning quotes and closing quotations.

Creating Quotes

Below you can see I have opened an opportunity, I have already added a number of products to the opportunity. Giving me an estimated revenue of £20,140. I am now ready to create a quotation to present to the customer. To do this I scroll down to the quotes sub-grid on the opportunity and select “+”.

Doing so generates a draft quotation containing all of the line items I added in the opportunity.

Tip:
If you create a quotation outside of the opportunity you can use the “GET PRODUCTS” ribbon button to pull in the products from an existing opportunity. Or use the Get Products option as you add existing or write-in products to the sub-grid of products on the quotation.

The “LOOK UP ADDRESS” option is for adding ship to or bill to addresses to the quote. The look up option allows the selection of pre-created address details against the customer. Or alternatively you can simply manually enter any required addresses onto the quotation.

Tip:
A quote must have a price list. The price list will come from the opportunity. But if you create a quote outside of the opportunity you will need to remember to set the price list.

Having created the quotation based on the products from your opportunity you can revise prices, discounts, freight on the quotation as required.

The total tax amount is calculated based on the tax recorded on the line items on the quote. To edit it you need to edit the individual tax amount on each product on the quote. It might be worth knowing that each line item could also have differing delivery information. (Including delivery date and ship to address.)

I can now edit the quote and before selecting the ACTIVATE QUOTE option. The active quote becomes read-only and I can print the details and present to the customer. J

Revising a Quote

Often as customer may query something on the quotation. You then would revise the active quote. Doing so will close the active quote and create a new version in draft mode. Notice that the Revision ID automatically increments with each revision.

Tip:
You cannot revise a quote that was previously revised! You would need to revise the latest version each time.

As quotes are revised activities are created to keep track of the alterations. Below you can see that by looking in the social pane on my opportunity I can see that a quotation was closed as it was due to be revised. (The status reason on the closed quote will be “revised”.)

Once I have made the required changed the quotation would need to be activated again when ready to present to the customer.

In the opportunity quotes sub-grid I can see all of the quotations. So below you can see that I had an initial quotation for £20,140. The customer must have queries the price and a new revision was cerated with a greater discount. The revised quote for £20,050 is now active.

Create an order from a quote

Let’s assume the customer accepts my quotation and wants to place an order. Now the quotation can be opened and the CREATE ORDER button selected.

Selecting CREATE ORDER will present the following dialog. The quotation is going to be updated to be won. Also I get an option to also close the opportunity. If I do so I can select to use the price from the quote being won or enter an actual revenue amount manually.

It is also possible to not update the opportunity. In a simple example (like this) winning the quotation would typically mean the end of the opportunity, so you’d close it as “won”. But in some circumstances the opportunity may stay open as the quote in question may only represent part of a larger deal.

Once OK has been clicked the newly created order record is loaded. (I’ll discuss orders in a later post!)

Back on my opportunity I can see that activities have been added. One states that the opportunity was won and another is generated as the probability on the opportunity has been automatically updated to 100%. The opportunity status has changed to won.

My quotation will have had its status changed to won and a similar activity logged against the quote to track the event.

Closing A Quote

Maybe you don’t win the order or maybe the customer simply decides they are no longer interested. Or maybe even your sales manager decides to pull out of the deal as it isn’t right for you company. In all of these circumstances you’d want to close the quotation.

Open, an active quote and select the CLOSE QUOTE option.

Similar to winning a quotation a dialog appears having selected the CLOSE QUOTE option. First you’d set the status reason. To “Lost”, “Revised” or “Canceled”.

You then need to decide what to do next, you may wish to leave the opportunity open and create another draft quotation. Maybe your offer could be re-thought and re-presented to the customer. In this circumstance select the “Create a revised quote” option.

Alternatively the quote and maybe the entire opportunity is dead. In this circumstance you’d select “Do not revise this quote”. And optionally select to close the opportunity. As it may also be dead!

If you select to close the associated opportunity a further dialog will be displayed giving the user a chance to record the reason the opportunity was lost the revenue and competitor.

As with winning an opportunity relevant activities will be created against the quote and opportunity to record this change in events.

It is possible to revise a closed quotation. Maybe a customer rejects a quotation so you mark it as lost. Only to have the customer return in a few weeks with a renewed interest.

I hope this post will have helped you revised for the MB2-713 exam. Next time I will continue this series by looking at orders. J