Building Customer Quotes

The process of Quoting involves sending existing or potential customers a Sales Order for approval before it becomes an official Sales Order in the system. Orders that have not yet been approved by the customer can be marked as Quotes, which cannot be shipped and are not subject to credit checking. Once the customer has accepted or rejected the order, users with access to "Sales Orders -- edit quotes" can change the Order Type to one which allows further processing, like Sales Engineering or Sales Order, or mark it as Canceled.

Another important aspect of Quotes is tracking their conversions. Tracking Quote to Sale conversions is vital in understanding the sales team’s ability to convert potential business into actual sales. Deacom accomplishes this via the Quote Performance report in Sales Reporting. This report allows users to track the number of active Quotes (Pending), Quotes that have been successfully converted to Sales Orders (Won), and Quotes that have been Canceled (Lost). The report also provides dollar amounts for each of the three buckets (Won, Lost, and Pending), along with Rankings based on the number of Wins.

Configuration

  • The configuration requirements for building a Quote are the same as a regular Sales Order. Please refer to the Entering Sales Orders Configuration section for the required setup.
  • If creating Quotes from CRM records, then Contacts will need to exist in CRM Reporting. For more information on creating Contacts, refer to the Managing Contact Records page.
  • To report on Quotes, there must have been at least one Sales Order or Canceled order that originated as a Quote.
  • If Quotes should be handled as the default order type, this should be defined via the "Default Order Type" in Sales Options.
  • If Work Flows will be used to control the Quote process, they will need to be created via Tools > Maintenance > Work Flows. For more information, refer to the Configuring Work Flows page.

Process

Entering a New Quote

There are three methods for entering Quotes, described below. Note that all quotes entered must have an associated Bill-to/Ship-to Company. For Deacom customers that want to quote without a customer entered, a generic customer will need to be entered for quoting purposes.

  1. Navigate to Sales > Order Entry in the main application and select an Order Type of "Quote". For more information, refer to the Entering Sales Orders page.
  2. Create orders from CRM records in the main application. For companies that are leveraging the CRM functionality, clicking "Create Order" on the CRM record provides the ability to enter Quotes. Navigate to CRM > CRM Reporting and click "View" to run a report. Open the desired Contact and click the "Create Order" button to begin the process, which is the same as entering a regular Sales Order.
  3. Enter Quotes using the Mobile Application. This method is especially useful for Sales Reps that are consistently on the road.

Using Work Flows for Quotes

If desired, a Work Flow can be setup to manage the approval process for sending out a Quote. An example of a standard Quote process is as follows:

  1. Customer Quote Request Entered - Contains all the detail on the customer request by the Sales Rep.
  2. Quote Review by Sales Manager - Notes from the Sales Manager or their review.
  3. Executive Approval - Final approval required by the end user.

Utilizing a Quote Work Flow is a helpful way to track the dates when certain activities occurred against the order for future reporting purposes. There are two key options on the Work Flow setup that can be leveraged for quoting:

  • Require to Make SO - Defines which Work Flow Sequences are required to make the order a Sales Order. This is critical for sign-offs that are required for internal order approval.
  • Minimum Extension - Defines the order extension where this step becomes required. For example, some orders may require approval by the Sales Manager if they are above $1,000 or the Executive if they are above $100,000.

For more information on setting up Work Flows, refer to the Configuring Work Flows page.

Modifying Existing Quotes

  1. Once approval or denial is received for the generated Quote, the order needs to be updated in Deacom.
  2. Navigate to Sales > Order Reporting, select an Order Type of "Quote", then click "View" OR Navigate to CRM > CRM Reporting, select the desired Contact, click "View", then click "Open Quotes" on the Contact record.
  3. Locate the order from the list of current Quotes and click "Modify".
  4. On the General tab, change the Order Type to the appropriate value. This depends on how the company operates, but most of the time an accepted order will be modified to an Order Type of "Sales Order" and a rejected order will be modified to an Order Type of "Canceled Order".
  5. Users may wish to enter Notes or attach documents that back up the acceptance/rejection of the Quote.
  6. If there is a Work Flow in place, be sure to complete any necessary Sequences on the Work Flow tab.
  7. Once all information has been updated, click "Save" to commit the changes and "Exit" to close the form.

Using the Quote Performance Report

The Quote Performance report displays a summary of Won, Lost, and Pending Sales Order Quotes. Note that when selecting this specific Report type in the Sales Order Management pre-filter, the "Order type" and "Backorders" fields are disabled, but the "Rank by" field is now selectable. The "Rank by" selection allows the user to report on Quotes in multiple ways including by Bill-to Company, Sales Rep, or any of the user-defined Sales User 1-5 fields, which is helpful when evaluating performance.

  1. Navigate to Sales > Order Reporting.
  2. Select "Quote Performance" in the Report type pick list, select a different "Rank by" from the pick list if desired, then click the "View" button.
  3. In the report output, to view the Sales Order Detail behind a specific record, click the "View Detail" button while the desired record is highlighted.
  4. Users may also wish to open the original Quote. This is done by clicking "View Quote" when the Sales Order is opened in View mode.

Note that all other Report types available via Sales > Order Reporting can be run specifically for Quotes by selecting "Quote" from the Order Type pick list. For more information, refer to the Sales Reporting page.

FAQ & Diagnostic Tips

How do I know what date the original Quote was created?

Open the Sales Order in View mode and navigate to the Dates tab. The date listed in the "Quoted" field is the date the original Quote was created.

What counts as a "Win" for the Quotes?

Anything other than a Cancelled or Complaint Order Type count as a Win on a Quote Performance report.