ADMIN: Configuring your sales process
The products you are selling, the information you track with a sale, your sales process, the quoting tool you will use, all these and more are unique to your local organization. We recommend that you review the following settings for the features you will be using:
If you will be tracking sales opportunities with or without quotes in Autotask or in Kaseya Quote Manager (formerly Datto Commerce), you should review the following settings:
- Opportunity Categories: Opportunity Categories control what fields and elements appear on the Opportunity page, how they are grouped and in what order, the default field values, and the selections in drop-down lists. They also determine which insights are displayed. Refer to Managing categories.
- Regions and Territories: Once sales teams reach a certain size, they are often organized hierarchically. Autotask supports this by allowing you to set up sales regions and territories, based on geography, area codes, verticals, channels, etc. Each territory may have several salespeople assigned to it. Territories and Regions are powerful reporting categories. Setting up Territories and Regions allows Sales Managers to roll up both forecasts and actual revenue numbers by territory and region. Refer to Regions and Territories.
- User-Defined Fields: User-Defined Fields are set up for data that your company would like to enter into Autotask that cannot be mapped to the standard Autotask field set. You can add such custom fields to the Opportunity entity. Refer to Managing user-defined fields.
- Lead sources: On each sales opportunity, you can reference the lead source that generated the opportunity. If the opportunity results in a sale, you can generate widgets and reports in Autotask that tie specific lead sources and marketing efforts to successful sales. Refer to Lead sources for opportunities.
- Sales Quota: Most sales teams of any size have a sales quota for each salesperson that must be met each month. Refer to Establishing sales quotas.
- Action Types: CRM notes and to-dos have a required Action Type field that categorizes the notes and to-dos and describes the nature of the sales activity. You may want to review the default settings. Refer to Action types.
- Sales Quota Metrics (Advanced Fields): Sales Quota Metrics (Advanced Fields) are Autotask fields that track the revenue streams that contribute to your sales revenue, such as Setup Fees, Hardware Fees, and Monthly License fees. They belong to the Opportunity entity in Autotask, and track forecasted or actual sub-revenue streams. Unlike other Autotask system fields, they can be re-labeled to reflect your business model. Refer to Tracking sales quota metrics .
- Opportunity stages: Opportunity stages define the steps of your sales process that allow you to accurately forecast future sales. You can customize the opportunity stages in Autotask to fit your forecasting model. Refer to Opportunity stages.
- Opportunity win and loss reasons: Every opportunity, won or lost, provides valuable insights into your sales process. Comparing the primary reasons why you won or lost opportunities over a period of time can help to identify the strengths and weaknesses in your sales efforts. Refer to Opportunity win and loss reasons.
- CRM system settings: You will need to decide if Account Managers who do not have access to the Contracts module will have access to the Financials tab for organizations they are the owner for, and whether to enable editing of opportunities from the Opportunity Table. There, you can also edit the footer text that appears on Quotes. Refer to Allow Account Managers and Account Team Members to access Organization Detail > Financials and the Executive Summary Report for their organizations.
- Workflow rules: You can define workflow rules that determine who gets notified when an opportunity is edited or closed. Refer to Autotask workflow rules.
If the Kaseya Quote Manager integration is enabled, all new quotes will be managed by Kaseya Quote Manager. The integration is enabled and configured in Kaseya Quote Manager, but a number of selection lists must be set up in Autotask beforehand:
- Resources: opportunities must have a creator. This resource will become the opportunity creator when a quote and an associated opportunity are created in Kaseya Quote Manager and synced to Autotask. Refer to Managing internal resources and co-managing users.
- Shipping: you can add shipping charges to a quote. The list of shipping options is configurable in Autotask. The selection in Kaseya Quote Manager will determine the shipping option for quotes created in Kaseya Quote Manager. Refer to Adding and managing shipping types.
- Stage: opportunity stages are configurable. The selection in Kaseya Quote Manager will determine the stage for new, won, and lost quotes. Refer to Opportunity stages.
- Status: for status, the list of options is pre-configured in Autotask and cannot be edited. The selection in Kaseya Quote Manager will determine the status for new, won, and lost quotes.
- Probability: the likelihood that the opportunity will be won, expressed as a percentage. The percentage entered in Kaseya Quote Manager will set the probability for opportunities associated with new quotes.
- Product material code: products are created in Autotask only if and when they are added to a quote. If a product is quoted that does not yet exist in Autotask, the selected material code is applied to the new product. Refer to Material codes.
- Service material code: Kaseya Quote Manager can create new services in Autotask. If a service is quoted that does not yet exist in Autotask, the selected material code is applied to the new service. Refer to Service codes.
For an overview of the Kaseya Quote Manager integration, refer to The Kaseya Quote Manager integration.
If you are creating Autotask Quotes for your opportunities, you should review the following:
- Shipping types: Shipping Types are used in Autotask quotes. They allow salespeople to specify a carrier for a product shipment on the quote. Refer to Adding and managing shipping types.
- Products: It is possible but not recommended to manually enter product information on a quote, but it is faster, more consistent more accurate to enter products into the Products list and select them on the Quote page. For more information, refer to Searching and managing products.
- Services and service bundles: If you are quoting recurring services, you will also need to set up the list of services and bundles you will be quoting. Refer to Setting up your services and Setting up service bundles.
- Quote Templates and Quote Email Messages: If you generate sales quotes in Autotask and present them to your customers, you will use a quote template. The quote template controls the content and appearance of the quote including tax display settings, general page settings, and grouping and descriptive content for quote items. Autotask includes one default quote template and two default quote email message templates to start you off. To customize quote templates and quote email message templates, refer to Managing quote templates and Managing quote email messages.
- Assessment questions: When Opportunity Assessment is enabled, a default set of assessment questions becomes available, but the list of questions and answers is entirely customizable. Refer to Configuring Opportunity Assessment questions.
- Sales Process checklist: When Opportunity Assessment is enabled, a default Sales Process checklist becomes available that will guide your salespeople through your company's sales process. Refer to Configuring the Sales Process checklist.