Winning or losing quotes (quick quotes)

SECURITY  Users with access to CRM. Access to the customer and object permission to edit opportunities and quotes.
Invoice generation requires Contracts permission Can create invoices from Ticket and Won Quote Wizard, but does not require Contracts access.

NAVIGATION   > CRM > Search > Quote > context menu > Won Quote or Lost Quote

NOTE  When you win or lose a quote, you are actually winning or losing the associated opportunity.

The Won Quote or Lost Quote options provide a quick way to close an opportunity from its primary quote. When you select one of these options from a menu, the quote opens to the Won Quote Wizard or the Lost Quote page.

  • The Won Quote Wizard automates several steps from the Won Opportunity Wizard. It streamlines the close opportunity process and can automatically approve and post billing items created from quoted items and generate an invoice (see security level requirements above).
  • The one-page Lost Quote dialog box sets the opportunity status to Lost and assigns a default stage to the opportunity. If a loss reason is required, you can select the reason before you click Finish.

When should I close my opportunity from the quote?

You should use the Won Quote feature when you want to quickly close on a quote that contains only products, one-time discounts, shipping, and/or charges. The quote can be associated with a proposal project. If procurement is enabled, the Won Quote Wizard will also create a sales order.

NOTE  The quote must be the opportunity's primary quote. If needed, you can set the quote to Primary Quote from the wizard.

Won Quote is not intended for quotes that include services, service bundles, or contract setup fees that you want to convert to a recurring service contract. Also, you should not use this feature if you need or want to manually edit settings like Opportunity Owner, Primary Product, Primary Competitor, Total Revenue, or Closed Date.

NOTE  When your quote includes service items that you want to convert to a recurring service contract, or you need to edit opportunity details, you should use the Won Opportunity Wizard.

What happens when I choose won or lost quote?

When you choose Won Quote, the Won Quote Wizard opens. As you complete the 2 to 3 pages of the Won Quote Wizard, the following actions occur:

  • Any material codes you selected for quote items (other than shipping items) are mapped to the selected material codes.

NOTE  Quoted Shipping Items must have a material code associated with their shipping type, or there must be a default material code specified for shipping items. A shipping item without a material code will not be converted to a billing item or project charge. Refer to CRM system settings.

  • Billing products can appear on a quote, but will not be converted to charges, and no contracts and billing rules will be created from them. They must be manually set up.
  • If the quote has an associated proposal project, the proposal is converted to a client project. The products, one-time item discounts, charges, and shipping items on the quote are then converted into project charges.
  • If the quote does not have an associated proposal project, the quote items are converted into billing items. A new, completed ticket is created and the billing items are added to the ticket as charges. If a default service desk contract exists, it will be applied to the completed ticket.
  • If the win reason is required, the selected win reason is assigned to the opportunity.
  • The opportunity's stage is set to the default Won Opportunity stage specified in > Admin > Features & Settings > Sales & Opportunities > Opportunity Stages.

NOTE  If a default won opportunity stage has not been set or is excluded by the opportunity's category, the stage remains set to the opportunity's stage at the time the quote is set to Won.

  • The opportunity's status is set to Closed, and the opportunity Close Date is set to the current date.
  • If procurement is enabled and the quote contains at least one product, a sales order is generated.
  • If you have the correct permissions to invoice from the Won Quote Wizard, and the button Yes, I would like to create an invoice is selected, project charges or billing items are approved and posted. The Processing Selected Invoices dialog box opens in a separate window to display the invoice created from the converted quote items.
  • If you do not have permission to invoice from the Won Quote Wizard, or the button No, I would not like to create an invoice is selected, the final page of the wizard opens.
  • The final page of the wizard displays a confirmation of the close opportunity process. If a sales order was generated, you can open it from this page.

When you select Lost Quote, the one-page Lost Quote dialog box opens. Click Finish on that page to complete the following actions:

  • Set the status of the quote's opportunity to Lost and the opportunity Closed Date to the current date.
  • If the opportunity Loss Reason is required, apply the selected lost reason to the opportunity.
  • If the quote has an associated proposal project that you have permission to view and the Inactivate Proposal Project button is selected, the status of the listed proposal project will be set to Inactive.
  • Set the opportunity's stage to the default stage specified in > Admin > Features & Settings > Sales & Opportunities > Opportunity Stages.

NOTE  If a default Lost Opportunity Stage has not been set or is excluded by the opportunity's category, the stage remains set to the opportunity's stage at the time the quote is set to Lost.

  • If the opportunity's status was Closed or Implemented when it was changed to Lost:

There will be no impact on billing items and/or contracts that may have been created when the opportunity was closed/won.

Unfulfilled or partially fulfilled sales orders associated with the opportunity will be canceled.

How to...

You must have Admin level permission to access Sales & Opportunities.

  1. From the Admin menu, select > Admin > Features & Settings > Sales & Opportunities > Opportunity Stages.
  2. Edit an existing stage or create a new stage. Select the check box for Default stage for won opportunities or Default stage for lost opportunities and save.

There can be only one default stage for won opportunities or lost opportunities. If you set an opportunity stage to be the default won or lost stage, it will replace any current default stage.

When you use the Won Quote Wizard to close an opportunity, the wizard converts the following types of quote items into billing items: products, one-time item discounts, shipping, and charges. If the quote includes products, a sales order is created.

NOTE  Optional items and expenses will not be converted.

  1. To open the page, use the path(s) in the Security and navigation section above.
  2. Click Won Quote to open the Wizard.

If the quote is not the primary quote for its opportunity, a message opens asking if you want to make this quote the primary quote. To continue, click Yes.

If you do not select Yes, the wizard will close.

  1. Review the messages that appear on the first page of the wizard.

The text at the top of the page describes what types of quote items the wizard will convert and what items will be created.

Any additional paragraphs contain warnings. For example, if the associated opportunity has already been closed, the quote contains services or fees that the wizard cannot process, or shipping items do not have material codes associated with their shipping types.

IMPORTANT  If the page contains more than one paragraph of text, then there are items in your quote that the wizard may not process as you expect. Depending on the messages and your expectations, you may want to cancel and make some changes to the quote before you proceed.

NOTE  If your quote contains a message that indicates that the quote contains services or fees that should be converted to a recurring service contract, the message includes a link to open the Won Opportunity Wizard.

  1. If your instance of Autotask requires a win reason, select a reason from the menu and then click Next.

The Win Reason field is available only if your Autotask instance requires it. The drop-down list may be limited by the category associated with the quote's opportunity.

NOTE  Comparing the primary reasons why you won or lost opportunities over a period of time can help identify the strengths and weaknesses in your sales efforts.

  1. If your quote contains items (other than shipping) that will be converted to billing items but they do not have a material code assigned, the next step displays a list of those items. Select a Material Code for each item listed, then click Next.

If all quoted items already have material codes assigned, this page does not open.

  1. The next page of the wizard indicates that on Finish, the quote will be won and items created. If your security level includes the permission Can create invoices from Ticket and Won Quote Wizard, you will see two additional buttons:

Yes, I would like to create an invoice- Select this option to immediately approve and post the newly created billing items for the products, charges, discounts and shipping quote items, and create an invoice. Refer to Processing invoices.

NOTE  If the quote includes items associated with a line of business that you do not have access to, those items will not appear on the invoice. Refer to Lines of business and resource data access.

No, I would not like to create an invoice: Select this option if you do not want to create the invoice at this time. Newly created billing items will be approved and posted through your company's regular billing process.

  1. Click Finish to open the final page of the wizard. This page confirms that the quote has been won and billing items have been created. If a sales order was generated, you can click a link to view the sales order.

When you select Lost Quote, a one-page dialog box opens to inform you that the quote's opportunity status will be set to Lost. You may or may not see the following additional text or fields:

  • If the opportunity Loss Reason is required, you must select a reason from the Loss Reason menu. This list may be limited by the category associated with the quote's opportunity.
  • If the opportunity status is currently Closed or Implemented, additional text describes what will occur if the status is changed to Lost:

There will be no impact on billing items and/or contracts that may have been created when the opportunity was created

Unfulfilled or partially fulfilled sales orders associated with the opportunity will be canceled.

Click Finish to set the opportunity status to Lost and close the dialog box. When applicable, clicking Finish also assigns the selected loss reason to the opportunity and cancels any unfulfilled or partially fulfilled sales orders.