Completing Sales Transactions

Sales typically start with a draft quote A formal offer for products or services, proposed at specific prices and related payment terms, which is sent to an opportunity, account, or contact.. When the quote is ready, it is activated and sent to the customer The account or contact with which a business unit conducts a business transaction. for revisions before it is accepted, and then an order A confirmed request for delivery of goods or services based on specified terms. An order is a quote that has been accepted by a customer. is generated from the quote. The order is used to fulfill the agreement of goods or services offered in the quote. After the order is shipped, an invoice An order that has been billed. An invoice is also a record of a sale to a customer, including details about the products or services purchased. is generated.

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, quotes, orders, and invoices are the same item in different states of transition. You can use tools and templates to create and print quotes, orders, and invoices while working either online or offline—even at a customer site. Use these tools to set expiration dates and convert quotes into orders, or orders into invoices.

Understanding Quote Stages

When you create a new quote, it is automatically set to Draft, and the revision ID is set to 0. Your organization can determine how it wants to change these (and other) settings in the quote life cycle.

Some organizations use workflows to route the quote to the manager to review it and turn it to Active. In other organizations, the person who creates the quote can set it to Active.

Only an active quote should be sent to a customer. Activating a quote makes it read-only so your versions matches the customer's version. If you revise it, the revision ID will increase by one.

When you close a quote, you have three choices: Lost, Canceled, or Revised. If you revise it, a new quote is created, set to Draft status, and you can start over. If you do not revise it, the quote is closed.

Differences between Current Pricing and Prices Locked

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has two kinds of pricing behavior on orders and invoices: Use Current Pricing and Prices Locked.

The Use Current Pricing comes directly from the product catalog; if a unit price changes for a product there, then it will change in all open invoices, draft orders, and active orders that include the product.

Prices Locked locks the price per unit for a product in an open order or invoice. Even if a price changes in the product catalog, that order or invoice will remain at the agreed price.