Transcript of Video
During the final stages of a sales cycle, you work closely with your customer to document the details of the transaction and ensure a successful sale. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, track those final stages by using quotes, orders, and invoices.
Because they’re part of a single unified process, quotes, orders, and invoices all store similar information, such as pricing, shipping details, and which products the customer wants.
Before you can use quotes, orders, and invoices, you must set up the product catalog in CRM. With the product catalog in place, you can add price lists, discount lists, and individual products to your quotes, orders, and invoices. CRM uses this information to calculate prices automatically.
Although you can individually create quotes, orders, and invoices, you typically create orders from quotes, and invoices from orders. To make tracking easier, link your quotes to the original opportunities. And link quotes, orders, and invoices to the accounts and contacts they relate to.
Quotes work a little differently from orders and invoices. They remain in a Draft state until you’re ready to send or convert them. You can revise a draft quote as many times as necessary. When it is final, set its status to Active. Then you can send it to the customer or convert it to an order.
It’s important to remember that quotes, orders, and invoices in CRM are records of the documents you send to customers, not the documents themselves. The general process is to create the documents outside of CRM, and then send them with outgoing CRM communications. Finally, attach them to the corresponding quote, order, or invoice record in CRM for later reference.
Because CRM does not include accounting or inventory management features, quotes, orders, and invoices are designed to integrate with a back-office system, such as Microsoft Dynamics AX or Dynamics GP. This integration allows you to do things like create a bill of materials or track the inventory that remains after an order is filled.
Use quotes, orders, and invoices in Microsoft Dynamics CRM to track important work items that help you meet customer expectations in the final stages of the sale.
