Legacy platform

Creating a quote

Sterling™ Field Sales enables a user to create a quote for an existing customer, whose records already exist in the system, or a new customer. If a user has access to multiple enterprises, the user can select the relevant enterprise for which the quote is to be created.

A quote is a document that allows a prospective customer to see a predetermined set of items and quantities at a predetermined price, to be delivered on a specific date. A Field Sales Representative must be able to create quotes that can be used to store all the information that is required during the quoting process, including customer details, information about the items and the adjustments made to the price of items, and the payment terms and shipment terms that will be used in the order if the quote is converted to an order.

Solution

Sterling Field Sales enables a user to create a quote for an existing customer, whose records already exist in the system, or a new customer. If a user has access to multiple enterprises, the user can select the relevant enterprise for which the quote is to be created. The getOrganizationList API is called to retrieve the enterprises the user has access to.

You can configure the default expiration period of a quote if the user does not specify an expiration date. The expiration date of a quote is determined by the following configuration rules:

  • Recalculate Expiration Date
  • Default Expiration Period (Number Of Days)

If a user does not specify the expiration date for a quote, the expiration date is computed when the quote is sent to the customer for the first time as follows:

Current date + Default Expiration Period (Number of Days)
Note: The expiration date is recalculated only if the Recalculate Expiration Date rule is enabled.

If the expiration date is already stamped and persisted in the database for a quote, the expiration date on the quote is not computed when the quote is sent to the customer.

When creating a quote for an existing customer, a user can search for the customer for whom the quote has to be created. You can configure the customer type that is to be selected by default in the Customer Search dialog box. The getCustomerList API is called to retrieve the list of customers. After the customer is selected, the getCustomerDetails API is called to retrieve the details of the customer to be displayed in the Quote Details screen.

The names of the city and state in which the customer or the contact resides can be derived from the country or region and Postal Code fields if the enterprise has defined a region schema in the Channel Applications Manager. The getCommonCodeList API is called to retrieve the values displayed in the country or region drop-down list. The country or region codes are stored as common codes with country or region as the code type. The getRegionList API is called to retrieve the names of the city and state. The region schema that is called corresponds to the enterprise to which the user belongs. If multiple values are retrieved for the city and state names, the first value returned by the getRegionList API is displayed.

When creating a quote for a new business customer, the getCurrencyList API is called to populate the Default Currency drop-down list in the Quote Details screen. The manageCustomer API is called to save the customer information entered for the new customer.

The createOrder API is called to create a quote.

End-user impact

  • Based on the configuration, a user can create and search for customers based on the customer type.
  • Based on the configuration, either the Business radio button or the Consumer radio button is selected by default in the Customer Search dialog box.
  • Based on the configuration, the State field is displayed as a drop-down list or a box when a user is creating a quote for a new customer.

Implementation

This section explains the configurations for this functionality:

  • The notes entered when a user creates a quote are saved in the quote using the SAA_QUOTE_CREATED note type.
  • You can configure the Enable Customer Type Search rule to enable users to create and search for a customer based on the type of customer.
  • You can configure the customer type that is to be selected by default in the Customer Search dialog box by configuring the Customer Type To Be Defaulted In Search rule.
  • You can configure the region schema to be used for deriving the names of the city and state when creating an opportunity for a new customer, by configuring the country or region and state display rules.
  • You can configure the Recalculate Expiration Date rule to enable the quote expiration date to be computed before a quote is presented to a customer.
  • You can configure the Default Expiration Period (Number Of Days) rule appropriately to specify when a quote should expire by default if a user does not specify the quote expiration date.