Organisations that want to track details of their sales orders and processes may use opportunities, quotes, orders, invoices or any mix of the 40 capture detailed information about sales transactions.

During the opportunity stage, a sales representative may engage several times with the customer that is finalising the products or services in terms of the sale.

This process may involve providing one or more quotes. As the transaction is finalised, organisations may use orders and/or invoices. Opportunities, quotes, orders and invoices can be used for different stages of the sales process.

• An opportunity is a potential sale.
• A quote is a formal offer sent to a prospective customer.
• The other is for products and/or services proposed at specific prices along with related payment terms.
• An order is a quote that has been accepted.
• An invoice is a bill for an order that is being shipped or a service that has been provided.

A single opportunity may have more than one quote related to it at one time. For example, this could allow you to offer a few different pricing scenarios to increase the chances of closing the sale.

Sales representatives can use quotes to inform potential customers about the products and prices associated with sales opportunities.

Customers received the quote and evaluate it against their budget and needs. If it is a match, then the customer comes back with an acceptance and places an order for the product or services based on the terms of the quote. Otherwise, there’s further negotiation until you reach acceptable terms.

Quotes can be the integration point between two solutions. For example, the Dynamics 365 for Sales quote might pick up the customer information from Dynamics 365 for Sales and pick up the product and pricing information from other systems such as an ERP system. Quotes provide customers with the terms of sale.

So, it is important to capture price and products or service information on quotes. In some cases, an organisation may need to capture special information such as tracking numbers, which must be edited Dynamics 365 for sales as a custom field, or integration with other systems may require custom fields.

In some scenarios, a quote can become a legally binding document. Once a quote is activated becomes read-only. To make changes to it, you must place it back into a draft state to make the edits. Then activate it again.

All of these actions are tracked.

Join the discussion

How do you think Dynamics 365 for Sales will be able to help your organisation’s sales teams to better manage their quotes and invoices?

Use the discussion section below and let us know your thoughts. Try to respond to at least one other post and once you’re happy with your contribution, click the Mark as complete button to check the step off, then you can move to the next step where we examine the lifecycle of a quote.