While working as a Sales representative for an organization that uses Salesforce to manage its Sales and CRM processes, one potential customer reached out to me to discuss subscribing to our software solution, which includes both licenses and implementation services.
After the discussion, I had to send him a quotation for how much the software subscription would cost the customer, including the license, products, and implementation services.
In this Salesforce tutorial, I will explain Salesforce Quotes. I also covered what a Salesforce quote object is and how to create a quote in Salesforce in both interfaces, Lightning and Classic.
What is a Quote in Salesforce with an Example
A Quote is a formal estimate statement a seller provides to a potential buyer (buyer shows interest in a product). It consists of the seller’s details, the price of the products he is interested in, the quantity, the discount percentage, and the total cost to be paid, including taxes.
Having all of this information in one place and organized helps the buyer decide whether to purchase the product or negotiate.
A quote in Salesforce is a way to communicate about the opportunity with the necessary information to the customers. Quotes in Salesforce can be created through a ‘quote object‘.
Let’s see an example of a quote in Salesforce. The image below is a sample quotation sent by a company. Here, the Product name, List Price (which is MRP), Sales Price, Quantity, and discount, if applicable, are mentioned. If the buyer accepts this quotation, then a sale is closed with a win.
With this, you have understood what is quoted in Salesforce. Now, understand what a quote object is in Salesforce.
Salesforce Quote Object
The quote object in Salesforce is one of the standard objects that is used to create and manage the quotes for products or services that you are offering to customers.
The Salesforce quote object enables the sales team to create and send quotes to customers, tracking the status of both quotes and opportunities throughout the opportunity-to-quote process.
Here, you might have a question: what do I mean by the opportunity to quote process?
The answer is straightforward: the quote object is related to the opportunity object, which represents potential sales deals in Salesforce. Let’s try to understand the complete process of the opportunity to quote in Salesforce.
Suppose you want to sell your product to the TechWorlds company residing in the USA. So, here is how you will do in Salesforce:
- Account: First, you create an account that represents the company to whom you sell your product.
- Contact: Next, you create a contact that represents the person related to the purchasing things of the company.
- Opportunity: Then, you create an opportunity that is a deal in progress that you want to do with the company through the link of the primary contact involved in it.
- Quote: Last, you prepare a quote including the details of the product, prices, and discounts as part of the sales process to crack the deal in progress.
Hence, the quote is linked to the opportunity, the opportunity is linked to the contact, and the contact is related to the account.
It doesn’t mean you can’t create a quote without an opportunity; you can do so, but you’ll need to assign it to an opportunity later. Without an assignment, the quote has no meaning.
You have now understood the quote object. Next, let’s see the steps to enable the quote in Salesforce.
How to Enable Quotes in Salesforce
By default, this object is disabled in Salesforce, and you have to enable it manually if you want to create the quotes in Salesforce. The steps are the same for both Salesforce Lightning and Classic Interface.
Below are the steps to do that:
- From the Salesforce home, go to the “Setup” in Salesforce.
- From the “Quick Find”, search for “Quote Settings”.
- Check the “Enable Quote” checkbox to enable quotes for your organization. If you want to “Create a quote without related to the Opportunity,” check this checkbox.
- Last, click on the “Save” button
- From the layout page, select the layout that includes the quotes. Click on the “Save” button.
After enabling the Quote object in Salesforce, let’s see how to create quotes in Salesforce.
How to Create a Quote in Salesforce
To create a quote in Salesforce, you need to check the checkbox “Create a quote without related to the Opportunity” while enabling it; otherwise, you will not be able to create a quote from the quote object directly.
The screenshot below shows you that the “Quote Object” does not have a “New button” if you have not enabled it as mentioned:
How to Create a Quote in Salesforce Lightning
The following are the steps for creating quotes in Salesforce Lightning:
- Log in to the Salesforce account in the Lightning Interface. To access the main Lightning setup, click on the “Gear” icon and select the “Setup” option.
- Click on the “App Launcher”, search for “Quotes”, and click on it.
- Click on the “New Quotes” button on the top right side.
- Fill in the relevant information in the following fields to create:
| Field Label | Description |
|---|---|
| Quote Name | It specifies the unique name for the quote. |
| Opportunity Name | It specifies the opportunity name to which quote is linked. |
| Expiration Date | It specifies the date until which the quote is valid. |
| Status | It specifies the current status of the quote. |
| Description | It specifies additional information on the quote. |
| Account Name | It specifies the account name or company associated with the quote. |
| Discount | It specifies the discount applied to the quote in the percentage. |
| Tax | It specifies the amount of tax applicable to the quote. |
| Shipping and Handling | It specifies the charges associated with shipping and handling. |
| Grand Total | It specifies the total price, including taxes, discounts, and shipping. |
| Contact Information | It specifies information about the contact for whom the quote is prepared. It includes fields like Contact Name, Phone, Email, Fax. |
| Bill To | Information about where the bill should be sent. It includes fields like Bill To Name, Bill To Street, Bill To City, Bill To State/Province, Bill To Zip/Postal Code, and Bill To Country. |
| Ship To | Information about where the products or services should be delivered. It includes fields like Ship To Name, Ship To Street, Ship To City, Ship To State/Province, and Ship To Zip/Postal Code. |
- Click on the “Save” button.
With this, you have learned how to create quotes in Salesforce Lightning.
Creating Quotes in Salesforce Classic
The following are the steps to create a quote in Salesforce Classic:
- Sign in to the Salesforce account in the Classic Interface. Click on the “Setup” option to be redirected to the classic setup page.
- Click on the “+” icon on the “Navigation Bar” search for the “Quotes” object, and click on it.
- Click on the “New” button to create a quote without an opportunity. Make sure that you have checked the checkbox to create the quote without an opportunity while enabling it.
- Fill the mandatory field “Quote Name”. For example, “Q-2024-001” I have set. If you want to relate this quote to the opportunity, you can fill in the “Opportunity Name” at any time, and according to your requirement, you can fill in other fields.
- Click on the “Save” button to complete the process of creating quotes.
With this, you have learned how to create quotes in Salesforce Classic.
How to Create a Quote from an Opportunity in Salesforce
As you know, there is no worth in creating a quote without associating it with an opportunity. Even if you create a quote directly later, you will need to link it to the opportunity when you want to use it.
In Salesforce, you can directly create quotes from opportunities if you want. Let’s see how we can do so in both Salesforce Lightning and Salesforce Classic.
Create Quote From Opportunity Salesforce Lightning
The following are the steps to create a quote from an opportunity in Salesforce Lightning:
- Click on the “App Launcher”, search for an “Opportunities” object, and click on it.
- Click on the opportunity name to whom you want to send the quote in Salesforce. For example, let’s suppose you are going with the opportunity name – USA Eateries – Danny Obin.
- In the Related on the right side, at the bottom, you will see the Quote section, click on the dropdown and select “New Quote” from there.
- From the prompted window, fill in the necessary fields. The mandatory column, for now, is “Quote Name”; the rest is optional to fill in as of now.
Let’s suppose you fill:
- Quote Name – Quote for USA Eateries
- Expiration Date – This quote is valid till 31 December 2022
- Status – The status is already approved.
Click on the “Save” button to apply the changes in the quote information.
- You can also add the products to your quote. For this, click on the “Quote Number” to add products to the quote.
- Then, click on the “Add Products” button in Salesforce, select the “Price Book” name, and click “OK”.
- Select the products and click on the “Next” button. Provide the sales price, quantity, and discount, and click on the “Save” button. The product will be added to the quote in Salesforce.
- The final step is to synchronize the changes. Click on the “Dropdown” at the top right next to the New Case button. From there, select “Start Sync” and click on the continue prompt.
With this, you have learned how to create quotes from opportunities in Salesforce by adding products.
Create Quote From Opportunity Salesforce Classic
The following are the steps to create a quote from an opportunity in Salesforce Classic:
- Click on the “+” icon, search for “Opportunity” object and click on it.
- Click on the name of the opportunity for which you want to create a quote. Then, scroll down to the end of the page to the “Quote” section and click on the “New Quote”.
- Fill out the quote field as per your requirement. Some of the fields are automatically fetched based on the opportunity.
For example, you entered:
- Quote Name: Software Tech Product
- Expiration Date: 3/31/22024
Click on the “Save” button to save the changes, and it will redirect you to the quote detail page.
- To add products to the quote, click “Add Line Item” in the “Quote Line Item” section.
- Select a price book for this quote as “Standard” and click on “Save”.
- Choose the products from the product list and click on the “Select” button. Now, set the Sales Price, Quantity, and Discount of the product that you want to propose to the company and click on the “Save” button.
With this, you have learned to create quotes from an opportunity with a product in Salesforce Classic
Conclusion
I hope you understand the quote is used to inform the buyer about the proposed selling price, and if the buyer approves the quote, then a contract is created. Otherwise, negotiation takes place.
I have also explained the quote object in Salesforce and provided step-by-step instructions for creating a quote. Additionally, I have covered the steps for creating a quote from an opportunity in Salesforce.
You may like to read:
- Mass update Account Ownership with Data Loader in Salesforce
- Add Contacts to Campaign in Salesforce
- Clone Opportunity in Salesforce
I am Bijay Kumar, the founder of SalesforceFAQs.com. Having over 10 years of experience working in salesforce technologies for clients across the world (Canada, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, etc.). I am a certified salesforce administrator and expert with experience in developing salesforce applications and projects. My goal is to make it easy for people to learn and use salesforce technologies by providing simple and easy-to-understand solutions. Check out the complete profile on About us.
