Linking Products to Opportunities
You can link products to opportunities to:
- Track which products belong to the opportunity
- Calculate opportunity revenue based on product revenue
- Base your company's forecasts on product revenue
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Before you begin. Your company needs to inform you of the forecasting method it wants to use. Companies can forecast revenue on opportunity or product revenue, but not on both. The company forecasting method determines which fields you need to select when linking products to your opportunities.
NOTE: The Update Opportunity Totals button is used to calculate opportunity revenue based on product revenue. This functionality is only available if the Product Probability Averaging Enabled option is enabled on the company profile. For the Update Opportunity Totals button to work correctly, the Quantity and Revenue fields must be present on the Product Revenue Edit page. Your company administrator can customize your page layout to make these fields available.
To link products to opportunities
- Select the opportunity.
For instructions on selecting opportunities, see Finding Records.
- On the Opportunity Detail page, scroll down to the Products section and do one of the following:
- To link a product, click Add.
- To update product information, click the Edit link next to the existing product.
- On the Product Revenue Edit page, complete the Product Revenue Fields.
- Fill in the quantity and price information.
- In the Recurring Revenue section of the Product Detail page, enter details about how often and when the revenue should be recognized.
- Enter the date on which the first revenue should be recognized.
- If your company forecasts revenue based on product revenue, select the Forecast check box.
NOTE: If your company forecasts revenue based on opportunity revenue, not product revenue, it is best to leave the Forecast check box blank on the Product Revenue page.
- Save the record.
To calculate opportunity revenue based on product revenue
- Select the opportunity.
For instructions on selecting opportunities, see Finding Records.
- On the Opportunity Detail page, do the following:
- Clear the Forecast check box.
If your company bases its forecasts on product revenue, select the Forecast check box on the Product Revenue Edit page, not on the Opportunity Edit page.
- Clear the Revenue field.
Your product revenue is added to the opportunity revenue when you click Update Opportunity Totals. If you entered opportunity revenue and are now switching to forecasting based on product revenue, you probably want to clear the revenue fields in the Opportunity record. Otherwise, it does not show strictly product revenue.
NOTE: For information about editing fields inline on the Opportunity Detail page, see Updating Record Details.
- Save the record.
- On the Opportunity Detail page, scroll down to the Products section and do one of the following:
- To link a product, click Add.
- To update product information, click the Edit link next to the existing product.
- On the Product Revenue Edit page, complete the Product Revenue Fields.
- Save the record.
- On the Opportunity Detail page, click the Update Opportunity Totals in the Products section.
This totals the product revenue for each linked product and displays it in the Revenue and Expected Revenue fields for the Opportunity. If you had revenue in the opportunity record, the product revenue is added to the opportunity revenue.
To base your company's forecasts on product revenue linked to opportunities
- Follow Step 1 through Step 5 of the "To calculate opportunity revenue based on product revenue" procedure.
- On the Product Revenue Edit page, complete the Product Revenue Fields and select the Forecast check box.
Selecting the Forecast check box indicates that you want this record information to contribute to your company's forecasts.
- Save the record.
- (Optional) On the Opportunity Detail page, click the Update Opportunity Totals in the Products section.
NOTE: If a product is not sold, either remove the product from this opportunity or, if it is the only product, clear the Forecast check box. This prevents the revenue from being added to your company's forecasts. If one product of several linked to this opportunity is on hold, create another opportunity for that product to prevent its revenue from being included in the forecast.
Product Revenue Fields
The following table describes field information for product revenue. Your administrator can add, re-label, or delete fields, so the fields you see might differ from those in this table.
CAUTION: If your company bases its forecasts on products, the information that you enter for product revenue can affect its calculations.
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Field
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Description
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Key Product Information
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Product Name
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Only products marked Orderable by your company administrator can be selected. When you link a product to this opportunity, these fields are copied from the product definition: Product Category, Part #, Type, Status, and Description.
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Quantity
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Number of units the customer orders. For a recurring product, enter the quantity of the product per recurring period. For example, if you send 10 printer cartridges each month, enter 10 here.
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Purchase Price
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Product price.
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Revenue
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Quantity multiplied by Purchase Price. The revenue cannot be overwritten. If the Forecast check box is selected, this revenue amount contributes to your company's forecast totals.
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Product Category
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Category carried over with the product definition. Read-only.
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Part #
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Number carried over with the product definition. Read-only.
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Type
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Type carried over with the product definition. Read-only.
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Status
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Status carried over with the product definition. Read-only.
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Description
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Additional information about the product. Limit of 2,000 characters.
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Recurring Revenue Information
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Start/Close Date
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For an opportunity, the expected close date. For a recurring product, the start date. For a recurring product with a close date that ends on the last day of the month and a start date of mid-month, add one record for the full recurring price and another record for the prorated order.
For example: You start supplying paper to a company on May 15th. After that, you will be sending $500 worth of paper at the end of each month through the end of the year.
For the mid-month order, add a product record with these values: Revenue = $250 Quantity = 1
For the recurring order, add a second product record with these values: Revenue = $500 Quantity = 1 Frequency = Monthly #of Periods = 7 (June through December).
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Frequency
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Frequency for a recurring product. Bi-weekly means twice a week.
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# of Periods
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Number of periods for a recurring product.
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Sales Information
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Sales Stage
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Sales Stage carried over from the opportunity.
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Probability
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Probability of a successful outcome for the product sale. The initial value in this field is carried over from the Sales Stage of the opportunity. You can change the value, if needed, to better reflect your particular product.
NOTE: When the Sales Stage changes, the value in the Probability field on the opportunity record again defaults to the value related to the new Sales Stage, but the value in the Probability field on the product is not overwritten.
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Expected Revenue
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A currency value that is calculated based on the Revenue field multiplied by the value in the Probability percentage field.
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Account
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Account linked to this opportunity. Read-only.
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Owner
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Person assigned to this opportunity. Generally, the owner can update record details, transfer the record to another owner, or delete the record. However, access levels can be adjusted to restrict or expand a user's access.
This value affects which records are included in reports you or your managers run (from Reports and Dashboard pages).
Each record has only one owner. However, opportunity records can be shared with other users through Opportunity Team or Account Team pages. For instructions, see Sharing Records (Teams).
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Forecast
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Indicator to include this product in forecasting totals.
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