Introduction
Sales Quotes are legally binding agreement between customer and vendor to deliver customer requested products in a specified time-frame at a predefined price. Your customers can place orders within the stipulated period (validity date) that has been specified in the quote otherwise you may cancel the quote or send a new quote extending the time-frame. In general Sales Quote contains the Quote number, date, line items (products) including the quantities and prices based on your Price Books, Terms & Conditions and others. In the Zoho CRM system you can create a quote directly from the potential or from the account page.
The Quotes home page contains,
- Quotes List
- Quote Reports
- Quick Create pane
- Search
- Alphabetical Search
- Custom Views
- Page Navigation
You can perform the following operations in Quotes module:
You can navigate quotes available in the Quotes List.
To navigate quotes
- Click the Quotes tab.
- In the Quotes Home page, under the Quotes List section, click the Previous or Next link to access the list of quotes.
You can search the quotes with basic details, such as Subject, Quote Name, Account Name, and Quote Stage. You can also search quotes alphabetically.
To search quotes
- Click the Quotes tab.
- In the Quotes Home page, under the Quote Search section, do one of the following:
- Enter the search criteria in Quote Name, Quote Code, and Qty/Unit and Unit Price and click the Search button. Or
- Select one of the alphabetical search links.
- In the Quotes List page, list of quotes are displayed as per search criteria.
Creating List Views
(Access Privilege: Read/Write permission)
In the Quote List you can create/modify/delete the custom views, sort columns in the list view (ascending/descending order), search the records available in the current list view. In addition, you can modify some of the columns in standard list views. By default, the following standard list views are available in the Quotes module:
- All Quotes
- My Quotes
- Converted Quotes
 Note: User created list views are displayed under User Created Views category in View drop-down list. |
To create custom views
- Click the Quotes tab.
- In the Quotes Home page, under Quote List section,click the Create View link.
| Note: Under the Quote List section some of the standard list views are displayed. You can only rearrange the order of columns and more columns. |
- In the Create New View page, do the following:
- In the View Information section, specify name of the custom view in the View Name (mandatory) field. The custom view name appears in the View drop-down list. You can also set the custom view as a default list view by selecting the Set as Default View check box.
- In the Specify Criteria section, specify the filter criteria. For more details refer to the Specifying List View Criteria section.
- In the Choose Columns section, select the columns to be displayed in the List View. For more details refer to the Selecting List View Columns section.
- In the Accessibility Details section, select the users to whom custom list view has to be enabled. For more details refer to the Enabling View Access section.
- Click Save. The custom list view is displayed in the View drop-down list.
Creating Quotes
In Zoho CRM, you can store quote details by entering data in quote detail form.
| Note: Some of the standard fields listed below may not be visible/editable depending on your organization business process and field-level security settings. In case your organization added/modified fields please contact your System Administrator for more details about usage of the other fields. |
In the Quote: Edit form, you need to specify the quote-related information. The following table provides descriptions of the various fields in the form.
List of Standard Quote-related Fields
| Field Name |
Description |
Data Type |
| Quote Owner |
Select the name of the user to whom the quote is assigned. |
Lookup |
| Subject*
|
Specify the name of the quote. This field is mandatory.
|
Text box, alphanumeric (50)
|
| Quote Name
|
Specify the quote name for which the quote has to be created.
|
Text box, alphanumeric (40)
|
| Quote Stage
|
Specify the status of the quote.
|
Check box
|
| Valid Till
|
Specify the date till the quote is valid after sending to the prospective customer.
|
Date
|
| Contact Name
|
Specify the contact to which the quote has to be created.
|
Lookup
|
| Carrier
|
Select the name of the carrier manufacturer.
|
Pick list
|
| Shipping
|
Select the category of the quote.
|
Text box, alphanumeric (50)
|
| Inventory Manager
|
Specify the person responsible for shipping the shipment to the account or contact.
|
Text box, alphanumeric (50)
|
| Account Name*
|
Specify the account name to which the quote has to be created.
|
Lookup
|
| Billing Address*
|
Specify the billing address of the account or contact to which the quote has to be sent. If you have selected the account or contact, the corresponding billing address is automatically filled up.
|
Text box, alphanumeric (256)
|
| Shipping Address*
|
Specify the shipping address of the account or contact to which the shipment has to be sent. If you have already selected the account or contact, the corresponding shipping address is automatically filled up.
|
Text box, alphanumeric (256)
|
| Product Details
|
Specify the line items of the quote.
|
|
| Product
|
Select the product name.
|
Lookup
|
| Quantity
|
Specify the number of units.
|
Numeric (Integer)
|
| Unit Price
|
Displays the unit price of the product.
|
Alphanumeric
|
| List Price
|
Select the product list price from Price Book or specify the product price.
|
Numeric
|
| Total
|
Displays the amount of the selected products.
|
Alphanumeric
|
| Terms & Conditions
|
Specify the terms and conditions that are associated with quote.
|
Text area (32 KB)
|
| Description
|
Specify any other details about quote.
|
Text area (32 KB)
|
To create quotes
- Click the New Quote link.
- In the Quote: page, specify the quote details.
Note: Quote Name, Account Name, Billing Address, Shipping Address, and Product Details are mandatory field. Refer to the List of Standard Quote-related Fields section for more details.
- Click Save to save the quote details.
Associating Quotes with Other Records
You can create a 360-degrees view of the quote to display all the associated details, such as sales orders, open activities, and history of the completed activities.
- Sales Orders: To display sales orders associated with quotes.
- Open Activities: To add tasks and events related to quotes.
- Closed Activities: To display the completed activities.
To associate quotes with other records
- Click the Quotes tab.
- In the Quotes Home page, under the Quote List section, select the required quote.
- In the Quote: <Quote Name> page, do the following:
- Edit the Quote details.
- Display the sales orders associated with quote.
- Create activities, such as tasks and events (See chapter <No>: Managing Activities section for more details)
- Display the completed activities.
- You can close the Quote page once all the required information is updated for the quote.
Converting Quote to Sales Order/Invoice
To be started
Printing Quote Details
You can view a printable form and print the quote details using browser’s Print function.
To print quote details
- Click the Quotes tab.
- In the Quotes: Home page under the Quotes List section, select the required quote.
- In the Quote: < Quote Name> page click the Printable View button.
- In the printable document page, click the Print Page button to print the document.
Viewing Reports
(Access Privilege: Read permission)
You can directly access some of the standard reports pertaining to quotes from the Quotes Reports section. By default, the following reports are displayed under Quotes module:
- Quotes by Accounts
- Converted Quotes
- Lost Quotes
- Quotes by Stage
- Open Quotes
To view quotes report
- Click the Quotes tab.
- In the Quotes: Home page under the Quotes Reports section, click the required report link.
- The report is displayed in Reports page, which can be further customized as per your requirements.
For more details about reports customization refer to Working with Reports.
Deleting Quotes
Rarely, you may need to remove the unnecessary quotes, which are not tracked further. This will help you manage your quotes in a better way. You can delete quotes either individually or in bulk.
 Warning: The deleted quotes are temporarily stored in Recycle Bin. If required you can restore the deleted quotes again. But if you delete quotes from Recycle Bin, you cannot restore again. |
To delete quotes individually
- Click the Quotes tab.
- In the Quotes: Home page, select the quote to be deleted.
- In the Quote: <Quote Name> page, click Delete.
- In the Confirmation dialog, click OK to delete the quote permanently.
To delete quotes in bulk
- Click the Quotes tab.
- In the Quotes: Home page, go to the Quotes List section and select the quotes to be deleted using the Select check box.
- Click the Delete button.
- In the Confirmation dialog, click OK to delete the selected quotes permanently.
Customizing Quotes
(Access Privilege: Customize ZohoCRM.com permission)
Customization of Quotes module includes, renaming the tab name, modifying the pick list values in standard fields, adding new custom fields, modifying Quotes page layout, and show/hide the related list views according to your Sales process requirements.
For more details, refer to Customizing Zoho CRM
It pains me to say the Zoho CRM has no use to me without the ability to have a text area box available for EACH product chosen at the line item level so I can further describe the product with options. A customer may need to choose color, size, etc. There is no way to indicate this presently.
Hi, Currently it is not possible to add the product description under the produce details in the Quotes. However you can have the product description when you export/print by following these steps: Goto Setup--->Templates--->Inventory templates--->Click edit which is shown next to the quote template--->Select product from the first drop down and Product description from the second drop down and copy merge field value from the third and paste it under the <tbody id="lineItem"> and </tbody> tags. Regards, Vidya
How do we do White Spaces and Next Line Tags in our Description fields. PDF and Print our forms look like they have run a muck when your dont have the ability to use a < BR > here and there.
Even < strong > would be nice and maybe a < ul >
Hi, I sincerely apologize for it. This is an issue. Our team is working on it and will update you once it is fixed. Regards, Vidya
In quotes, the prices doesn't get calculated automatically and leaves ZERO for all total prices. Setting Books even won't fix the problem.
I tried this on Safari, Firefox, and IE and none of the worked although the Ajax code seems to be working.
Thanks,
Ali
@ Ali, We tried in our local setup and it works fine. Could you please send us your convenient date and time along with your contact information to [support at zohocrm dot com] so that we shall have an online meeting to reproduce the issue. Regards, Vidya
I desperately need a quote inventory template that shows the discount on the printed version in the line item. the stock template shows only total and an adjustment at the bottom. can you send me a template that shows me discounts that work.
Please help
Hi,
Thanks for the support, but I could fix my problem myself.
Actually I found out that I set the starting quantity of the discount range to zero. This apparently caused a logical error resulting into miscalculation of the amount.
I still believe this should be handled in a better way, eliminating any confusions.
Thanks,
Ali
@ czeberlein,
You can modify and add to the HTML code of (click on this blue <> icon) quote inventory template to show the discount on the printed version in the line item.
Regards,
Sudha
I can't add product line items. I click the icon to bring up the product lookup pop-up window. I select the product and nothing happens. I use safari.
It also did this when trying to select an account and/or contact while converting a lead to a potential.
Just noticed no safari. Will get Firefox and try. Thanks and sorry to waste space.
I am with carstone. I wish there was a way I could manually edit colors and sizes. If I have one product that has 30 different colors and 6 different sizes do I manually have to input each product so the correct description comes up on the invoice?
Hi, Yes, you have to manually input each product. Regards, Vidya