SuccessWare®21 includes a feature in which several sales quotes may be combined into a single proposal to be presented to the customer. You may find this feature useful if you frequently offer your customers a choice between various replacement systems.
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SuccessWare®21 Proposal
Basics
A proposal in SuccessWare®21 is a feature allowing you to group up to 5 different sales quotes (referred to as an option) into a single document that can be presented to the customer. For example, if you have 3 different types of furnaces you can prepare a quote for each and then combine all 3 quotes into a proposal. The proposal presents each of the options to the customer from which they will accept one of them. Proposals do not have to include quotes; you can simply enter a description of the option and a price.
One of the options in each proposal will be flagged as the “Reported Amount”, this indicates to the system that the offer price of this option will be considered the “quote amount” (for reporting purposes) of that particular job. If a job has multiple proposals then the “quote amount” for the job will be the sum of all options flagged as the “reported amount”.
When the customer “accepts” an option on a proposal you will flag that option as “accepted”. Each proposal in SuccessWare®21 can only have one “accepted” option. The value of the “accepted” option will be the default “sold price” of the job (you can override if necessary). If a job has multiple proposals then the “sold price” for the job will be the sum of all “accepted” options.
A locked proposal means that it cannot be modified other than to indicate which option the customer “accepted. To lock a proposal simply right-click on it and choose Lock Proposal. When locking a proposal the system will also lock all quotes linked to that proposal. Locked proposals can be unlocked if needed.
To meet the needs of various types of businesses SuccessWare®21 prints proposals in two different styles. The first one is called the “Good, Better, Best” style. This style prints in a single table with each option being a column in the report, and each row being an item included in the proposal. In the option columns a checkmark will appear indicating that this item is part of the option. This style report is best used when each option includes the items from the previous option plus additional items.
The second style is called the “Grid” style which prints a separate table for each option. This style report is best used when the options do not have many items in common.
Regardless of which style you choose to print, only totals and tax figures will appear on the report, no line item dollar amounts.
Just like quotes and invoices the proposal reports in SuccessWare®21 can include up to 3 sections of notes. Unlike quotes and invoices the notes on the proposal will print as follows. Notes that include a title will print in a box with the title being the “caption” of the box, similar to this:
Notes without a title will print centered on the report, similar to this:
To use proposal you must configure SuccessWare®21 to use the new tabbed summaries. You can configure this on the Other tab of the Company Setup screen.
To create a proposal open up the Sales Summary Form for a sales job, on the Proposal tab simply click the Add button. The system will open up the Proposal form with a blank proposal titled “New Proposal”. Edit the proposal number, title and the notes if you wish. The title of the proposal will print on the reports so update it to a meaningful name.
To edit a proposal option double-click on it, this will open the Proposal Option Form. On this form you can change the name and title if you wish. You can also enter a free-form description of this option. Note, this description will print as a line item on the proposal report regardless of whether you link it to a quote. If you want to link this option to a quote then select that quote in the dropdown or else click the New button. If the option is not linked to a quote then enter the offer price.
From this form you can also set the option that is flagged as the reported amount and lock the option. After you have locked the proposal you can indicate which option was accepted by the customer. Click OK when you are finished editing this option.
Option names and titles are required. Within a single proposal, all option names must be unique. Options can be added and deleted but each proposal must have at least one option and can have no more than five. The order of the options in the grid is the order that they will appear on the proposal report. When you are done editing the proposal click Save to save your changes.
There are a few caveats for quotes that are linked to a proposal option:
1. They cannot be voided
2. The cannot be unlocked if they are linked to a locked option or an “accepted” option
To print a proposal open up the Sales Summary Form for the job, on the Proposal tab in the upper-right choose the report style and then click the Preview button.
If a proposal is a common one that you will use frequently in your business then you can choose to make a template out of it. To do so open up the Sales Summary Form for the job containing the proposal you want to use, on the Proposal tab click the Save as Template button. You will receive a confirmation message after the template is created. Templates include any quotes that were linked to options.
Once you have a template created you can use it as the basis for a new proposal by opening up the Sales Summary Form for the job and clicking the Add From Template button. You will be presented a list of templates, double-click on the one you wish to use. Any linked template quotes will be used to create actual quotes on the job.
Proposal templates can be viewed by opening up the Quote Manager and clicking on the TEMPLATES indicator. The grid will then list all proposal templates. Simply double-click on it to view/edit it. Editing a template option is identical to editing a proposal option; the only difference is that for a template you cannot flag an option as accepted. Template options can be linked to template quotes which in turn can be edited or even created.
To create a proposal template from scratch right-click on the grid in Quote Manger and choose Create Template.
Proposals in SuccessWare®21 can not only be created on sales jobs, they can also be created on service jobs. To do so open the Job Summary Form for the service job and click the Sales Summary button. This will open the Sales Summary Form for that job, this form is used exactly the same as it is for a sales job.
Due to the proposal feature the Sales Tracking report has been updated as follows:
· You can choose which type of jobs to include in the report; Sales, Service or All
· The Quote By value on the report comes from the Estimate By value on the Job Summary Form and not the Sales Person on the Invoice
· The Quote Amount value is the sum of all proposal options flagged as the reported amount. If a job does not include a proposal then it is the amount of all quotes linked to the job.