The Opportunities Tab

Working with Opportunities

To work with Opportunities, Click the Opportunity Tab. Then use any of the functions [Create Opportunity], [Find Opportunities], View Opportunity section, [Edit], Quotes section, Pending Activities section, Contacts section, Opportunity History section, Activity History section, and the attachments section for [Bookmark URL] and [Upload File].

In addition to these functions, there is a shortcut [New Opportunity] box in the upper left of the screen for fast capture of any new opportunity situations.

Create Opportunity:

In the shortcut box in the upper left, Click: [Create Opportunity] and fill in these boxes:

•  Name your new opportunity something that you will easily find later with a search
•  Enter or lookup the Account identity if the Customer is an Account already
•  Enter the Lead identity if this is a Prospect who is still a lead without an Account
•  Enter any additional contact if appropriate
•  Enter the Sales Pipeline stage for this Opportunity from the drop down box
•  Enter the Type of this Opportunity for reporting in the future
•  Enter the Estimated Amount of this potential future sale, for the plan period that 
     you are working
•  Select the proper currency 
•  Enter tracking information you are using for marketing campaigns or for lead sources
•  Enter the estimated Closing Date for the Estimated Amount you entered above
•  Describe the Opportunity in some detail covering who, what, where, when, and how
•  Enter your Next Step in working this Opportunity in the Note box for your teams 
     awareness and to coordinate with other people
•  Click: [Create] Opportunity to post this item to the system 

The Opportunity Tab is equipped with our conventional Find/Search/Select function. Selecting an Opportunity opens a View Opportunity screen with a summary box, a box to display associated Quotes that may have been created in the Quotes Tab, a Pending Activities box for managing or creating Activities as described in the Activity Tab section, a History box to show the revision history and reasons, and an Activities History box for logging calls email, or other tasks associated with the Opportunity management.

Rule: To create, edit or update an opportunity, you must be on its account team.

Rule: Updating opportunities requires you to fill in a "change Note", so that your reasons are captured for other team members and for future reference.

Warning: Sales opportunities should not be updated until it is time to update the forecasts. These are linked and automatically updated. In the CRM system, all of the forecasts are automatically updated whenever the opportunities are updated. Remember, use a "virtual company forecast" person (Party) to roll-up only those opportunities you want to include in your company wide total forecast, see Managing Business Projections "Company Wide Forecasting".