Once you have created an opportunity, you will need to create a quote and incorporate the customer's project requirements into it. Quoting is the entry point for Project Management and Service Management functionality on Cloud.

Here are some high-level facts you need to know about quotes.

Continue reading this article for more details and learn how to create, manage, and finalize quotes efficiently.

When you open a quote, you will see the tabs on the left. These tabs give you options to perform different tasks when building the quote.

Here is the list of tabs and what you can accomplish under each.

In a new quote, the only purpose of the "Overview" tab is to allow you to add the project description under the "Project Description" tab.

Here is a screenshot of the Summary tab sorted by phase.

Here is a screenshot of the Proposal Analytics tab.

You will likely spend most of your time on this tab when creating a quote. This is the tab where you add the project items (products, labor, and packages) required for the project.

You will see two tabs below Design: List and Visual.

The following is a screenshot with items added under the List tab.

On the left and to the right of the tabs, you will see a "View by" pane with the locations, systems, phases, and categories. The systems and phases shown here are the ones you have created in the catalog.

Until you add items, all nodes and subnodes in the left pane will show nothing.

This is where you will add one or more service plans to maintain and repair the products installed during the project. Cloud offers immense capabilities for creating and selling service plans and fulfilling service requests on-site and remotely.

You can add service plans under "Catalog."

Learn more about service plans.

Once you have built the quote to a certain level of completion, you can check the "Review" tab to see the breakdown of products and labor by locations, systems, phases, and categories.

Before you start building quotes, you will need products, labor, and, optionally, packages in the catalog. A "Package" is a bundle of products and labor that can be directly added to quotes.

When it comes to products, you can build quotes without any products in the catalog. You can add items from the D-Tools Library itself to the quotes. You can also import your "products list" from a CSV file or manually add your products to the catalog.

Learn more about importing products.

When it comes to labor, you will need to create labor definitions, known as "Labor Types," on Cloud. A "Labor Type" defines the nature of labor and its cost and price.

Learn more about labor types.

When building the quote, you can add items to the locations where they should be added. When an item is added, it inherits the system, phase, and category assignments from the catalog and will appear in the relevant node in the relevant groups.

To add an item, go to the location or sublocation in the "View by" pane and do the following in the "Item Search" bar:

Click the "Search" icon on the left. The matching products will be listed under three tabs: Favorites, My Catalog, and D-Tools Library.

There are multiple ways to add items. The simplest is to click the "Quick add" button in the list of matching products.

In the following example, we searched for and added two products in two locations.

Learn more about adding items to a quote.

If you want to make any changes to the item, click the item to open its side panel. Here, you can do the following:

The following is a screenshot of a product's side panel. When you click a labor item or package, the options vary.

Learn more about updating items.

Cloud has integrations with many product suppliers to get the latest pricing and other data related to the products.

If suppliers have provided updates since the quote was created, you can selectively apply them by clicking the "Catalog" icon in the top right corner.

Check out this article for more details.

When in the quote and we are viewing a location, system, or phase, you can add to-dos, notes, and attachments under them. These features help your team collaborate when building the quote.

The tax rates in the quote are inherited from the tax rates set in the opportunity. If you want to change the rates because the work site changed or for any other reason, you can do so under the "Overview" tab.

Learn more about taxes.

If you are using the Quote Template functionality described above, you can add the payment terms to the template. The terms defined in the template will be the payment schedule for the project when the opportunity is "Won," and you set the due dates.

You can change the payment terms that came from the template from the "Settings" wheel in the lower-left corner.

Learn more about payment schedule.

Cloud offers various quote management options to simplify updating, reviewing, and signing off on quotes.

"Quote State" represents the progress toward completing the quote and getting the customer to review the proposal.

A new quote is always in the "Draft" state. When working on it, you can change it to "In Progress." Once the customer accepts or declines the proposal, Cloud will change the quote state to "Accepted" or "Declined."

Learn more about quote states.

"Quote Versioning" helps you create a new version of the quote while retaining the original quote. This is helpful when the customer asks for changes in a quote and you need to keep the old quote as a reference.

Learn more about quote versioning.

"Quote Locking" is a functionality that automatically locks the edit options of a quote when the customer is reviewing its proposal. The quote is read-only.

You can unlock the quote to make the changes requested by the customer and lock it again.

Learn more about quote locking.

The "Visual Quoting" functionality can be used for projects that require a detailed design involving accurate product placement and wiring calculations.

To create a visual quote, you will need to do the following:

Learn more about visual quoting.

Once you are done adding all the required items to the quote, you may want to see the summary of the product and labor involved, the work involved in the different phases of the project, and the overall profit margin.

Here are some of the features you can use to modify the pricing of your quote.

An "Adjustment" is a discount or upcharge that can be applied to the total product value, total labor value, or total value in the quote.

You can add adjustments under "Settings." These adjustments will appear in the quote; you can apply multiple adjustments as needed.

Learn more about price adjustments.

A "Discount" is applied to a product or package in its side panel.

You can add discounts under "Settings." The discounts will appear in the side panel, and you can choose one.

If you want to apply a discount on labor, apply a labor-level adjustment.