Once you have a credible lead for a project, it is time to create an opportunity on Cloud and kick-start the business process of quoting and securing the project.
If you are new to Cloud and creating your first opportunity, consider reading this article before you proceed.
To create an opportunity, go to the "Opportunities" tab in the left navigation menu and click "New Opportunity."
There are three parts to creating a project opportunity on Cloud.
#1 - Opportunity details
First, type in a name for the opportunity and set a priority.
Required details
These are the details you require for creating opportunities on Cloud:
Building type - select one of Residential or Commercial.
Salesperson - select the salesperson responsible for quoting and sending the proposal to the customer.
Project type - select one of New Construction, Retrofit, Remodel, Service, or Prewire Only.
Market sector - select a market sector. You can create more under Settings > Opportunity > Market Sectors.
Reporting and Analytics
These are details that will make for better reporting and Analytics on Cloud:
Budget - the customer's budget for the project.
Lead source - select how the lead was generated. You can create more source types if needed.
Estimated close date - select a tentative close date in the top-right corner of the modal.
Quoting
These are the details that can help you during quoting:
Quote template - select a template for quoting with the payment terms, proposal style, and items and labor preloaded when you create quotes for the opportunity. You can create these templates under Settings > Opportunity > Quote Templates.
Square meters - the carpet area or built-up area of the work site, whichever is relevant to the opportunity.
Quote type - select from Design/Build or Bid/Spec.
Fulfillment location - this applies to a multi-site company that executes projects from multiple offices, where labor rates differ.
Learn more about fulfillment locations to see if you need to use them in your opportunities.
If applicable, select an account or a contact in the "Referred by" field.
#2 - Account details
Here, enter the full name of the account. All account details will be auto-populated if the account exists on Cloud.
For a new account, you will need to enter the name, email, and phone number of both the account and an associated contact, as well as the site address.
Cloud leverages the Google Places API. So, if you type in the first few characters of the address, you can select from the shown addresses if the site is listed as a Google Place.
You can import accounts from a CRM or another database to Cloud and do away with entering account details manually.
Learn more about managing accounts on Cloud.
#3 - Tax information
Here, you need to specify if all products and labor will be taxed using specific tax rates or if they will be taxed individually.
Check out this article about setting up and using taxes to understand tax-related functionality on Cloud, and then make your choices to specify the taxes.
Click "Create" to create the opportunity.
After you create the project opportunity, you will see it under the "New" stage on the Kanban board.
If you want to add or update any details specified when creating the opportunity, click the opportunity tile on the board. Now, you will see the details view of the opportunity, and you can make changes as needed.