2540377 - FAQ for Sales Quotes

This document should provide some answers to frequently asked question around sales quote processing in SAP Cloud for Customer.

SAP Cloud for Customer

How to send a quote to an account?

With action Submit the output of the sales quote will be triggered, depending on the maintained output settings. In the output settings you can define if a sales quote should be send via e-mail. The e-mail address of the primary contact person is defaulted. A quote which has been submitted to a customer will show up with progress status Pending.
Note: If quote approval is required the submit action will first trigger the approval notification. After final approval the output will be triggered automatically based on the defined output settings.

 

How to attach documents to a sales quote output?

You can attached documents on product (item) and on header level. If the attachments should be part of the output, you need to select the relevant attachments in the output settings. With the submit action the output will be triggered. In the Output facet you will find the history of submitted sales quotes including the attachments. Note: Documents attached via the Library cannot be selected in the output settings (this is a valid requirement for a future release).

 

How to do versioning of sales quotes?

You can create follow-up sales quotes from a sales quote in facet Sales Documents. This allows you to copy one “version” to another to keep the existing version and track the referenced quote. You can also copy a quote via the header action Copy; this does not keep the reference though. Changes done in the same quote can be tracked partly in the changes facet or in the quote history shown in the output facet. Versions are NOT supported if a sales quote is replicated to or from an external system.

 

How can date fields be configured in quotes?

Fine-tuning activity “Date Profiles” provides configuration for Requested Date and Validity.

Field Date refers to the creation date of the quote. The date is part of the output, and the date is considered for sales quote volume reporting. The Date field also derives the Pricing Date. Pricing Date can also be copied from Requested Date based on fine-tuning activity “Document Types” for sales quotes.

Note: The Pricing Date for standard document types always gets copied if a quote is created as copy or follow-up.

For Z-document types (custom created) you can maintain BC settings to have the current date in your copy. Go to the Business Configuration -> search and open the Sales Quotes/ Sales Orders activity -> select Maintain Document Types -> in the column Pricing Date, change the settigns as needed for your Z-document types - for example: '(Current) Date included in Copy'.

 

How to complete a quote?

Quotes that are won or lost put the quote status to completed. If the quote is successful and accepted by the customer, you can either use action “Create External Follow-up Document” to create a follow-up sales order in ERP or you create a follow-up sales order directly in C4C. Once the follow-up sales order is created in ERP the confirmation message from ERP turns the quote to Progress Won and turns the Status from In Process to Completed. You can also trigger manually the action “Set as Won”, if a sales order cannot be connected to the quote. This changes Progress to Won and Status to Completed as well. Cancelling a complete quote will also put the quote to Completed.

 

How to cancel a quote?

In case a quote should be cancelled you need to set a “Reason for Rejection”. Either enter the reason directly into the field “Reason for Rejection” or use the action “Set to Lost”. This will lead to progress status Lost. You can also maintain a specific reason for rejection on product level for a particular sales quote. Cancelling a complete quote will also lead to a completed sales quote. If not all items are cancelled in the quote, quote status changes to In Process.

Note: To define reasons for rejection you need to customize the fine-tuning activity “Reasons for Rejection”.

Once a quote was submitted to a customer, you cannot delete the item anymore. In this case you need to set the Reason for Rejection on item level.

 

How to delete a quote?

You can delete quotes, if the quote was not yet submitted to a customer or submitted to a manager for approval, and if no follow-up document, such as an activity, for the sales quote exists. You can delete the quote via action “Delete” in the object work list.

 

Where can I configure the payment terms/incoterms?

Use fine-tuning activity for Accounts in order to configure the terms. The terms are defaulted from the corresponding sales data of the account to the quote.

 

How to set up an approval process for quotes?

Firstly you need to add this to your scope of your business configuration. The related scoping question can be found under business package Sales in business area New Business.  With this activation the approval process becomes active. Secondly you need to define the details of the approval process in regards to the approval conditions and work distribution. This you need to define in work center Administrator view Approval Processes.

Note: Always one approval process needs to be active. To define an approval process it is required to copy the default approval process initially and adapt the approval validity whereby one process requires unlimited validity.

 

How to adapt the sales quote PDF output form?

You can use AdobeLifeCycleDesigner or EasyFormEditor to adapt the sales quote output form. You need to navigate to work center Administrator and open view Form Template Maintenance. In case of general changes on the output form you can adapt the master template via view Master Template Maintenance.

 

How to get free text into a quote?

You can enter internal and external notes. This is valid on product and on header level. Notes maintained as external note will automatically be part of the print out standard form. Sales notes (sales org. and distribution channel dependent) maintained in product master will be copied to the external product note of the sales quote automatically. Alternatively you can use extension fields.

 

How can I structure quotes?

You can use text items that allows you to define sub-items. If you only enter a product description in its corresponding field without an adding a product ID the item is treated as text item. Item number is editable or use in addition item action “Renumber” to change the order of the product lines.

 

Which currency gets defaulted for a sales quote?

1. Sys Currency will be copied from the account’s sales data if it exists. Only if the combination between Sales Organization and Distribution Channel and Division maintianed in Sales data is the same with quote's Sales org, distribution channel, division, then the Currency from Sales Data can be dertermined.

For example: under Sales Data tab of account, Sales Org is A, Distribution Channel is B, Division is C.

Then in new created sales quote, Sales org is determined as A, Distribution Channel is D, Division is empaty. In this case, the currency maintained in account's sales data will not be determined as the combination is not matching.

2. Otherwise system checks on the currency maintained in the org. model for the corresponding sales organization of the quote.

3. If currency is also not maintained in the organizaiton, it will be derived from the Sale's Org's parent Company.

Note: The currency (hidden field) can be changed in the quote itself. Please assure that “Exchange Rates for Currencies” are part of master data then.

 

How can I default the output settings?

Navigate to work center Administrator view Output Channel Selection or view Form Template Selection.

 

Where to find the selling company in a quote?

The selling company basically derives from the sales unit maintained in the quote. It can be viewed and changed via Involved Parties facet.

How can I create a follow-up document from a quote?

In order to create a follow-up sales order in ERP choose the header action: Create External Follow-up Document. In order to create a follow-up document, such as a sales quote or activity, select the related facet/view in the detail view of the sales quote and press New.

 

Does pricing support gross pricing?

Internal pricing only supports net pricing. External pricing derives the full tax calculation from the external SAP ERP/CRM system.

 

Can I give a fixed discount instead for percentage-based discount using internal pricing?

Navigate to fine-tuning activity “Configure Pricing Strategy”. Here you can rename the price component descriptions for “Quality Loss Fee” on product level and “Restocking Fee” on header level. Both can be used as price components to represent a fixed discount. The renaming of the price components will also be considered in the output for the sales quote.

Note: You can add existing price components and rename the price components on the pricing facet itself on the product level (not header conditions) for each quote.

 

Can I migrate price and discount lists used for internal pricing?

You can use the migration template offered in the business configuration for updating and creating of internal price list/discount list.

 

How to calculate the profit margin for quotes using internal pricing?

The system allows you to manually add costs for a product on the Pricing facet. You need to select the product and choose “Add Row” and select price component “Cost Estimate”.

Note:  You can only calculate the profit margin if you scope this in the business configuration through business package: General Business Data and business area Product and Service Pricing. Here you need to select Price Specifications in order to select profit margin calculation in the question section. Additionally check fine-tuning activity “Configure Pricing Strategy” to enable the display of the profit margin in the document.

Using external pricing allows you to view costs and profit margins fully based on the external SAP ERP/CRM pricing result.

 

Which standard search fields are supported within the basic search for sales quotes?

• Sales Quote ID
• Description
• External Reference
• Product ID
• Party ID (for all parties)
• Party FormattedName (for all parties)
• Primary Contact ID
• External Sales Quote ID

Which Status are applicable for a C4C Sales Quote?

Progress Status contains the following values:

• Not Relevant – initial status.
• Pending – quote has been submitted to a customer (implies that submitted quote items cannot be deleted). In case of bi-directional replication quote turns to pending, once the quote is transferred to ERP.
• Won – quote has at least one referenced sales order (C4C or ERP) or was manually Set As Won via user action.
• Lost – all quote items are completely cancelled; action Set as Lost via user action was triggered or Reason for Rejection on header has been set directly.

Life Cycle Status contains the following values:

• Open – quote has been initially being created.
• In Process – an item in the quote has been canceled; or at least on item is referenced to a sales order (C4C or ERP (bi-directional replication); or action Create External Follow-up Document has been triggered.
• Completed – all items are referenced to a C4C sales order; or quote was set to won or set to lost (reason for rejection set on header). In case of bi-directional replication status Completed will be set based on ERP logic. In case Create External Follow-up Document has been created the quote turns to Complete, if one follow-up Sales Order in ERP has been created.

Reference Status refers to follow-up sales orders, that are created in C4C or in ERP. The status contains the following values:

• Not Started – initial status.
• In Process – status is corresponding to Partially Referenced in ERP. Some items are referenced to a sales order.
• Finished – all items are referenced to a sales order.
• Not Relevant – refers to a text item (Item Status).
• Interrupted – not applicable.

Cancellation Status refers to the cancellation of items. Status exist on header and item.

• Not Cancelled – no reason for rejection is set.
• Canceled – complete quote is cancelled for header status; item is cancelled for item status.
• Partially Cancelled – at least one item is cancelled (reason for rejection is set on item level), status is not applicable on item level.

Transfer Status refers to ERP bi-directional integration:

• Not Started – initial status if quote is created in C4C.
• In Process – a replication message has been triggered to the external ERP system. The C4C sales quote becomes read only. If no confirmation message is received by the C4C system, message monitoring will be required to analyze the root cause. Transfer Logs facet allows to revoke (the replication of) the sales quote. Revoking allows changing the C4C quote again in order to correct the data (causing the message to fail) and to replicate it again.
• Finished – transfer completed (confirmation message from OnPrem system successfully returned to C4C).
• Interrupted – transfer interrupted due to an error in the external system. Error information provided by the external system is displayed on the Transfer Logs facet. Sales quote is editable and can be processed once the error is resolved.
• Not Relevant – not applicable.

Approval Status contains the following values:

• Not Started – Initial status, note: Approval Status changes to Not Started once an Approved/In Revision quote gets modified. Note, this is not valid for Document Types that refer to bi-directional replication. An approved quote will be submitted automatically to ERP once the quote is approved. If the quote has been created in ERP, no Approval Status shows up in C4C.
• Approval Not Necessary – quote has been submitted and approval conditions are not met.
• In Approval – quote action submit has been triggered and approval conditions are reached to start the approval process. Quote becomes non-editable, besides of Approval Note.
• Approved – quote has been approved by the respective manager(s). Note, the approval submits the quote automatically based on the defaulted output settings. In case bi-directional replication the approval will trigger the submit to ERP automatically.
• Revision – quote has been sent back for revision by a respective manager.
• Rejected – status is not applicable, if quote is rejected it needs to be Send back for Revision.
• Withdrawn – via user action the submit has been revoked for an approval relevant quote.

Credit Status (credit status can be derived from external pricing with OnPrem system)

• Limit Exceeded
• Limit not Exceeded
• Manually
• Check Pending
• Not relevant

2527935 - Sales Quote: Approval Status Changes to Not Started Automatically

2417840 - You Cannot Delete Sales Quote With Approval Status Approved

2510917 - Deleted Sales Quote Does Not Appear in Deleted Data

2499769 - No Approval Notification for Sales Document

2535878 - Sales Order Number Range Begin Number below than 9000000000 not allowed: "Update for from number APCRM1_LEAN_SO_IN failed; interval is already in use"

KBA , LOD-LE-CQP , Customer Quote Processing , How To

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