Applies To: Project Operations for resource/non-stocked based scenarios, Lite deployment – deal to proforma invoicing

Let’s look at how you can use the OOTB stages for Quotes with Projects.

Dynamics 365 Project Operations allows you to start from different stages in the process.

For every Quote you create you could leverage these stages:

1. Start from a Lead, qualify it into an Opportunity, generate a Quote, and a Project Contract
2. Start from an Opportunity, close it as Won, generate a Quote, and a Project Contract
3. Start from a Quote, close it as Won and generate a Project Contract from it
4. Start from a Project Contract and link it to a Project!

The more steps you skip, the fewer data points you will get (for your reports), so in general, most users would start from steps one or two (since there is a sales process involved), especially if you want to track how many Leads and Opportunities were won/lost. If you start at number four, you will lose the estimated profit margin calculated by the system!

Tomayto or Tomahto: The system uses the word ‘Quote’, but you can rename it to match your industry, like Bids, Engagements…

If you start from an Opportunity, the next step is to generate a Quote for proposal. And Project operations offers three options:

1. Create a ‘draft’ Project (with Tasks) for estimation and link to the Quote to generate the numbers – recommended!
2. Create a Project with no Tasks with a simple total and link it to a Quote
3. Create a Quote manually and add values to it without a project

If you care about getting estimations right or comparing estimation vs reality, you need to stay with the first option. The other two would defeat the purpose (in my humble opinion) of using any Project Management tool, but they are an option for a quick setup in cases where you are working in a Fixed-price model with no concerns about profit margin. The other benefit of leveraging it this way is that you can see where you are underestimating in your projects.

Moving on, I created a Quote from my Opportunity:

The system generated in this step a Quote number that will serve as a Header/Master quote record.

But in this step we got some elements defined for this deal:

-Customer: It picked that from my Opportunity.

-Account manager: It selected the user who created the Opportunity, me.

-Contracting Unit: It picked it up from the Contracting Unit I am part of, called Main.

-Currency: It picked that from the Contracting Unit.

Official documentation on managing Opportunitties can be found here: Official Documentation

SALES PRICE LISTs: Note that the Price List attached in the Summary tab is for PRODUCTS and a message below the top ribbon here is asking me to attach a labour price list, red arrows above. Also note that the SALES price list can be attached in previous steps like at the Customer account for instance. More details here: Official Documentation

The next step is important to link a draft project, and its tasks (WBS) against this quote, and for that I will jump on to the Quote Lines tab, and click on +New Quote Line.

Steps:

1. Give it a name
2. Pick the billing method: Time & Materials or Fixed Price
3. Pick the Project that is related to this line
4. Pick included tasks: All project tasks or Selected project tasks only

In this example I kept it simple, so my setup is ONE Project to ONE Quote Line, as below:

And by opening the Quote Line we see its details:

In the next blog, I will continue through the steps to conclude the acceptance of the Quote to generate a Project Contract against a Project.

Check part two here

Ciao!