Is anyone using Quotes for Services instead of Products?

Hi,

I've been looking at implementing Quotes for our B2B service business but it's all based on Products with stock, part numbers etc.

We currently use Quotient, which includes descriptions under each line item, can this be replicated in Sugar?

Many thanks

Brian.

  • You can add quoted line items without using the Product catalogue by just typing a new name and click on "new quoted line item" or just "enter" without searching for a product:

    Example:

    Then add a new comment for including your text:

    In this case I framed both entries, the service line item and the comment in a "group item" called services. So I can separate services from licenses for example:

    Hope that helps!

    Bests

    Björn Canales Pfisterer

    Technical Support Manager

    provalida GmbH

  • Thanks Björn, is there a way to save a description/comment with a line item so that we don't have to type it in each time?

    For example, select a product or quoted line item and have the description automatically appear...

  • Well, you can set up a product catalogue item by just filling out the fields you need. Also you can remove most of the fields that are not necessary with the studio from the views and create custom pdf templates to only include the fields you want to be in and add custom fields you may need instead

    This enables you to run reports on "service product" base like how many service days are in my pipeline etc.

    It can be a bit tricky to display services with a standard product catalogue especially when you have no "list price" (what if a customer signs a contract with higher prices? Give negative discount? -> out of the box solution: Set up the service product without list price and type it in on create a quoted line item manually)

    And if the name product irritates, just rename the module to services (and all the ~70 other labels that includes the word "product") via admin/studio.

    Last but not least, if standard customisation abilities does not fulfill your needs approach SugarCRM Support or a SugarCRM Partner for assistance :-) 

    Bests

    Björn Canales Pfisterer

    Technical Support Manager

    provalida GmbH

  • For anyone who is frustrated with Sugar's limiting line-item layout (that's designed for products), I eventually found a solution for my service based business.

    I purchased wDocs from w-systems.com and created a much better Quotes template that uses merge fields to insert data from Sugar's records. I still create the quote from the Quotes module but 'Merge to PDF' using the template.

    The next step of the process will be to use Advanced Workflow to send the PDF via DocuSign, gain customers signatures and automatically import the signed quote back into the Account record. DocuSign isn't cheap but we intend to use it for lots of other documents too so will hopefully get good value from it.

    Hope that helps...

    Brian.