What is the Difference between Quoted Line Items and products in the product catalog?

Hi Katie DelValle,

Historically, the Quoted Line Items (QLIs) module was labelled "Products." You can see remnants of this history in that the QLI module's URL is <sugar_domain>/#Products. It was changed to Quoted Line Items in a prior version likely because the primary use of this module is line items in a Quote.

One could in turn ask why Product Catalog was not also renamed to QLI Catalog. The inconsistency can be confusing.

You mentioned RLIs, so I think it is important to mention as well that Revenue Line Items (RLIs) is a fundamentally different, mutually exclusive module from Quoted Line Items.

The relationship between QLIs and the Product Catalog is similar to the relationship between a box of cereal (the QLI) and the spot on the shelf that indicates where boxes of that item are to be stocked (Product Catalog record) proving it is something this vendor stocks.

You select a Product Catalog record from the search feature while creating or editing a Quote's product bundle. When you save, a QLI record is created, automatically copying specific information from the Product Catalog record into the new QLI record being generated. The quote is related to that unique QLI, not the Product Catalog record.

In concept, this is the same as a grocery client pulling a box of cereal from the shelf and leaving the store with that one item, not impacting whether the stock stocks or intends to stock more of that item.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for the quick reply!! What I'm trying to do is figure out a way to automate contract creation within Sugar. At this point we do not use RLI and most of our product info is tracked as custom fields within the Opportunity module for financial reports. Our sales reps have to enter the sale details into the opportunity module AND enter the info into an excel spreadsheet. Then they go to the customer get a paper signature followed by then filling out a different form to start the sales order process. 

To make this process easier I'm looking at either using quotes with products listed within or Opportunities with RLI to simplify this process. I was hoping quotes might do it so we don't have to switch to RLI since it would affect all of our existing data. It might not be that bad to switch over, but it seems pretty overwhelmingly scary!! My thought is to go from opportunity to create a quote, enter all the product details in, use a 3rd party quote / electronic signature to sign software, then update my opportunity to won and populate most of the post-sale form with the data we already know. Does this seem like a solid plan?  I have been unsuccessful in finding solutions online so I'm feeling blind. 

To add in extra complexities to this scenario we are going to want to automate the process to renew these deals as most of our products are monthly recurring b2b deals (website creation, fiber internet connections, security systems, phone systems). The contracts are typically redone every year or two so to save time I'd like to automatically create a new opportunity from the previous won opportunity and auto-populate the quote with the details of last year taking into account any products that might have had pricing changes. 

Knowing the 2nd part is it still a better solution to go quotes or is this where RLI is a better solution. THANKS a million for any insight!! I'm new to this position and am trying to get myself up to speed! 

Hi Katie,

We did a webinar a while back on the pros and cons of different configurations related to Opportunities, Revenue Line Items, Quotes, and Quoted Line Items. You might find some of this useful as you evaluate options to see what will work best for your organization. See SugarCRM User Group: Best Practices for Opportunities & Quotes | Technology Advisors, Inc. for a recording.