Process Opportunities

Opportunity life cycle

---

The employee responsible for the opportunity can see two parallel bars at the top of the opportunity form that represent its life cycle: Customer centric stage and Sales stage.

Customer centric stage shows the state, at which the potential customer company is at the moment. The Sales stage shows the stage your company is currently at. These stages move concurrently. The employee Responsible for the opportunity can move the opportunity through the sales stages by clicking the next stage. If some fields need to be filled in order to move the opportunity to the next stage, they are highlighted with red.

The passed stages are blue, the current stage is green, and the future stages are grey.

Further in the article, you can find the description of the stages included in the "out-of-the-box" CRM application. You can edit these stages and create new ones in the Opportunity Stages section.

Opportunity life cycle

Recognition of needs

Sales stage	Description	The field of the Documents tab that needs to be filled in to move to the next sales stage
Demand generation	Find out the demands of the potential customer.	None
Qualify	Fill in the fields of the Qualification tab to confirm the interest of the potential customer.	None

Evaluation of options

Sales stage	Description	The field of the Documents tab that needs to be filled in to move to the next sales stage
Requirements development	Add the document describing the potential customer's demands.	Link to document folder
Proposal quotation	Add the document with the commerical proposal.	Link to proposal
Testing and evaluation of options	Develop possible solutions to the potential customer's demands and find out if they suit the potential customer.	None

Resolution of concerns

Sales stage	Description	The field of the Documents tab that needs to be filled in to move to the next sales stage
Preparation of DRD and bidding	Receive the Design Requirement Document and prepare documentation to pass the potential customer's procurement procedure.	Link DRD Draft

Trade negotiations

Sales stage	Description	The field of the Documents tab that needs to be filled in to move to the next sales stage
Trade negotiations	Go through the potential customer's procurement procedure, discuss the terms of services and receive a draft agreement.	Link to agreement draft

Decision

Sales stage	Description	The field of the Documents tab that needs to be filled in to move to the next sales stage
Decision	Sign the agreement. The Close opportunity as won modal window opens automatically when you go through this stage.	Link to agreement scan

Implementation

Sales stage	Description	The field of the Documents tab that needs to be filled in to move to the next sales stage
Implementation	Execute the agreement. The Close opportunity as won modal window opens automatically when you go through this stage.	Link to closing accounting documents

Changes over time

Sales stage	Description	The field of the Documents tab that needs to be filled in to move to the next sales stage
Support and post-sale	This stage suggests additional communication with the customer after the implementation: technical support, additional services.	None

Opportunitty state flow

---

The opportunities have two interrelated parameters that display the current state of the work – Status and Status reason. The status displays general information about the current state of the work while the status reason shows details about the reason for this state.

The table below contains the list of possible states of the work and their descriptions.

Status	Status reason	Description	Available transitions
Open	In progress	The work on the opportunity is in progress. The record takes this state automatically after the creation and can move into it when you use the Reopen and Back to progress UI-actions.	Open: On hold Won: Won Lost: Lost the competition Canceled
Open	On hold	The work on the opportunity has been put on hold but may be resumed. The record can move into this status reason from the In progress status reason if you use the On hold UI-action.	Open: In progress
Won	Won	The opportunity is won and the contract is signed. The record can move into this status reason from the In progress status reason if you use the Close as won UI-action or when the record moves into the Decision customer centric stage. Read more in the Close opportunity as won.	Open: In progress
Lost	Lost the competition	The opportunity is lost to the competitors, the work on it is stopped. The record can move into this status reason from the In progress status reason when you use the Close as lost UI-action. Read more in the Close opportunity as lost.	Open: In progress
Lost	Canceled	The opportunity is canceled, the work on it is stopped. The record can move into this status reason from the In progress status reason when you use the Close as lost UI-action.	Open: In progress

Opportunity board

---

tip

Roles required:

• admin, crm_admin, crm_read_admin can view the boards of all sales directions.
• crm_sales, crm_manager, crm_pam, crm_presale, crm_marketeer can view the board of their sales direction.

Navigate to CRM → Boards → Opportunity to to open the kanban board and see all existing opportunities divided by the sales stages. You can open the general board or create separate boards for the sales directions.

1. Sales stages and the number of opportunities at each stage.
2. Overall number of opportunities.
3. Service or product.
4. Sales direction.
5. Estimated revenue.
6. Opportunity name.
7. Responsible employee.
8. Opportunity probability, %.
9. The number of days that passed from the last change of the opportunity.

There are the following UI actions on the page:

• – adds the opportunity board to Favorites.
• – opens the board configuration, where the administrator can change the board Name, Sales direction, Background and JSON config.
• – refreshes the page.

Close opportunity as won

---

If the the Allow quick closing checkbox is selected for the opportunity sales direction, the opportunity can be closed as won at any stage. Otherwise, it can only be closed as won, starting from the Decision customer centric stage.

note

This setting only works if the value of the crm.allow.quick.closing system property is set to false. If the value is set to true, you can close any opportunities at any stages.

To close an opportunity as won, the responsible employee needs to click Close as won on the opportunity form or move it to the Decision stage for the Close opportunity as won modal window to open automatically.

note

You can only close as won Active opportunities, the Status reason of which is not equal to On hold.

Close opportunity as won modal window fields

Field	Mandatory	Description
Close date	Y	Specify the opportunity closing date. The current date is selected automatically but you can change it.
Actual revenue	Y	Specify the actual revenue from the opportunity. If the Estimated revenue field is completed, its value is added automatically, but you can change it.
Actual margin	Y	Specify the actual marginal revenue from the opportunity. If the Estimated margin field is completed, its value is added automatically, but you can change it.
Comment	N	Specify additional information.

Click Close as won to close the opportunity. In this case:

• The values of the fields completed during the closing are recorded to the corresponding columns. The Actual revenue and Actual margin fields are displayed on the opportunity form.
• A record about the closure is added to the Activity Feed of the opportunity.
• The Status of the opportunity changes to Won.
• The Status reason of the opportunity changes to Won.

Close opportunity as lost

---

An opportunity can be closed as lost at any sales stage. The responsible employee needs to click Close as lost on the opportunity form.

Close opportunity as lost modal window fields

Field	Mandatory	Description
Status reason	N	Specify the status reason for the opportunity. Available options: Lost the competition Canceled
Reason for losing the opportunity	Y	Specify the reason for losing the opportunity.
Closure date	N	Specify the opportunity close date. The current date is selected automatically but you can change it.
Competitor	Y/N	Specify the competitor for the opportunity. The field is non-mandatory if the comment is specified or Status reason is set to Canceled.
Comment	Y/N	Specify additional information. The field is non-mandatory if the competitor is specified.

Click Close as lost to close the opportunity. In this case:

• The values of the fields completed during the closing are recorded to the corresponding columns.
• The Status of the opportunity changes to Lost.

The Reopen button is displayed on the closed opportunity forms. It changes the state of the opportunity to Open.

Opportunity UI-actions

---

Navigate to CRM → Sales → Opportunities to see previously created opportunities. Open an opportunity form to manage it.

tip

Roles required: crm_manager. Employees with other roles can only see the opportunities they are responsible for.

Action	Access level	Description
Close as lost	The responsible employee with any "out-of-the-box" role	Click to change the opportunity status to Lost. You need to fill in the Close opportunity as lost modal window.
Close as won	The responsible employee with any "out-of-the-box" role	Click to change the opportunity status to Won. The action is available starting with the Decision sales stage. You need to fill in the Close opportunity as won modal window.
Assign / Reassign	crm_marketeer, crm_admin, crm_sales, crm_manager	Click to change the Responsible field value.
On hold / Back to progress	crm_marketeer, crm_admin, crm_sales, crm_manager	Click to change the Status reason to On hold / In progress. You need to fill in the Estimated closure date and Comment fields of the Put opportunity on hold modal window.
Deactivate / Activate	crm_marketeer, crm_admin, crm_sales, crm_manager	Click to change the value of the Active and Open parameters. If the opportunity is deactivated, all form fields become read-only and the opportunity is displayed with a lock on the kanban board. You need to fill in the Comment field of the Deactivate opportunity modal window.
Create contract	Any user with access to the opportunity record	The action is only available for active Won opportunities with no related contract. Click to create a contract for the opportunity. Some contract fields will be filled in automatically with the values of the opportunity fields, but you can change the values: Customer = Potential customer Subject = Name Responsible = Responsible Provider = Vendor Total cost = Estimated revenue Description = Description