Sales Cloud is one of the most important application in Salesforce. It consists of several key pieces of Sales Cloud functionality that is widely used in sales. This section weighs 10% in Salesforce Advanced Administrator exam. Without further ado, let's get into it!

NOTE: This post is written in April 2019 and content might be changed/updated overtime. The content is inspired by focusonforce.com.

Products

• Products represent products or services sold to customers.
• It is also part of price books.
• Products can have schedules, to record payment plan, recurring revenue or multiple deliveries.

Schedules

• Product can be associated with revenue schedule or quantity schedule.

• Default schedules can be defined for a product and will be automatically established when a product is added an Opportunity.

• Default schedules can be established, updated and deleted from the Product detail page.
  

• Schedule for an opportunity product can be established, reestablished, updated, deleted from Schedule related list (Lightning only).
  
  
  

• Revenue schedule is used to track revenue when the full price is not paid at one time (like payment plan) or recurring revenue (subscriptions where revenue is received monthly).

  • For example, we have a product with Revenue Scheduled Enabled:
    
  • We have Opportunity Products with sales price of $200,000, hence the schedules are created as below:
    
    • As you can see, the schedule date starts from the Product Date we defined in Opportunity Product, the installment period is monthly and the quantity is divided into 10 installments with repeat amount for each installment, hence $200,000 for each schedule.
    • 'Reestablish Schedule' can be used to reset the current schedules:
      
      • NOTE: You might notice that the there are 5 schedules with each revenue sets at $400,000.
    • 'Edit Schedule' can be used to manually edit the schedules:
      
    • 'Delete Schedule' can be used to delete the schedules:
      
      • NOTE: once the schedules are deleted, you will see that Sales Price is reset to $0.00.
        

• Quantity schedule is used when a product is delivered over time and allows tracking of shipping dates.

  • For example, we have a product with Quantity Scheduled Enabled:
    
  • We have Opportunity Products with quantity of 12, hence the schedules are created as below:
    
    • As you can see, the schedule date starts from the Product Date we defined in Opportunity Product, the installment period is weekly and the quantity is divided into 6 installments with divide amount into multiple installments, hence 2 quantity for each schedule.
    • 'Reestablish Schedule' can be used to reset the current schedules:
      
      • NOTE: You might notice that the there are 4 schedules with each quantity sets at 10.
    • 'Edit Schedule' can be used to manually edit the schedules:
      
    • 'Delete Schedule' can be used to delete the schedules:
      
      • NOTE: once the schedules are deleted, you will see that Quantity is reset to 0, hence Sales Price becomes $0.00.
        

• NOTE: If Product Date is not specified in Opportunity Product, the schedule date will start with today's date.

• NOTE: Schedules are deleted if the Opportunity Product is deleted.

• Installment Period selection choice:

  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Monthly
  • Quarterly
  • Yearly

• Schedule Type selection choice:

  • Divide Amount into multiple installments
  • Repeat Amount for each installment

Price Books

• Price book is a group of products and their associated prices.
• Price book entry is an individual product and its associated price.
• Standard price book is the default price book in Salesforce and the products must have a standard price (even if it's free).
• User can choose the price book if multiple price books are available.
• Price book organization-wide sharing (OWD) can be set to Use (default for visibility to price books and to use in opportunities), View Only (visibility to price books but not use in opportunities) or No Access (no visibility to price books and no use in opportunities).

Types of Prices

• Standard Price - default price that is associated with products (automatically included in Standard Price Book).
• List Price - custom price that is associated with a product in a custom price book. Can also Use Standard Price instead of defining custom List Price.
• Sales Price - the actual price specified by a sales rep for a product that is added to an opportunity or quote.
• Consideration when setting prices of products:
  • Standard price book must be set and activated before a product can be added to an opportunity, quote or custom price book.
  • Edit Opportunity Product Sales Price permission must be enabled for user to edit the sales price.

Quote

• Quote allow users to combine multiple services and products related to Opportunity.
• Quote can be presented in PDF and emailed to clients.
• Multiple combinations of products can be defined in Quote, and only one Quote can be manually synced with related Opportunity.
• Condition to sync a Quote:
  • Quote must have active currency. (check Setup Manage Currencies)
  • Product must be activated. (product must be deleted if it is archived)
  • List price must be activated. (list price must be deleted if the list price is archived)
  • Price book must be activated. (price book must be deleted if the price book is archived)
• NOTE: SyncedQuote field on Opportunity is read-only, do not try to modify via Apex!
• Quote PDF template can be customized with fields from Quote, Account, Opportunity, Contact, Organization or User objects.
• Quote Status is a special picklist field that can define which status allows Email and vice versa.
  
• NOTE: when deleting a Quote, all the related PDFs, notes, and attachments are deleted. Also, when a Quote is undeleted, it will not remain synced to the original Opportunity.

Forecasting

• Forecasting is used to help sales team and managers to see how close they are to hitting their sales goals by estimating revenue for products and services in the future.
• A forecast is created to predict sales using amount, stage, probability and reality factor.
• Forecasts are calculated from opportunity records and cannot be deleted.
• Forecast Categories are mapped with Opportunity Stages. For example,

Prospect	Probability	Forecast Category
Qualification	10%	Pipeline
Need Analysis	20%	Pipeline
Proposal	50%	Pipeline
Negotiation	90%	Best Case
Closed Won	100%	Commit
Closed Lost	0%	Omitted

• When Forecast is enabled, you cannot disable it. You need to contact Salesforce Support to disable the feature.

Customizable Forecasting (retiring Summer 20')

• Original forecasting tool that has been replaced by Collaborative Forecasting (Classic only and only for those orgs that have this feature enabled before)
• Forecast based on opportunity amount or product quantity.
• Opportunity values for the forecast categories are rolled up, categories like Commit or Best Case can be adjusted and then submitting the forecast (not available in Collaborative Forecasting).
• Managers can adjust and reject user forecasts.
• Forecast snapshots, history and sharing are supported.
• When Opportunity or Opportunity Product level adjustments need to be made, Customizable Forecasting is the right solution.

Collaborative Forecasting

• Default forecasting tool for new orgs that allow forecasting.
• When organization wants to forecast revenue and quantity based on Opportunity data, Collaborative Forecasting is the right solution.
• Forecast can be based on opportunity amount or product quantity.
• Forecast hierarchy lists all forecast users and determines how their forecasts roll up through the company. (usually automatically generated based on role hierarchy)
• Supports forecast based on opportunity revenue splits and opportunity overlay splits (not available in Customizable Forecasting).
• When Enterprise Territory Management is enabled, territory forecasts can be used and the forecast hierarchy is based on the territory hierarchy.
• Forecast Managers can be allowed to adjust subordinates' forecasts (all forecast users are allowed to adjust their own forecasts)
  
• Manually adjust Forecast by clicking the pencil in forecast table:
  
  • NOTE: forecast adjustment are independent to different forecast types
• Default rollup setting is 'individual forecast category' rollups.
• Opportunities from each individual forecast category are combined into separate forecast amounts for each category.
• 'Cumulative forecast rollups' can be enabled to allow combining opportunities from multiple forecast categories into cumulative forecast amounts. Once enabled, forecast amounts include opportunities as follows:
  
  1. Closed Only (Closed Opportunities only)
  2. Commit Forecast (Commit + Closed Opportunities)
  3. Best Case Forecast (Best Case + Commit + Closed Opportunities)
  4. Open Pipeline (Pipeline + Best Case + Commit Opportunities)
• Forecast Period can be set Quarterly or Monthly. The range for Monthly can be from 15 months ago to 15 future months while Quarterly can be from 8 quarters ago to 8 future quarters.
  
• Users can customize the forecast range themselves by selecting Set Forecast Range.
  
• Quotas can be enabled for all forecast types to show quota target amounts and attainment percentages.
  

Forecast Types in Collaborative Forecasting

• Up to 4 forecast types can be enabled for users. There are 6 different forecast types and forecast measurement can be selected for each forecast types (except Opportunity Revenue by Territory):
  1. Opportunity Revenue - Close Date, Product Date, Schedule Date
  2. Opportunity Quantity - Close Date, Product Date, Schedule Date
  3. Product Family Revenue - Close Date, Product Date, Schedule Date
  4. Product Family Quantity - Close Date, Product Date, Schedule Date
  5. Opportunity Revenue Splits - must enable Opportunity Splits (Revenue only)
  6. Opportunity Overlay Splits - must enable Opportunity Splits (Revenue only)
  7. Custom Opportunity Revenue Splits - must enable Opportunity Splits (Revenue only)
  8. Custom Opportunity Overlay Splits - must enable Opportunity Splits (Revenue only)
  9. Opportunity Revenue by Territory - Revenue Only - Close Date, Schedule Date
  10. Product Family Quantity by Territory - Close Date, Schedule Date
  11. Product Family Revenue by Territory - Close Date, Schedule Date
• Territory forecasts are always based on Amount and Close Date fields on Opportunity. NOTE: Quantity forecasts are unavailable for territories.
• Forecast Type for Opportunities:
  
• NOTE: Product Date and Schedule Date are available in Lightning only. If the Product Date is not present, Opportunity Close Date and Amount or Quantity field will be used. If the schedule is not available for the opportunity product, the Product Date and Total Price or Quantity will be used.
• Forecast Type for Product Families:
  

• Select fields to show in the Opportunity List when a user clicks a cell in the forecast table:
  
• Product Families Revenue by Territory shows opportunity amounts segmented by product family and each product family subsequently broken down by territory.

Territory forecast

• Territory forecast will be able to use if Enterprise Territory Management is enabled.
• Territory forecast allows users to view forecasted revenue compared with other sales territories.
• Sales users can see an Opportunity revenue forecast rollup based on the territories assigned to each opportunity.
• Opportunity revenue forecasts can be viewed for the territories that users are assigned to.
• Users can see the opportunities included in territory forecasts regardless of whether the opportunity owner is assigned to the territory.
• A forecast manager can be assigned to show rolled-up forecasts.
• A territory's forecasts are based on the individual users assigned to the territory without assigning a forecast manager.
• Territory forecasts are based on territory hierarchy instead of user role hierarchy.
• Territory forecast can be made available in Setup > Forecast Settings > Forecast Types > Opportunities by Territory:
  
• Once the forecast type is set, you can find it it in Setup > Forecast Settings:
  
• Only a user who is forecast-enabled and assigned to a territory can be assigned as 'Forecast Manager'.
  
• User can easily switch between any forecast types:
  

Forecast Hierarchy

• Forecast hierarchy determines which users can view which forecasts and whose Opportunities in the forecast.
• Forecast hierarchy is automatically generated based on the organization's role hierarchy.
• Forecast and adjustment from forecast manager's subordinates in the hierarchy will roll up into manager's forecasts.
• If assigned Forecast Manager, the user can view or edit his/her subordinates' forecasts.
• Forecast Manager is the head of his/her hierarchy(not entire org) and will see all forecasts of their subordinates.
• Users with no subordinates will only see their own Opportunities in the forecast.
• Forecast managers and users can be assigned from Forecast Hierarchy:
  
  • NOTE: the 'Assign Manager' button will only display if there is subordinates under the forecast hierarchy.

Forecast Quotas

• A quota is the monthly or quarterly sales goal that's assigned to a user or territory.
• A manager's quota equals the amount of team's sales goals combined.
• The quota rollup is done manually by users and managers, and revenue or quantity data can be used.
• If multiple types of forecasts are enabled, each forecast type maintains separate quota information.
• If you are using Collaborative Forecasting, the quota information can only be added via Salesforce API. If not, you can edit the quota by going to Quotas related list in User page (for admin) or personal settings page.
• You can also use tools like the Data Loader to do mass updates on Quotas. When updating quotas, set the quota field value on the RevenueForecast or QuantityForecast objects.
• Forecast quotas based on Role:
  
• Forecast quotas based on Territory:
  
• As you can see, forecast quota is also independent to forecast types and forecast periods, meaning Quota will need to be set for each forecast type and each forecast period.
• Forecast page can include Quota, Quota % Attainment, Rows with All Zero Values:
  

Mischellenous

• Forecast Category field on Opportunity can be renamed, but not adding new picklist field (not available in Customizable Forecasting).
• Forecast Currency can be set in Forecasts Settings if multiple currencies are set (not available in Customizable Forecasting).
  
• User can choose to display the currency in the forecast table:
  
  
• Forecasts tab shows list of opportunities associated with each forecast amount at the bottom. The fields that appear on this list can be selected in Forecasts Settings.
• Forecast managers can share their Forecasts page with any Salesforce user by clicking Share button on the Forecasts page.
• When sharing Forecasts page, the access level can only be either View Only or View and Edit.
  
  • NOTE: there is no Manager Forecast Access here, and it can only be shared with Users. Only forecast managers can share!
• Shared forecasts can be viewed by selecting a user from My Shared Forecasts list.
• When change forecast settings, data can be deleted based on the settings and the action cannot be undo!
  

• Forecast related permissions:
  • Manage Quotas - Create, edit and delete forecasting quotas
  • Override Forecasts - Override personal forecasts and forecasts for users who report directly to them in the role hierarchy
  • View All Forecasts - View any user's forecast, regardless of the forecast role hierarchy. The user can also view opportunities within the Forecasts tab regardless of sharing settings

Well, that seems to be a lot to digest and I will stop here for now. Hope this post helps with understanding of Sales application in Salesforce.

Post was published on 28 Apr 2019, last updated on 9 May 2020.

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