Use the Quote Management module to enter and maintain leads, opportunities, or quotes in the application. A quote is a document used to track price quotations for manufactured parts. These documents are sent to the customer or prospect, and retained for follow-up. Existing quote information can be transferred to a sales order or job in several ways. The quote can be converted (pushed) into a sales order, or pulled (in its entirety or line by line) through Order Entry into the sales order. When the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module is enabled, a quote can be marked as won, which automatically generates an order.

Quotes can range from a quick simple entry of a make-to-stock item, to a custom make-to-order item with markup pricing. Each quote consists of heading information, and one or more line items that contain the parts and quantities to be quoted. Manufacturing details can be entered for each line and used to calculate the estimated material, subcontract, labor, and burden costs required to make the part. Miscellaneous costs and commission expenses can also be entered.

Whether you ship from inventory, manufacture to order, or engineer to order, the quoting module can easily provide accurate pricing and estimating for all your customer’s requests.

If your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) license is installed and functional, the Epicor application displays an alternate Main Menu than the one shown without CRM. The Sales Management module is referred to as Customer Relationship Management. Additionally, the functionalities that correspond to the Customer Relationship Management folder are found under the Sales and Marketing Management folder.

Setup

This section describes one of the primary records you need to create for the Quote Management module. This program is contained within the Setup folder for this module.

Customers

Open

Open

2. Enter a Customer ID.

3. Enter the Customer Name.

4. Select the customer type from the Type list. Available options:

• Customer - Indicates you have sold products or services to this business.

• Prospect – Indicates your sales team has sent quotes to this business.

• Suspect – Indicates a potential customer that has not yet been contacted by your sales team.

In this example, you select Customer. The customer type automatically changes to prospect once a quote is generated for this customer; likewise, the customer type automatically changes to customer once a sales order is placed for this customer.

5. Optionally, select the Exclude from address validation check box to indicate this customer address is not validated using Epicor Tax Connect functionality. To learn more about Epicor tax methods, review the Customers and Accounts Receivable chapter.

6. Enter the Customer Address in the appropriate fields including Address, City, State, Postal Code, and Country.

7. Verify the Valid Payer, Valid Sold To, and Valid Ship To check boxes are selected by default. If this customer uses National Account relationships, these fields verify the customer can pay cash receipts, process invoices, and create shipments with other customers in the national account hierarchy.

8. Select the Allow One Time Ship To check box if this customer can process invoices on a one-time basis using the One Time Ship To functionality within Sales Order Entry. Select the Allow Ship To Third Party if this customer can process shipments to third-party customers.

9. If you want, select a Quote Markup option from the drop-down list. This record defines the material, labor, burden, and other percentages by which you want to increase the total cost of a quote for this customer. For more information on quote markups, review the Markup Maintenance topic within application help.

10. Optionally, select the default language that prints on the report documents from the Language drop-down list. By default, all part descriptions that use this language also print on these reports.

11. Enter the Phone, Fax, Email, and Website.

12. Click Save.

Add Billing Information

The Billing > Detail sheet contains customers’ payment terms and shipping terms as well as accounting and tax codes. To add billing information:

1. Select the Billing > Detail sheet.

2. Select a Terms code.

1. Select a Ship Via.

2. Click Save on the Standard toolbar.

Add Ship To Information

Customers may have multiple shipping locations associated with a single sold-to address. You enter shipping locations on the Ship To > Detail sheet. To define a ship to address:

1. Click the Down Arrow next to the New button; select New Ship To.

2. Enter the Ship To ID and Name.

3. Enter the ship to information, including the Address, City, State, Postal Code, and Country.

4. Optionally, select the Exclude from address validation check box to indicate this ship to address is not validated using Epicor Tax Connect functionality. To learn more about Epicor tax methods, review the Customers and Accounts Receivable chapter.

5. Click Save on the Standard toolbar.

Add Contacts

You can create contacts directly within Customer Maintenance. Contacts play an important role in the application, as they default into programs (such as Opportunity/Quote Entry and Order Entry) and print on various forms. To create a contact:

The Contacts > Detail sheet displays.

2. Optionally, select the Person/Contact identifier for this contact record if one exists. If one does not exist, the application uses the values in the contact information fields to automatically create a person/contact record.

3. Enter the Name of the contact. You can create person/contact records within Person/Contact Maintenance, and then use these person/contact records on related records as you need. To learn about this functionality, review the Epicor ERP Implementation User Guide. Role codes are defined in Role Code Maintenance. For more information about this program, review the Time Management chapter. The application help also contains details about both maintenance programs.

4. From the Role list, select the area of responsibility this contact performs within the customer’s company.

5. Use the Phone / Fax area to add information such as phone numbers for work, cell, and home.

6. If you want name and phone changes made to this contact record to automatically update the linked person record within Person/Contact Maintenance, select the Sync check boxes that apply.

7. Click Save on the Standard toolbar.

Operations

Opportunity/Quote Entry

1. Click the New button on the Standard toolbar.

2. The Opportunity/Quote field displays the application generated quote number.

3. Enter the Customer ID. The Sold To is the customer location purchasing the goods and services. This text is the main address you enter on the Customer > Detail sheet within Customer Maintenance.

4. In the Ship To section, enter or find and select the customer location that receives the goods and services. Each customer record can have multiple ship to locations.

5. Or, you can select the One Time check box if the customer allows one-time shipping locations to be identified. Select the One Time Ship To sheet to enter the one-time shipping contact and address information.

6. The Terms and Ship Via fields default in from the customer’s Ship To record.

7. The Primary Salesperson for the customer is shown. You can use the dropdown to change the salesperson.

8. Click Save.

9. Click the Down Arrow next to the New button; select New Line.

10. Enter the Part number for the quote line.

11. Right-click the Part field and select Open With… to display a context menu of options to assist you with a part search.

12. You can define the Best Case, Worst Case, and Confidence percentages. For example, the Best Case specifies the percentage factor that allows a sales representative to calculate the best case revenue potential for the quote. The Confidence value specifies the confidence percentage that a salesperson can enter to factor the calculated revenue potential.

13. Tab through the line item fields and enter the order and expected quantities.

14. Click Save.

15. When you save the line entry, the Gross Value, Discount, Potential, Tax, and Total fields populate. If you enter a miscellaneous charge to a quote line(s), the charge is added to the quote total.

16. After saving the quote line(s) entry, you can also review the Best Case, Worst Case, and Expected revenue calculations. For example, the Expected calculation is based on the percentage value defined in the Confidence% field. The expected calculates as follows:

Expected = Potential * Confidence

You can also add a line to a quote for a make-to-order item. If the part has been manufactured before, the part number is entered on the line and the Method of Manufacturing is pulled into the quote. The method can be pulled in from another quote or job, or be built from scratch while you enter a quote.

Method of manufacturing, or method, is the information required to build a part. It includes all the necessary purchased and manufactured parts, as well as the steps required to build the final product. The list of materials is known as the bill of materials, and the list of operations is known as the routing or bill of operations. For more information on methods, review the Engineering chapter.

Add a Line with Manufacturing Details

1. Select the Line > Detail sheet, and click the New button.

2. Enter the Part number for which you would like to quote. Click the Part/Rev button to search for and select an existing part number.

3. If alternate parts have been defined for the quoted part in Part Maintenance on the Parts > Alternates sheet, a series of buttons become available next to the Part/Rev field. Use these buttons to access the Alternate Part Search window where you can select an alternate part, if any. Alternate parts can be comparable, upgrades, downgrades, or complements. For more information on alternate parts, refer to the topic within application help.

4. Enter the Order Quantity (used as the quantity if the quote is converted to an order). You also want to enter the Expected Quantity (used as the quantity on pipeline calculations).

5. From the Actions menu, select Quote Line > Mfg Details > Get Details.

6. The Get Details window displays.

7. Select the Revision of the part from which you wish to pull in the details.

8. Click OK.

9. You can review and modify the part method on the Line > Mfg Details > Tree sheet. To expand the tree, right-click the quote and select Tree > Expand Tree.

10. If any lines on the quote contain manufacturing details, the lines must be selected as Engineered on the Line > Detail sheet.

Add Co-Parts

Often when you produce one part another part is produced as a by-product, or two parts are produced similarly except for one minor operation. Use co-parts to define a method of manufacturing that produces multiple parts (co-parts) on a single job. An example of a co-part is a left and right bracket (with different part numbers) where the only functional difference in the two parts is the bend operation or the placement of the drilled holes.

Co-parts functionality is available only if you have the Advanced Production module installed. For more examples of co-parts, review the Engineering chapter.

Use the Line > Manufacturing > Co Parts > Details sheet to define a method for a co-part on a quote line. The appropriate method is then created if the quote line is eventually turned into an order and then a job.

To add a co-part for the identified primary part:

1. Click the Down Arrow next to the New button; select New Co-Part.

2. Click the Part/Rev button to search for and select the part number and revision for the co-part you wish to add.

3. Use the Yield Per field to define how many of the specified co-part will be made when one quantity of the primary part is manufactured.

4. If you need, you can further define the costs by entering values in the Material Cost Factor and Labor Cost Factor fields. For example, increase a part’s Material Cost Factor if the part uses more material than the primary part.

5. Select the Prevent Suggestions check box to stop Material Requirements Planning (MRP) from creating job suggestions for the co-part when the quote is turned into an order and then a job. Refer to the Material Requirements Planning Technical Reference Guide for more information on the Prevent Suggestions modifier; this guide is located in the Material Requirements Planning > Working with Material Requirements Planning section in the application help.

Add a One Time Contact

If there is a one time contact associated with a quote, you can create it directly within Opportunity/ Quote Maintenance. One time contacts are contacts that you do not want to include in your customer's contact list.

Use the People > Contacts > Detail sheet to add a one time contact for the quote. The contact is created for the quote but it is not added to the customer's contact list. You can also select a contact for a different customer as a one time contact for the current customer.

One time contacts cannot be a quote's primary contact. Only customer contacts can be primary contacts.

1. Click the Down Arrow next to the New button; select New Contact.

2. In the Name field, enter the full name of the contact and press Tab.

a. A Person/Contact not found. Would you like to Create? window opens. Click Yes.

b. A Do you want to add this Person / Contact to the Customer's contacts? window opens. Click No.

3. A One Time Contact status appears indicating the contact is a one time contact that is not part of the customer's contact list.

4. In the Function field, enter the select the area of responsibility this contact performs within the customer’s company.

5. Use the Phone / Fax / E-mail area to add information such as phone numbers for work, cell, and home.

6. Click Save on the Standard toolbar.

Use the Quote Worksheet

Use the Quote Worksheet to review calculated costs for each quote line. Calculated costs are based on the production details, if you pulled manufacturing details into the quote line, and markup rates. The cost fields display the rolled up costs for the selected method of manufacture.

To review calculated costs:

1. From the Tree View, select the line for which you want to review costs and then click the Worksheet tab.

2. In the Calculations Based Upon section, select either Markup to base markups on a monetary amount or Profit to base markups on profit percentages.

3. The Markup/Profits defaults from the customer record; if you need, you can change this.

4. Review the calculations, including the Quoted Markup, Quoted Profit, and Total Quoted Price.

5. If you modify the Quoted Unit Price, the calculations update.

6. Click Save on the Standard toolbar.

7. When the quote is saved, the quote line updates with the new price, including the Doc Unit Price. This is the unit price in the customer’s currency.

Print a Quote To print the quote within Opportunity/Quote Entry:

2. Click the Actions menu and select Print Form. The quote form can now be sent to the customer or retained for internal records if necessary.

Create a Sales Order from a Quote

You can generate a sales order from information entered on a quote in several ways. Quote information can be converted (or pushed) into a sales order in its entirety or by selecting specific lines. To create a sales order from a quote:

1. From the Actions menu, select Quote > Create Sales Order.

2. The Quote Order Wizard window displays.

3. Enter the Ship By date.

4. Enter the PO Number for the sales order.

5. Select the Order Worthy check box for each line to add to the sales order. Optionally, launch the Order Job Wizard to schedule, and release the job to manufacturing. For more information on the Order Job Wizard, review the Sales Order Processing chapter.

6. Click the Create button to generate the sales order.

7. A message displays with the order number created. Click OK.

Use the Demand Management module to more efficiently manage short and long term customer demand contracts, and then convert demand from these contracts into sales orders and demand forecasts. Demand Management handles the creation, analysis, editing, and reconciliation of cumulative records for releases from your trading partners. If you use Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the functionality generates electronic information that passes both to and from your customer trading partners.

Using sheets in Customer Maintenance, you associate a trading partner identification number with each customer, and also define rules that designate how inbound and outbound EDI demand transactions are processed. When you enter into a formal demand agreement with your customer trading partner, you then enter the details of the contractual agreement into Demand Contract Entry.

As you receive specific demand schedules for the demand contract from your customer, you enter the transactional details in Demand Entry. You can use Demand Entry or Demand Mass Review to manually review the demand lines and shipping schedule, evaluating their impact. These programs both contain tools you use to manually reject and select the schedules for transactional processing; you can view the impact of incoming contract changes before you accept them. You can also accept, revise, or reject these changes as you need. When you are satisfied with the schedule, you can then process the demand, automatically converting it into firm order releases, unfirm releases, or demand forecasts.

If you use EDI, you can optionally generate this demand schedule detail automatically when receiving inbound EDI transactions, after the data is imported using the Import EDI Demand Process. When you receive inbound EDI demand transactions, the processes run the same tasks you would perform manually using Demand Entry or Demand Mass Review. You can then efficiently process and manage the large volumes of data that result through use of long term demand contracts.

Direct EDI import is managed using the Import EDI Demand Process. It imports inbound text-based tilde-delimited EDI transaction files (received from your customer trading partners) passed by the EDI processor, such as TIE KINETIX eVision, and deposited into an import folder. File importation occurs based on a processing schedule you designate in the Import EDI Demand Process. If erroneous data is identified during direct EDI import processing, you can correct it as required using the Demand Workbench.

Setup

Customer Periodicity

For a detailed explanation about the setup and use of the EDI-Demand Management interface, refer to the EDI/Demand Management Technical Reference Guide. This guide is found within application help.

Menu Path: Sales Management > Demand Management > Setup > Customer Periodicity

1. Click New on the Standard toolbar.

2. Use the Daily Rules check box to set up daily periodicity. This designates that all shipments for the customer occur every weekday (Monday through Friday).

3. If deliveries are also required to this customer on Saturdays and Sundays, select the Include Saturdays and Sundays Shipments check box.

4. Use the Monthly Forward Rules check box to set up Monthly Forward periodicity. This indicates all shipments for this (ship to) customer are only sent once per month.

5. You can then use the First Ship Day drop-down list to select the day of the week on which shipments to this customer must arrive.

6. To further define this shipment interval, you can use the Week Number in the Month field to indicate the week during the month (1-5) on which shipments to this customer need to be sent.

7. Use the Weekly Forward Rules check box to set up Weekly Forward periodicity. This designates that all shipments for this (ship to) customer are sent weekly.

8. When you select the Weekly Forward Rules check box, you can then use the Ship Day drop-down list to optionally specify the day of the week on which shipments must arrive to this customer.

9. Use the Nth Day of the Week Rules check box to indicate all shipments for this (ship to) customer can only arrive on a specific work day.

10. You can now use the Day of the Week Shipment drop-down list to select the specific day of the week (Monday-Sunday) on which shipments must arrive to this customer.

11. When you finish, click Save.

Customers

The Ship To > Demand sheet operates in the same way as the Customer > Demand sheet, but also allows you to override demand processing parameters for specific customer ship to locations.

Menu Path: Sales Management > Demand Management > Setup > Customer

Demand Processing Parameters

Use the Customer > Demand and Ship To > Demand sheets to assign a trading partner identification number and define demand processing parameters for a specific customer or ship to customer location. This includes specifying the lead times required to evaluate and process certain types of action requests on incoming EDI shipping schedules. For each request, you specify the actions that will take place in the Epicor application when incoming EDI transactions are received or when manually entered demand transactions are processed.

1. Click the Customer button on the Customer > Detail sheet to find and select a customer.

3. Enter the Trading Partner identifier for this customer. This value is a universal code required on EDI transactions; it uniquely identifies the business entity involved in the transaction.

4. Enter the Delivery Days required to ship a part quantity from your manufacturing center to this customer trading partner. The Epicor application uses this date interval as a buffer when calculating Ship By or Need By dates. To calculate the Ship By Date on each order release, the Epicor application subtracts the value you specify in this field from the customer’s required Need By date. Conversely, it calculates Need By dates in the opposite manner. The Date Type field selection determines which date is calculated by the Epicor application.

5. Select the Periodicity interval for this customer trading partner. This designates how often this customer trading partner wishes to receive shipments from you. Review the previous Customer Periodicity section for more information.

6. Select a Date Type option; this value defines the date calculation method (Ship By or Need By) used by the Epicor application. If you select Ship By, it calculates the Ship By date based on the Need By date supplied by the customer trading partner. If you select Need By, it calculates the Need By date based on the Ship By date supplied by the customer trading partner.

7. Indicate the Pricing option for this customer record. Use this value to define if internal or customer pricing (as received on purchase orders received from this customer) is used for pricing of sales orders generated from demand transactions. This value is the default for this customer within Demand Contract Entry.

8. Select the Hold Orders for Review check box to stop sales orders created in Demand Entry from releasing for shipment until reviewed for errors. Clear this check box to automatically release these sales orders for shipment.

9. Use the Close Rejected Schedules check box to automatically close demand schedules that have been rejected for this customer trading partner.

10. Select the Cancel Non Matched check box to automatically stop sales releases for this customer trading partner that fail the Demand Schedule Matching process. You define these matching requirements on the Demand Contract Entry > Header > Matching sheet.

11. Optionally, select the Unit Price Difference check box to indicate the Epicor application will evaluate the difference between the Internal price calculated by the Epicor application (using price lists and the master part), and the Customer price received on the customer purchase order. Use the Unit Price Difference check box, the Tolerance field, and the Action drop-down list to define how this validation runs.

12. Now select the Action that occurs when the Unit Price validation fails:

• If you select Stop, the demand line is designated as System Rejected within Demand Entry, and the demand is not processed. You can override this value within Demand Entry if needed.

• If you select Warning, the demand line is automatically accepted and processed. Warning messages appear on various logs and reports explaining the incoming demand transaction failed the data validation.

• 13. Use the Part section to specify if the Epicor application should validate whether corresponding part records or revisions exist in your database for demand received from this customer trading partner. If you select either the Check For Part,Check For Revision Level or Check For Run Out Part check boxes, you then use the Action drop-down list to select the appropriate Stop or Warning action.

• 14. Activate the Sales Order Releases section to designate how demand entries are processed when matched to a sales order release with partial shipments. Select the appropriate Action to apply.

• 15. Use the Cumulative section to indicate if cumulative quantity checking should occur. When you process the demand and ship releases to the customer trading partner, the cumulative information is sent through an Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) document. The customer then uses this EDI document to indicate the actual amounts they have received, and returns this information back as the actual received quantity. You can then analyze differences between the cumulative quantities stored in your database and the cumulative quantities in the inbound demand EDI transactions. This functionality is commonly used in EDI environments to track what your customer has acknowledged as shipped, and what your records show as shipped. Select the appropriate Action.

• 16. Activate the Configuration section to define how the Epicor ERP application processes Smart Strings received from the customer trading partner, validates configured parts, and handles configured parts that do not have valid configuration input values.

• 17. Use the Capable to Promise section to enable Capable to Promise (CTP) calculation logic for the customer trading partner. This calculation determines the date by which a sales order quantity can be delivered (promised) to the customer. When you select Check Dates, you then specify if the Ship By, Need By, or both dates are included when processing CTP dates.

• 18. Use the Lead Time section to specify the minimum number of days ahead of the planned Ship By or Need By date by which the Epicor application should accept requests on incoming EDI transactions and manually enter demand transactions. You typically use these settings to avoid situations in which your company cannot respond properly (based on your available site/stock/time/resources) to requests received from your customer trading partner within an inadequate time frame.