Published at: 2026-09-17

Quote overview

A quote is the most customer-facing business document in the CPQ transaction chain. It carries forward the results of products, attributes, Sales BOM, and price books, turning them into a formal quote that can be printed, emailed, circulated for collaboration, and further converted into a sales order.

What problem this capability solves

Quotes mainly deliver two categories of business value:
  • Turn customers, price books, and product pricing into a customer-ready quote result
  • After the quote is confirmed, provide the price and line-item basis for the following sales order
In other words, a quote is not just a pricing draft. It is the key transition object between quoting and closing.

Key object relationships

Quotes are most closely related to the following objects:
  • Customers
  • Opportunities
  • Price books
  • Quote details
  • Sales orders
This means a quote can exist independently or as part of customer management and opportunity progression.

Visibility and collaboration boundaries

The default scenarios show that quotes are not intended only for the owner. They are naturally designed for team collaboration:
  • All
  • Owned by Me
  • Participated by Me
  • Owned by My Department
  • Owned by My Subordinates
  • Participated by My Subordinates
  • Shared with Me
These scenarios rely on the owner, related teams, department managers, and data-sharing rules. If a user does not see the expected data in a view, these boundaries should be checked first.
The capability also brings two direct benefits:
  • It supports differentiated pricing through price books, helping sales generate accurate quotes faster
  • It turns front-end quote results into the basis for later order prices and line items
That is why the quote is both a customer-facing output document and a bridge to the transaction stage.
Also note two rules that are easy to overlook:
  • CRM Administrator can view all quote records
  • Quotes in the Voided status are visible only to CRM Administrator
This means that even if a normal sales user once participated in a quote, they may no longer be able to see it after it is voided. That is a system rule rather than necessarily a system issue.

Typical usage flow

A quote usually enters the workflow in this order:
  1. Sales starts a new quote from a customer or opportunity scenario.
  2. The customer is selected, and a price book is selected if needed.
  3. Quoted products are added as quote details.
  4. Line items are adjusted through multiple rounds of discussion.
  5. The quote result is printed or sent to the customer.
  6. After confirmation, the quote is converted into a sales order.
If the company has enabled price books, there is usually one more key step in this flow: choose the price book first and then select products from the price book. If price books are not enabled, users add products directly.

Reading recommendation

In this manual, the quote module is divided into four documents:
  • Overview: understand the role of quotes in the transaction chain
  • Create a Quote: focus on how to create one
  • Edit Quote Details: focus on how to adjust details
  • Convert to Orders and Print: focus on output and follow-up conversion
If you are new to this module, read this overview first and then move on to the operation documents.
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Create a quote