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About CPQ
A quote or a proposal is a formal statement of promise that lists the products and services to be sold to a customer at a defined price. Quote creation involves configuring products and services, pricing them, and generating quotes based on predefined rules. CPQ is a sales tool for companies to generate quotes for orders quickly and accurately. CPQ produces accurate quotes making complex products, pricing, and business rules centralized, automatic, and available in real-time.
As an administrator, you can use CPQ to achieve Configuration, Pricing, and Quoting tasks involved in generating a quote. Configuration involves creating products, options, attributes, categories and associating them appropriately with each other for visibility on Catalog. A product can be created as a standalone product or as a bundle product with options and attributes. You can control the selection of a product on the catalog by configuring constraint rules. You can also control the selection of attributes on the configuration page of a product by setting up attribute-based configuration for that product.
You can set up pricing structures for the products so that the price for all products is calculated accurately. Pricing comprises of mainly two components: Price Lists and Price List Items. A price list controls the visibility of products to the user. A price list contains several price list items, each linked to a product. CPQ calculates the price for each product based on the applied price list, price list items, and various pricing and discounting rules. You can price any products or bundles based on their features or options selected. You can set up pricing rules, constraints, dependencies, and extraneous variables in CPQ to calculate the price for any product.
You can enable quote collaboration to allow a Sales Representative to get other users to contribute in configuration and pricing. The Collaborators can add or remove products and adjust pricing on the same configuration.
You can create templates for quote creation with details such as configuration and pricing details, a summary of the quote, and associated opportunity. In addition, by integrating CPQ with your contract processes, you can automate renewal quotes based on previously agreed upon pricing and terms.
You can manage the assets of a customer with a variety of billing models to ensure efficient collections and accounting. You can define the asset management functions with different data objects to track quote and contract details until an order is fulfilled.
As a Sales Representative, you need to configure products according to your customer’s requirements. A product can be standalone or bundle with options and attributes. You can configure products accurately based on predefined business rules and constraints.
You can manage product pricing and adjustments. The price calculation of a product also includes its options and attributes. CPQ allows you to apply discounts, markups, promotions to further adjust the price of the product.
After you finalize the configuration and pricing, you can generate quotes. You can generate a quote using predefined templates and send the quote to the customer for approval using an email. Your customer can use E-signature to sign and accept the quote. In addition, by integrating quoting software with your contract processes, you can automate renewal quotes based on previously agreed upon pricing and terms.
The following table lists the tasks that administrators and users can perform using CPQ.
| Administrator | Administrator/User |
|---|---|
For administrator functionality, see CPQ for Administrators. |
For end-user functionality, see CPQ for Users. |
Key Terminology
It is important to understand how terms are used when working with CPQ.
Term | Definition |
|---|---|
ABO | Asset-based ordering (ABO) functionality enables you to service and manage existing orders based on customer requirements. |
Adjustments | Any discounts or markups applied to the product on the cart. |
Administrators | Individual responsible for maintaining and mapping product catalogs and pricing. |
Asset Line Items | Child of Asset object, these records depict the actual calculation of assets for each line item. After you receive payments for an order, the order line item changes to an Asset line item. |
Assets | Assets define a purchased product or service. An asset is associated with an account. After being processed and fulfilled, new quotes and orders result in new assets, which are listed on a customer's account and a line item from an asset becomes an Installed Product. |
| Asset Pricing | A pricing method that allows you to leverage the sale price of an asset for its ongoing management. |
Attribute-Based Pricing | The price is determined by factoring in attributes of a product. |
Attribute Groups | A group that contains attributes that are shared by multiple products. For example, attributes of a computer are color, size, RAM and so on. These attributes are shared across different types of product such as a computer. |
Attributes | Features of a product, such as color, size, weight, and more. |
| Base Extended Price | This is derived by Base Price x Quantity x Term. |
Batch Job | A maintenance job that updates the database and checks for configuration inconsistencies. A batch maintenance job runs maintenance jobs in regular intervals or runs multiple maintenance jobs at a time. |
| Bucket Adjustments | A bucket (field on Adjustment Line Item object) is a container for the adjustments that a sales representative applies on a line item in the cart. |
Bundle within a Bundle | A feature that allows you to configure products that may contain multi-level bundles. This feature also allows the configuration of multi-level bundles with the ability to show ramps or tiers contained within the sub-bundles. You can also apply constraint rules to multi-level bundles. |
Bundled Products | A combination of standalone products that offer added value to the customer while increasing overall sales. |
Bundled Services | Services sold together, as a package, rather than separately. |
Cart | A product and pricing view for the user to review all configuration and pricing information at a glance. |
| Cart Views | Pre-defined criteria to filter products on the Cart page. |
Catalog | A view that allows hierarchical categorization of products for users to search through and add to their configuration. |
Categories | High-level logical groupings of products. Their grouping affects the way the end-user sees them for selection in a product catalog. A category is created for browsing products in the selection pages, or they can be created to use options groups for a bundled product. Products are associated with a category through a category hierarchy. Category hierarchies are maintained using the Hierarchy Manager. They are also used to organize product prices into logical groupings. |
Category Hierarchy | Products are associated with a category through a category hierarchy. Category hierarchies are maintained using the Hierarchy Manager. |
Change | An ABO action that is available on the Installed Products page to increase or decrease the quantity of assets. Applicable for all product types. |
Clone | To replicate a field, record, template, or other objects. |
| Configure Products | Button on Quote/Proposal record that allows end users to start configuring a quote. |
Configuration Rules | CPQ administrator defines configuration rules to help the customer or user to select the required product or a range of products per requirements. Rules make it easier to organize products on the catalog, simplifying the decision-making experience of the customer or the user. |
Constraint Rule Action | Captures information about rule actions, which are only applied when the rule conditions are satisfied. |
Constraint Rules | Rules that drive automatic inclusion, exclusion, recommendation or replacement of products selected in the catalog page. Each Constraint Rule is composed of three parts: the Rule Detail, the Rule Condition, and the Rule Actions. |
| Contract Price List | A price list that helps the customer keep track of specific price agreements as applicable for that account. |
| Contract Pricing | A way to negotiate a price for a product that is not being purchased in the current quote. CPQ uses a set of agreed upon prices for a customer for all the subsequent transactions. |
| Cost Model | A cost model is a container that holds all cost types (parent and child cost types). |
CPQ Console | The page where you can manage most product and pricing functions. |
CSR Flow | Customer Service Representative (CSR) flow. A user can launch the Installed Products page from an account and skip the usual Quote/Proposal flow by using the CSR Flow. |
Customer Priority | Field on an Account record that defines the customer's priority or rating. |
| Deal Guidance | A guided approach to Sales Representatives (other users) that helps decide whether the offered price for any line item is more, less, or not profitable based on the set criteria for the company. |
| Defer Pricing | Performing pricing of products only after you click the Go to Pricing button as opposed to performing pricing as and when you add products to the cart or delete products from the cart. |
Delta Price | The change to the net price of the asset due to the latest order (may include any ABO action). It is positive for increments, negative for decrements, and zero when there is no change. It is the difference between the net price of an asset line item and the net price of line item after an asset action has been performed. |
Delta Quantity | The change in quantity for the asset as a result of the latest order (which may include any ABO action). It is positive for increments, negative for decrements, and zero when there is no change. It is the difference between the quantity of an asset line item and the quantity of the line item. |
Discrete | A type of Price Matrix dimension value. When you select the discrete option, the application considers specific matrix values only. |
| Document | A document is the record of the finalized product configuration in PDF, DOC, DOCX, and RTF format generated from the quote. The document includes the information about products, pricing, and custom details that you configured. |
| Evergreen Asset | An asset without an expiration date. The asset is billable forever until the subscription is cancelled (evergreen billing). |
| Express Proposal | A proposal that you can generate and send in fewer clicks. |
Large Cart | Any quote that contains more than 50 line items. A line item can either be a standalone product or a bundle. |
Line Item | Represents a product or service line item. |
| Merge Assets | Merge is an ABO action that merges multiple assets created over a period as a result of actions such as new sale, quantity increment, split. This action consolidates individual streams of assets into a single asset, which can also help you avoid duplicates. |
Objects | A definition of a specific type of information you can store in Salesforce. Some objects are native to Salesforce (such as Contacts or Accounts), while others are specific to Conga functionality (such as Proposals or Agreements). |
Opportunity | A contact or an account that has a possibility or intent of business with you. An opportunity record is created when a new opportunity is created in the CRM. Sales representatives create quotes for an existing opportunity. |
Option Group | A group of product options that are associated with a bundled product. |
| Order | A confirmation document created by CPQ for a customer before delivering the goods or services. |
Organization | A deployment of CRM that has a defined set of licensed users. Your organization includes all of your data and applications and is separate from all other organizations. The short form of organization is org. |
| Price Adjustments | Price rules that can be made in CPQ (example: Price Matrix and Price Ruleset). |
| Price Dimensions | Represents a price criteria dimension. |
| Price List Items | Each price list item includes the list price for the product including details of cost such as per unit, flat price, one time, recurring, and more. Each price list item also represents the different ways that a customer is charged for a product; for example: license fees, implementation fees, etc. Price list items are categorized into Price Lists. |
Price Lists | Containers of items that are grouped in a price list. A price list controls which products are visible to the end-user. A price list contains several price list items; each linked to a product. A product can be set up with one or more price list items. |
Price Matrix (Matrices) | These are an advanced pricing concept used to define tiered pricing paradigms, or complex pricing structures with multiple criteria. Common examples are pricing tiers for a product based on user count or particular customer or transactional dimensions. |
Price Ramps and Price Tiers | Pricing mechanisms that establish pricing that varies by time (ramp) or quantity (tiers). |
Price Rule | Represents a single rule in a price ruleset. |
Price Rulesets | Price Rulesets are a mechanism to allow particular families, categories or groupings of products to have either line item pricing adjustments applied or summary pricing adjustments applied. Typical examples of these are volume discounting rules or promotional pricing rules. |
| Price Waterfall | A bar graph where line item fields are plotted vertically and cost is plotted horizontally. |
Product Attribute Group | A group that contains attributes that are shared by multiple products. For example, attributes of a computer are color, size, RAM and so on. These attributes are shared across different types of product such as a computer and a laptop. Attributes are grouped together as a product attribute group. |
Product Attribute Value | Represents the attribute values for a product class. For example, color has attribute values such as red, green, blue, orange and so on. |
Product Console | The product console helps administer product properties and associate products with other CPQ artifacts. |
Product Family | Product Family is a field on the product record with configurable values. This construct allows you to create combinations of products with similar characteristics/qualities for use in a Price Rule. |
Product Group | A logical grouping of one or more product records. This construct allows you to create combinations of products with similar characteristics/qualities for use in a Price Rule. |
Product Hierarchy | Defines the structure of the product catalog according to the product configuration. A CPQ administrator configures products and its structure. |
Product Option Group | A list of option groups that are associated with a product. |
Products | A product or service that can be sold on its own as a standalone item, an option of other products, or as part of a bundled product. Conga utilizes the standard Salesforce Products2 table to store product records and Conga-specific fields on those records that manage the behavior of products. |
Product Cloning | Replication of products from Source organization to Target Organization during product migration. |
Promotions | Promo codes or coupons to apply additional adjustments. |
| Proposal | The Conga custom object used to record information about a specific quote for a specific Opportunity and Account. The tab for the object is presented as Proposals and the record is stored as a Quote/Proposal. |
| Quick Quote | A quote that is created directly from an opportunity where the Sales rep navigates to the Catalog page, configure products, and finalizes the cart without having to create a proposal first. |
Quote | A structured definition of a prospective sale that contains product configurations, pricing, and customer opportunity information. |
| Quote Collaboration | A feature you can use to enable multiple users to work together on the same quote. |
Records | A collection of fields that store information about a contact, an account, or an opportunity. |
Relate | Defines an ABO action, available on the Installed Products page. It is used to display all the relevant service products for already purchased products (equipment). Eligibility rules are used to control the products listed in the catalog. |
Related Asset Line Items | Depicts the relationship between the type of products, service, and equipment. When a service is related to equipment or normal asset, corresponding records are populated in Related Asset Line Items (From) and Related Asset Line Items (To) related lists. |
| Related Pricing | Deriving the price of a line item based on the price of another line item, product group or formula fields. |
Related Purchase | A tab on the Installed Products page that lists the related services for an already purchased product (asset). The eligibility rules control the products listed in this tab. |
Renew | A tab on the Installed Products page. The renew action is applicable for all product types. Supports options to choose the renewal date in the form of Proposal End Date, Asset End Date, Farthest End Date, and a manually entered Renewal Date. |
Sales Representative or Sales Rep | Individuals responsible for configuring and pricing the products on the cart and generate quotes. |
Selling Term | A field on the line item object (column in cart) that defines the length of time the seller will allow the buyer to pay for a product. |
| Smart Cart | A cart with a large number of line items that are priced in groups that are divided based on the threshold and split criteria to avoid hitting governor limits. |
Standalone Products | Refers to a device or software that is self-contained, one that does not require any other devices or software to function. |
Standalone Services | Refers to a service that is self-contained, one that does not require any other service to function. |
Service CPQ | A feature that caters to customer requirements related to services for existing or newly purchased products from Conga. A sales rep associates a service product eligible for the equipment or an asset. The Eligibility rules, which are client-side constraint rules, play a vital role in guiding the association between a service product and an asset. A sales rep can set an existing asset as a service or equipment while the service pages (Installed Products, Catalog, Config, and Cart pages) leverage the end to end cycle for service management. |
| Smart Search | A search definition that is configured to search for products in large and complex product catalogs, with multiple levels of categories and stricter rules. |
| Split Asset | Split is an ABO action that divides an existing asset into multiple split lines to negotiate an upsell quote with customers. |
Swap | Swap is an ABO action that is available as a tab on the Installed Products page. The Swap action uses the constraint rule of type = Replacement for execution. |
Terminate | A tab on the Installed Products page. The Terminate action is used to terminate the contract for a product. Applicable for all product types. |
| Tiered Pricing Model | The longer a subscription term on a quote, the lower the monthly rate will be. |
| TurboConfig | A configuration engine microservice on the Flexible Computing Platform that computes complex product configurations and product rules. |
| TurboEngines | A concurrent processing engine provided by Conga comprising various microservices that process and sync product configurations, pricing configurations, and data. |
| TurboPricing | A pricing engine microservice on the Flexible Computing Platform that computes complex pricing computations and callbacks. |
| Validating | To check or prove the validity or accuracy of a value or instance. |
Glossary for Approval Stages
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Draft | New Quote Created. |
Approval Required | Changes to the Quote or Quote Line Items have triggered a need for approval. |
In Review | The quote is in the process of being Approved or Denied. |
Approved | Quote has been approved by management. |
Generated | Quote document has been generated. |
Presented | Quote document was presented to the end customer, either via email or manually. |
Accepted | The quote was accepted by the end customer. |
Denied | Quote has been denied by management. |
Glossary for Proposal Actions
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Configure Products | An action button on the Quote page that starts a new configuration process for the Quote, or reconfigure an existing set of products on the Quote. |
Generate Proposal | An action button on the Quote page that generates a Proposal document and attaches it to the Quote/Proposal record. |
Present Proposal | An action button on the Quote page that presents the attached document to the Quote to the end customer through an email. |
Accept Proposal | An action button on the Quote page that refers to an end customer Accepting the final proposal. This button synchronizes all Summary lines with the Opportunity Products for the Related Opportunity. |
Make Primary | An action button on the Quote page that sets this Quote to primary and all other Quotes for the Opportunity as non-primary. Also enables the Synchronize with Opportunity button. |
Synchronize with Opportunity | An action button on the Quote page that synchronizes the finalized quote with the Opportunity, each time the cart is Finalized. If you are using automatic synchronization, you must remove this from the page layout. |
Create Agreement with Line Items | An action button on the Quote page that that enables the user to create a contract after the quote is accepted. |
Glossary for Related Lists
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Actions | Lists the various actions you can execute for this stage of the quoting process. A list of actions with the description of their function is available in Proposal Actions. |
| Line Items | Contains the detailed line items (bundles, options, and standalone) of a finalized configuration. This corresponds to the Detail tab in configuration. |
| Summary | Contains the summary view (standalone and bundles) of a finalized configuration. This corresponds to the Summary tab in configuration. |
| Summary Groups | Contains the totals for the finalized configuration according to the product hierarchy including a Grand Total. |
| Notes & Attachments | Enables you to attach any reference document or file relevant to a quote/proposal. The proposal document when generated from the template is stored by the application in this section. |
| Open Activities | Enables you to create and assign new task corresponding to a quote. |
| Approval History | Initiate and track approvals corresponding to the quote. Note: Approvals can be initiated only if the corresponding approval processes have been set up by the System Administrator. |
| Activity History | Lists an Audit history of significant changes during the life of the quote. |
For more information about terms used with Conga products, see Conga Product Glossary.