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AccountManager Opportunities
Opportunity profiles in AccountManager are used to store and manage all the information relative to a sales project. They can be shared by all the users of an AccountManager database, but your AccountManager administrator may have set certain restrictions in place, such as allowing field sales people to only see their own opportunities. Your organization may have internal policies regarding the guidelines for entering opportunities as well as how often they should be updated.
Opportunities are part of a group of documents in AccountManager referred to as Business Documents, or “BizDocs.” Other BizDocs include Samples, RFQ’s, Quotes, Registrations, and Design Wins. BizDocs can be used to “Copy Into” other BizDocs to save time, and link documents for one program or project together.
Creating Opportunity Profiles
1. Open the AccountManager database and go to the “Opportunities” view. Click the “New Opportunity” button on the action bar.
2. An opportunity profile form will be displayed pre-populated with a system generated Opportunity Number, your name as the Owner (can be manually changed), and the current date as the Identified Date.
3. In the Header area, select the End Customer this opportunity is associated with. (You may also select a Distributor and CEM if appropriate).
4. Also in the Header, select the Principal this opportunity is for. Each opportunity can only be for one Principal, in order to allow for accurate reporting and views. However, if you’ll be selling multiple lines into the same program, you may copy this opportunity into another one and choose a new principal on each subsequent opportunity.
5. Select an Opportunity Type and Stage from by clicking the respective hyperlinks (choices populated by your AccountManager administrator).
6. On the “Main” tab/”Program” sub-tab, fill in the basic information such as Program, Application, Annual Units, etc. Change the Identified Date if necessary, to reflect when you first began working on this sales project.
7. If you’d like to add line items or part numbers to this opportunity now, click the “Line Item” button and the “Add Line Item” choice under that. Fill in the pertinent information for that line item, and repeat as needed.
8. You may now “Save” and “Close” the Opportunity at this point, or continue adding additional details.
“Copying Into” Opportunity Profiles from Other BizDocs
Another method for creating opportunity profiles, is to use another existing document to “copy into” the new opportunity. If you already have an existing BizDoc (such as a Sample, Quote or RFQ) pertaining to this sales project, you can use the information on that document to “copy into” an Opportunity profile. This saves time and links the two documents together.
9. Open one of the existing BizDocs you already have for this sales project.
10. Click the “Copy Into” button, and then on the “Opportunity” choice underneath.
11. An Opportunity profile will open pre-populated with much of the same information as the original BizDoc.
12. Fill in any additional details on the Opportunity as desired.
13. “Save” and “Close” the Opportunity.
Opportunity Profile Field Descriptions
(Note: The content and/or arrangement of fields on your Opportunity Profiles may vary depending upon your company’s configuration. See your AccountManager administrator with questions)
[Opportunities Screenshot 1]
Action Buttons:
(Note: The drop down choices on your Action Buttons may vary depending upon your company’s configuration. See your AccountManager administrator with any questions).
Button Name |
Usage |
Close |
Closes the Opportunity Profile. |
Save / Edit (toggles between) |
Edit – Enables the ability to edit Opportunity Profile. No changes can be made until the Edit button is clicked. Save – Saves the Opportunity Profile. |
Comment |
Enables entry of a separate comment document (to be displayed in “Comments” section of Linked Documents Pane). Recommended for internal communications* only, these comments are not reportable. *(If your organization uses PartnerAccess for Rep-to-Principal synchronization, these comments are the appropriate place for Rep-to-Principal communications and vice versa). |
Line Item |
Add Line Item – Opens a new Opportunity Line Item dialog box for capturing information on one part number being considered for this opportunity. Repeat as needed for each additional part number. Insert Line Item – Opens a new Opportunity Line Item dialog box after prompting the user for the point of insertion into the list of previously generated line items. Delete Line Item – Deletes an Opportunity Line Item after prompting the user to select the corresponding line item number. |
New |
Account – Opens a new, blank Account profile. Contact – Opens a new, blank Contact profile. Opportunity – Opens a new, blank Opportunity profile. Sample – Opens a new, blank Sample request. Quote > Quote – Opens a new, blank Quotation. > Quick Quote – Opens a new, blank Quick Quote. RFQ – Opens a new, blank Request For Quotation. Registration – Opens a new, blank Registration. Design Win / Split Request – Opens a new, blank Design Win. |
Copy Into |
Your AccountManager administrator can set a configuration option to copy Line Item “Notes” into other BizDocs along with the default information noted below. Sample – Opens a new Sample request linked to the opportunity, and pre-populated with common fields/information from the Opportunity. Your AccountManager administrator can also set a configuration option that populates the “Sample Date” date on the opportunity with the current date. Quote – Opens a new Quote linked to the opportunity, and pre-populated with common fields/information from the Opportunity. Your AccountManager administrator can also set a configuration option that populates the “Quote Date” date on the opportunity with the current date. Quick Quote – Opens a new Quick Quote linked to the opportunity, and pre-populated with common fields/information from the Opportunity. RFQ – Opens a new Request for Quote linked to the opportunity, and pre-populated with common fields/information from the Opportunity. Design Win / Split Request – Opens a new Design Win linked to the opportunity, and pre-populated with common fields/information from the Opportunity. However, only line items marked as “Won” and have not been previously copied into a Design Win, will appear on the new document. Registration – Opens a new Registration linked to the opportunity, and pre-populated with common fields/information from the Opportunity. Opportunity (New Principal) – Opens a new Opportunity linked to, and pre-populated with common fields/information from the first Opportunity. Principal information is left blank, as well as Line Items, so that new information may be entered on the next opportunity. |
View* |
Line Items – Displays the line items for this opportunity in the embedded view. Forecasts – Displays forecast information for this opportunity in the embedded view. *(This button may not be visible if your organization does not use the Forecasting feature) |
Related Documents (in right hand frame) |
Used to select which types of documents should display in the Related Documents Frame. Documents eligible to display here are either created by using the “Copy Into” feature, or by using the “Link to Opportunity” button on the other documents to connect them to an opportunity. Default is to display no linked documents. Choices are “All Documents” at once, or one document type at a time. Linked documents can be double-clicked on to open them. |
Saving an Opportunity:
When saving an opportunity you may be prompted to “Update Related Opportunities”. A message box similar to the one below may appear prompting you to update related opportunities. You will be told home many related opportunities it found and for what Principals they apply. A related opportunity has the same program name and accounts such as customer, distributor, etc. If you choose yes then the fields common to a program will be updated such as Prototype Date, Production Date, Program Status, and Current Status. This feature can be disabled on the Configuration Profile.
[Opportunities Screenshot 2]
Header Section:
(Note: The content and/or arrangement of fields on your Opportunity headers may vary depending upon your company’s configuration. See your AccountManager administrator with questions).
Field Name |
Description |
Opportunity Number |
System generated opportunity number. (This cannot be modified). |
Status |
Status of opportunity (Open, Closed, On Hold). |
Principal |
Principal associated with this opportunity. (Click the hyperlink to select. Choices are a list of your Principal account profiles). |
End Customer |
End Customer associated with this opportunity. (Click the hyperlink to select. Choices are a list of your End Customer account profiles). |
CEM |
CEM associated with this opportunity. (Click the hyperlink to select. Choices are a list of your CEM account profiles). |
Distributor |
Distributor associated with this opportunity. (Click the hyperlink to select. Choices are a list of your Distributor account profiles). |
Program |
End Customer’s program name. (This field is automatically populated after entering the program information on the Main/Program tab) |
Opportunity Type |
Type of opportunity. (Click the hyperlink to select. Choices populated by your AccountManager administrator) |
Last Modified |
Date the opportunity was last modified. (This field populates automatically and cannot be changed). |
Stage |
Stage this opportunity is currently in. (Click the hyperlink to select. Choices populated by your AccountManager administrator). This field is used in Pipeline Reports. |
Principal Opp Number |
A reference to the Principal’s Opportunity, used primarily to coordinate with the Principal’s CRM software. |
Owner |
Person currently responsible for updating this opportunity. (This field can be disabled if your organization does not routinely pass responsibility between users and/or departments). |
“Main” Detail Tab / “Program” Sub-Tab:
(Note: The content and/or arrangement of fields on this tab may vary depending upon your company’s configuration. See your AccountManager administrator with questions).
Field Name |
Description |
Program |
End Customer’s program name. |
Application |
Brief description of the application. |
Annual Units |
The annual number of units (of the end product) to be produced by the customer. (Note: This is not necessarily the Estimated Annual Usage (EAU) of any one component). |
Program Status |
Status of this program at the end customer. (Click the hyperlink to select. Choices populated by your AccountManager administrator). |
Confidence |
(Percentage) Probability of winning the Opportunity. (Click the hyperlink to select. Choices populated by your AccountManager administrator). This percentage is multiplied with your Opportunity Total to calculate a Weighted Value. |
Competition |
Competitors to your principal that are trying to win this opportunity. |
Opportunity Total |
Calculated sum of line items’ totals. |
Weighted Value |
Calculated by multiplying the “Confidence” with “Opportunity Total”. |
Identified Date |
Date the opportunity was identified. |
Sample Date |
Date samples were ordered or provided. (Can be manually entered by user, or configured to auto-populate when copying the Opportunity into a Sample). |
Quote Date |
Date quoted. (Can be manually entered by user, or configured to auto-populate when copying the Opportunity into a Quote). |
Prototype Date |
Date the end customer plans to begin prototyping their end product. |
Production Date |
Date the end product is scheduled to go into mass production. |
Close Date |
Date the opportunity will close. |
Market Segment |
Market segment this application belongs to. (Defaults to the “Industry” of the End Customer, but can be changed by clicking the hyperlink to select. Choices populated by your AccountManager administrator). |
Split Total |
Calculated sum of the line item’s split totals. |
Approximate Value |
Optional field used to indicate the approximate value of the opportunity. Usually used in one of the below situations: 1. To give the opportunity a dollar value In the early stages before part numbers have been identified, and line totals can be computed, or 2. To avoid override the “Opportunity Value’ which can become inflated when multiple components are being considered, but only one will be chosen. |
Include on Report |
Default setting is checked, which includes this opportunity on opportunity reports. Unchecking will not include this opportunity on opportunity reports, unless the user running the report deliberately specifies they want “all” opportunities. |
Current Reporting Status |
Current status of the opportunity. This field is likely to be updated more often than most as new information becomes available. Clicking the hyperlink will preface your comments with a date and name-stamp, and move any previous comments to the “Status History” tab, so that only the most recent updates appear on reports. |
Share w/ PartnerAccess |
For PartnerAccess users only. Clicking on this button will share this Opportunity with your partner using PartnerAccess. |
Stop Sharing w/ PartnerAccess |
For PartnerAccess users only. Clicking on this button will stop sharing this Opportunity with your partner using PartnerAccess. |
“Main” Detail Tab / “Locations” Sub-Tab:
(Note: The existence, content, and arrangement of this tab may vary depending upon your company’s configuration. See your AccountManager administrator with questions).
Field Name |
Description |
Split Potential |
Choose “Yes” or “No” based on whether the potential exists for splitting this opportunity with another rep firm. |
Split Applied Date |
Date the split commission request was filed. |
Locations Sub-Tabs |
Your AccountManager administrator can configure which types of company tabs appear in the “Locations” sub-tabs. Choices include, but are not limited to “Design”, “Purchase”, “Manufacturing”, “Ship To” etc. Each tab can be populated with the following information: |
Company – Click the hyperlink to select from a list of existing accounts. Company’s address and phone information displays to the right. |
|
Contact 1 – Click the hyperlink to select from a list of contacts at the above company. Contact’s phone and email information displays to the right. |
|
Contact 2 – Click the hyperlink to select from a list of contacts at the above company. Contact’s phone and email information displays to the right. |
|
Edit – Click the hyperlink to edit any of the Company or Contact information for just this opportunity. |
|
Representative – Click the hyperlink to select the rep firm associated with this company. (Your company may choose not to enter additional rep firms into AccountManager, therefore this field can be left blank). |
|
Split % – Split percentage associated with this company’s role in the opportunity. |
“Main” Detail Tab / “Follow Up” Sub-Tab:
Field Name |
Description |
Enable Follow Up |
Checking this box includes the opportunity in the appropriate Activities views, as well as on the daily follow up emails if you have enabled that feature on your AccountManager user profile. |
Follow Up Date |
Date follow up is required on this opportunity. Displays in the appropriate Activities views, and includes the opportunity on the daily follow up emails on and after this date, until the document is updated, and the follow-up date is moved forward. This field auto-populates to the number of days forward specified on your AccountManager user profile when creating the opportunity. Once the date has passed, and upon editing the opportunity, you will be asked if you’d like to move the date forward that default number of days again. This date can be modified at any time. |
Scheduled For |
Users responsible for following up on the opportunity. Defaults to the creator of the opportunity, this field can be modified to include other users as well. The people listed here will see the opportunity in the appropriate Activities views, as well as receive daily follow up emails including this opportunity as indicated above. |
“Main” Tab / “Status History” Sub-Tab:
Field Name |
Description |
(Unlabeled field) |
This field is auto-populated with historical “Current Status” updates, as they are superseded by more recent updates on the Program tab. Nothing is directly entered into this field. |
“Main” Tab / “Misc” Sub-Tab:
Field Name |
Description |
Internal Comments |
Additional comments for internal use only. Will not display on any opportunity reports. |
Attachments |
Files attached to this opportunity profile. Can also be used to store other URL’s or web site addresses relative to the opportunity. |
Account Detail Tabs (i.e. “End Customer”, “Principal”, “Distributor”, and “CEM”):
(Note: The existence, content, and arrangement of these tabs may vary depending upon your company’s configuration. See your AccountManager administrator with questions).
The account detail tabs allow you to store additional details about each company involved in this opportunity. Each tab auto-populates with the company name when those companies are selected in the Header area, but the “Distributor” and “CEM” tabs can also contain two more additional accounts of those types on their tabs (useful when more than one distributor or CEM are competing for the business). The field names and structure of each tab is identical as described below:
Field Name |
Description |
Company (labeled by Account Type) |
Autopopulates with selection made on Header (i.e. End Customer company name is populated on “End Customer” tab, Principal company name is populated on “Principal” tab, etc). Account’s address and phone information is displayed to the right. |
Account Manager |
Field/Outside salesperson/people assigned to this account. |
Contact 1 |
Primary contact at this account associated with the opportunity. Click the hyperlink to select. Contact’s phone and email information displays to the right. |
Contact 2 |
Secondary contact at this account associated with the opportunity. Click the hyperlink to select. Contact’s phone and email information displays to the right. |
Territory |
Auto-populates with the Territory specified on this company’s Account profile. |
Category |
Auto-populates with the Category specified on this company’s Account profile. |
“Representative” Detail Tab
Field Name |
Description |
Representative |
Auto-populates to your company’s information. Phone and address information displays to the right. |
Prepared By |
Auto-populates to the user creating the opportunity. Phone and email information displays to the right. (This field can be changed to another user, if desired). |
Opportunity “Line Items”:
[Opportunities Screen Shot 4]
Field Name |
Description |
Mfr Part Number |
Manufacturer’s part number. (If your company uses the Part Number Look-up database, this could be a clickable hyperlink, allowing you to select the part number from a list, and populate the Product Line and Description fields. See your AccountManager administrator with questions). |
Product Line |
Product Line or category, often as designated within your principal’s organization. |
Description |
Description (often technical) of this part number. |
Cust Part Number |
End Customer’s internal part number. |
QTY/Unit |
Quantity of this component to be used on each unit produced by the end customer. (Note: This is not the Estimated Annual Usage (EAU) of any one component. This number will be multiplied with the “Annual Units” on the Program tab to calculate Line Totals and other figures. For example, in the example above, there are two of these LED’s in each security system). |
ASP |
Average selling price. (Your organization or principals may have internal policies regarding the actual pricing used on opportunity profiles, such as Book Costs, Resales, etc.) |
Line Total |
Calculated value of “Qty/Unit” x “Annual Units” x “ASP”. |
Split % |
Percentage of the Line Total that would be credited to your organization used when shared with another rep firm. Defaults to the ‘default external split rate’ from the principal account profile, if empty then inserts 100%. |
Split Total |
Calculated value of “Line Total” x “Split %” |
Notes |
Additional notes pertaining to this line item. (Your AccountManager administrator can enable a configuration option to copy these notes into other BizDocs using the “Copy Into” button). |
Competitor |
Competing company’s name. (Display is controlled by “Display Competitor Information on Line Items” on Configuration Profile). |
Competitor Part Number |
Competitor’s part number. (Display is controlled by “Display Competitor Information on Line Items” on Configuration Profile). |
Competitor Price |
Competitor’s pricing, if known. (Display is controlled by “Display Competitor Information on Line Items” on Configuration Profile). |
Won/Lost Status |
Status of this part. Defaults to Pending. When manually changed to “Won” or “Lost”, the “Date” and “Won/Lost Notes” fields display to the right. |
Date |
Date this component was Won or Lost |
Won/Lost Notes |
Click the hyperlink to select the reason for the Win/Loss (Choices populated by your AccountManager administrator). |