Many companies use Salesforce to keep track of opportunities and campaigns, and SAP to keep track of operational projects and business financial data. This cost estimating application forms a bridge between both SAP and Salesforce by linking each proposal to an opportunity in Salesforce as well as to an operative project in SAP, when the proposal is won. SAP also provides data on existing contracts and both SAP and Salesforce can be used to provide information on pre-existing customers.

Depending on your company policy, you should work with your implementation consultant to specify whether this type of proposal requires a Salesforce opportunity or not.

The image below indicates the CLIENT tab of your proposal.

1. If this proposal is for an existing Salesforce opportunity click the YES option, otherwise click NO
   • Select the Salesforce opportunity from the drop-down list which appears, typing in any part of the opportunity description or customer to narrow down the search
   • Selecting a Salesforce opportunity automatically brings the company interested (item #5) below, giving you a popup to select if the Salesforce customer (or "account" in Salesforce) does not yet exist but there are several "closely matched" customers
   • The system will automatically create a new customer record with the Salesforce account information in it if required
   • Customer records are created from Salesforce not from SAP.  It is your responsibility to make customer names etc. consistent between Salesforce and SAP
2. If there is an SAP quotation or contract (change order) to reference click the appropriate option and select the SAP document number from the field which appears below these options
3. Select what kind of contract this is, if specified in the RFP
4. If you selected a Salesforce opportunity the customer or "company interested in this proposal" will be automatically set, otherwise you need to select whether this is an existing client (e.g. change order proposal, second bid etc.) or a new prospect
   • If you select "new prospect" you need to enter the customer's name, address, phone and email in the popup
5. If you selected an existing then select or enter part of the name of the existing customer to narrow down the search. The customer currency will default based on the chosen customer if it has a currency
6. Select the customer's currency and click the Edit Exchange Rates link to manage exchange rates
7. Select YES or NO to indicate if there is a small business requirement in the proposal documents. You can upload your small business administration (SBA) plan using the button
8. Select the contact at the customer or prospect who is responsible for this request for proposal, or click "add new contact" and fill out their details in the popup to create a contact for this customer
9. If other outside people are involved click YES and enter the external people involved in the MY TEAM tab.