Understanding the Quote and Proposal Generation Process

After you create a project in the Project Workbench program (P31P001) and add task and cost information, you can use the Project Quotes program (P31P100) to develop a detailed and structured quote that you can present to the customer for approval. If the customer accepts the quote, the company can begin work on the project. If the customer requests changes, the system enables you to revise the quote information multiple times. You can also send multiple versions of the quote to the customer. For example, you can revise cost amounts or specify whether certain lines are included in the calculation. You can then resubmit the quote version to the customer until all requirements are satisfied and the customer grants the final approval to continue with the project. If the requested changes involve adding or deleting tasks from the project, you must make these changes on the Project Workbench form and generate a new quote from the WBS.

By using the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne ETO quote generation programs, you can create a quote based on the estimated or planned costs that are associated with each task in the WBS of the project. The system enables you to import the WBS from the Project Workbench program into the quote program. The goal is to build a quote that communicates sufficient information to enable the customer to make an informed decision. Typically, the cost information in the Project Workbench program varies in its level of detail; in some cases, it contains too much detail information, and in other cases, it does not contain enough detail information for an effective quote. From the WBS, you can select the task information that you want to appear on the customer proposal. You can simplify the quote by omitting detail information that is more relevant to the actual work to be performed than to the cost estimates. Conversely, you might need to provide a detailed production cost breakdown, as well as margins that are applied to each line item. The quote program also enables you to combine individual task quote amounts into subtotals and totals, thus further enhancing the customer's ability to understand the cost of undertaking the project.

The quote process might consist of several iterations between a company and its customer. Each time that you incorporate changes into the quote, whether they are engineering-related or price-related, you create a new version of the quote to be able to track the changes to the quote. The system stores the quote versions in the Project Quote Detail table (F31P11). Finally, you use the quote information to generate a quote document that can be transmitted to the customer. If you use e-business processes, you can use the Online Proposals program (P31P101) to communicate with the customer using the web.

When the customer accepts the quote, you also must register this event in the Project Workbench program. By choosing Accept Quote from the More Project Actions on the Project Workbench form, you manually move the project to a Quote Accept status. After you accept the quote in the Project Workbench program, you can begin the planning phase of the project.

The system provides email communication mechanisms for information about quote status. You can set a processing option to automatically notify the manager when a quote status changes. You can also define an email distribution list for the project that would, for example, enable you to communicate with the customer about the quote.