Create and Configure Orders

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Differentiate the use of orders in business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) order flows.
  
• Convert quotes to orders.
  
• Create and configure orders.
  
• Submit orders.
  

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you complete the following required content.

• Industries CPQ Order Capture
  
• Industries CPQ Quotes and Proposals
  

Also, consider completing the following recommended content.

• Industries CPQ Foundations
  
• The Communications Industry
  

Explore Industries CPQ Orders

Meet Sophia. She’s a sales manager at Infiwave. 

For the past two months, Sophia and her team have been busy preparing a major quote for Acme. Acme wants to upgrade its communications equipment. Now Acme is finally ready to place its order. Hooray! The team is elated.

Why? Because submitting the order is the final stage in the negotiation process. 

An order is a mutually binding contract between a company and a customer to provide goods and services for an agreed price. It’s critical that all the order details are right so the customer receives the product they expect.

Although quotes and orders look very similar in Industries CPQ, they have different functions in the sales process. For example, you may need to create multiple quotes before you finally place an order. 

Business-to-Business Orders

A business-to-business (B2B) order is one that a business places to buy something from another business. Business customers often need complex solutions that require a long and formal decision process, which typically involves creating a quote as part of negotiation. For this reason, you typically create at least one quote during the B2B sales process. 

In B2B selling, the order process starts after the account, opportunity, and quoting stages, as shown in this diagram. 

For example, the quoting stage gives companies like Acme the chance to review and negotiate the terms of a large purchase. Once the quote is approved, the sales team creates an order based on the quote. All the quote details, including pricing and customer information, move into the order. 

Business-to-Consumer Orders

A business-to-consumer (B2C) order is… you guessed it, an order that a consumer places with a business. For example, you placed a B2C order when you bought your last personal mobile phone. B2C sales cycles tend to be shorter because they have fewer requirements and a less formal decision-making process.

Here’s a diagram showing the standard ordering process for a B2C sale. 

This process is simpler than the B2B orders and involves only the account, order, and asset stages. For example, Carole White, a valued Infiwave customer, knows exactly which product and service she wants. For this reason Sophia skips the quote process and starts by creating an order for Carole. 

Sophia uses the order workspace to prepare the quote.

The order workspace for B2C quotes is similar to the workspace for B2B quotes. Once Carole is happy with the order, Industries CPQ validates it, and Sophia submits the order to the order-management system for processing and fulfillment.

Assets

In both B2B and B2C scenarios, after order submission, the products and services in the order become assets on the customer account. If the order requires an update, such as to move the installation location or upgrade the service to higher broadband capacity, you must create, configure, and submit a new asset-based order. 

Create the Order

You have different options for creating orders, depending on the type of order you need. 

Create a New Order from a Quote

In B2B sales, you likely need to create a quote with a list of prices for each requested product or service and submit the quote to the customer for review. Once the customer approves the quote, it’s time to create an order, which you can do directly from the quote.

To create a new order from a quote:

1. Click Create Order in the quote header. The order populates with details from the quote, and the Cart opens.
   
2. Review the order, and make any changes.
   
3. Submit the order.
   

You can clone quotes and configure them to suit different customers. The UI also allows you to clone orders from the LWC cart, however, cloning orders isn’t recommended because it can cause serious errors. 

Create a New Order from an Account

For most B2C and small B2B customers, you don’t have to start with an opportunity or quote record. Instead, you create orders directly on an account. 

To create a new order from an account:

1. On the customer account, click the Orders quick link.
   
2. In the orders list, click New.
   
3. Add the order details, and click Save. The Cart opens.
   
4. Add and configure products and services for the customer, just as you would for a quote.
   

Create a New Order from the Orders Workspace

Another way to quickly compose an order when you don’t need an opportunity or quote is to create the new order directly from the Orders workspace. 

To create a new order from the Orders workspace:

1. Select Orders from the navigation menu in Industries CPQ.
   
2. Click New in the Order list header.
   
3. Enter the order details, and click Save. The Cart opens.
   
4. Add and configure the required products and services.
   

Configure the Order

Creating the order is only half the battle. Sophia and her team need to make the orders just right for the customer. Let’s learn how it works.

Here’s a screenshot of the Industries CPQ order screen, which shows the Order and Cart workspaces. 

Each order has:

• A header (1) with details about the customer, the price list applied, and a series of action buttons. The buttons call actions relevant to the order, such as applying a discount or submitting the order.
  
• Workspaces (2) to select, configure, and review products and services in the order.
  
• A total bar (3) that dynamically sums up any recurring and one-time charge amounts for the line items in the order.
  

Add, configure, and negotiate the products and services in your order as you would for a quote. If you create the order from a quote, you may need to add order-specific, technical information. Once you’re done, click Submit Order to send it to the order-management system for processing.

Try this activity to test your knowledge of the Order and Cart workspaces. 

To learn more about cart workspaces, refer to the Industries CPQ Quotes and Proposals Trailhead module listed under Prerequisites.

Configure Order Start Dates

Brooks Bacher, a customer service rep at Infiwave, is busy setting up an order for Carol White. 

It’s near the end of April, and the sales team is putting in extra effort to meet their sales target.

Customers almost always want to receive their products ASAP, but sometimes they need to delay their order. For example, a customer might be moving house and want their new services to start on the day they move in. By adjusting the Order Start date, Brooks can postpone when the order-management system starts processing the order. This is called a future-dated order. 

You enter the Order Start Date when you create an order, and you can change it in the Details workspace.

Along with the timing of order processing, order start dates affect the selection and configuration of items in the order. 

Carol White has requested a new product that costs $25, so Brooks adds it to the cart. Carol tells Brooks that she’s going on vacation until May 3, so she’d like her order delivered after she returns. Brooks informs her that the product price is due to increase to $30 on May 1. Carol doesn’t want to disrupt her vacation plans and doesn’t mind paying the additional $5 for her peace of mind. She thanks Brooks for the update and confirms the order. Brooks updates the Order Start Date to May 3, and the price of the product automatically increases in the cart to $30.

Industries CPQ uses the order start date to determine pricing and other order details, like product availability, discount availability, application of certain rules, and configuration features.

What’s Next?

Sophia and Brooks have created, configured, and submitted several different orders. That’s the end of the purchase process, but the sales process doesn’t stop here. 

In the next unit, you learn what happens to an order once submitted, plus how to update a submitted order.

Resources

• Salesforce Help: Create an Order with the Cart in LWC
• Salesforce Help: Future-Dated Orders and Order Queuing in CPQ 
• Salesforce Help: Industries CPQ and Versioning