Intro Video:
Product options are additional product fields that the user selects when creating a quote table in a proposal. Product options can modify the price/cost of a product or they can simply specify an attribute of the product, like Size: Small, Medium, Large. Additionally, options can be other products (fixed product).
Options are created from the product record. Each option is created by clicking the Add Option button.
The Default Visibility drop down selection determines whether the entire option is displayed (show option) on the quote to the customer, or everything but the option price (hide pricing), or the entire option text is hidden altogether (hide options). The selection you make here is the default selection for any new options, but it can be overridden on individual options, as is described later in this article.
The default is Show Options. If Show Options is selected, then product options are displayed on the proposal editor and proposal like this:
There may be a case in which you are simply using the options for a price calculator and do not want these calculations to appear on the quote table displayed to the customer. In this case, you can select Hide Options and no product option information will appear on the quotes.
If you select to Hide Pricing, then the a product with options will appear like this:
OPTION SETS:
Option sets are sets of pre-defined options that can be attached to products manually from the product record or using bulk product import. This feature is especially valuable if you have many products that all have the same set (or single) option, like Color. If you had to manually add the same option to hundreds or thousands or products, it would be difficult to manage. With Option Sets, you can define a single or set of options, and attach them to your products with Bulk Import.
When you make changes to an Option Set, those changes are automatically applied to any products that have the option set attached to it. So, you can make the edit once in the option set and have it automatically applied to hundreds or thousands of products automatically.
You can create an Option Set from the Option Sets tab under Proposals in the navigation menu nu clicking the New Option Set button.
In the New Option Set modal, you can name the option set, select the currency (if multi-currency is enabled) and select the recurrence period. Then click the New Option button and create as many options as you need in the set. This process is identical to creating an option from the main product page and you have the same controls for rearranging the options and duplicating/deleting/editing and adding new sections. When you are finished, click the Save Button.
Now this option set is available to add to products either manually or by bulk import. To add an option set manually, go to the product record and open the Option Section. Instead of selecting New Option, select Add Option Set.
Then choose the option set you want to attach to the product and it will be displayed as the one in the image above and the Option Type will be Option Set. That's it! Now when you add this product to a quote table, this option set, along with any other options you have defined for the product will be included. You can add multiple option sets to a product, and option sets and options can exist together on the same product.
When you delete an option set, it will automatically be removed from every product that contains the option set.
Option set names can be toggled on for the main product list view so that you view which option sets are attached to each product. You can then export the product list that includes the option set names and make changes via Excel or Google sheets and then export as a CSV and reimport the changes.
To attach option sets to products via bulk import, create a column in your spreadsheet for Option Sets. You can have multiple option sets for one product in the import. Each option set name would be separated by a comma:
OPTION SECTIONS:
You can add sections to your options to make it easier for a user to make selections when a product has lots of options. Sections can be added by clicking the three dot menu at the end of the option row on the product overview page.
Once you have added a section, it will display like this in the options widget. The blue rows are the option sections. Note that these sections can be moved around by grabbing and dragging the grab bars on the left of the row. They can also be edited or deleted by clicking the three dot menu on the right of the row.
Option sections will display as text links in the product configuration section.
NOTE: Option sections do not display in the HTML or the PDF output of the proposal. Option Sections are only used to give better organization to options in the quote editor to prevent a user from having to scroll vertically if there are many options.
OPTION TYPES:
There are 11 different types of options.
Input (integer, decimal, text, date) - takes an input from the user creating the quote and calculates cost and price offset with formulas based on that input or can be used to store user input information about the product such as notes in a text field or a date in the date field.
Dropdown - gives the user a drop-down selector with the associated price and cost offsets for each drop-down value
Dropdown (fixed product) - existing simple products (no bundles and no products with options) can be used as the option value with associated cost and price offsets. This is useful if all options are existing products - like an optional mouse and keyboard for a computer. The prices for the options can be managed simply by managing the products. If the price of the product is changed, the price of the options that use the product is also changed.
Dropdown (fixed product, separate) - Also referred to as a 'Nested Product' this works similar to the fixed product option above, however, each child product is now indented and 'nested' beneath the parent product. Using this option can help with guided selling, compatibility, and deeper levels of product components. A product with fixed product options can also be a fixed product option for another product. This creates the ability to manage multiple levels of 'nested products'. In a nested product, the quote table will show as a complete product with a full description and any associated product image. When any parent option is changed, each child option will refresh to the new selections available.
Multi-Drop Down - can be used if the user can select multiple values in the drop-down instead of a single value
Multi-Drop Down (fixed product) - same as Dropdown (fixed product) except multiple values can be selected instead of just one.
Multi-Drop Down (fixed product, separate) - same as Dropdown (fixed product, separate) except multiple values can be selected instead of just one.
Checkbox - a simple yes/no checkbox with the associated price and cost offsets.
OPTION SETTINGS:
Each option type has it's own set of setting toggles and checkboxes that you can use to customize the way the option is displayed on the quote.
Round QTY (# decimal places): If QTY is toggled on for the option, then this setting determines how many decimal places to round the QTY value to, not only displayed value, but also stored value. This setting is important for Formula based QTY that are decimals.
Display Price As: If the visibility setting for an option is set to Hide Price or Hide Price and Model, then the price of that option rolls up to the parent product. Normally, the price for the option product is displayed as a Dash, but you can change that to any string with this setting. For instance, you may want to use Included or Inc instead of a dash to indicate the option product price is included in the parent price.
Required Choice: Toggle this on if you want the user creating the quote to be required to make a selection for this option.
Indent Lines: Toggle this on if you want the line items on the quote for fixed product, separate options to be indented with an arrow symbol
QTY Column: Toggle this on if you want to display a Qty column with a default quantity for the option
Component: Toggle this one if you want the quantity of the option product to be changed in proportion to the quantity of the parent product. For example, in the image below, if the parent product quantity is changed to 2, then the option quantity will be changed to 4 automatically.
Separate Price Lists: This toggle only applies if you are using price lists. If toggle is ON, both the parent product price list and the option product price list will be applied to the option's price; if toggle is OFF, only parent product price list will be applied.
Discount %: Fixed product options will have an additional column for Discount % after Price Offset/ea. This discount will be applied to the option product on the quote. For example, you may want to offer a fixed product bundle that has a 20% discount if all of the products are purchased together. You would toggle on the Bundle toggle and enter 20 in all of the % discount boxes for each option product.
Default: Checking this box next for any option value will make that value the default on the quote and it will automatically be selected. It will still be editable by the user on the quote editor. Use this setting to recommend option values for users.
Lock Selection: Checking this box next for any option value will lock that value as Selected and it will not be able to be unselected by the user creating the quote.
Lock QTY: Checking this box next for any option value will make the QTY entered not editable by the user creating the quote.
Lock All: Checking this box will select the all of the Lock Selection or Lock QTY boxes for all rows.
OPTION VISIBILITY:
For some option types, you will see an additional drop down for Visibility. This is where you would override the default visibility setting for all options. This allows you to set whether you want to display the entire option, the option without pricing, or hide the option altogether on the Quote to the customer. If you want to this option to have the same visibility as the overall setting for all options, then just leave Use Default Visibility selected.
Note that for fixed product, separate types of options, the visibility selection has a slightly different effect. Selecting Hide Pricing or Hide Option will roll up option product pricing into parent product and dashes will be displayed in place of the option product pricing.
OPTION RULES:
Option rules allow you set conditions that determine whether an entire option or any option values are hidden or displayed depending on selections made for other options, proposal fields, account fields, parent product fields and opportunity fields. Each option can have an overall rule and each option value can have it's own rule.
To create an overall option rule, click the orange Create Rule button.
You can select whether you want the rule to show or hide the option and whether any or all of the conditions must be met to trigger the rule. Think of the rule as an If/Then statement. So, for the example below, this option will be shown only if the Size option value selected is Large. You can add additional conditions by clicking the Add Condition button.
You can create option rules for individual option values by clicking the three dot menu at the end of the row for each value and selecting Create Rule. The same option rule builder modal displays as before and you can create a rule that determines whether that option value displays in the quote editor. You can also delete and duplicate the option value using the selections in the three dot menu.
SALES TIPS:
You can add sales tips to each option with the sales tips field. Product managers can add valuable product intel or quoting tips here and the sales rep will see this information when they add the product to a quote. Sales tips can contain rich formatted text, links, images and attachments.
These sales tips will not display on the quote to the customer, but they will display on the quote editor for the user creating the quote. They are internal notes to help your team understand how to use or price the product on the quote. Clicking on the "i" icon will display the sales tip modal, which can then be closed by clicking the X in the right hand corner of the sales tip modal.
OPTION VALUES:
Each option value can have a qty offset, discount, cost offset, price offset and model # offset. Add a new row by clicking the plus button. Reorder option values by holding down the mouse on the 6 dot grab bar on the left of each row and dragging the row up or down. The order of the option values shown here will be the order of the option values in the drop down on the quote editor. You can also delete and duplicate option values by using the three dot menu on the right of each row.
The qty, discount, cost and price offset can be fixed, %, formula or conditional based. For formula based offsets, standard arithmetic operators are supported:
* multiply
/ divide
( ) parenthesis
+ add
- subtract
Depending on the type of option, you can also use other option values (as long as they are numeric), proposal, account, opportunity and product numeric fields (including custom fields) and parent product base cost, final price and original price in the formula. An example of a formula using the available variables for that type of option will be automatically populated when you select the formula option. Variables will be shown in { }. You can edit this formula for your specific situation -- it is just an example.
You can also select which option value should be used as the default on the quote editor. This allows you to set a "recommended" selection for the user creating the quote. Drop downs can only have one default value and multi-drop downs can have multiple default values.
You can add up to 50 options to a product and each option can have up to 50 values. When you have completed all of the options for a product, the options widget should look something like this:
Options can be edited with the pencil icon or deleted with the trash icon. You can rearrange the order of the options with the 6 dot grab bar. The order of the options displayed here will be the order of the options on the product in the quote editor.
Product options are displayed directly below the product model number on the quote editor. Required options are marked with a red star. Once you have made option selections, the price offset for each option will be displayed next to the option. Cost offsets are not shown for each option, but are included in the overall product cost and margin.
FIXED LIST and CONDITIONAL LIST:
Values for a fixed product type of option can be a combination of Fixed and Conditional. Fixed values are defined on the Fixed List tab and do not change unless edited. You can also define Conditional Rules that define which products should be shown as options, which creates a dynamic list that changes depending on which products in your product catalog meet the conditions of the rules when the product option is opened in the quote editor by the user. This is useful is your product database changes frequently and you don't want to manually go into options to change out the products listed as option values.
You can use any product field as a filter for which products should be shown as options for the Conditional List values and you can enter a fixed number, value, or range for the filter conditions. You can also use the value input by the user for any other option in the quote as a condition value. This is useful if you want to use values input during the quote creation to filter the option list, rather than fixed values defined within the product.
NOTE: Any changes made to products (including options) will affect the quote table on all proposals in draft status.