Opportunity form in Business Contact Manager

Opportunity records help you better organize, manage, and track important details about your Opportunity, including sales stage, potential value, customer interactions, and estimated TE000129512. You can also link and add customizable details, such as communication history items and field values.

If Business Contact Manager for Outlook is integrated with your accounting system, you can also create quotes, sales orders, or invoices from an Opportunity record by clicking the Convert to button in the Options group on the Ribbon.

Note: The preceding accounting features may not be available with your accounting system. For more information, see Help in your accounting system.

The form contains four views: General, Details, History, and User-Defined Fields. Each view contains one or more sections.

The General view

The General view contains general information about the Opportunity, as well as status, source, and financial terms.

• Opportunity information

  Type a title for the Opportunity (required) and select who it is assigned to (optional).

• Linked account or business contact

  Click the Link to button to select an Account or Business Contact to link with this Opportunity (required). In the Link to an Account or a Business Contact dialog box, in the Folder, select a list of Accounts or Business Contacts, select an item in the list, and then click the Link to button. To create a new item, click New.

• Status

  Select the sales stage that the Opportunity is in. You can add stages to the Sales stage list, or edit items in the list, except for the values of Closed Won and Closed Lost.

  Enter the date that you estimate the Opportunity will close and, if you want, type the probability that it will result in a sale. To create a reminder for this Opportunity, select the Reminder check box, and then select a date and time.

  Notes: 

  • Selecting the sales stage of Closed Won or Closed Lost locks the record as a read-only file. Closed Won sets the probability to 100%; selecting the sales stage Closed Lost sets the probability to 0%.

  • The probability percentage is used to calculate the Expected revenue in the Product and services section.

• Product and services

  Add the product and service items related to this Opportunity. To add a new product or service item, click the Add button, and then in the Add Product or Service dialog box, type the information. To edit an existing item, click the Edit button. To remove an existing item, select it, and then click the Remove button.

  Note:  If Business Contact Manager for Outlook is integrated with your accounting system, the list could include items from your accounting system and items that are listed only in Business Contact Manager for Outlook. New items that are added using the Products and Services form are not integrated into the Items list in your accounting system. The Description, Unit cost, and Unit Price fields are not editable for items that come from your accounting system.

• Categories

  To categorize this Opportunity by color, on the Ribbon, in the Options group, click the Categorize button.

• Source information

  Enter the source of the Opportunity, who it was initiated by, any competitors (you can enter up to 100 characters in this field), and the type of order the Opportunity is expected to place. To add items to the Source or Type lists, or edit the default items, select Edit this list.

• Terms

  Select the payment terms, expiration date, and delivery date.

Note: In the General view, the Sales stage, Source, and Type fields are customizable.

The Details view

The Details view contains comments about the Opportunity. You can paste comments from other files or add comments directly to the record. Click the Add Time Stamp button to date your comments.

The History view

The History view contains all the communication history items linked with this record. Click the down    arrow in the View field to select a view type for the list. Double-click a communication history item to open it. You can create more detailed history about the Opportunity by clicking the New button and then linking an item—such as a business note, phone log, appointment, or task—to the record.

The Financial History view

If Business Contact Manager for Outlook is integrated with your accounting system and this record has financial transactions, you can view its transactions in this view. Double-click any transaction to view it.

• Transaction list

  Date     Click the column header to sort the list by the transaction date.

  Document #     Click the column header to sort the list by the document number.

  Business Contact     Click the column header to sort the list by the name of the Business Contact.

  Type     Click the column header to sort the list by the type of transaction.

  Total Amount     Click the column header to sort the list by the total amount of the transaction.

Note: The preceding accounting features may not be available with your accounting system. For more information, see Help in your accounting system.

The User-Defined Fields view (custom fields)

The User-Defined Fields view contains custom fields that you create and organize. Fields are organized by group and displayed in two columns.

On the Ribbon, in the Options group, click the Customize Form button to either create or manage the fields and groups. For more information about customizing a form, see the following topics:

• Customize your Business Contact Manager forms through user-defined fields

• Customize drop-down lists on Business Contact Manager forms

Ribbon navigation

The form contains the following buttons—located on the Ribbon, which is part of the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface—that are specific to Business Contact Manager for Outlook.

In the group	Click	To
Show	General	Display the General view on the form, which allows you to enter basic information.
Show	Details	Display the Details view on the form, which allows you to enter more personalized information.
Show	History	Display all communication history items for this specific record.
Show	User-Defined Fields	Display all user-defined fields that have been customized for this form.
Communicate	New History Item	Add a new business note, phone log, Opportunity, Business Project, task, e-mail message, appointment, or file to the Communication History of the record.
Options	Customize Form	Add user-defined fields to this form.
Options	E-mail Auto-link	Automatically link e-mail messages to and from the e-mail address in this record. Note: If there is no available e-mail address, this button appears dimmed.
Options	Check Names	Resolve the e-mail address or linked record, and ensure it is valid.

Note: To access the Opportunity form, on the Business Contact Manager menu, click Opportunities, and then double-click an Opportunity.