SECTIONSNew Features and Enhancements in Services CPQ September 2023
The following new features have been introduced in the September 2023 release of Services CPQ.
If you are upgrading from a previous version, see Upgrading to Services CPQ September 2023. This provides a summary of the items that have been added for each feature and details of any required upgrade steps.
Using the Improved Hours Breakdown
We have enhanced the Hours Breakdown in the following ways:
- You can now access the Hours Breakdown using the view switcher, instead of a button which opens a new window.
- Role requests now have a default spread of hours, which assumes a Monday to Friday working week and takes into account the dates of the role request.
- If you remove or add hours at either end of the role request, the start and end dates update to reflect the new hours.
- You can copy and paste the hours breakdown of a role request.
Schedules for role requests are also now automatically created when the Builder is loaded. These schedules update with any changes in the Builder. Previously, schedules were only created when a role request had its hours edited in the Hours Breakdown window. For more information, see Using the Hours Breakdown.
Currency Conversion for Estimates
When adding to an estimate from a template, you can now select estimates that are in a different currency to the target estimate. The values on estimated expenses, vendor line items, and in any copied Currency fields are converted into the target estimate's currency. To accommodate this new functionality, we have added new fields to the Estimate and Estimate Product Instance objects. However, these fields are not used for any functionality in this release. They will be automatically populated in a future release. For more information, see Adding from an Estimate Template, Estimate Fields, and Estimate Product Instance Fields.
An administrator can disable this behavior so that only estimate templates that are in the same currency in the target estimate can be selected in the Add from Template window. This behavior can also be disabled in the Manage Products window. For more information, see SCPQ Actions Lightning Component Properties.
Finally, when creating an estimate from an opportunity or a quote, you can now filter the estimate templates so that only those in the same currency as the opportunity are displayed. For more information, see Creating an Estimate.
Manage Suggested Resource Cost Rates
When assigning suggested resources to role requests, you can now use the average cost rate on the role request's associated rate card instead of the default cost rate on the selected suggested resource's contact card as the cost rate for the role request.
For more information, see Estimate Role Request Fields and Managing Custom Settings from Setup.
Manage Estimate Billing Types
We have added new fields to the Estimate object, which enable you to define the following default values for line sets independent of estimate products:
- Billing type, using the Independent Line Set Billing Type field
- Margin percentage for line sets with a billing type of "Fixed Price", using the Independent Line Set FP Margin (%) field
An administrator can populate the Independent Line Sets Billing Type field as Time and Materials on existing estimates by enabling the Services CPQ September 2023 feature in the Feature Console. For more information, see Estimate Fields and Enabling and Disabling Features.
Create Estimate Window Enhancements
An administrator can now choose the fields that are displayed in the filters panel when creating an estimate. We have also created a default field set that defines the fields that are displayed in the estimate template summary cards when creating an estimate, so that they're no longer blank by default. For more information, see Managing Custom Settings from Setup, Estimate Field Sets, and Creating an Estimate
Creating a Project from the Opportunity Record Page
We have introduced the Create Project from Estimate action on the Opportunity record page, which enables you to create a project from the primary estimate associated with that opportunity. For more information, see Creating a Project from an Estimate, Services CPQ Lightning Components, and Setting up Services CPQ.
Locking an Estimate
We’ve added the Locked field to the Estimate object which enables an administrator to lock an estimate so that all records associated with it are uneditable. This is useful when, for example, submitting an estimate for approval or awaiting a signature on a statement of work. For more information, see Configuring an Estimate and Estimate Fields.
Repushing Role Requests
When pushing previously pushed estimate products and independent records to opportunity, the existing resource requests are now updated with the changes made on the role requests. Previously, when role requests were edited and repushed to opportunity, the related resource requests were deleted and recreated.
We’ve introduced the Resource Request Recreation Fields field on the Services CPQ custom setting. This enables you to specify a field set that when edited on the associated role requests and repushed to opportunity, the existing resource request is deleted and recreated. For more information, see Pushing an Estimate to an Opportunity.
Rate Cards
We have created the RateCardMatcherPlugin API that provides an interface that can be used to create plugins to be executed during the matching of rate cards. The plugins customize how the best matching rate cards are chosen. For more information, see Permission Sets and Other Technical Documentation.
We have added a Rate Card field to the Estimate Role Request object, so that you can easily identify the rate card that's being used to determine the role request's cost rate and bill rate. For more information, see Estimate Role Request Fields.
Setting an Estimate as Primary
You can now use the new Set as Primary button to set an estimate as the primary one for the associated opportunity. To accommodate this change, we have removed the Primary checkbox from the Variables tab. For more information, see Setting an Estimate as Primary and Pushing an Estimate to an Opportunity
Work Breakdown View
We have renamed the Grid view in the Estimate Builder to Work Breakdown. For more information, see Estimate Builder Lightning Component Fields.
Services CPQ – Salesforce CPQ Connector
You can now use the new Create Estimate window introduced in the Services CPQ Summer 2023 release in the Services CPQ – Salesforce CPQ Connector. We have also added the New Estimate Additional Fields field set, which enables your administrator to define the additional fields displayed when creating a new estimate using the Services CPQ – Salesforce CPQ Connector. By default, the field set includes the Quote field. For more information, see Creating an Estimate and Estimate Field Sets.
When syncing an estimate with a quote, you can now use the new Product field on the Estimate object introduced in the Services CPQSummer 2023 release in the Services CPQ – Salesforce CPQ Connector. This field enables you to select the active product you want to use to create an opportunity product when syncing records independent of estimate products to quote.
Custom Actions and APIs
When using the Add from Estimate Template, Add Estimate Product, and Create Estimates custom actions, you can now specify a region, practice, or group to override the ones specified on the source role requests. When using their equivalent APIs, you can override any supported field on any supported object. For more information, see Permission Sets and Other Technical Documentation and Custom Actions.
Permissions
For information about the changes to permissions in this release, see Permission Sets and Other Technical Documentation.
Fixes
Fixes are listed on the Known Issues page of the Certinia Community. You can access this page from the Community Support Hub. For a brief description of the issues that have been fixed in this version of Services CPQ, see the relevant section of the Known Issues page.