Create an Opportunity from an Outreach Activity Form

In Salesforce, Opportunities represent an "opportunity" to do business with a company and/or person.  These are generally associated with custom programs, where we are engaging with another organization to create or provide a program through a formal contract.  Opportunities are often created and accessed through the Opportunities tab on the Nav bar.

The Outreach Activity Form gathers some data that overlaps with the information needed to create an Opportunity.  Therefore a method has been established to directly create an Opportunity from an Outreach Activity Form. In order for this operation to be successful, the Activity Type field must be set to "Contract/Custom Training" or "Consulting Services and Technical Assistance" and the Client Account field must be filled in with the company name.  Also, Opportunities have stages, which can be thought of as status settings, such as "Prospecting", "Preliminary Quote", or "Closed/Won".  It is undesirable to create Opportunities at the "Closed/Won" stage, but if that is the case, the KFS number must be entered into the Activity Form prior to creating an Opportunity from it.

To create the Opportunity using the form data:

1. Locate and open the Outreach Activity Form from which you wish to create an Opportunity
2. Click the "Create Opportunity" button at the top right of the form

3. A message will appear reminding you of the various requirements mentioned at the top of this page.  Click "Ready to Continue" (or click the X at upper right to quit).
4. A form will appear with 6 fields, 3 of which are optional.  They are as follows:
   1. Stage.  This is a picklist.  Click the field to see the options.  Remember that if you are creating an Opportunity that is already closed/won, you must have entered a KFS number into the form.
   2. Close Date - the expected close date of the Opportunity, when the contract will be signed.
   3. Delivery Date - the expected date that the activity will be delivered to the customer.
   4. Expected Schedule - notes about anticipated times and other information about the schedule, for example "Every day for 3 days, 9:00am-4:30pm".
   5. Duration - usually the number of days the activity will encompass, but could also be hours or another measure if appropriate.  Like the Expected Schedule field, this is a text field and can be used in the manner deemed most appropriate for the situation.
   6. Amount if known - the dollar amount of the contract.
5. Once the form is filled out, click Continue.
6. You should see a message affirming that the Opportunity has been created:

7. Click Finish.

To review or edit the opportunity:

1. Click the Opportunities tab
2. Click the drop-down arrow next to the view name
3. Click "My Team Opportunities"
4. The new Opportunity should appear near the top of the list
5. Click on the Opportunity Name to open it

If you have difficulty accessing the information contained in this document or any document in this knowledgebase, please contact us at access-ilr@cornell.edu and we will assist you.