by Alex Reeves 
Salesforce CPQ has many functions and features to help automate and improve your business processes. The Contracts and Renewal process is a key element for any business.
The built-in automation in Salesforce CPQ allows you to automatically create your Contracts and generate Renewal Opportunities as part of the ‘post closed won’ process.
Salesforce CPQ automatically transitions from accepting a quote to creating a renewal, as shown here:
Salesforce CPQ utilizes the standard Salesforce Contract object and automatically generates subscription records for any subscription-based products added to the Quote.
How to create Contracts and key information
There are two ways in which you can create Contracts within Salesforce, and deciding which way to do so will depend upon your business process and whether you will be utilising Order Management within Salesforce CPQ.
- Option 1 – generate a Contract from an Order record by checking the ‘Contracted’ field on the Order
- Option 2 – generate a Contract from an Opportunity record by checking the ‘Contracted’ field on the Opportunity
Orders do not have to be used within Salesforce CPQ. As you can see from the example above, you can create Contract records without them. Based on your internal requirements, you should consider if Orders should be part of the process. For example, a typical use case would be planned integrations with an ERP system.
Subscription records will be created and linked to your Contracts, matching any subscription products added to the Quote. If the product features subscription pricing but has a one-time price dimension, asset records are generated and linked to the Contract instead of Subscriptions.
Looking for help with CPQ?
Alex ReevesSalesforce & CPQ Consultant
How to Generate a Renewal Opportunity
You can create the Renewal Opportunity in two different ways, but both of these start from the Contract record. This is done via one of two checkbox fields – ‘Renewal Forecast’ and ‘Renewal Quoted’. As these are checkbox fields, you’ll need to tick them to create the renewal.
Here’s the difference between the two fields:
- Renewal Forecast
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- A Renewal Opportunity with products is created, without a Quote record. Technically, a ghost quote is created in the background to sync the products, then it is deleted.
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- Renewal Quoted
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- A Renewal Opportunity with a Quote (and Quote Lines) is created
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Initially ticking the “Renewal Forecast” is necessary to create the renewal opportunity for forecasting or reporting purposes. When ready to quote, you can click the “Renewal Quoted” checkbox. This will then create the quote on the pre-existing renewal opportunity.
*Tip* – If any amendments are made to the Contract, those changes will be included when Renewal Quoted is ticked. Therefore, waiting to tick Renewal Quoted until closer to the renewal date is best practice.
Automating the Contract & Renewal Process
As you only need to check certain fields to generate the Contracts and Renewals, we would recommend that you utilise Flow to automate the process so that your users do not need to manually update the records each time.
Record Triggered Flows can be created that will automatically tick the ‘Contracted’ and ‘Renewal Forecasted’ checkboxes at the points in your process that you need to create the Contract and Renewal Opportunity records. This will help save your reps time and reduce clicks by automating the process so that they can focus on other activities. Following this approach will also guarantee the consistent execution of the same process each time, eliminating any potential user errors from manual input.
When to move to CPQ?
Salesforce CPQ is a powerful tool that helps you structure your product catalogue and reduce time spent on Quotes and Pricing products.
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Unsure as to whether you need to move from standard products and Quotes to CPQ? Get in touch with our team today.