Easily Create Quotes with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and PandaDoc Integration

Posted on: March 23, 2017 | By: Jim Bertler | Microsoft Dynamics CRM

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    Creating quick, reliable quotes can be the heart and engine of many businesses. Most businesses in fact, cannot even function without an efficient way to quote a customer for services. Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales comes built-in with a quoting entity, but it is extremely cumbersome. For years Microsoft CRM has been plagued with an inefficient way to create quotes and other documents. To use quoting within Dynamics, it is necessary to maintain an up-to-date product catalog, pricing lists, currencies, unit group prices, and so on. Many organizations do not have the time or capacity to maintain lots of different and detailed data, nor do they want to maintain any of this.

As technology continues to improve since the time Microsoft CRM was originally introduced in 2003, many companies have worked to try to solve this quoting problem within Microsoft CRM. There have been many tools developed by third party companies claiming to have a fix to this problem. Logan Consulting has done extensive research on the pros and cons of different quoting tools that will actually integrate with Microsoft Dynamics. Through this research, we have found and partnered with a company that has created a fantastic tool called Pandadoc.

PandaDoc is a web based product that allows a user to quickly create quotes. Not only does it create quotes though, it will create any document, such as quotes, contracts, invoices, and proposals. It is a way to quickly design a document containing all the key features needed in an official company document.

  • It contains an easily updatable Pricing table. The pricing table lets the user add and subtract products, update quantities, add and change price while automatically updating the total price and cost instantly.

  • It contains signature blocks where the user has the ability to sign a document over a computer, tablet, or phone, and send the document to another user to instantly sign and send back to you. We have found that many companies pay separately just for an e-sign service like this whereas with PandaDoc this is just one of the many features.

  • It contains Date and Initial boxes. Aside from just being able to instantly e-sign a document, users can date the document, and input their initials as well. Date and initial boxes can be dropped in with the click of a button on any and as many spots as a user needs them.

There is so much document creation functionality with PandaDoc that I could not explain it all in this blog, but these three aspects stuck out to us as ones that are very necessary to drive a business forward. The fact that a client can receive, sign and date, and send back a proposal in a matter of seconds alone increases sales because it prevents clients from overthinking deals and not moving forward.

The way that Microsoft Dynamics and PandaDoc work together is through a simple solution import. To install PandaDoc, the user downloads the solution zip file, and imports into Microsoft Dynamics through the Settings – Solutions – Import screen. Once imported, the PandaDoc sub-grid will appear on the Account, Contact, and Opportunity entity. In your settings, you can then configure ‘Tokens’ which are fields in CRM that will populate onto your PandaDoc document when created through CRM. Configure your tokens with the important data you would like to see on your document, click create a new document on the PandaDoc sub-grid with Dynamics and you are up and running with a new document that is ready to customize and send.

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Please read our next blog on how to install and configure PandaDoc with Dynamics and how to get the most out of its functionality.

If you think that a Microsoft CRM system is your next best step for your business, contact Logan Consulting your Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner of Chicago.