In the typical workflow, a new customer engagement begins as a sales opportunity in Salesforce. Then, once that project reaches a specified stage in your opportunity workflow, it’s added in BigTime as a project.
This article walks through that process using an example firm, and outlines the data we pull from Salesforce in order to populate your clients, projects and contacts within BigTime.
Note: “Accounts” in Salesforce map to “clients” in BigTime. And “opportunities” in Salesforce map to “projects” in BigTime.
Create a New Bigtime Project From Salesforce Opportunity
1. Click OPPORTUNITIES on the navigation bar in Salesforce.
2. Click NEW, near the top-right corner of your window.
3. Fill out details about your new opportunity.
Here are some points to keep in mind about the above fields:
Opportunity Name is the name of the project in BigTime.
Account Name is the name of the client. If you’re creating an opportunity for an existing client, type the account name into the search box and search for it.
However, if you’re creating a new account, click into the textbox under ACCOUNT NAME and select NEW ACCOUNT. A new window will populate, and you’ll add information to the new account and click SAVE. Then, Salesforce will bring you back to the New Opportunity window.
Stage refers to where you are in the sales process. Click on the BLACK TRIANGLE under STAGE and select the option that’s most relevant to your firm. We selected “prospecting” because we’re just starting our work on this opportunity.
4. Click SAVE to save your work.
Then, you’ll see your new opportunity and it’s location in the sales workflow. We’re in the “prospecting” stage, as seen in the image below.
For our firm, when an opportunity is “closed and won” in Salesforce it becomes a project in BigTime. (We made this decision during the setup and integration process.) A new window pops up and we’ll indicate the opportunity’s status. In our case, we “won it” so we’ll select CLOSED WON from the picklist, then we’ll click SAVE.
Now the Salesforce opportunity should appear in BigTime. To verify, go to your project list in BigTime (MY COMPANY...PROJECT LIST).
Note: Refresh your Salesforce window to see your BigTime project on in Salesforce. Notice our “build website” project in the image below, under BIGTIME PROJECTS.
Now you can add details to this project in BigTime and sync it with Salesforce.