Pricing issues on quotes when adding duplicate product codes to opportunities

Question

We've just noticed that when adding the same product code multiple times to an opportunity and then producing a quotation, that the pricing for those duplicate products gets mixed up on the quote. The total value remains the same but the pricing on the quote line items moves to one of the other line items with that same product code. Usually this wouldn't be an issue as you would use quantity but we do have a system in place where we sometimes use a generic product code which would need to be added multiple times to an opportunity and would have different pricing assigned each time.

Has anyone seen this issue before and any ideas on how I can rectify this?

Thanks in advance.

Example of issue:

Opp line items

1. PRODUCTA - Reception Building Door - £100.00
2. PRODUCTA - Library Door - £200.00
3. PRODUCTA - Staff Entrance Door - £300.00
4. PRODUCTA - Canteen Door - £400.00

When a quote is produced the QLI pull through like this:

Quote line items

1. PRODUCTA - Reception Building Door - £200.00
2. PRODUCTA - Library Door - £400.00
3. PRODUCTA - Staff Entrance Door - £100.00
4. PRODUCTA - Canteen Door - £300.00

The pricing seems to get muddled as SF doesn't seem to know which line item to apply it to when the same code is applied to multiple line items?

Answer 1

I don't profess to have a great deal of expertise when it comes to CPQ. Below you'll see a schema diagram of the objects involved with QLI, PriceBooks, Quotes, Pricebook Entries and Product2.

I hope you can see from the above that a Quote Line Item is dependent upon a Pricebook2 and Product2 that are joined together through a PricebookEntry. From your description, it's the PricebookEntry Id that appears to be getting misplaced in your quotes.

That having been said, your Pricebook2 needs to have these unique PricebookEntries to prevent this from occurring. At least, that's my understanding of how all of this is supposed to work unless you're using a custom CPQ solution like what's available from Apptus where they do all of this for you in the background using these objects.

I suspect that your manual updates to OLI may be part of what's causing your issues. You're in effect, overriding your PricebookEntries without applying discounts or quantity changes that reconcile the adjustments. You might think of it like an accounting ledger. The books need to balance and yours aren't balancing when you use the methods you're using. If you were to add a hidden discount field to your quotes or else a hidden quantity multiplier field of some kind where the product becomes a "bundle" with a quantity of 1 as a means of allowing you to reach your adjusted price, you'd probably be able to resolve these issues.

This approach would allow you to do it without having multiple Pricebook2's. That's important as I don't believe you can use more than one Pricebook2 on the same Quote or Opportunity.