How to assign value to quote number that is derieved from related opportunity

Question

A new Quote assigns "Q-NNNNN" value to a newly generated quote. We want to assign value of opportunity number to a newly generated quote. For instance the Quote number will look something similar to "Q--1". Is it possible to do this?

Answer 1

This is possible on the standard Quote object. What's more, you can even do it declaratively!

Workflow to the rescue

You can create a workflow rule that only runs when a new record is inserted. Set it to run on all newly inserted Quotes by choosing the option to use a formula to use as the workflow rule criteria, and simply put true into the formula window.

Then, create a workflow field update, and choose Quote Name as the field to update.

Click the little radio button to use a formula to set the value of the field. The formula that you'll use is pretty simple, and should look something like this:

'Q-' & Opportunity.Opportunity_Number__c & '-' & NOW()

Note that there isn't a standard 'Opportunity Number' field. I used the field name from my org. If yours is different, you'll need to modify the formula accordingly.

The ampersand & in the formula is used to concatenate strings.

Sequential quote numbers that start over from 1 on each new Opportunity complicates things slightly.

NOW() returns the current date and time, which should be sufficiently unique.

Having an auto-number field on the Quote is an option, but you wouldn't be able to start over from 1 for the first Quote on subsequent Opportunities (it would keep incrementing, just like an Opportunity number)

But I reeeeeeally want sequential quote numbers

If you really want sequentially numbered Quotes on each Opportunity, e.g. Q-<Opp Number>-1, Q-<Opp Number>-2, and so on, it certainly is possible, but requires a bit more work. Still no code required, though.

Create a new rollup summary field on Opportunity that counts the number of quotes. For sake of example, I'll call this field Num_Quotes__c

Keeping in mind the order of execution, Num_Quotes__c will not be updated until after this workflow rule fires. That means to get the proper quote number, you'll need to add 1 to Num_Quotes__c.

The example formula becomes:

'Q-' & Opportunity.Opportunity_Number__c & '-' & (Opportunity.Num_Quotes__c + 1)