How to make sure that an oppty is created upon lead conversion?

Question

Once a lead is converted, there is a special oppty that is created, which is related to the converted lead. This is mostly used by marketing for lead-to-cash reports.

What happens with our salesteam, is that they do not create an oppty once the lead is converted.

This causes marketing to "loose" data.

How can I make sure that the oppty will be created upon conversion?

In the past, the conversion page was uneditable. SF help pages offer the opposite of my need: How to make sure that an oppty will NOT be created.

I want to hide the checkbox - so an oppty will always be create.

Can I?

Answer 1

You cannot hide the checkbox on the conversion page. You can however prevent conversion without an opportunity using a validation rule on Lead (Setup -> Customize -> Leads -> Validation Rules -> New). Give your new rule a name, and set the error condition formula to IsConverted && ConvertedOpportunityId == null. Set an error message, for example, 'All converted leads must have an opportunity. Please uncheck the "Do not create a new opportunity box" and try again.'

Answer 2

You can create a Visualforce page, and a custom extension to enforce this logic. You can also write a trigger that forces this:

trigger PreventLeadConvertNoOppTrigger on Lead (after update) {
    for(Lead record: Trigger.new) {
        if(record.IsConverted && !Trigger.oldMap.get(record.Id).IsConverted && record.ConvertedOpportunityId == null) {
            record.ConvertedOpportunityId.addError('You must provide an opportunity when converting leads.');
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

I know this isn't config only which is likely more ideal, but you could write an after trigger on leads and create the opportunity there.

Something like this

trigger LeadTrigger on Lead (after update) {
    set<Id> leadIDs = new set<Id>();
    for(Lead l : newLeads){
         if(l.isConverted == true && oldMap.get(l.Id).isConverted == false && l.ConvertedOpportunityId == null){
              leadIDs.add(l.Id);            
         }
    }
    list<Opportunity> opps = new list<Opportunity>();
    for(Lead l : [Select Id, Name, Other_fields_you_want From Lead Where Id In : leadIds]){
         opps.add(new Opportunity(
              Name = 'Opp Name',
              Your_Field__c = 'Your Value'
         ));
    }
    insert opps;
}