The General view contains general information about the Opportunity (Opportunity: The chance to sell your products or services to an Account or Business Contact.), as well as status, source, and financial terms.

• Opportunity information

  Type a title for the Opportunity (required) and select who it is assigned to (optional).

• Linked account or business contact

  Click the Link to button to select an Account (Account: A business or organization with which you do business. If a service is being provided, such as dental or medical, an Account can also be a customer.) or Business Contact (Business Contact: A person with whom you do business at a company or organization.) to link with this Opportunity (required). In the Link to an Account or a Business Contact dialog box, in the Folder, select a list of Accounts or Business Contacts, select an item in the list, and then click the Link to button. To create a new item, click New.

• Status

  Select the sales stage that the Opportunity is in. You can add stages to the Sales stage list, or edit items in the list, except for the values of Closed Won and Closed Lost.

  Enter the date that you estimate the Opportunity will close and, if you want, type the probability that it will result in a sale. To create a reminder for this Opportunity, select the Reminder check box, and then select a date and time.

    Notes  

  • Selecting the sales stage of Closed Won or Closed Lost locks the record as a read-only file. Closed Won sets the probability to 100%; selecting the sales stage Closed Lost sets the probability to 0%.
  • The probability percentage is used to calculate the Expected revenue in the Product and services section.

• Product and services

  Add the product and service items (product and service items: Goods and services that you purchase or sell, or offer for purchase or sale.) related to this Opportunity (Opportunity: The chance to sell your products or services to an Account or Business Contact.). To add a new product or service item, click the Add button, and then in the Add Product or Service dialog box, type the information. To edit an existing item, click the Edit button. To remove an existing item, select it, and then click the Remove button.

   Note    If Business Contact Manager for Outlook is integrated with your accounting system, the list could include items from your accounting system and items that are listed only in Business Contact Manager for Outlook. New items that are added using the Products and Services form are not integrated into the Items list in your accounting system. The Description, Unit cost, and Unit Price fields are not editable for items that come from your accounting system.

• Categories

  To categorize this Opportunity by color, on the Ribbon (ribbon: An element that replaces most menus, toolbars, and task panes. The ribbon features task-based tabs that contain tools and options organized into logical groups.), in the Options group, click the Categorize button.

• Source information

  Enter the source of the Opportunity, who it was initiated by, any competitors (you can enter up to 100 characters in this field), and the type of order the Opportunity is expected to place. To add items to the Source or Type lists, or edit the default items, select Edit this list.

• Terms

  Select the payment terms, expiration date, and delivery date.

 Note   In the General view, the Sales stage, Source, and Type fields are customizable.

If Business Contact Manager for Outlook is integrated with your accounting system (accounting system: The accounting program.) and this record (record: A completed Account, Business Contact, or Opportunity form. The record contains Account, Business Contact, or Opportunity information, plus the other records and items that are linked to it.) has financial transactions, you can view its transactions in this view. Double-click any transaction to view it.

• Transaction list

  Date  Click the column header to sort the list by the transaction date.

  Document #  Click the column header to sort the list by the document number.

  Business Contact  Click the column header to sort the list by the name of the Business Contact (Business Contact: A person with whom you do business at a company or organization.).

  Type  Click the column header to sort the list by the type of transaction.

  Total Amount  Click the column header to sort the list by the total amount of the transaction.

 Note   The preceding accounting features may not be available with your accounting system. For more information, see Help in your accounting system.

The User-Defined Fields (user-defined field: A field that you can create and define to track information specific to your business.) view contains custom fields that you create and organize. Fields are organized by group (group: A set of items with one common attribute; for example, priority or status. Also, to group is to combine items with a common attribute under a shared heading in a table or on a timeline.) and displayed in two columns.

On the Ribbon (ribbon: An element that replaces most menus, toolbars, and task panes. The ribbon features task-based tabs that contain tools and options organized into logical groups.), in the Options group, click the Customize Form button to either create or manage the fields and groups. For more information about customizing a form, see the following topics:

• Customize your Business Contact Manager forms through user-defined fields
• Customize drop-down lists on Business Contact Manager forms