Products and Prices are fundamental components in Salesforce that enable organizations to manage their catalog of goods and services effectively. Products represent the items or services a company sells, while Prices define the cost associated with those products under different conditions.
Produc…Products and Prices are fundamental components in Salesforce that enable organizations to manage their catalog of goods and services effectively. Products represent the items or services a company sells, while Prices define the cost associated with those products under different conditions.
Products in Salesforce are stored in the Product object and contain essential information such as product name, product code, description, and whether the product is active. Each product can be associated with multiple price entries, allowing flexibility in pricing strategies across different markets, currencies, or customer segments.
Price Books are collections of products and their associated prices. Salesforce provides a Standard Price Book that serves as the master list containing all products with their default prices. Organizations can create Custom Price Books to accommodate various pricing scenarios such as regional pricing, promotional discounts, partner pricing, or volume-based pricing structures.
Price Book Entries link products to specific price books and define the actual price for each product within that price book. A product must first have an entry in the Standard Price Book before it can be added to any custom price book. Each entry includes fields for list price, active status, and currency.
When creating Opportunities, sales representatives select products from applicable price books and add them as Opportunity Products (also called Line Items). This allows accurate tracking of potential revenue, including quantity, sales price, and total amount for each product in a deal.
Key benefits include standardized pricing across the organization, ability to track which products are selling best, accurate revenue forecasting, and streamlined quote generation. Administrators can control product and price book access through sharing settings and user permissions, ensuring sales teams only see relevant products and pricing for their territories or customer segments.
Schedules can also be established for products to define quantity and revenue distribution over time, supporting subscription-based or installment payment models.
Products and Prices in Salesforce: Complete Guide for Administrators
Why Products and Prices Matter
Products and Prices form the foundation of Salesforce's sales functionality. They enable organizations to maintain a catalog of items they sell and define pricing strategies across different markets, currencies, and customer segments. Understanding this concept is crucial for the Salesforce Administrator exam as it directly impacts how sales teams create quotes, opportunities, and ultimately close deals.
What Are Products and Prices?
Products are the items or services your company sells. Each product record contains details like product name, product code, description, and whether the product is active. Products exist independently of prices and can be associated with multiple price book entries.
Price Books are collections of products with their associated prices. Salesforce includes a Standard Price Book that contains the default or list price for each product. You can also create Custom Price Books for different scenarios such as: - Geographic regions - Customer tiers (wholesale vs. retail) - Promotional campaigns - Partner pricing
Price Book Entries link products to price books and define the actual price for that product within a specific price book.
How Products and Prices Work
1. Create the Product: First, define the product in the Products tab with relevant details.
2. Add to Standard Price Book: Every product must have a Standard Price Book entry before it can be added to any custom price book. This is a mandatory step.
3. Create Custom Price Books: Build additional price books for different pricing scenarios.
4. Add Price Book Entries: Associate products with custom price books and set specific prices.
5. Associate with Opportunities: When adding products to an opportunity, you must first select a price book. Only one price book can be associated with an opportunity at a time.
Key Relationships to Understand
- One Product can have multiple Price Book Entries (one per price book) - One Opportunity can have one Price Book - One Opportunity can have multiple Opportunity Products (line items) - Price Book Entries connect Products to Price Books
Important Features
Product Families: A picklist field that categorizes products into groups for reporting and organization purposes.
Product Schedules: Define how revenue or quantity is distributed over time. There are two types: - Quantity Schedules: When products are delivered in installments - Revenue Schedules: When payment is collected over time
Multi-Currency Considerations: When multi-currency is enabled, each price book entry is currency-specific.
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Products and Prices
Tip 1: Remember the mandatory sequence - a product MUST have a Standard Price Book entry before it can be added to any custom price book. This is a frequently tested concept.
Tip 2: Know that opportunities can only have ONE price book assigned at a time. If you need to change the price book, existing opportunity products may be affected.
Tip 3: Understand that deactivating a product prevents it from being added to new opportunities but does not remove it from existing opportunities.
Tip 4: Product Schedules must be enabled by an administrator before they can be used. Look for scenario questions about subscription-based or installment products.
Tip 5: When questions mention different prices for different customer segments or regions, the answer typically involves custom price books.
Tip 6: The Amount field on Opportunities is calculated by summing the Total Price of all Opportunity Products (line items).
Tip 7: Archived price books are hidden from users but retain historical data. Archived products cannot be added to opportunities.
Tip 8: For exam scenarios about setting up a new product catalog, remember the correct order: Create Products → Add to Standard Price Book → Create Custom Price Books → Add Price Book Entries.
Common Exam Scenarios
- A company needs different pricing for partners versus direct customers: Solution - Custom Price Books - A product is sold as a subscription with monthly payments: Solution - Revenue Schedules - Sales reps need to see only relevant products: Solution - Custom Price Books with appropriate sharing settings - Products are no longer sold but historical data must remain: Solution - Deactivate or Archive the products