Purpose
🧠 Did you know opportunity templates can be created off of opportunities in Aspire?
Creating Opportunity Templates are a great idea for:
Bidding similar jobs in your divisions, when it comes to material job costing, labor rates, and travel time
Creating overall consistency with your proposals.
Saving time having to create estimates from scratch.
After a template is created, you can use it for future estimates on jobs and save time when bidding.
Creating an Opportunity Template
⚠️ Before you start creating a template from an opportunity, review the sales tax on services.
📌 Note: Users that have Edit All Opportunities can create templates. Those that have Edit My Opportunities permission can create templates for their opportunities.
To create an opportunity template, click the Opportunities module.
Select the opportunity that you will use to create the template.
Select the three dot menu in the upper left, and click Save as Template.
The Save Opportunity Template screen appears. Assign the branches that you want to have access to use this template, and decide if you want this template to be a Quick Ticket Template by checking the box.
Press Save.
🧠 When saved, the template takes the name of the original opportunity. You can always edit the opportunity name in Administration. We'll talk about how to do this in the next section.
Opportunity Template Management
Once an opportunity template is created, your team can manage them inside of Administration.
📌 Note: Users that have System Administrator level permission plus the Manage Opportunity Templates permission can edit or make adjustments to opportunity templates.
📌 Note: If Enhanced Branch Admin Security is set for your companies' Aspire account, Branch Administrators that have the Edit All Opportunities permission can edit opportunity templates.
Click your Profile Icon and then Administration.
Select Estimating and then Opportunity Templates to review the list of saved opportunity templates.
Clicking into a template from the list shows what was copied from the original opportunity. You can make further edits to the template on this screen, such as adding additional assigned branches, or adding your Terms and Conditions to the proposal boxes.
⚠️ Opportunity templates cannot be deleted in Aspire once they are created. To prevent opportunity templates from being available for the creation of new opportunities, remove all branches from the opportunity template, and add Do Not Use in the opportunity name.
Using the Template on an Estimate
Opportunity templates are available when creating new opportunities. Go to the Properties module to begin this step.
Select Properties from the blue side menu.
Choose the property that you will use with the opportunity template.
Select the New Opportunity button in the Opportunities section of the property record.
The Templates window appears. Choose your template by opening the folders for your divisions, and select your template.
The opportunity is created and pulls in the information from the template. Make any additional changes on the opportunity and then, create your estimate to continue with estimating for your job.
Click Create Estimate on your opportunity.
The Create Estimate from Template window appears. Update the checkboxes as needed for your new estimate.
In the following section, we will discuss the functions of each checkbox.
Update Checkbox Options
Creating an estimate from a template, there are checkboxes that you can click on what you want updated onto your new opportunity.
Update Takeoffs
When this option is checked:
Aspire will search the property for takeoffs and will apply these takeoff values to the items or kits defined in the opportunity estimate.
📌 If an item or kit does not have a takeoff item assigned in the item catalog, Aspire will place a zero in the quantity field.
It is important to remember the above when creating a new T&M estimate from a template, copying an estimate, or doing a renewal. The system will return zero for those fields that may have been previously filled in with values like number of hours or quantity of materials.
⚠️ Do not select this option unless you want the system to find the takeoff values of the property for the first time for the proposal.
Update Costs
When this option is checked:
Aspire will update costs for items and items in kits based on values in the item catalog rather than values in the template or opportunity that is being copied. This will recalculate prices for the estimate.
It is recommended that this option is selected if you want to estimate based on current item prices.
⚠️ Do not select this option if you want the pricing to stay the same as before.
Update Prices
When this option is checked:
Aspire will set the markups for all the services on the copied opportunity based on the markups defined on the Pricing Mark-Ups screen in Estimating. This will recalculate prices for estimates that have been created using the copy function or when creating renewals.
In situations where the system markups have changed since the time the original opportunity was created, this might be important to consider.
It is recommended that you check this option whenever creating a new estimate so that you are using the most current system markups for your estimate.
⚠️ Do not select this option if you want the pricing to stay the same as before.
For Overrides
If you have set overrides on a service in an opportunity from which a new opportunity is being created, this option will have no effect on the markups. The override will be used for the newly created opportunity.
Update Kits
When this option is checked:
Aspire will update items and production rates for all services of the newly created opportunity based on kits defined in the item catalog. This will recalculate prices for estimates that have been created using the copy function or when creating renewals.
It is recommended that you check this option when creating a new estimate so that you are using the most current system kits for your estimate.
⚠️ Do not select this option if you want the pricing to stay the same as before. Your company may use template specific production factors and updating kits reverts back to the catalog factors.
Using an Opportunity Template vs. Copying an Opportunity
There are two features that relate to moving existing opportunity information to another opportunity. Using an opportunity template and copying an opportunity are similar in nature; here are some examples of when you might want to use one over the other.
In this article, we discussed opportunity template creation and being able to use it for future estimates on jobs and save time when bidding. Using templates is especially helpful if you have jobs that are similar when it comes to labor, material, and travel time hours across your divisions.
Copying Opportunities is another powerful feature in Aspire that you can use when working with estimates that need to be duplicated. The copying of an opportunity is good for job bids you lost previously, and are resuming work for and need to rebid the estimate based on your new years' pricing. You could copy the opportunity, update your pricing and resend the proposal to your customer for approval. This process would create a new opportunity with your desired property details in addition to the new estimate.
Additionally, some use the Copy option if an opportunity needs correction without having to create a change order, especially after work has started. This process would also use the swap work ticket costs feature in Aspire. To learn about swapping work ticket costs, read here. After copying your opportunity that was corrected, and swapping the work ticket costs, you could delete the old opportunity.
Knowledge Base reference on Copying Opportunities is found here.