Priorities of Discount Schedules across different objects in Salesforce CPQ

There are discount schedules on a few objects in Salesforce CPQ :

1. Contracted Price
2. Product Feature
3. Product Option
4. Product

But which one takes priority? Below is the diagram and notes which explain the priority of discount schedules in Salesforce CPQ

      Contracted Price Discount Schedule : 

If you generated a contracted price from a product that has a discount schedule, then this field refers to the discount schedule on the product record. If you manually created the contracted price, you can define the discount schedule on the contracted price record. As long as the contracted price is active, the discount schedule on the Contracted Price record overrides the discount schedule on the product record.

       Product Option Discount Schedule : 

Applies this discount schedule to quote lines generated from the product option. The discount schedule overrides discount schedules on the product or feature related to this product option. This field is useful when you have a product sold standalone or as part of a bundle and want unique discount schedules for each type of sale.

       

       Product Feature Discount Schedule : 

Lookup to a Discount Schedule that applies to all this feature's options. This value overrides any discount schedule defined on the product option's product record. However, it doesn't override a discount schedule on the product option record.

       

       Product Discount Schedule : 

Lookup to a Discount Schedule that applies to the Product record.

Salesforce CPQ : Order Management Plugin to populate Order's Start Date

Salesforce CPQ provides two options to set the Order Start Date :

1. Quote Start Date
2. Today's Date

What if you want to populate the Start Date of the Order to a specific date from Quote, admin or developer will 

1. Create a Process Builder to populate from Quote
2. Before Trigger on Order to populate the Start Date

The disadvantages of the above approach are an extra update on the Order and its custom build. This approach is likely to conflict with CPQ automation and validation. By default, CPQ will set the Order Start Date according to the package setting. When Order Start Date is set, managed Apex Triggers set Order Product Start Dates and End Dates, preserving the overall term length.

What are the options available out of the box from Salesforce CPQ?

Order Management Plugin : 

1. Is used to set the Start Date of the Order, Salesforce CPQ automatically calls the plugin code to populate the Start Date of the Order.
2. When the Start Date of the Order is set, Order Lines Start Date and End Date is adjusted accordingly.
3. Order Management Plugin is just used to populated the Start Date of Order but not any other fields on Order
4. The advantage of the plugin is you can also check any business logic in the apex class. Based on the Quote type you can set the Start Date. Say for example amendment Quote Start Date will be always Order Start Date this will ensure Subscription End Date doesn't cross the End Date of Contract.

Setup :

1. Create a field on Quote object called Order_Start_Date__c this can be a formula date field or date field.
2. Create a new apex class that implements SBQQ.OrderManagementPlugin
3. The name of the Apex class for the Order Management Plugin(i.e CPQ_OrderPlugin) goes in the field Order Management Plugin in the Plugins tab of the CPQ Package Settings. 
4. Go to the Order tab in the CPQ package settings and set Default Order Start Date to "-- None --". If any other value is populated here, it overrides the plugin.

Code : 

1. You can find the plugin code in GitHub code: https://github.com/laxmanrao564sf/OrderPluginSalesforceCPQ

Conclusion :

1. First preference is always to use out of the box configuration feature from CPQ
2. Second preference is to check if there are any APIs/Plugins provided by CPQ
3. Go for a custom build.

Automate Opportunity & Quote Creation without code - CPQ

Usually, if we need to create the Opportunity & Quote on a click of a button we automate using apex code and lightning components.  The disadvantages are :

1. Admins can't change the code and need to be done by a developer.
2. Needs to write a test class

How can we achieve this without code: Flows(Flow Builder) is a powerful feature where you can use the forms and perform Dml operations. 

What is a Flow :
Flow is an application inside the Salesforce that automates a business process by collecting the data and performing operations in your org or an external system. Flow can fetch, delete, update and create records on multiple objects. Flows in Salesforce can be implemented in two ways Screen Flows Auto-launched Flow.

Screen Flows
In this type of flow, there will be a series of screen elements to gather information from the user and perform some operation. Screen flows can be accessed from custom buttons, custom links, Visualforce Pages, etc. This type of flow is implemented if user interaction is needed in the process.

Auto-launched Flow
Auto-screenshot runs in the background without any user interaction. Auto-launched flows can be accessed from custom buttons, custom links, Visualforce Pages, process builder, and Apex, etc.


Below are the steps flows does in the solution : 

1. Query the Account fields in the flow 
2. Flow Screen 
1. To Capture Opportunity Fields
2. To Capture Quote fields.
3. Assign the Capture variables to Opportunity
4. Perform DML on the Opportunity record
5. Assign the Capture variables to Quote including assigning the Opportunity Id inserted in the Step4
6. Perform DML on the Quote record

You can try the demo of the working solution in the community : 

1. Open the below URL: https://resourcefulbear0904-developer-edition.um1.force.com/customersupport/s/detail/0013z00002PVFd3AAH?language=en_US
2. Hit the button Create Oppty & Quote on the Account Detail page

Interesting facts : 

1. In the screen component, you can have lookup fields also for the object which will give the ability for the Users to select corresponding object records (like Accounts)
2. You can invoke Apex code from the flow if needed
3. You can call lighting components from the flow. 
4. If you have enabled multi-currency you can populate CurrecyIsoCode from the Account which is not possible using the Quick Action.

Conclusion :

1. Flows are not a replacement for apex code or lighting components, do the things declaratively as much as you can and use customizations when it's absolutely necessary. Developer/Architect should take a wise decision between declarative and customization. 
2. Solution demo in the community is just to explain how fast the platform is and what can be done using the flows as an example*
3. I have discussed about Opportunity & Quote to create from Flow. You can create Flows to create most of the objects and automate them.

Github code :

1. https://github.com/laxmanrao564sf/CreateOpptyQuoteFlow

* Please note there will licensing involved(eg to use CPQ in the communities etc).