Creating an Opportunity

In Aspire, an opportunity represents work you could bid on and perform for a customer. Aspire is property-centric, meaning that most customer information, including opportunities and estimates, is connected to a customer’s property record. You'll create all opportunities from a property and all estimates from an opportunity.

This article explains how to create a basic opportunity. The steps below walk through a scenario where a business called Camille’s Oasis contacted our company, Greenscene, looking for a quote on annual lawn maintenance. We’ve already created a new contact and property record for them in the Aspire system. To get them a proposal, we start with creating an opportunity from their property. Because this is an ongoing service that repeats over a period of time, it’s going to be a contract type opportunity with a Fixed Payment invoice type.

Watch this video, or keep reading to learn how to create an opportunity.

Things to know

There are two opportunity types:
- Contracts are for recurring jobs like maintenance or snow removal. These are completed over time and can be renewed year to year.
- Work orders are for one-time jobs. These can range from small tasks to large projects that span several months.
You always create an estimate from an opportunity.
Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required. You must fill them in before you can save the opportunity or create an estimate.
The invoice type you choose in an opportunity sets the billing structure for how and when your company sends invoices and receives payments for that opportunity.
Be sure to read our guide to opportunity types and invoice types if you’re not used to creating opportunities.

Requirements

To view opportunities you need either View My Opportunities or View Opportunities added to your user role.
To create or edit opportunities, you need either Edit My Opportunities or Edit All Opportunities added to your user role.

Scenario

A business called Camille’s Oasis contacted our company, Greenscene, looking for a quote on annual lawn maintenance. We’ve already created a new contact and property record for them in the Aspire system.

To get them a proposal, we start with creating an opportunity from their property. Because this is an ongoing service that repeats over a period of time, it’s best to contract type opportunity with a Fixed Payment invoice type.

Steps

Note:
The steps below explain how to create an opportunity using only the required fields and a few basic optional ones. Read our opportunity screen reference article for more information on all the fields available when creating an opportunity.

Go to the Properties module.
Select the property you want to create the opportunity for. You can use the search bar at the top of the screen to find the property. In our example, we select Camille's Oasis.
Scroll down to the Opportunities section and select New Opportunity.
In the Templates window that appears, choose the opportunity type – Work Order or Contract. In our example, we're creating a contract with fixed payments, so we select New Contract.
Note:
The folders listed here are for selecting an opportunity template. Read our article about creating and using opportunity templates for more information.
In the Opportunity Name field, enter a brief description of the work. Make it specific enough to find in among the property’s other opportunities. In our example, we enter "Lawn Maintenance 2027".
Use the Invoice Type dropdown to select an invoice type for the opportunity. For our example, we select Fixed Payment.
Use the Sales Rep field to choose the salesperson responsible for the opportunity. This field defaults to the property’s account owner, but you can change it as needed.
Tip: The opportunity's revenue appears on the sales scorecard for the selected employee, if one exists.
Use the Division dropdown to select the division for this opportunity. This makes sure reports that show sales by division include the cost and revenue for the opportunity. For our example, we select Maintenance.
Set the Start Date and End Date for the contract. The start date is when the work begins, and the end date is when it ends. For our example, we set the start date to May 1, and the end date to April 30 of the following year.
(Optional) If this is a contract opportunity, set the Renewal Date. This is the date you expect to renew the contract for the following year.
Note:
The Master Job field fills in automatically when you renew an existing opportunity. You don't need to enter anything here for a new opportunity.
(Optional) Scroll to the bottom of the opportunity screen and fill in any of the following fields. If you’re not the person creating the estimate, what you put here can help the estimator know exactly what to quote.
- Proposal Description 1: Typically used for the scope of work.
- Proposal Description 2: Typically used for terms and conditions.
- Opportunity Invoice Notes: These notes pull into invoice layouts when generated or printed.
- Estimator Notes: Internal-only notes from the sales process to help the estimator when building the estimate.
Select Save.

Expected results

After saving, the opportunity is created and linked to the property record. The Status field displays “New”, and the opportunity is ready for you to create an estimate.

There are nuances to creating an estimate for each invoice type, so check out our guides to creating estimates for work orders and contracts.