Turn a won deal into an approved award and hand it over

Winning a deal is the start of a contract. The award records what you actually signed - the value, the purchase order, the payment terms and dates - checks it against the offer, and hands it over to the people who will deliver and invoice it. The awards register is also the source of your backlog: work won but not yet paid.

How an award is created

• Automatically, when a deal is marked won and your company turned on Draft an award when a deal is won in CRM settings.

• By hand: open the won opportunity, go to its Award tab and select Create award.

A won opportunity for a change to an existing contract is attached to that contract as a variation instead.

Find awards

Open CRM › Projects & Tenders › Awards. The list shows each award's Award no., Title, organisation, Opportunity, Award date, Contract value and Status. Filter by status, organisation or project, or search by award number, title, PO or contract number.

Complete the award

1. Open the award and select Edit.

2. Check the Accepted offer, the Contract value and Currency, the Award date, Start date and Completion date.

3. Enter the Customer PO no. and Customer contract no., the Advance %, Retention %, Warranty (months) and the Payment terms.

4. If the organisation is not a customer yet, choose the Customer group. Approval creates the customer in this group; submission is refused without it.

5. Select Save.

Review, plan and approve

• Contract review: select Add item for each point to check against the accepted offer, with its Risk and status: Pending, Acceptable, Issue or Waived. The award cannot be submitted while an item is pending or flagged as an issue.

• Payment milestones: select Add milestone with a percent, an amount or both, its Due date and Trigger. The milestones together may not exceed 100% or the contract value.

• Select Submit for approval. The award goes to its approvers in the approvals inbox, through your company's workflow or a single sign-off by someone other than its creator. Use Recall to take it back to draft.

When the award is approved, its commercial terms and milestone plan are frozen. Only a milestone's status (Planned, Invoiced, Paid) and invoice reference can change.

Hand over and follow up

• Handover: list what operations and finance need before work starts, each with a Responsible person. When every item is Done or Not applicable, select Complete handover. Handover pack (PDF) prints the summary for the delivery team.

• ERP document: the CRM does not issue the sales quotation or invoice. Create it in Sales, then link it here by its Document no.; this is possible once the award is approved.

• Variations: select Add variation for change orders on the approved contract. Enter a negative amount for an omission. Only approved variations count toward Value incl. variations.

• Guarantees: performance and advance-payment bonds for this award. See bank guarantees.

To stop an award, select Cancel award and give a reason; it is added to the award's notes.

Common questions

Why is Submit for approval refused? Open review items, a missing customer group for a new customer, a missing exchange rate, or milestones that exceed the value. The message tells you which.

Can I reopen the opportunity after the award exists? No. A won opportunity that has an award cannot be reopened.