CRM On Demand Learning Blog

Note: I developed this article from discussions with Cari Aves, so thank you, Cari!

Why is the ability to customize related information sections such a popular enhancement in Release 16? Well, displaying certain fields in the sections lets users review their most critical information without drilling down on related information records. You can eliminate that pesky go-back-to-the-previous-record step!

Even better, if the Inline Edit feature is enabled at your company, users can also update that information right there in the related information sections, saving them a lot of time.

Let’s take the Product Revenue section linked to opportunities as an example. Here’s how the default section appears when a sales rep goes to an Opportunity Detail page:

Notice that the first column is Product Name, second is Quantity, and so on. From this related information section, the sales reps can update the quantity and pricing fields. If your company bases forecasting on products, clicking the Update Opportunity Totals also lets them see the impact of those changes—maybe discounted prices on a specific product—on the opportunity total revenue. This helps your sales reps work through several scenarios before deciding on one.

However, let’s say that your sales reps also want to specify which line item is included in the Forecast field when forecasts are generated. They want to see the Forecast check box as the first column and the Revenue field as the second column. Their final layout should look like this:

To make this requested change, you first need to create the related information layout. In our example, you’ll be customizing the Product Revenue related information layout linked to Opportunity records (the "primary record"):

1. Click Admin > Application Customization > Opportunity > Opportunity Related Information Layout. This takes you to the list of related information sections available for Opportunity records.


2. Click Product Revenues.


3. Copy the standard layout and name it: Forecast & Revenue.


4. In Step 2, add Forecast to the Selected Fields box, and then move Revenue up in the list:



5. Click Finish.

1. From the Admin page, click Application Customization > Opportunity > Opportunity Page Layout.


2. Click the Edit link next to your role so that you can test it. Later, you’ll follow these steps for the roles whose layout you want to change.


3. Go to Step 5 in the Page Layout wizard.


4. In the Product Revenue row, select the new layout: Forecast & Revenue



5. Click Finish.

You can go immediately to any opportunity record to make sure the change has been applied. Scroll down to the Product Revenue section and verify that the Forecast check box appears in the first column, where sales reps will be able to select or deselect a line item:

To test it further, update a product price in the Product Revenue section using Inline Edit:

The Revenue field is updated immediately:

Then click the Update Opportunity Totals button to recalculate the Revenue number on the opportunity record itself:

Just to round out our discussion, I want to remind you of a few things:

• Other fields, such as Close Date, determine what products and opportunities are included in the generated forecasts. For more information on forecasting, see online Help, My Oracle Support, and specifically the Sales: Accurate Forecasting and Pipeline Analysis Webinar.


• Related information sections can be different for different primary records. In other words, the contact records linked to accounts can display certain fields in one sequence. For activities, the linked contact records can display other fields or display the same fields but in a different sequence. That’s why the first step in setting up related information sections is to go to the section for customizing the primary record.


• You can use the same primary record-related information layout across different roles. The new layout appears in the drop-down list for all roles (Step 5 in the Page Layout wizard).


• The Record Preview feature allows you to see some important fields for linked records in the top section of the Detail pages themselves. This is another feature that is enabled across your company, giving users visibility to the right information in the quickest fashion and without moving from one page to another!

OK, now that you’ve seen this example, what other ways can you effectively use this capability? We’d like to know so that others can learn from you! Just comment on this article to share your knowledge!