New Business Quote
A New Business quote in Salesforce CPQ is the quote type generated when a customer has no existing subscription or active contract for the products being sold.
Definition
A New Business quote in Salesforce CPQ is the quote type generated when a customer has no existing subscription or active contract for the products being sold. It is the first quote in a customer relationship for a given product family. CPQ distinguishes between four quote types: New Business, Renewal, Amendment, and Co-Term. The type drives which workflow runs, which pricing rules apply, and how the resulting subscriptions get stamped on the contract.
New Business quotes start fresh: every line is a new subscription with a fresh start date, no proration against an existing term, and standard list-price logic. They are usually created directly from an Opportunity with the Generate Quote button, where the sales rep configures products, applies discounts, and submits for approval. Once Order Now or Contracted, the resulting subscriptions become the baseline against which Amendment and Renewal quotes are calculated.
How the New Business quote type shapes CPQ workflow
How CPQ assigns the quote type
The SBQQ__Type__c field on the Quote object holds the type. When a quote is generated from an Opportunity using the standard CPQ button, the type defaults to New Business. CPQ flips the type to Renewal when the renewal automation fires from a Contract, to Amendment when the Amend button runs from a Contract, and to Co-Term when an Amendment is co-terminated with the existing end date. Custom buttons and Flows can override the default, but doing so without understanding the downstream effects breaks the Order and Contract creation chain.
Why the type matters for pricing
Price Rules and Discount Schedules can target a specific quote type. A New Business price rule might give a 10 percent first-year discount; the same rule should not run on a Renewal because that would double-discount returning customers. CPQ developers use the SBQQ__Type__c field in the Conditions Met section of every Price Rule to scope behavior correctly. Misfiring rules is the most common cause of revenue leakage in mature CPQ implementations.
Subscription start dates and term lengths
On a New Business quote, the Subscription Start Date defaults to the Quote Start Date, and the Subscription Term defaults to either the Quote Subscription Term or the product's Default Subscription Term. There is no proration; the customer pays the full annualized price for the full term. The resulting Subscription records on the Contract use these dates as the source of truth for every future Renewal and Amendment calculation.
Contract generation from a New Business quote
When a New Business quote is marked Ordered or Primary plus Order Now equals true, CPQ creates an Order, an Order Product per line, and (if the Subscription product line was bought) a Contract with one Subscription per subscription product. The Contract Start Date typically equals the earliest Subscription Start Date; the Contract End Date follows the longest Subscription End Date. These dates lock in the Co-Term math for any future Amendment.
Approval routing differences
Most enterprise approval rules differentiate by quote type. A 20 percent discount on a New Business quote might need VP Sales approval; the same discount on a Renewal might need CFO approval because the precedent affects every future renewal. Approval Process objects in CPQ check the quote type in the entry criteria, so each path can have a different chain of approvers, a different SLA, and a different escalation policy.
Tracking New Business vs Expansion revenue
Finance teams treat New Business ARR (first-time customers) and Expansion ARR (existing customers buying more) as separate metrics, often with different commission rates. CPQ does not distinguish these by default; both are New Business quote type. Build a custom field on Account such as First Closed Won Date and use a Flow to flag the Opportunity as New Logo vs Expansion based on whether prior closed-won deals exist. Then the dashboard can split out the two even though the underlying quote type is the same.
How to create a New Business quote in CPQ
The standard CPQ flow generates a New Business quote in two clicks from an Opportunity. Confirm the Opportunity has a Primary Account, a Price Book, and a populated Close Date before clicking the button or CPQ throws a validation error.
- Open the Opportunity and click New Quote
The New Quote button (or its renamed equivalent in your org) creates a Quote record with SBQQ__Type__c set to Quote and SBQQ__Type__c set to New Business by default. The quote links back to the Opportunity via the SBQQ__Opportunity2__c lookup.
- Open the Quote Line Editor and add products
Click Edit Lines to enter the Quote Line Editor. Add products via the Add Products button or directly through guided selling. Configure bundles, set quantities, set subscription terms, and apply manual discounts where allowed.
- Apply pricing and discount logic
CPQ runs Calculate Price automatically on save. Verify that Price Rules with New-Business-specific conditions fired (check the Calculated Status field). Override prices only with explicit Manager approval; bypass discounting writes evidence to the Quote Line for audit.
- Generate the document and route for approval
Click Generate Document to produce a branded PDF using a Quote Template. Submit for approval if the discount, term, or product mix triggers any Approval Rule. The approval routing on a New Business quote usually flows through Deal Desk and Sales Management, not Finance.
- Mark Primary and Order
Once signed, mark the Quote as Primary on the Opportunity, set the Opportunity to Closed Won, and use Order Now or batch ordering to create the Order, Order Products, Contract, and Subscriptions. From here, the Subscriptions become the baseline for any future Amendment or Renewal.
The parent Opportunity providing Account, Close Date, and Price Book.
Defaults to today; drives Subscription Start Date for every subscription line on the quote.
Number of months for subscription products. Defaults from the Quote or product setting.
Inherits from the Opportunity. The Price Book ID controls which list prices CPQ pulls.
Required if your Order automation expects them. Defaults from the Opportunity's Account but can be overridden.
- Switching a Quote from New Business to another type manually after lines are added is rarely safe. Subscription Start Date, Quantity, and Net Amount fields recompute and you lose the snapshot. Start a new Quote instead.
- New Business quotes do not see prior-period prices from a customer's existing contract. If your business needs price protection for an existing customer's new orders, configure a Pricing Guarantee or use a Co-Term quote instead.
- The Opportunity Amount and the Quote Net Total should match before close. Run the OpportunityAmount sync (Twin Field) on the Primary quote so the Opportunity reflects the quote total in real time.
- Multi-year ramp deals require Segments, not just a single subscription line. Configure segmentable products and use the Segments tab on the Quote Line for year-over-year ramp pricing.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- CPQ Quote TypesSalesforce Help
- Create a CPQ QuoteSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on New Business Quote.
- Salesforce CPQ DocumentationSalesforce Help
- CPQ Developer GuideSalesforce Developers
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is a New Business Quote?
Q2. How does it differ from a renewal quote?
Q3. Why distinguish quote types in CPQ?
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