Product Settings
Product Settings is the area in Salesforce Setup where an administrator controls how the Product object, Price Books, and product schedules behave across the org.
Definition
Product Settings is the area in Salesforce Setup where an administrator controls how the Product object, Price Books, and product schedules behave across the org. The most consequential choice on this surface is whether to enable product schedules, which let a single product spread its quantity and revenue across multiple dates instead of landing as one lump sum.
Most of these controls live in Setup, with related options sitting on the Opportunity and Opportunity Product page layouts and in the Schedules section under Setup. The settings are org-wide, so they shape every sales rep's pricing and forecasting experience, not just one team's.
What the Product Settings surface actually controls
Products, price books, and the data model you start with
A Product is a record for something your company sells, and a Price Book is a named list of those products with prices attached. Salesforce ships with a Standard Price Book that holds the default standard price for every product. You can add custom price books to charge different list prices to different regions or segments. Before a rep can add a product to an opportunity, that product needs an active Price Book Entry in a price book the opportunity uses. Product Settings is where you decide how rich this model gets. Out of the box you get flat products and prices, which is enough for simple catalogs. The moment you turn on schedules, the Product object grows new related lists and the pricing surface gets more involved. That is why the early decision matters. A small business selling one-time items rarely needs more than products, price books, and price book entries. A subscription or services business that bills the same line across many months will want the extra structure that schedules provide, so the choice tracks your real revenue model rather than a wish list.
Quantity schedules versus revenue schedules
Product schedules come in two flavors, and Product Settings lets you enable either or both. A quantity schedule tracks how units of a product are delivered or used over time, which fits products shipped in batches across a contract. A revenue schedule tracks how the dollar value of a line recognizes over time, which fits a deal whose payments arrive across several periods. You can enable quantity schedules, revenue schedules, or both on a product, but a product cannot use both a quantity and a revenue schedule on the same opportunity line at the same time. When both are enabled, you choose a default schedule type and the system derives one from the other. Each schedule breaks a line into dated installments, and you set the installment period (such as monthly) and how many installments to spread across. Salesforce caps the number of installments per schedule, so very long or very granular schedules need a coarser period. This split between quantity and revenue is the heart of why teams turn schedules on in the first place.
Default product schedules versus opportunity line schedules
There are two places a schedule can live, and they behave differently. A default schedule is defined on the Product record itself, so every time a rep adds that product to an opportunity, Salesforce builds the installments automatically using your default pattern. That saves the rep from rebuilding the same monthly split on every deal. An opportunity line schedule is created directly on a single Opportunity Product, and it overrides the default for that one deal. Reps reach it through the Schedule action on the opportunity line. The default schedule is the template, and the line schedule is the per-deal exception. This distinction matters for governance. If most of your deals follow the same cadence, set the default on the product and let it flow through. If your cadence varies by customer, leave the product default light and let reps establish schedules per line. Changing a line's quantity or sales price after a schedule exists can prompt Salesforce to rebuild or recalculate the installments, so reps need to understand that editing the header can disturb the dated rows beneath it.
How schedules feed forecasting
Schedules are not just a billing convenience, they change how revenue lands in forecasts. When you forecast by schedule date, Salesforce uses each installment's Date field together with its Revenue or Quantity value to place expected numbers in the right period. A 120,000 dollar annual deal with a revenue schedule of twelve monthly installments shows as roughly 10,000 dollars per month instead of 120,000 in the month the opportunity closes. For a finance team that plans by period, that is the difference between a forecast that matches reality and one that spikes. Opportunity Product schedules can also feed account-level forecasting in some setups, so the dated rows ripple outward beyond a single deal. This is the strongest argument for matching Product Settings to your revenue model up front. If your business genuinely recognizes revenue across periods, schedules give forecasts the shape they need. If every deal is recognized at close, schedules add maintenance without payoff and a flat product model serves you better. The forecasting impact is what turns a quiet Setup checkbox into a decision worth a design conversation.
Opportunity and Opportunity Product configuration that lives alongside
Product Settings does not end with schedules. Related controls shape how products show up on deals. Setting up Opportunities and Opportunity Products is where you confirm that the Products related list is on the opportunity layout and that reps can add lines at all. The Opportunity Product object supports a multi-line layout, a special layout that drives the Edit All Products grid reps see when they add several products at once. You edit it from the Opportunity Product page layout by choosing Edit Multi-Line Layout. The Product and Quantity fields are required on that grid and cannot be removed. You can also make a price book selection mandatory before products are added, because an opportunity must be linked to a price book before any line is valid. Field-level security, validation rules, and the layout itself all combine to enforce data quality on product lines. Treating these as part of one Product Settings story, rather than scattered tasks, keeps the quote-to-order path coherent so reps hit fewer surprises when they build a deal.
Editions, permissions, and where Lightning fits
Products, price books, and schedules are available in the editions that include Sales Cloud functionality, and schedules in particular have historically been tied to the higher Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Performance tiers. Administrators need the Customize Application permission to change these org-wide settings, while reps need create and edit access on Opportunity Products and the schedule objects to build installments. The enablement step for schedules is an org-level switch, and once it is on, schedule related lists appear across products and opportunity lines. Some of the original schedule enablement guidance was written for Salesforce Classic, but the resulting data and behavior carry into Lightning Experience, where reps interact with schedules through the opportunity line actions and the multi-line product grid. Because turning schedules on creates real downstream commitments, including report changes and possible integration work, the safe path is to enable and rehearse the configuration in a sandbox first. Confirm that forecasts, reports, and any connected billing or revenue system handle the dated rows correctly before flipping the switch in production, where reversing the choice means cleaning up live data.
How to enable and configure product schedules
Product schedules are the main thing administrators turn on from the Product Settings area. The high-level path is to enable schedules in Setup, set a default schedule on a product, then let reps refine schedules per opportunity line. Steps and option names can shift between releases and between Classic and Lightning, so confirm against current Help before changing a production org.
- Open the schedules setup
In Setup, search for the product schedules setup page. This is where you turn the feature on for the whole org. The original screens were built for Salesforce Classic, but the behavior they enable applies in Lightning Experience too.
- Choose quantity, revenue, or both
Enable quantity schedules to track units over time, revenue schedules to track dollars over time, or both. Enabling both lets a product default to one type and derive the other, though a single line cannot run both at once.
- Set a default schedule on the product
Open a Product record and define its default schedule type, installment period (such as monthly), and number of installments. From now on, adding that product to an opportunity builds the dated rows automatically.
- Let reps establish line schedules
On an opportunity, reps open a product line and use the Schedule action to override the default for that deal. Confirm the Products related list and multi-line layout are on the opportunity so reps can edit lines.
- Validate forecasting and reports
Check that forecasting by schedule date spreads revenue into the right periods and that reports and any billing integration read the installments correctly. Do this in a sandbox before enabling in production.
Spread the units of a product line across dated installments, fitting products delivered in batches over a contract term.
Spread the dollar value of a product line across dated installments, fitting deals that recognize or bill revenue over several periods.
When both schedule types are enabled, sets which one a product uses by default so the other can be derived from it.
Controls the Edit All Products grid for Opportunity Products; the Product and Quantity fields are required and cannot be removed.
- A single opportunity line cannot use a quantity schedule and a revenue schedule at the same time; pick one per line.
- Salesforce caps installments per schedule, so very long or daily cadences may need a coarser installment period.
- Editing a line's quantity or sales price after a schedule exists can rebuild or recalculate the installments.
- Enabling schedules adds related lists and can affect reports and integrations, so rehearse the change in a sandbox first.
Prefer this walkthrough as its own page? How to Product Settings in Salesforce, step by step
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Product SchedulesSalesforce
- Enable Product SchedulesSalesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Product Settings.
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Product Settings.
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 does the Product Settings Setup page primarily let an admin configure?
Q2. Why is enabling schedules on the Product Settings page described as a deliberate decision?
Q3. Which configuration choice belongs on the Product Settings page?
Discussion
Loading discussion…