Expert Mode
Expert Mode lets Level 4 and higher users build a Salesforce-backed proposal directly inside the app. It exists because managers sometimes need a proposal workflow that starts from a known customer and catalog instead of a completed field inspection, while still preserving Salesforce line items, review controls, document generation, and proposal traceability.
What it does
An expert selects a division, customer, and opportunity type, then adds products from the customer/division pricebook. Each line’s quantity, priority, unit price, description, repair notes, specifications, option grouping, photo appendix, and contract language can be adjusted before the proposal is generated and attached to a Salesforce Opportunity.
Mental model
The staged builder
The builder moves through Customer → Build → Review → Salesforce stages, shown as tabs. Once you have reached a stage its tab is clickable, so you can jump back and forth between stages you have already visited. After a proposal is finalized the tabs become read-only, preserving the finished record.
- Editable unit price in the cart — each line’s unit price can be edited directly in the builder, and the custom price carries through to Review, the PDF, and Salesforce.
- Specifications and option packages — lines can carry rich specifications, and items can be grouped into option packages (including a bundled-options layout) by dragging them together.
- Opportunity-type-aware defaults — the default proposal name and the Salesforce opportunity category follow the selected opportunity type.
Saving, resuming, and starting new
Expert proposals do not need a Salesforce record to hold progress. An in-progress proposal can be saved and later resumed or discarded from the menu, and a new proposal can be started without losing the current one. Review edits — custom price, specifications, options, repair notes — save to the proposal draft and survive a Build/Review round-trip or a page reload, so work is not lost on refresh.
Bringing in photos
Expert Mode accepts photos from several sources so a proposal’s photo appendix can be built without leaving the app:
| Source | Notes |
|---|---|
| Device upload | Standard file/camera upload. |
| Choose from job photos | Pick from photos the field team already captured for this customer — see below. |
| Google Drive | Import directly from Drive (available across divisions). |
| Drag-and-drop | Drag images onto a line item. |
| PowerBI / web images | Use Copy Image and paste; a guide points users to the reliable paste path. |
Choose from job photos
Most of the photos a proposal needs already exist. The field team shot them during an inspection or a job visit, and they are sitting in the account’s Job Documentation — so re-hunting and re-uploading them was work the app could do itself.
Choose from job photos opens a gallery of every photo across the account’s jobs, newest first and filterable by job. Multi-select the ones you want and they attach to the line item’s appendix.
Appendix photos no longer require saving the line item first, so you can build the photo appendix while you write the proposal rather than in a second pass afterwards.
Chemical contracts
For Charlotte, the app includes a dedicated Chemical Only Contracts builder for chemicals-only service agreements, with equipment and tank options, selectable 12/24/36-month terms, and dynamic service-cadence clauses. It is gated to Charlotte users (and Level 5).
Bundles
Bundles are division-specific groups of commonly ordered products. They are not hard-coded examples; managers create and maintain them so recurring order sets can be added quickly and consistently.
Guardrails
- Expert Mode is only available to Level 4+ users.
- Customer Description defaults blank so proposal line items do not duplicate the item name.
- If no bundles exist for a division, the app shows an empty state rather than an error.
- Expert-generated proposals appear in Recent Inspections for qualified users so they remain discoverable after creation.
Expert Mode opportunities are owned through Office Routing by a real Salesforce User, and can carry a selected sales rep. Confirm the division, customer, and routing before writing to Salesforce — the proposal is built from that pricebook and routing context.
Pitfalls
- Do not use Expert Mode as a substitute for field findings when photos, inspection answers, or site conditions are required.
- Do not add customer description text unless the line needs proposal-specific wording; the item name already appears elsewhere.
- Confirm the selected division and customer before writing to Salesforce, because the proposal is built from that pricebook context.
- Do not rebuild a proposal from scratch after a reload; a saved draft can be resumed from the menu.
Related pages
- Admin Tools covers the bundle, catalog, blurb, and Office Routing surfaces behind Expert Mode.
- Review Mode explains the shared review and proposal rules.
- Proposal Tools explains the generated PDF and DOCX outputs.
- Salesforce Integration documents the Opportunity and ownership behavior.