Salesforce Review: Proposal Workflow, Permissions Audit, Website Launch

Overview

Working session with Lincoln Durham (QSC) and Karly Oykhman reviewing Salesforce field updates completed since the prior Tuesday call, auditing the current permissions structure, designing a two-phase proposal automation plan, and unblocking the Quora Italia website launch. The session surfaced a concrete reporting gap (Jim's request for monthly bid volume and dollar value) that drove the bulk of the proposal workflow discussion.

Attendees: Mark Hope (Asymmetric), Karly Oykhman (Asymmetric), Lincoln Durham (QSC)

Key Decisions

Permissions model simplified to 6 Profiles. Replace the current sprawl of granular, job-title-level roles with a clean two-tier model: Profiles define broad access, Roles define data visibility within a Profile. Six profiles agreed: Admin, Sales, Operations, Executive, Finance, Marketing.
Delete permission removed from Sales and Operations. Rather than deleting records, users will mark opportunities Closed with a reason code. Accidental deletion risk eliminated; admins handle true deletes.
Two-phase proposal automation adopted. Phase 1 delivers Jim's reporting requirement quickly without changing the current creation workflow. Phase 2 migrates proposal creation natively into Salesforce with AI-assisted document generation.
Leads object reserved for automated/inbound marketing sources. Google Ads, web forms, social — anything where campaign attribution needs to be captured before a person is qualified. Direct/known contacts go straight to Account + Opportunity.
Quora Italia website will launch with placeholder content if reviews are not received. Forcing function to unblock progress.

Topics

Salesforce Field & Object Updates

Changes completed or in-progress since the prior Tuesday session:

Object	Change	Status
Tasks	Added "Details" long-text field	Done (compact layout pending)
Opportunities	Added "Primary Contact" lookup field	Done (compact modal placement pending)
Opportunities	Remove duplicate `Opportunity Name` / `Account Name` from compact creation modal	Pending — Karly
Industry Segment	Live on Opportunities and Contacts	Done
Industry Segment	Add to Accounts, map data, then hide legacy "Industry" field	Pending — Karly
Account Type	Add: Mason, General Contractor, Construction Manager	Pending — Karly
Business Channel	Add: Resale, Vols Quartzsite	Pending — Karly
Lead Source	Add: Office Visit	Pending — Karly

Note on Industry Segment vs. Account Type: Lincoln flagged potential redundancy between the two fields and will audit once the new Account Type values are added. General guidance: Account Type captures what kind of company it is (Architect, GC, Mason, etc.); Industry Segment captures the market vertical.

Note on Lead Source strategy: Lead Source on Opportunities carries over from converted Leads, but can also be set manually when creating an Opportunity directly. Useful for reporting closed-won revenue by source channel.

Permissions Audit & Simplified Profile Model

Problem: The existing structure used too many granular Roles modeled after individual job titles (e.g., "Assistant Plan Manager"), making it difficult to manage and reason about access.

Solution: Two-tier model —
- Profiles → define what a user can do (object access, field visibility, CRUD permissions)
- Roles → define what a user can see (record-level visibility, e.g., a Sales Rep sees only their own accounts)

New 6-Profile Structure:

Profile	Approx. Users	Notes
Admin	1	Lincoln internally; Asymmetric team separately
Sales	~8 + Tom Provo	Tom Provo missing from current user list — needs to be added
Operations	~11 + Nate McCalmont	Nate to be set as Operations Project Manager for now
Executive	~3	Full visibility
Finance	2	Carson (AR) + one other
Marketing	1 + Lincoln	Requires unique Pardot/Account Engagement permissions

Italian team will be placed in the same Sales/Operations profiles as US counterparts; location can be noted on the user record.

Delete permissions: Remove from Sales and Operations profiles. Users should mark records Closed with a reason (e.g., "Closed - N/A") rather than deleting. Lincoln will audit existing closed-reason picklist values.

Field-level permissions: Agreed to avoid unless strictly necessary (e.g., hiding a discount field). Complexity compounds quickly and becomes unmaintainable.

Proposal Workflow & Reporting

The gap: Jim requested a report on monthly bid count and dollar value. The current workflow — Excel budget → Word proposal → PDF → server storage → Outlook email — produces no data in Salesforce. Opportunities exist in SFDC but proposal submission is not consistently tracked there.

Current workflow (as described by Lincoln):
1. Client sends drawings/takeoff → stored in prospect folder on server
2. Estimator assigned via Salesforce Task
3. Estimator builds budget in Excel (multiple templates: install, architectural, digital fabrication/fine art)
4. Estimator creates proposal in Word from template → saves as PDF
5. PDF reviewed/approved → sent via Outlook
6. Salesforce opportunity often not updated at this point

Two-Phase Plan:

Phase 1 — Immediate Automation (no workflow change required)

Create a "Sent" folder on the server
Sales reps drag the final approved proposal PDF into the Sent folder when they email it
A server-side script (Mark + Karly to build) watches the folder; when a new file appears, it parses the PDF and automatically updates the corresponding SFDC Opportunity with proposal value and submission date
Requires: consistent file naming convention (SOP to be established); server access via VEATH; Partial Data Sandbox for development

Why this works: Nobody changes how they create proposals. One new step (drag to Sent folder). Jim gets his report. Commission enforcement can reinforce adoption ("if it's not in the folder, it doesn't count").

Phase 2 — Native SFDC Solution

Custom Estimate object in Salesforce mirroring the Excel budget spreadsheet (multiple versions for different project types)
Custom Proposal Template object linked to the Estimate
AI layer generates the final proposal document from the estimate data + template rules — avoids the poor formatting/page-break issues of native SFDC CPQ templates
Proposal reviewed/approved in SFDC → sent via integrated Outlook → automatically logged on the Opportunity record

Prerequisite for Phase 2: Lincoln will audit and optimize Opportunity Stages before build begins. Stages drive forecasting, probability, and reporting — expensive to change later. Guidance: mirror the client's journey, not internal process steps; fewer stages is better.

On AI-generated proposals: Mark's framing — "take the rules and the numbers, let AI create a nice, high-quality, well-written proposal." Output looks custom-written, not template-generated. Avoids the formatting complaints universal to CPQ tools.

Quora Italia Website Launch

Problem: Website launch blocked by lack of content review from the Italian team. The site needs to establish a clear brand link between Quora Italia and Quora Stone.

Decision: If reviews are not received in time, launch the site with placeholder content to force a response and unblock progress.

Actions:
- Karly will resend the "Quora Italia Website Content Flow" Google Doc to Lincoln for review
- Karly will contact Matthew Hart directly to obtain his catalog content (bypassing the Italian team bottleneck)
- Once catalog content is received, publish on the Quora Italia website

Action Items

Karly Oykhman

[ ] Fix duplicate fields (Opportunity Name, Account Name) in Opportunity compact creation modal
[ ] Add "Primary Contact" to Opportunity compact view
[ ] Add "Details" field to Task compact layout and creation modal
[ ] Add Industry Segment to Account object; map existing data; hide legacy "Industry" field
[ ] Add to Account Type picklist: Mason, General Contractor, Construction Manager
[ ] Add to Business Channel picklist: Resale, Vols Quartzsite
[ ] Add to Lead Source picklist: Office Visit
[ ] Verify inbound lead-to-Lead automation captures campaign data
[ ] Add Tom Provo to Sales profile
[ ] Set Nate McCalmont to Operations Project Manager profile
[ ] Remove Delete permission from Sales and Operations profiles; add "Closed - N/A" reason; audit closed reason picklist
[ ] Create Partial Data Sandbox for proposal automation development
[ ] Resend "Quora Italia Website Content Flow" Google Doc to Lincoln
[ ] Email Matthew Hart re: catalog content; publish on Quora Italia website once received
[ ] Delete the March 27 Salesforce meeting from calendar

Mark Hope

[ ] Build server-side proposal automation demo (Phase 1 PDF watcher → SFDC update)
[ ] Coordinate with VEATH: grant server access, enable Outlook/Teams integration, create Sent folder, deploy automation

Lincoln Durham (QSC)

[ ] Send org chart + active users list to Karly and Mark (to finalize profile/role assignments)
[ ] Send proposal templates (all variants) + budget Excel templates to Mark and Karly
[ ] Audit and optimize Opportunity Stages; share proposed stages with team
[ ] Audit Account Type vs. Industry Segment for redundancy once new values are added
[ ] Audit Opportunity fields generally
[ ] Audit closed-reason picklist values on Opportunities
[ ] Review "Quora Italia Website Content Flow" Google Doc
[ ] Meet with Lauren re: marketing materials; send to Karly and Mark
[ ] Decline/delete March 27 Salesforce meeting from calendar

^[1] — Quarra Stone client overview
^[2] — general guidance on SFDC two-tier permissions
^[3] — PDF watcher and CPQ automation patterns