What is best practice around using Revenue Line Items in conjunction with the Product Catalog dashlet

Question

We are utlising Revenue Line Items (RLIs) on Opportunities and have found some counter intuitive behaviour which is causing us to question whether we are approaching the RLI module in the correct way. The standard Sugar behaviour when creating an RLI by clicking on a Template on the Product Catalog dashlet is to set the unit price from the catalogue, set the quantity to 1 and have the Likey and Calculated Amount match. 
 However, if you need more than 1 item, and modify the quantity to say 5, then the Likely remains at the single item unit price (whilst the Calculated Amount updates accordingly). 
 If you delete the value in the Likely column, on save of the Opp/RLI, the Likely is automatically set to the same as the Calculated Amount. However, this is not an intuitive action. 
 In short: why doesn't the Likely update on new RLIs when the quantity field is updated? Is there something obvious here that we are missing? 
 Thanks!

Jonathan Cutting · Accepted Answer

Hi Jonathan Cutting , 
 Below are some responses to the three questions. I hope these are helpful! 
 Q: Did Sugar have in mind that RLIs would commonly be used for quite granular pricing such as would ordinarly have been carried out mostly in Quotes prior to their introduction? 
 A: Yes. The design principle is that line items within Opportunities, Quotes, and Purchases would all provide granular data that compliments each other, facilitating a smooth integration across these modules. 
 
 Q: If not, would Sugar expect a particular configuration of the product catalog in order to (say) introduce more generic products that represent opportunity revenue 'categories' rather than actual products? 
 A: While at least one RLI is required when creating an Opportunity (if RLIs are enabled), you can initially include the most likely product to be part of the sale or the main topic of the initial conversation. RLIs can be added or adjusted as details about the multiple products being proposed become clearer. 
 Alternatively, you could start with a Quote and then convert it to an Opportunity to move it into the pipeline, using the Quote as a template for new Opportunities with specific product configurations or bills of material if that serves your need. 
 
 Q: In terms of recognising revenue over several years in one deal, do Sugar view RLIs as a possible container for this data, or would Sugar imagine that this would be built out in a different entity? 
 A: If you are willing to have multiple Opportunities representing ongoing revenue from a single deal and evaluate it annually, you could use the automatic renewal feature associated with Services in RLIs. 
 If the goal is to have a single Opportunity for the deal, you might create multiple RLIs, each representing a different year, with start and end dates indicating the year each RLI covers. 
 
 Regards, Patrick McQueen Director, SugarCRM Support