If you're still stuck emailing PDFs and chasing approvals for every sale, it's time to stop burning hours on manual grunt work. This guide walks you through automating your quote-to-cash workflow in Dealhub—step by step, with zero fluff. If you want fewer errors, faster sales cycles, and a little less chaos, you're in the right place.
Let’s get practical: This is for sales ops, admins, or anyone responsible for keeping deals moving (and who’s tired of “transformative” software that just adds more tabs). No magic bullets here—just the real steps you actually need.
Step 1: Map Your Real Process—Not the Dream Version
Before you touch Dealhub, sketch out what actually happens from quote to cash at your company. Be honest:
- Who creates the quote?
- Who approves discounts?
- How does the contract get signed?
- Where do things get stuck?
- What data do you need to track at each stage?
Pro tip: Don’t automate the broken stuff. If your process is fuzzy or full of workarounds, fix that first. Automation only makes a mess move faster.
What to skip: Skip the “ideal” process from some PowerPoint. Map what people really do, not what they say in meetings.
Step 2: Set Up Your Products and Pricing Rules
Dealhub can’t automate a thing until it knows what you sell and how you price it.
- Import your product catalog (SKU, price, description, options).
- Set up pricing rules: volume discounts, bundles, region-specific prices, etc.
- Define approval thresholds—who needs to say yes for which discounts.
Pitfall to avoid: Overcomplicating the catalog. Start simple. Add edge cases later if you need them.
Step 3: Build Your Deal Templates
Templates are the backbone of automation in Dealhub. They control what your reps see, what they can configure, and what gets sent to customers.
- Create templates for common deal types (new business, renewals, upsells).
- Lock down fields that shouldn’t be changed.
- Add dynamic sections for custom terms or add-ons.
Honest take: Templates are tedious to set up, but they’re worth it. If you skip them, reps will hack together deals and your data will be garbage.
Step 4: Automate Approvals (But Don’t Overdo It)
Set up approval workflows for discounts, custom terms, or anything that needs a manager’s eye.
- Define triggers (e.g., discount over 20% goes to VP of Sales).
- Assign backup approvers for when people are out.
- Set up automatic notifications—no more “Did you see my email?” follow-ups.
What works: Automated approvals save time and keep deals from stalling.
What doesn’t: Approval chains that look like a game of telephone. Only add steps you really need.
Step 5: Connect to Your CRM
Dealhub works best when it talks to your CRM (like Salesforce or HubSpot).
- Sync contact, account, and opportunity data.
- Push quote details and signed contracts back into the CRM.
- Make sure everyone’s working off the same info—no double data entry.
Setup tip: Test syncing with a few dummy records first. Field mismatches and sync errors are common, and a real pain to clean up later.
Step 6: Automate Document Generation and E-Signature
Manual contracts are slow and error-prone. Let Dealhub auto-generate everything:
- Use your templates to create documents on the fly (quotes, MSAs, SOWs).
- Set up e-signature integrations (DocuSign, Adobe Sign, etc.).
- Route signed docs back to the right CRM records.
What to ignore: Custom Word docs—stick to dynamic templates unless you have legal breathing down your neck.
Step 7: Set Up Payment and Billing Integration
Quote-to-cash should include, you know, the cash part.
- Connect Dealhub to your billing system (Stripe, Netsuite, or whatever you use).
- Feed deal data directly into invoicing—no more copy-paste mistakes.
- Trigger invoices automatically once a contract is signed.
Reality check: Billing integrations can be finicky, especially if your pricing is complex. Start with simple use cases, and expand once you see what works.
Step 8: Build Dashboards for Tracking (But Don’t Drown in Data)
You need visibility, not a wall of charts.
- Track deal velocity, approval times, and bottlenecks.
- Set up alerts for stuck deals or missing signatures.
- Share simple dashboards with sales, ops, and execs—no one needs a PhD in BI to read them.
Avoid: Fancy dashboards that look great but never get used. If no one acts on the data, it’s just noise.
Step 9: Train (and Listen to) Your Users
Automation only works if people know how (and want) to use it.
- Run short, hands-on training sessions. Skip the 90-minute webinars.
- Collect feedback—what’s confusing, what’s missing, what’s breaking?
- Tweak your setup based on real-world use, not just the vendor’s “best practices.”
Pro tip: Your reps will find ways to break things or work around them. Pay attention—it’s usually a sign your process needs tweaking.
Step 10: Review, Tweak, and Keep It Simple
No workflow survives first contact with reality. After a few weeks:
- Check where deals are still getting stuck.
- Look for steps people ignore or skip.
- Simplify wherever possible—less is more.
Don’t: Try to automate every last exception. Focus on the 80% of deals that follow the standard path.
Final Thoughts: Start Simple, Iterate Fast
Automating quote-to-cash in Dealhub isn’t rocket science, but it’s rarely “set it and forget it.” The best teams build a minimum viable workflow, get people using it, and refine as they go. Don’t chase every feature or edge case—get the basics humming, then layer on complexity if you actually need it.
Keep your process as simple as possible, automate the boring parts, and remember: software should make your life easier, not just give you more dashboards to ignore.