CPQ reference: definitions, data models, timelines and vendor explainers

Reference, not guide

A guide walks you through a decision. These pages do not: each one states what something is and stops. That is deliberate — they exist to be checked mid-argument, quoted in a deck, or pulled as a single sentence by an answer engine, so the definition is always in the first line and every page is anchored so you can link to the exact row.

If you are deciding rather than checking, the migration guide and the guides index are the right doors. Three pages here carry most of the traffic, and they are the ones worth reading whole:

• End of sale vs end of life — the distinction the whole Salesforce CPQ question turns on, in Salesforce’s own words.
• The Salesforce CPQ data model — every SBQQ object, what it holds, and where it lands when you move.
• The end-of-sale timeline — what happened, when, and what has still not happened.

How these pages are written

Each reference page leads with the definition or fact in its first sentence, so it can be lifted as a citation and still be true and attributed. Object names are set in monospace and taken from the vendor’s documentation, never from memory. Dates come with a source. Where something has not happened — an end-of-life date, a published price — the page says so explicitly rather than leaving a gap.