A proposal is the priced document you send to win a deal. You write it on a page that looks exactly like the one your contact will open, in your organisation's branding, and they sign it online. Signing wins the deal for you and can start the project straight away.
Before you start
- Every proposal belongs to a deal, and a deal has 1 proposal. You create it from the deal.
- You can build and send a deal's proposal if the deal is assigned to you. Owners, admins and managers can work on any deal's proposal.
- Link the contacts you're sending to on the deal first, and check each has an email address. See Track deals through your pipeline.
- Your logo, colours and fonts come from Branding in organisation settings. See Organisation settings.
Start a proposal
- Open the deal. Under the header it says No proposal yet for this deal.
- Choose New proposal.
- If your organisation has templates, choose Start from scratch or Use a template, then pick the template.
The proposal opens in the builder as a Draft. A deal that's already won, lost or on hold can't start a proposal.
Write the proposal
Everything you type goes straight onto the page. The builder saves as you go and shows Saving… then Saved in the header.
- Hero: type the proposal's title and the sentence under it at the top of the page. Select the hero to show its controls: Add a picture for a background image, Contained or Full width for its size, and, once there's a picture, Overlay to adjust the wash behind your text.
- Page content: choose Add block to add a Section, Columns, Card, Divider, Spacer, Section header, Text, Button, Image, Video (a YouTube link) or Testimonial. Drag blocks by their handle to reorder them. In a text block, press / for commands.
- Signature: the heading (Sign this proposal by default) and the sentence your contact agrees to (I agree to the proposal set out above. by default) are both yours to change.
To greet each contact by name, add a merge tag: in a text block, press / and choose Insert merge tag. See Personalise proposals and emails with merge tags.
Use an Image block for any picture your contact must see. An image dropped inside a text block is stored as a private file, which they can't open.
Price the work
The Investment section is the price table. You can change its heading and add a short line above it and a sentence below it.
- Choose Add line item.
- Describe what you're charging for, and add optional detail under it.
- Set the quantity, the unit (Unit, Hour, Day, Week, Month, Year or Fixed) and the unit price. The line total works itself out.
- Enter your tax rate as a percentage next to VAT/Tax. Tax is charged once, on the subtotal. Leave it at 0 and your contact sees no tax line.
Drag lines to reorder them. The Total updates as you type.
Let your contact choose. Hover over a line to change its type:
- Fixed: always charged. This is the default.
- Add-on: an optional extra your contact can tick. Add-ons start unticked.
- New choice…: a set of options your contact picks between, such as support plans. Give the choice a label, choose Must choose one or One or none, and choose Add option for each option. A choice needs at least 2 options. With Must choose one, the first option is selected to start with.
Prices are in your organisation's currency, set in organisation settings. Each proposal keeps the currency it was created in, so changing the setting later doesn't change a proposal you've already written.
Preview it
Switch from Write to Preview above the page to see the proposal as your contact will, at Desktop or Mobile width. The signature box is greyed out, because only a recipient can sign. Merge tags are filled in with made-up details.
Send it
- Choose Send.
- Under Recipients, tick the people or company to send it to. Only the deal's linked contacts are listed, and anyone without an email address can't be ticked.
- Under From, choose one of your organisation's email addresses, or 53° (default). From appears once your organisation has an address you can send from. See Set up email addresses.
- To copy someone in or change the subject, choose Cc, Bcc and subject. Separate several addresses with commas. Leave Subject empty to use the usual one: the proposal's title, then "proposal from" and your organisation's name.
- Add a Message (optional) to go with it. You can use bold, italic, underline and links, and merge tags such as
{{first_name|there}}, which are filled in for each recipient. The subject takes merge tags too. - Turn on Start a project when this is signed to create the delivery project automatically, and pick a project template or Blank project. This is offered to owners, admins and managers.
- Set Valid until (optional). After this date the link stops accepting a signature.
- Choose Send proposal.
Each recipient gets their own email with a View and sign proposal button and their own private link. Anyone in Cc or Bcc is copied on each recipient's email. The proposal moves to Sent, and the deal's value updates to the proposal total.
Replies come back to you. When you send from one of your organisation's addresses, a reply from your contact arrives in the inbox under Proposals, and on the deal's Inbox tab. View conversation in the proposal's header takes you there. Replies to a proposal sent from 53° (default) don't arrive in your inbox.
If sending from your organisation's addresses is paused, or your domain isn't verified yet, the dialog says so and the proposal goes from 53°'s address.
You need at least 1 priced line to send. To send it to more people later, choose Send again. Sending again also sets the valid-until date again.
To find out what your contact sees, read How contacts sign a proposal.
Follow where it's up to
The proposal's header, the strip on its deal and the Proposals list all show its status, total and when it was sent or signed. When your contact signs, the deal's assignee and whoever wrote the proposal get a notification.
53° doesn't send reminders for you. To prompt yourself, add an automation on Proposal is sent with a Wait and a Create a task step, for example "Follow up on the proposal" after 3 days. See Automations.
What the statuses mean
| Status | What it means | Can you edit it? |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Not sent yet. | Yes |
| Sent | Out with your contact, waiting for a signature. | Yes, and they see your changes |
| Signed | Your contact signed it. The deal is won and the document is fixed. | No |
| On hold | The deal was put on hold. It returns to where it was when the deal moves back to an open stage. | Yes, but you can't send it |
| Cancelled | The deal was lost. It's kept as a record, and returns if the deal is reopened. | No |
Good to know
- A deal carrying a proposal is won by the signature, not by hand. See Track deals through your pipeline.
- To reuse a proposal's wording, blocks and prices, choose Save as template. See Proposal templates.
- On Proposals, sort by Last edited, Title, Value or Sent, and filter by Status. To delete proposals, select them and choose Actions, then Delete. A signed proposal can't be deleted, because it's the record of what was agreed.
- Changing your organisation's slug changes the web address of proposals you've already sent. See Organisation settings.