Proposals

A proposal is the formal offer you put to a client: the services, the prices, the terms and the scope. The client opens it on a link, reads it, and approves or declines online. Once approved it becomes the signed record everything else works from — onboarding, invoicing and compliance all start here.

The app walks you through both the list and the creation screen the first time you open them.

Before you start

• Your firm profile must be complete. Open a new proposal without one and the screen says Setup Required. The profile supplies your name, logo and signature on the document.
• The client must exist as a business with at least one contact.
• At least one service or package must be priced.
• Give the client a relationship manager. When the proposal is accepted the work is created and handed to that person. A client with nobody assigned gets no work until you set one.

Create a proposal

1. Open Proposals from the left menu.
2. Click Create Proposal, top right.
3. Pick the client business, then the contact it is addressed to.
4. Give it a title the client will recognise.
5. Add the services and packages you are offering. Prices come from your catalogue — override any of them here if this client is agreed at a different figure.
6. Check the cover letter, scope of work and terms. They start from your firm defaults; edit them for this client if needed.
7. Read the What this creates summary above the final button. It tells you, before anyone signs, exactly what work this proposal will produce — see below.
8. Set an expiry date, so a quote that goes stale stops being live.
9. Decide whether the client must sign. Turn this on and the client confirms with a four-digit code sent to them, and the signature is recorded against the proposal.
10. Save. It is now a draft, visible only to your firm.

What this creates — checking before you send

The last screen of the proposal builder shows what the work will look like once the client says yes. It is worth ten seconds, because it is the only point where a mistake is still cheap to fix. It gives three answers:

• Tasks as soon as it is accepted. One-off work — a GST registration, a PAN application, a Shop Act certificate. These happen once, so a task is created for each the moment the proposal is accepted.
• Recurring, with a task before every due date. Monthly and quarterly work — GST returns, TDS returns, professional tax. These are not created up front. Each period's task appears about a week before that period's due date, and keeps doing so for as long as the client is with you.
• Will never raise a task. A recurring service with no compliance behind it. There is no filing calendar to work from, so nothing can schedule it. Map it to a compliance under Services, or plan to raise that work by hand.

Packages are opened up here. A package is a price, not a job — the services inside it are what your team actually does, so that is what the summary counts.

Send it to the client

1. Open the proposal and choose to send it.
2. Confirm the recipient. It is emailed, and messaged on WhatsApp where the contact has a number.
3. The status changes to show it is with the client.

The client does not need an account. The link opens the proposal directly.

See what the client did

The list shows whether a proposal has been opened and when it was last viewed. The Email Activity tab shows what was sent and delivered; Signatures holds the signed copies.

When the client responds

• Approved — it becomes the signed agreement. The work starts straight away and onboarding can begin.
• Declined — the reason they gave is recorded on the proposal.
• Changes requested — they want something different before they will sign.

The work an accepted proposal starts

Nothing is created while the proposal is a draft or still sitting with the client. Acceptance is the trigger, and it starts two different things.

One-off work becomes a task now

Registrations and other once-only jobs get a task each, given to the client's relationship manager and dated a week ahead. Open the accepted proposal and near the top it reads, for example, 3 tasks generated, listing each one with who has it and when it is due. Click any of them to open it, or View in Tasks to see all of this client's proposal work together. They are ordinary tasks from that point — move the dates, reassign, add notes.

Recurring work goes on the compliance calendar

Monthly and quarterly services are not turned into a task at acceptance. Instead the client is put on the calendar for each compliance behind them, and the task for each period appears about a week before that period's due date, assigned automatically. The same panel lists these under Recurring, with the next date for each.

This is deliberate: a single "GST Filing" task at signing would sit on the board with no real deadline while twelve monthly filings came and went beside it.

If something is missing

The panel says so, in place of the count — 0 of 3 tasks generated, with the reason. Nearly always the client has no relationship manager, so there is nobody to give the work to. Set one on the client's page, come back and click Generate tasks.

Pressing Generate tasks is safe at any time. It only fills in what is missing, so a task you already have is never created twice.

The panel also repeats the warning from the builder: any recurring service with no compliance mapped is named there, because nothing will ever raise that work on its own.

Add work to a proposal the client already signed

A signed proposal is not edited. Extra work is priced as an amendment, which the client approves separately.

1. Open the approved proposal and go to its amendments.
2. Add the services or packages being added. Prices default from your catalogue; override where agreed.
3. Save it as a draft. Nothing has reached the client yet — stage everything in one amendment so the client gets one message rather than three.
4. Send it. The client sees only the change and what it adds to the total.
5. On approval the services join the proposal, the value updates, and the amounts are added to invoicing.

What the system does on its own

• Reminders while a proposal sits unanswered. A daily reminder goes to the client, so nobody has to remember to chase.
• Your brochure travels with it. Proposal emails and their reminders carry your firm brochure.
• Acceptance creates the one-off work. A task per one-off service, given to the client's relationship manager, due a week out, and they are told about it.
• Acceptance starts the recurring work. The client is put on the calendar for each compliance behind the recurring services, and each period's task arrives about a week before its due date from then on.
• Signed work is not billed twice. Work created this way for a client who has been onboarded is marked as already covered by that client's invoice schedule.
• Signing is recorded. Where a signature was required, the confirmation is stored with the time it happened as evidence of consent.
• An approved amendment updates the invoices that have not gone out. Invoices already sent to the client are never touched.

What you cannot do (and what to do instead)

• You cannot edit an approved proposal. It is what the client signed. Raise an amendment for the change.
• You cannot delete a proposal once it has been sent. The client holds the link. Have them decline it, or let it expire, then archive it.
• You cannot edit an amendment after sending it. The client is looking at that figure. Cancel it and raise a new one — both stay on the record, which is the point.
• You cannot send a cancelled amendment. Raise a fresh one.
• You cannot empty an amendment. Keep at least one item, or cancel it.
• You cannot generate work for a proposal the client has not accepted. Acceptance is the trigger, so a draft or a proposal still with the client puts nothing on anyone's board.
• You cannot get a task out of a recurring service with no compliance mapped. There is no filing calendar to build one from. Map it under Services, or raise that work by hand.
• An internal proposal has no client to approve it. Proposals kept for your own records carry no approval, no signing code and no amendment flow — edit them directly. Their work starts as soon as the proposal is saved.

Common questions

How do I delete a proposal?

Only a draft can be deleted. Once it has been sent, the client has it — reject it and archive it instead.

The client says the link does not work.

Check the proposal has not expired. Renew it from the list to issue a fresh link.

The client wants a lower price after signing.

Raise an amendment with the service at the new price. The change is priced as the difference, and the client approves it.

The client approved but I only see a few tasks.

That is expected. Only one-off work becomes a task at acceptance. Recurring work is on the compliance calendar and arrives a week before each due date — the panel on the proposal lists it, with the next date for each.

The client approved but nothing appeared at all.

Open the proposal. The panel near the top tells you how many were created and, if none were, why. Nearly always the client has no relationship manager — set one, then click Generate tasks.

Will clicking Generate tasks give me duplicates?

No. It only creates what is missing, so you can press it as often as you like.

A service of mine says it will never raise a task. Why?

It is marked as recurring but has no compliance mapped to it, so there is no due date anywhere to work from. Open it under Services and map it to the compliance it delivers. Until then, that work has to be raised by hand.

Can I still add tasks myself?

Yes. Automatic work does not replace your own — create tasks for anything outside the proposal exactly as before.

Can I reuse a proposal?

Yes — proposal templates keep your standard cover letter, scope and terms so each new proposal starts from your wording, not a blank page.