The Proposals App program will automate the process of getting your customers to receive and accept engagement letters.
Create a Proposal
To create a proposal, you can either select ⊕ New on the Proposals app, or click ⊕ New on the Proposals app ribbon when viewing a contact.
This will take you to the New Proposals screen which shows the four sections which need to be set up.
Note: A notification banner will show stating "Payment gateway is not setup," if, you do not have a payment gateway setup. You can either set up a payment gateway, or turn off the requirement for payment gateway in Proposals app preferences.
New Proposal - General
On the first screen, General, you set up the details and the recurrence of your proposal.
Proposal Details
Customer
: The customer synced from QuickBooks who will be invoiced.Contact
: The related contact to the customer who will receive the email and approve of the proposal. Proposal Name: Given name for the proposal to identify it in the proposals list.
Assigned To
: The Method user who is assigned to this proposal. Service Start Date
: When the agreement with the customer will start.Service End Date
: When the agreement will end.Automatice Proposal Expiry
: Set the number of the days your customer has to accept the offer. This date can also be edited on the View Proposal screen once sent.
NOTE: The expiry date is shown on the guest portal as well, to ensure your customer is aware of the offer expiry date
Billing Details
Terms
: The terms given for paying the invoice. - Recurring Billing: When checked, the following fields appear:
Repeats Every
: Frequency for billing.Start On: The date the recurring invoice will start.
Start on Acceptance: Instead of selecting a 'Start On' date, have the first billing date start when the proposal is accepted.
When you are done, click Save & Next to go to the next section. The proposal will be saved so you can return to it later.
New Proposal - Services
The Services section lets you add the services you will provide to the customer. Each can have a different billing types, depending on the service provided.
These services are synced from the Products and Services you specified within QuickBooks Online. For those on QuickBooks Desktop, it's pulled from your Items list.
To add a service, click in the grid and choose from the dropdown. When a service is selected, you can edit the details of the service.
For each service, you can choose the Billing Type:
When Accepted: Customer is invoiced when they accept the proposal.
Recurring (Only visible for when Recurring Billing is enabled):
Customer is invoiced on a recurring basis as defined earlier.Not Invoiced: Customer is not invoiced.
When Completed: Customer is invoiced when you set the proposal to completed.
To add more services, click on an empty row in the grid. If there are no more empty rows, click Add lines to add more rows.
Example with multiple Billing Types for recurring Proposals
If your proposal was set to have Recurring Billing and if you have services with multiple billing types, when will your customer get billed? Imagine the below items:
Item | Amount | Billing Type |
Item one | $500 | When Accepted |
Item two | $100 | Recurring |
Item three | $100 | Recurring |
Item four | $100 | Recurring |
Item five | $20 | Not Invoiced |
Item six | $10 | When Completed |
Item one is set to When Accepted:
When the proposal has been accepted, customer will be immediately be billed for $500.Item two, three, and four are set to Recurring:
An invoice will be sent out with the recurring items for $300 based on the configuration set back in the General tab:Invoices will be sent out on a recurring basis based on the frequency set in Repeats Every.
Invoice will be sent out starting on the date set in Start On.
Invoices will continue to be sent out until the Service End Date. No further invoices will be created after the Service End Date.
Item five is set to Not Invoiced:
This item shows up in the proposal, but the customer is not billed for it.Item six is set to When Completed:
Only if the Method User manually changes the proposal status to completed will the customer be billed for $10. This item will not be sent automatically.
Once you have added all the services you want for this proposal, click Save & Next.
New Proposal - Terms
The Terms screen lets you select an Engagement Letter template.
There is a sample template which you can use, however, you can create your own template by expanding the dropdown field and selecting the Add / Edit Template link.
For more information, please see our article "Create an Engagement Letter Template".
New Proposal - Send
On this final screen, you can review the proposal you are about to send. An email will be sent out to your contact, and you have the option to add a personalized message to the email.
When you are happy with the proposal, select Preview & Send. You will be shown the email that will be sent before sending it off.
NOTE: Once you send your email, the proposal will be saved and you will not be able to edit the details anymore.
If the customer is happy with the proposal, they can accept it, via a private customer portal which is sent to them in the email. They can also immediately pay the invoice if you have your payment gateway set up.
Activate the Engagement with Customer Approval
If you do not need the customer's approval and wish to activate the proposal without sending an email, expand the Actions button and select Active Engagement.
Note, an invoice will automatically be sent out to the customer if:
“Start on acceptance” was selected on Proposal details.
One or more items have Billing Type set to "When Accepted".
Note: For recurring invoices, you can also have recurring payment. For more information, please see our article on how to Edit a Proposal.