Guide to Using Proposals and Estimates

The Proposals and Estimates feature is a versatile tool designed for businesses aiming to streamline their professional communication. It helps craft detailed outlines of services or generate succinct cost agreements.

What are Proposals and Estimates?

Proposals: 

A proposal is a detailed document crafted to convince prospective clients. It highlights a specific problem or need of the client and provides a comprehensive solution. Proposals usually include:

• Introduction: Defining the problem, need, or goal.

• Objective: Elaborating on the proposed solution.

• Scope of Work: Outlining tasks, deliverables, and timelines.

• Pricing: Detailing the cost structure.

• Credentials: Showcasing past works, testimonials, etc.

• Call to Action: Typically a request for the client's signature.

Estimates: 

These are simpler, providing a rough idea of project/service costs. It briefly describes the service/product, breaks down costs, and offers a total cost, along with terms and conditions.

Usage Cases:

Consultancy Services:

• Proposal: A consultant offers a strategic plan for a company's digital transformation, detailing the processes, tools, timelines, and expected outcomes.

• Estimate: The consultant provides an estimated cost for the digital transformation consultancy, inclusive of hourly rates, software costs, and other overheads.

Home Renovation:

• Proposal: A contractor outlines the entire renovation process, from design ideas to material selection, labor costs, and expected completion dates.

• Estimate: The contractor gives a rough cost breakdown, highlighting labor charges, material costs, and potential additional expenses.

Overview:

Document Builder: Create your proposal or estimate using an intuitive builder, which offers text, images, videos, tables, and more. Navigate via Payments ➝ Proposals & Estimates.

Customization: Create a distinctive look with custom fonts and styles. Add multimedia elements like images or videos to captivate your audience. Utilize the product list element for a neat display of your offerings and apply taxes or discounts seamlessly.

Digital Signatures: Streamline the acknowledgment process. Add a signature element to allow recipients to formally acknowledge and agree to the document's content.

State Management: Every document progresses through stages: Draft, Waiting for Others, and Finalized. Track each stage seamlessly.

Receiving and Signing: Recipients will receive an email notification and can view, sign, and even download the document. After signing, a certificate captures details like IP address and name for validation.

In-depth Feature Use:

Document Builder:

Text: Style your content with advanced text editing tools. Incorporate custom values for a personal touch.

Image: Embed visuals from a media library, or use external image URLs.

Video: Embed videos using direct links from platforms like YouTube or Vimeo for a more interactive proposal.

Table: Data presentation is key. Create comprehensive tables, manipulate rows/columns, and ensure aesthetic appeal.

Please Note: You will drag and drop the elements onto the page to implement them

Signature Process:

Signer Designation: Clearly specify who needs to sign the document.

Signature Placement: Identify and mark the area intended for the signature.

Signature Execution: Recipients can electronically sign, using drawn or typed methods. They can also customize the color or script style of their signature.

Document variables are placeholders that can be placed within a document and replaced with actual values when the document is executed. They offer dynamic content control and are crucial for templating and automation. It's used to standardize information across multiple documents or instances. Here's how you might create a document variable:

You can search for an existing Variable or create a new one with the + button:

Define the Variable Name

• What Is It? The variable name is a unique identifier for the variable within the document.

• Naming Convention: Often, variable names adhere to certain rules or conventions, such as avoiding spaces or special characters.

Example: If you were creating a variable for a customer's name, the variable name might be something like customer_name.

Set the Variable Value

• What Is It? The variable value is the specific data or content that will replace the variable name when the document is generated or executed.

• Data Types: The value could be text, a number, a date, or other data types, depending on what the variable represents.

Suppose you're creating a proposal template for various projects and want to use document variables to ensure consistency and efficiency. Here are the variables you might create:

• project_name: The name of the specific project.

• client_name: The name of the client organization.

• service_description: A detailed description of the services being offered.

• total_cost: The total estimated cost for the project.

• delivery_date: The proposed delivery date for the project.

Utilizing the Document Variables in the Proposal Template

Here's an example of how you might structure the proposal using these variables:

Dynamic Customization

Using these document variables, you can quickly generate proposals for different projects by simply changing the values of the variables. Here's how you might set the values for a specific project:

• project_name: "Website Redesign."

• client_name: "TechCorp Inc."

• service_description: "Design and development of a new responsive website, including user experience design, coding, testing, and deployment."

• total_cost: "$10,000."

• delivery_date: "December 31, 2023"

• Draft: The proposal/estimate is being formulated.

• Waiting for Others: Awaiting recipient's acknowledgment.

• Finalized: Completed, with no further modifications allowed.

Actions for a Document

These actions are typical functionalities that allow users to manage and control their documents.

• Edit: Modify the content, format, or details of a document.

• Clone: Create an exact copy of a document, useful for repetitive tasks or templates.

• Delete: Permanently remove a document, often subject to permissions and organizational policies.

• Mark as Completed: Manually set a document's status as finalized, indicating no further action is required.

• Download PDF: Offers the ability to download the document as a PDF, preserving formatting and providing a universally accessible file format.

FAQs:

Can I send to multiple clients? 

Currently, only one recipient is allowed per document.

Can I have multiple signers? 

Only one signer is permitted.

Can I download the document? 

Yes, there's a download option in the builder.

Conclusion:

The Proposals and Estimates feature is an indispensable tool for businesses aiming for clear, dynamic, and efficient client communication. Whether you're making a detailed service proposal or a quick cost estimate, this feature ensures professionalism and effectiveness.