Managing Proposals – Inksoft

Learn about the different views in Proposals and the process of managing a Proposal from beginning to end.

Open Proposals

The "Open" view in Proposals is the main view, and it will show you any Proposals that have not been "Archived" or marked as "Lost".

Open Proposals will appear in one of three different stages:

New - Proposals that are created and saved, but have not yet been sent to the customer.
In Progress - Proposals that have been sent to the customer, and are awaiting Approval and/or Payment.
Done - Proposals that have been Approved/Paid by the customer.

Note: Proposals sent as "Approvals" don't necessarily require payment in order to move to the Done stage. If you are are requiring payment at the time of approval, then the customer will Approve and Pay. If you are requiring payment at a later time, the Proposal will only require approval to be Done. Proposals sent as "Invoices" will require payment to move to Done.

High-Level details in the Open view will show you some information for your Proposals, total $ amounts for Proposals in each stage, and an option to Search and/or Filter to find specific Proposals (you can also search by Contact Name or Company Name):

Note: Additionally, customers can also comment on Proposals, and the salesperson can respond to their comments by clicking on the comment icon in the high-level view.

New Proposals

When you start creating a new Proposal, it will temporarily shows as a "Draft" until you save it. Once the Proposal is saved, you can then send it to the customer immediately, or you can view it in the New stage and continue working on/editing the Proposal if you wish. Click on the Proposal number to view the full Proposal details.

The Proposal will stay in the New stage until you send it to the customer, or choose to manually "Send to Orders". You also have the option of marking the Proposal as "Lost", or you can delete the Proposal if you are not moving forward with it.

Click Here to learn how to create a new Proposal. Once you've created your Proposal, Click Here to learn how to preview and send your Proposal.

In Progress Proposals

Once a Proposal has been sent to the customer, it will automatically move to the In Progress stage. The customer can then view the Proposal and take action on it.

When viewing the details for a Proposal, you can also click on the NEW stage in the top-right and manually move it to IN PROGRESS if needed:

For the customer, every Proposal will have specific Payment Terms that need to be met in order for it to move to Done. If you are sending the Proposal as an "Approval" and it has a balance due, then the customer will need to Approve and Pay in full, Approve and Pay Deposit (with balance due later), or Approve and Pay later based on the payment terms you have configured:

Note: Payment Terms are located within the Payment Details when viewing the full Proposal details.

Once the customer has taken action on this, the Proposal automatically moves to Done.

If you are sending the Proposal as an "Invoice", then there is no approval option for the customer. They will either be required to Pay in full, Pay Deposit (with balance due later), or Pay Later. Making any payment at all will automatically move the Proposal to Done - but if the payment terms are such that there is no deposit required, and the payment is due in full at a later time, then the Proposal will stay in the In Progress view until the customer pays, or you decide to manually move the Proposal to Done ("Send to Orders").

Note: In Progress Proposals can also be marked as Lost or deleted.

In Progress Art Approvals

If you are using a Proposal as an art approval (the Proposal has no products or pricing, only Art), then the customer will have an option to Approve the artwork, but afterwards the Proposal will still remain in the In Progress stage.

At this point, you can now add products and pricing to the Proposal, and the customer will need to Approve the new details then Add Payment (if you are requiring it at this time). Only then can the Proposal move to the Done stage. All Proposals need a balance in order to move to Done and generate an order.

Note: The admin or salesperson can also Add Payment to the Proposal in either New or In Progress stages. This is done in the Payment Details when viewing the Proposal details:

Done Proposals

All Proposals with a balance will move on from In Progress to the Done stage. Once the Proposal reaches the Done stage, it will automatically generate an Order for your order manager. Here you can see the newly generated order number, and the order status.

The order status will initially show as "New", but as the order moves through Purchasing and Production, the status will change from "New" to "Scheduled" to "In Progress" and to "Ready to Ship/Pickup". You can also see the payment status for the order. This is important information that the salesperson might want to keep track of after the Proposals have been won.

Proposals will stay in the Done stage until the corresponding order has been Completed (orders that are ready to ship or ready to pickup will move to completed once they are shipped out or picked up). Once the order is completed, the Proposal automatically moves to the Archived view. You can also manually archive Done Proposals at any time:

More Options in the Proposal Details

A full list of options specific to the Proposal and stage will be available when viewing the Proposal details:

Click on the Proposal number to view the details
In the top-right corner, you will see the 3 dot Options menu. Click here to see all of the options for that Proposal:

Clone Proposal is a great option if you want to be able to send a potential client a few different options for a proposed job - this way you don't have to re-create the Proposal every time. You can simply make the necessary changes to the Proposal copies:

Note: The Clone Proposal option is also great for re-orders!

Archived Proposals

This view will show you Proposals that have either been Archived automatically or manually. Options for Archived Proposals will include:

Clone
Re-Open Proposal (does not apply to "Done" Proposals)
Delete (does not apply to "Done" Proposals)

Lost Proposals

This view will show you Proposals that have been marked as Lost. Options for Archived Proposals will also include:

Clone
Re-Open Proposal
Delete

Preferences

The final view is the Preferences section. Here you will be able to configure certain defaults and settings that are used in your Proposals. To learn more about Preferences, Click Here.