Create and send proposals

Learn how to create, customise, preview, and send professional proposals to your customers directly from QuickBooks Online. Use the proposal builder to create a proposal with your branding, add different content elements, link an estimate and email it to be e-signed. This helps you clearly outline your services and terms before the work starts.

Step 1: Create a proposal

To create a proposal, follow these steps:

Step 2: Customise your proposal

You can customise your proposal with different elements. Here’s what you need to know: 

• Default elements:
  • Header: Includes your company info.
  • Proposal details: Includes your customer's info, the proposal date, and the proposal number.
  • Text: Describes the proposal.
  • E-signature: Allows your customer to sign and agree to the proposal.
• Required elements: The Header element is required and can’t be moved.
• Element limits: You can include one Proposal details element and one E-signature element in a single proposal. You can include as many Text, Image, Divider, or Spacer elements as you need.

To customise your proposal, follow these steps:

1. From the proposal builder, select an element to edit the content.
2. (Optional) To add a new element to your proposal, select Add element, then select Text, Image, Divider, or Spacer as you need.
3. Select the Design tab, then choose the style settings for your proposal in the Text, Colours, and Base Styles sections. If you have a brand kit set up with QuickBooks, we’ll set your logo, fonts, colours, and styles as the default to match your brand.

Manage elements

Follow these steps to move, duplicate, copy, or delete an element in the proposal builder:

• To move an element, select the element, then select the up arrow icon or the down arrow icon.
  Note: The Header and Proposal details elements can’t be moved.
• To duplicate an element, select the element, then select the three-dot icon . Next, select Duplicate Block.
• To copy an element, select the element, then select the three-dot icon . Next, select Copy Block.
• To delete an element, select the element, then select the delete icon .

Open a linked proposal from the estimate

After you link an estimate, you can get to the proposal from the estimate in two places:

• On the Estimates page, select the arrow icon next to the estimate, then select View proposal. If the estimate isn’t linked to a proposal yet, you’ll see Create proposal instead. Select it to start a new proposal with the estimate already added.
• In the estimate itself, find the linked proposal in the activity tracker. Select the down arrow, then select View proposal.

What happens when you link an estimate?

• Your customer always sees the current estimate. The proposal doesn’t keep a copy. If you edit the estimate after you send the proposal, your customer sees the update the next time they open the proposal.
• Pricing changes can reset an e-signature. If the estimate requires an e-signature, changing its pricing, line items, or deposit sets it back to Pending. Your customer or lead needs to sign the updated estimate. Learn more in Require an e-signature on an estimate.
• Statuses stay in sync. When your customer or lead accepts or declines the proposal, the linked estimate is marked Accepted or Declined within a few minutes. If the estimate includes a deposit request, it’s marked Accepted once they pay the deposit. If they accept the estimate directly, a linked proposal that’s still pending is marked Accepted too.
• Removing the estimate doesn’t delete it. If you delete the Estimate element, the estimate stays on the Estimates page as Pending and isn’t sent with the proposal. You can send it on its own or add it to another proposal.

Step 3: Preview your proposal

Before you send your proposal, you can preview it in three ways:

• Desktop view
• Mobile view
• PDF view

To preview your proposal from the proposal builder, select Preview, then select Desktop, Mobile, or PDF.

Step 4: Send your proposal

When your proposal is ready, you can email it to your customer. If you want to share your proposal with a direct link, select More Actions , select Share link to proposal, then follow the steps to share the proposal.

Here are a few important details about proposal emails:

• Transactional email: Proposals are considered transactional emails. This means you can send them to customers without marketing consent.
• From email address: The From email address field must include a verified email address.
• Required footer: For compliance reasons, the proposal email includes a required footer. This can’t be edited or removed.
• Required button: The proposal email includes a View proposal button that links your customers to your proposal. This can't be edited or removed.

To send your proposal, follow these steps:

1. From the proposal builder, select Continue to send.
2. Review or edit your Send settings.
3. When you’re ready to send your proposal, select Send.

After you send your proposal to your customer, track its status on the Proposals page.

Steps for your customer

After your customer receives your proposal, they can follow these steps to approve it:

1. In the proposal email, select the View proposal link.
2. Select Sign Proposal.
3. Complete the Full legal name field.
4. Select Sign.
5. Select Accept Proposal.

If they don’t want to approve the proposal, they can select Decline, then select Decline proposal to confirm.

If the linked estimate has a deposit request, your customer or lead is asked to pay it after they accept.

Use a proposal template

If you send similar proposals often, save time with a template. Templates live on the Proposals page, in the Templates tab. Here’s what you can do:

• To create a template, select the Templates tab, then select Create template.
• To save a proposal as a template, open it in the proposal builder, select More actions, then select Save as template.
• To send a proposal from a template, select the template in the Templates tab, then select Use template. Then choose your customer or lead.

Next steps

Proposals help you pitch your work and win the job. After your customer accepts, you can convert the linked estimate into an invoice to bill for the work. Any deposit they already paid is applied to the invoice automatically. When they pay the invoice through QuickBooks, your books update with the payment, so there’s nothing to match by hand.

To get the most out of proposals:

• Set up the estimate you’ll link. You can request a customer deposit on the estimate and require an e-signature on the estimate.
• Convert the estimate into an invoice after your customer accepts. Learn how to convert an estimate into an invoice.
• Let your customer pay the invoice online. Turn on online payments so they can pay by card or bank transfer right from the invoice. Learn how to take and process payments in QuickBooks Online.