Create and send proposals

Learn how to create, customize, 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, and email it to be e-signed. This helps you clearly outline your services and get approvals faster.

Step 1: Create a proposal

To create a proposal, follow these steps:

Follow this link to complete the steps in product

1. Select Create proposal. 
2. Select Customer or Lead, then enter your customer or lead’s name in the search field.  
3. Select Continue. 

Step 2: Customize your proposal

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

• Default elements:
  • Header: Includes your company info.
  • Proposal details: Includes your customer or lead’s info, the proposal date, and the proposal number.
  • Text: Describes the proposal.
  • E-signature: Allows your customer or lead 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 customize 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. 
3. Select the Design tab, then choose the style settings for your proposal in the Text, Colors, and Base Styles sections. If you have a brand kit set up with QuickBooks, we’ll set your logo, fonts, colors, 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. 
• To copy an element, select the element, then select the three-dot icon. Next, select Copy. 
• To delete an element, select the element, then select the trash icon. 

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 or lead. If you want to share your proposal with a direct link, select More actions, then select Share Link.

Here are a few important details about proposal emails:

• Transactional email: Proposals are considered transactional emails. This means you can send them to customers or leads 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 or lead, track its status on the Proposals page.

Steps for your customer or lead

After your customer or lead 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.