The Proposals Workflow
This isn’t just a tool for creating proposals – it feeds a whole approvals and signing workflow. Once you have filled in and submitted your proposal it is automatically sent for Partner approval, then to the client for signing. All proposals, their current status and value are tracked in a dashboard.
- Fill in proposal and Submit (or edit existing proposal and Update)
- Partner receives email with PDF attached and Accept / Decline links. Status: With Partner
- Partner Rejects: workflow terminated and returns to 1 above. Status: Sales
Whoever originated the proposal can then edit it from the dashboard. - Partner Accepts: proposal goes to client
- Partner Rejects: workflow terminated and returns to 1 above. Status: Sales
- PDF is emailed with a link to accept terms and sign. Signing and terms acceptance electronic. Status: With Client
- Client signs and accepts terms. Status: Won
Email sent to originator and client with the signed version attached.
If the client requests changes they can hit ‘reply’ to the email they received – their response is routed to whoever originated the proposal. That user can then load proposal from the dashboard and make changes.
After making changes, when they hit ‘Update’ at the bottom of the screen the process goes back to 1 above and the process restarts. This means no one can make material changes without it going back through a partner. Also when editing a proposal you can change the email body to something like “here’s the changes you requested” as appropriate.
We’ll deal with adding T&Cs later.
Terms and Boilerplate
The first checkbox adds some marketing copy. The next four add services that are included in the proposal such as Advice Line access.
ADDING TERMS
Is there any training element in the proposal?
Select ‘Training Terms’. This is independent of the options below. Those terms will be added.
- EITHER: Are there amendments that will be signed by the person you are sending the proposal to?
Select ‘Amendments Addendum’ – all the approved legal text will be added automatically, you just need to fill in / overwrite the amendments in the ‘Schedule 1 – Amendments’ box that appears when this option is selected. - OR: Is there a Services Agreement in place / an existing Addendum that has been signed by – for example – the client’s legal team or one of their Directors?
Select ‘Contractual Terms’ and reference the Services Agreement or Addendum in the text box. You can then upload a PDF of the completed document.
If neither of the two options above are chosen, the standard T&Cs are still added.
IMPORTANT: For technical reasons you won’t see any terms in the PDF Preview. These are added after you press Submit. Don’t worry – they will be there.
Save or Submit?
When you press Save and Continue Later:
Your progress will be saved and a link will be generated and a facility to email it to yourself. The subject line in the email will contain client details so you can find it later. Click on the link, everything reloads exactly where you left off.
When you press Submit…
- Terms and Conditions will be appended;
- Proposal will be sent to a Partner for approval (if it’s low value this step is skipped);
- Proposal goes to client to accept T&Cs and sign electronically.
- You receive an email confirming the proposal has been accepted.
You can track progress on the Dashboard. If the client asks for amendments, you can reload and edit the proposal from the Dashboard, make changes and the loop restarts when you select ‘Update’.
