Bundling it all together
The real value of a proposal isn't the pricing page. It's that everything happens in one sitting.
The usual way, and why it leaks
Send a quote. Wait. They say yes. Send a contract. Wait. Chase. They sign. Send an invoice for the deposit. Wait. Chase. Create the booking.
Four sends, three waits, and someone has to remember every step. Each gap is somewhere the client goes quiet. Every chase costs you goodwill.
What a proposal does instead
One send, and the order matters:
- The client chooses their package and any extras
- They press Accept proposal and confirm
- Then the remaining steps appear under Next steps: sign the agreement, pay
Accepting comes first, and nothing is signed or paid before that point. So you get a clear yes before asking anyone to sign or pay. The client sees one task at a time instead of a wall of them.
What exists at each point
Before they accept, nothing has been created. There's no contract, no invoice, no booking, and no number reserved for any of them. A draft proposal that never gets sent leaves nothing behind.
At acceptance, their choices lock and the agreement and the invoice are created together. The confirmation panel shows the total, every payment in the schedule and the full agreement text, so they're accepting something they've read.
When they finish the steps, the booking is created and confirmed, and the client is moved onto their booking page. From there the booking is the workspace: the invoice balance, the documents and any further payments live there.
What you get out of it
An agreement the client has signed. It waits for your counter-signature unless you set it to use your saved signature. Either way, your signature is not what creates the booking. See Your saved signature.
One invoice, carrying the full total with the payment schedule on it. The first payment is what acceptance asked for. Later payments sit on the same invoice rather than arriving as new ones.
A confirmed booking, if you turned Create a booking on.
Tracking where it's got to
An accepted proposal lists the records it created under Documents: Booking, Contract and Invoice, each with its own status. The banner at the top names the single thing that needs doing next, and whether it's your move or theirs.
That matters because acceptance isn't always tidy. Someone might sign and then stall on payment. The proposal tells you exactly what's outstanding, rather than making you check three places.
What to attach
Always attach the contract if the job needs one. Signing at the moment of saying yes is far easier than signing a week later.
Ask for a first payment on anything where you're holding a date. A deposit is the one thing that makes a booking real.
What not to do
Don't ask for the full balance up front unless that's genuinely your model. Use a payment schedule: a deposit now, the balance before the session. A large number at acceptance loses proposals a deposit would have won.
Don't leave the expiry blank on priced work. A proposal you priced in January can otherwise be accepted in November at January's prices.