Creating proposals

Starting one

Use the plus beside Proposals in the sidebar, or New proposal on the proposals list. You can also start one from an inquiry or a contact, which carries their details across.

The editor is one card with five sections: Details, Items, Contract, Payment and Create a booking.

Details

Related to is either Contact or Inquiry, and then you pick the record. Starting from an inquiry is usually right, since the person and what they asked for are already there. On the Contact picker, Add contact at the bottom creates one without leaving the page.

Once a proposal is sent, the Contact and Inquiry are fixed. To send to someone else, duplicate it.

Service (optional) links the proposal to one of your inquiry services. It sets the currency and fills in a fixed location if the service has one. It does not add any priced lines. The items are yours to write.

Currency follows the linked service when there is one. Changing it converts nothing. Each line keeps its numbers and is read in the new currency, and CoreHue asks you to confirm that.

Service date with optional End date, Start time and End time, or All day. A date is required if Create a booking is on. With that switch off you can leave it blank, and the client reads "Date to be agreed".

Expiry date (optional) is the last day the client can accept, sign and pay. It runs to the end of that day in your business timezone, and the client sees the exact cutoff on their page. Leave it blank and the proposal stays open indefinitely.

Location and Notes (optional). The notes appear on the client's page under a Notes heading, so write them for the client.

Items

The Add item menu gives you three kinds of line, and the kind decides what the client can change.

Included item. Always in the proposal, always in the total.

Add-on. The client can tick any of these extras. Turn on Allow client to choose quantity and they get plus and minus buttons instead of a tick. It starts at the minimum quantity you set, and you can set a maximum.

Client choices. A named group where the client picks exactly one. This is how you offer three coverage levels without sending three proposals. Name the group something the client will understand, such as Packages, and add at least two options. A group with one option can't be sent.

Choices are the most useful and the most underused. Rather than guessing which package someone wants, offer two or three and let them decide. Once they accept, the options they didn't pick come off the document, so what they're left with reads like a clean agreement rather than a menu.

Each line opens a small editor: Item, Description, Quantity, Price and Tax. Pick a saved item from the list or type a one-off name. The pencil beside Description opens an Edit description window where the text takes formatting, and Apply puts it back.

Write for the person reading. "Eight hours of coverage, two photographers, all edited images delivered online" tells them what they're buying. "WED-PKG-2" does not.

While anything is still optional, the running total reads From the lowest possible figure rather than a single number. There isn't a single number yet.

Contract

Turn on Contract and the client signs it after accepting. Add contract opens the builder, where Start from template copies one of your contract templates in. The proposal owns its copy from that point, so later template edits don't reach it.

Inside the builder, Your signature decides how the contract completes:

• Sign manually, the default. It waits at Signed for your counter-signature.
• Use saved signature. Your saved signature is applied the moment the client signs, and it goes straight to Completed. You need a signature saved before you can send a proposal set this way. The Contract section says Signature needed and offers Set signature when you haven't, and you can also save one under Settings → Business.

See Your saved signature.

Payment

Turn on Payment and the client pays after accepting.

Payment type is either Full payment with a Due date, or Payment schedule, where each row takes a label, a percentage of the total and a due date. Proposals are priced in percentages rather than fixed amounts, because the total isn't settled until the client makes their choices. The first row is what acceptance asks for: that's your deposit.

A row holding a cash amount rather than a percentage stops the save. The section says so above the schedule: "Enter a percentage for each fixed payment before saving this proposal." Give that row a percentage and it saves.

Payment methods are the ones the client will be offered, drawn from what you've set up under Payments.

A first payment at acceptance is the difference between a proposal that's agreed and a booking that's real.

Create a booking

Off by default. Turn it on and, once the client has finished signing and paying, CoreHue creates a confirmed booking in your calendar. Leave it off for work with no session to schedule.

With it on, the proposal needs a service date before you can send it.

Proposal bookings are placed on your calendar without an availability check, so they can overlap something else. That's deliberate: you priced and dated this job yourself.

Questionnaires

New proposals don't carry a questionnaire. Collect details through a questionnaire sent after the booking exists, or through the questions your booking service asks. See Questionnaires.

Saving

The bar at the bottom of the editor has Save draft and Send proposal. On a proposal you've already saved, the first button reads Save changes. Saving a draft leaves it in your list with nothing sent. Send proposal takes you to the email composer.

A draft can be saved incomplete. If something is missing, the proposal page tells you what before it lets you send.