Proposals play a distinctive role within Bonsai and are integral to any organization's workflow. They serve as an opportunity to establish a professional image during initial interactions with prospective clients, delineate the range of services or products available, and facilitate the definition of project scope, timeline, and budgetary considerations prior to formalizing agreements through contracts.
To learn more about our other tools, visit our getting started article!
Before creating and sending Proposals, feel free to check out our guide here for best practices. You can create a more intricate document that shares your background, experience, and other information, or alternatively, you can create a short document that offers a choice in packages or even just a simple "yes/no" option for your client.
Create and customize
To create a Proposal, start off by navigating to your "Proposals" tab on the left-hand side of Bonsai.
Once you've done that, you can click on "New Proposal" to get started.
At this point, you will have the option to choose one of our many templates to get a head start, or alternatively, start with a "Generic" template. Click "Use Template" to start customizing your Proposal.
Next, choose the client and project this Proposal is associated with, or create new ones! Our Proposal editor is powerful and will help you create the perfect document to win new work.
To add a new section, simply hover your mouse between two modules, and click on the blue "+" button that appears. To edit the formatting of a section (or delete it) click on the "wand" and use the options on the right-hand side of your screen! When you're done editing that module, press the "checkmark" beside the section,
You can add all sorts of modules, such as text, fee summaries, packages, file delivery, and more!
When creating your packages/fee summaries, you can present multiple package options, or just one. This means you can let your client choose which package or options they would like to move ahead with, or if you just present one, they can click to "accept" or "decline" the overall proposal without choosing.
At the bottom of the Fee Summary, you can choose to either "Add an option" or "Change fee structure."
Here, you can choose between Single Option, Packages, or Multi-Select. Packages will let your client choose one of your multiple options, and Multi-Select will allow them to choose as many as they would like.
Setting a tax rate
It's possible to set a tax rate in your proposal.
Here's how it works:
If the proposal has several packages, any update of the value of the tax rate on a given package will update the tax rate on other package to the same value.
If there’s a “Default Tax Rate” value set in Invoices Default Values then the proposal tax amount will be prefilled with that value.
If the proposal generates invoices (via requiring a deposit on approval), then those invoices will inherit the tax rate of the proposal.
Sending your proposal
When you're finished with your Proposal, try clicking "Edit Automation" to check if the automatic reminder is enabled (or add other automation!) You can also click "More Options" to download a PDF of your Proposal. Finally, you can click "Send Proposal" when you're ready to share it with your client.
Once clicked, it will give you an option to either send your client the Proposal through Bonsai, or you can choose to send it as a URL link to your client. You can also choose to "Automatically Create an Invoice" from your client's selections/acceptance of this Proposal for you to send later!
Now that you've sent your Proposal, remember that you can always view your Proposals from the "Proposals" tab.
The "Green" status means the Proposal has been accepted, "Dark Gray" means outstanding, and "Light Grey" is unsent. We will send you a notification via email (if enabled in your account settings) when your client accepts your Proposal!