Proposals

1. Who it's for.

   Under Customer, the proposal fills in from the project's Bid to or the GCs on its Bid tab; pick another under This proposal is for. Change the Name, Contact, Address and Payment terms as needed. Each saves when you leave the field.

2. The letter and the scope.

   Under Cover letter and scope of work, write both. A blank line starts a new paragraph. Make this our usual wording saves them as the company's, and new bids start from it.

3. How long the prices hold.

   Set Prices hold for a number of days from the proposal's date.

The stage also shows the proposal as it will read. Download PDF gives the PDF and Email… sends it; until the bid is locked as submitted, it is marked Draft.

Under Terms and exclusions, pick a clause from Add a saved clause…, or type one for this bid alone, and select Add. Remove one with its ×. The wording is copied onto this bid, so changing the saved clause later does not change a proposal already written.

Saved clauses are kept in Bid under Settings › Codebook, on Proposal clauses. Give each a label and the wording as it should read, and select Add.

An alternate is work priced apart from the base bid, which the customer can take or leave. There are three kinds:

• Add — not in the base bid; added if the customer takes it.
• Deduct — work in the base bid the customer can take out, for this amount.
• Optional — not in the base bid, offered as an option; priced like an add.

1. Open the alternates.

   Under Alternates on the Proposal stage, select Add an alternate (or Show once there are some).

2. Put bid items under an alternate.

   For each bid item, the In column says where it belongs: Base bid, an existing alternate, or New alternate…, which makes the next one, numbered Alt 1, Alt 2 and so on.

3. Set the kind.

   Choose Add, Deduct or Optional for each alternate.

Alternates are priced like any other item, with overhead and profit spread over them. A deduct's items stay in the base bid and are marked as able to come out; its amount is shown in brackets.

A proposal goes out for signature only once the bid is locked as submitted, so the customer signs exactly what went out. On the estimate's Pricing, or on Bid day, select Lock as submitted. It locks the bid in Aggrado and doesn't send anything. If a check would stop it, say Why it can go in anyway.

Once locked, the letter, scope, how long the prices hold and the alternates stay as they went out. To change them, start the next revision on Revisions.

1. Open the form.

   On the Proposal stage, under Sent for signature, select Send for signature…. Before the bid is locked, the button reads Lock and send for signature… and does both in one step.

2. Say who it goes to.

   Enter the customer's email under To, separating several with commas. Leave it empty to make a link and send it yourself.

3. Set how long it works.

   Under The link works for, enter a number of days. Left empty, it works as long as the prices hold. Add a Message if you like.

4. Send it.

   Select Send, or Make the link if To is empty. The customer receives an email with the PDF attached and a Review and sign the proposal button. A link you make is shown to you once, to copy.

Each link is listed with its status: Sent, Viewed, Accepted, Declined, Link turned off or Expired, with when it was opened. Turn off stops a link at once. Links to an older revision are turned off when a new one goes out.

Bidding to several GCs? One proposal per GC… under Customer, or Send to 3 GCs…, gives each GC its own proposal at its own price adjustment, with its own signature link.

The customer needs no account. The page shows your letterhead, the letter, the scope, the base bid, the alternates, the terms and exclusions, the payment terms and how long the prices hold. It is laid out for a phone.

• Choosing alternates. The customer checks the alternates they want, and Total with your choices follows.
• Accepting. Under Accept, they give Your full name, title and email, sign, check the statement accepting the prices, work and terms, and select Accept for the total.
• Turning it down. Under Turn down, they may say why, and select Turn down the proposal.

Each link can be answered once. After accepting, the customer is emailed the signed PDF and can select Download the signed PDF, with their signature and the alternates they took.

You are emailed when the proposal is accepted or turned down, and, if you turn on Proposals opened under the person menu's Notification settings, when it is first opened. The link's row shows who accepted, with which alternates, and the total. Select Download signed PDF on the row for your own copy of the signed proposal.

Acceptance does not mark the bid won on its own. When the award is firm, select Mark it won… on the accepted link's row, which asks why you won. The bid can also be closed with Won… on the GC's row on the project's Bid tab, or with Edit on the Projects list.

A won bid is then handed to Job on the estimate's Hand off to Job. The alternates the customer accepted are checked there already. See Getting started with Job.

A template is a copy of an estimate kept as a starting point: its items, activities, crews, pricing, terms, letter and scope, without the takeoff, documents or customer.

1. Save one.

   On an estimate, select File › Save as template…, give the Template name, and select Save the template.

2. Start from one.

   On the Projects list, select New from template, choose the Template, enter the Project name, Number and Location, and select Create project.

To bring items from another estimate into this one, use File › Copy bid items from another estimate….