Proposals overview

A proposal is a scope-of-work and pricing document your client reviews, accepts, and signs online. Tidyflow creates invoices according to the proposal’s billing schedule and collects any amount due at acceptance online. Proposals live under Billing in the left sidebar.

How proposals work

You draft a proposal with your services and pricing, attach an engagement letter if you use one, and send it. The approver contact receives an email with a secure link; no sign-in is needed. Your client steps through the proposal, adds payment details if the proposal requires them, agrees to the terms, signs electronically, and pays any amount due today. When a payment method was added first, that amount is charged to it as soon as they sign. Tidyflow creates an acceptance invoice only when something is due at acceptance, and a recurring invoice schedule if the proposal includes recurring services. One-time fees can also be billed on Job completion or when you request the balance.

Create a proposal

1. Go to Billing and open Proposals
2. Click the + button, give the proposal a title, and click Create Draft
3. Add an introduction, then build the pricing from One-time fees and Recurring services line items
4. In the sidebar, choose the Client, the Approver Contact who will receive it, an Engagement Letter template if you want one included, and the currency and tax rate

Line items can link to a service from your catalog, which pre-fills the price and shows the service’s client-facing description on the proposal. Linked Service terms also appear in an engagement letter containing {{service_schedule}}; see How to send an engagement letter.

The Invoicing section below the line items controls when recurring billing starts and whether invoices auto-send or wait as drafts; see How proposal invoicing works.

Customize a service for one proposal

Edit a pricing line’s Service name, quantity or unit price directly on the proposal. A longer scope description is optional. To add or change one for a linked Service, open the Service menu beside the line and choose Edit description for this proposal. Your changes apply only to this proposal, and Reset to catalog description restores the shared description.

The Service menu also offers Edit service defaults to users who can manage services. That edits the shared Service, not just this proposal. Service terms are edited there, while the optional per-proposal description is shown in Pricing. See Service Types Overview for the distinction and how defaults reach draft proposals.

Preview the proposal and engagement letter

Click Preview as client below Send Proposal. Tidyflow saves your current draft edits before opening the preview in a new tab. Check Pricing for your descriptions and fees, Terms for the assembled engagement letter, and Sign for what the client pays or authorizes. For packages, choose an option to review its contents. Clients cannot accept a draft preview.

Offer package options

Switch the pricing section from Single pricing to Packages to offer tiered options, for example Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Each package has its own line items, and you can mark one as Recommended. Your client compares the options and picks one as part of accepting, and only the selected package is invoiced.

Send it, or share a link

Click Send Proposal to email the secure link to the approver contact. You can check Preview email in the send dialog first to see the exact subject and body. If you would rather send the link yourself, use Share link in the actions menu; it makes the proposal live and copies the link without emailing your client.

Sending a proposal with an amount due today requires online payments to be connected. Set that up once in Settings under Billing, in the Online payments section.

Expiry and reminders

New proposals expire 14 days after sending. Click Expiry in the editor sidebar to choose 1–91 days, or turn expiry off. Click Reminders to turn automatic follow-ups on or off for that proposal, then Save changes. Both the label and its current value open the setting. Existing proposals keep their original behavior until you configure expiry. The deadline starts when you send the proposal or activate a shared link, and it runs through the end of that date in your workspace timezone.

Go to Settings → Billing → Proposal reminders and click Edit to set your workspace’s reminder schedule. The default is every three days, up to three reminders, starting after you send the proposal. You can choose 1–30 days between reminders and 1–3 reminders. Proposals without expiry can receive reminders too. Expiry stops any reminders after the deadline, and the send dialog previews the eligible dates.

Schedule changes apply to upcoming reminders on live proposals. Past dates are skipped, and reminders already sent are not repeated. Turning workspace reminders off stops them across the workspace. Existing proposals retain their individual reminder preference. You can pause reminders on a live proposal without changing its deadline.

Reminders send between 09:00 and 17:00 in the workspace timezone, including weekends, after a successful initial proposal email. They stop after acceptance, decline, withdrawal, deletion, or expiry. Manually shared links send no automatic client emails. Resending restarts the sequence on the same client link.

Use the Expires column, Expired status, and Expiring within seven days filter to find proposals needing attention. Once expired, the client sees your firm’s contact details and can no longer sign, add payment details, or decline. Accepted proposals and existing signed proposals awaiting payment keep their payment access.

Choose Resend to reopen an expired proposal with a fresh deadline on the same link. You can change the expiry period in the resend dialog. The timeline keeps expiration and resend history. Reopen first if you need to Mark accepted on the client’s behalf. You can also duplicate, download the firm PDF, or delete an expired proposal.

The latest sender receives an in-app expiration notification and an email if enabled in their notification preferences. If that sender is unavailable, the workspace owner receives it.

What your client sees

Your client steps through Introduction, Options when there are packages, Pricing, Terms when a letter or terms are included, and Payment when the proposal requires payment details. The final step is Sign. They type their full name, choose a signature style or upload a signature image, and confirm their agreement.

The final button reads Accept proposal without online payments, Sign and accept, Sign and pay when a payment method was added first, or Sign and continue to payment when an amount is due and no method was added. Adding a payment method never charges the client until they sign. See How proposal invoicing works for the settings that control this.

After acceptance

The proposal shows as Accepted, with the signature and an audit trail (name, email, time, and IP address) on the proposal and its PDF. Invoices follow the agreed billing schedule. What gets billed and emailed, and when, is covered in How proposal invoicing works.

Proposal statuses

A proposal moves from Draft to Sent when it goes out, Viewed once your client opens it, and then Accepted, Declined, or Expired if its deadline passes unsigned. Older proposals that were waiting on a Stripe checkout show Awaiting payment or Awaiting payment details until that checkout completes. Withdrawing a live proposal marks it Withdrawn and revokes the client’s link.

Record an acceptance made outside Tidyflow

If your client agreed on a call or by email, open the proposal’s menu and choose Mark accepted. Pick the package the client agreed to, add an optional note, and Tidyflow records the acceptance without emailing your client; the invoice is created as a draft for you to send. The audit trail records which team member accepted.

Mark accepted also completes a proposal your client signed but left showing Awaiting payment details. Their signature and package choice are kept, and no payment method is saved. Your client can add one later from the client portal or when they pay their first invoice online.

Other things to know

• Duplicate any proposal to reuse it as a new draft
• PDF is available at every status; before acceptance it includes ruled signature lines, so you can print it for a wet signature
• Proposals are numbered with a configurable prefix, PROP- by default, in Settings under Billing
• Accepted proposals are kept as an immutable record and cannot be deleted; duplicate one to start over