Proposal System
From a priced worksheet to a signed quote, a work order for the crew, change orders along the way, and the invoice at the end — one document that follows the job.
On this page
1What the Proposal System is
The Proposal System turns a contact into a priced, signable, invoiceable job without leaving ClientTether. It’s built for businesses that quote work — home services, contractors, anything where a customer needs a number, a signature, and eventually a bill.
It has to be switched on for the account. Once it is, every contact profile gets a Proposals tab, and the proposal builder is available on the web and in the mobile app.
2One proposal, the whole job
The important idea is that a proposal isn’t just a quote. It’s a single document with tabs that follow the job from first estimate to final invoice:
| Tab | Its role in the job |
|---|---|
| Overview | Who’s involved — estimator, production manager — plus dates, notes, quote type and display settings |
| Worksheet | The priced line items: labour, materials, tax, discounts and subtotals |
| Quote | The customer-facing version of the worksheet — what they see and sign |
| Work Order | The same job expressed for the people doing the work |
| Change Order | Additions and changes agreed after the quote, tracked rather than lost |
| Punch List | The close-out items to finish before the job is complete |
| Invoice | The bill, with its own history of attempts and payments |
| History | Everything that has happened to this proposal |
Why this matters
Because it’s one document, a change order automatically flows into the work order and the invoice. The crew sees the extra item, and the customer is billed for it, without anyone re-typing it in three places — which is exactly where jobs lose money.
3Starting a proposal
From a contact’s Proposals tab, you can start in two ways:
- Blank proposal — an empty worksheet you build from scratch.
- From a template — copy one of your sample proposals, already populated with your standard line items and terms, then adjust for this job.
Existing proposals can also be duplicated, which is the fastest route when a repeat customer wants “the same as last time, plus.”
Build templates for your common jobs
If your business quotes the same five kinds of work, make five sample proposals. A template with the right line items, tax district and payment terms already set turns a twenty-minute quote into a two-minute one — and stops each estimator pricing the same thing differently.
4The worksheet
The worksheet is where the money is. It’s built from line items, each carrying its quantity, cost and price, and you can organise items into categories so a large job reads as sections rather than a wall of rows. Products you’ve defined can be dropped in rather than typed.
Labour, materials, tax and discounts are calculated into subtotals and a total as you go. Subcontractors can be attached to a proposal, so the parts of a job you’re subbing out are visible on the same document.
5Payment terms, tax and bid types
Beyond the line items, a proposal carries the commercial terms:
- Deposit and progress payments — a deposit up front, then staged payments, each as an amount or a percentage
- Tax district — which tax rules apply, so multi-region businesses charge the right rate per job
- Bid type — the category of bid, which can also control what the customer sees on the quote and invoice
- Payment methods — whether card and ACH payment are offered
- Optional convenience fee, watermark and invoice settings
6Sending, signing and getting paid
The Quote is what the customer receives. It can be emailed from the proposal, and the customer can sign electronically — the signature lands back on the proposal and in the contact’s history.
The Invoice tab handles billing. Invoices can be generated from the proposal or entered manually, and ClientTether keeps an invoice history and tracks failed payment attempts, so a declined card is visible rather than silently unpaid.
7Proposals and Action Plans
Proposals plug into automation in two directions:
- An Action Plan can include a Proposal Invoice Status step, which reacts to an invoice being paid — so a thank-you sequence, a review request, or a hand-off to production can start the moment the money lands.
- Proposal details are available as tokens, so a template can quote the customer their own total, deposit or start date.
Proposal activity — viewed, signed, paid — also raises notifications, so the estimator knows without checking.
8Troubleshooting
There’s no Proposals tab on the contact
The Proposal System isn’t enabled for the account, or your Enterprise account has locked proposals. Check Settings, or ask the Enterprise account holder.
The total looks wrong
Check the tax district and any discounts on the worksheet first — they’re the two things most often set wrong. Then confirm no line item has a zero quantity.
A change the customer agreed to isn’t on the invoice
It needs to be entered as a Change Order. Changes added that way flow through to the work order and invoice; changes made only in conversation don’t exist to the system.
The customer says they paid but the plan didn’t fire
The Proposal Invoice Status step reacts to the invoice being marked paid in ClientTether. Check the Invoice tab — if the payment failed or was recorded outside the system, mark it accordingly.
9Related pages
- Contact Profile — where proposals are created.
- Action Plans — the Proposal Invoice Status step.
- Tokens — the Proposals and Active Quote token groups.
- Work Orders for Subcontractors — how the work order reaches a subcontractor’s phone.