Proposal Settings
A map of the Proposal settings tab — every sub-tab, what it controls, and why everything is dated by year.
On this page
1Where proposals are configured
Everything a proposal can contain is defined before you ever quote a job. Settings → Proposal is where that happens, and it’s a big tab — a row of sub-tabs, each responsible for one part of the system. This page is the map; each area has its own article.
2The sub-tabs
| Sub-tab | What lives there |
|---|---|
| Preferences | Header information shown on quotes, the proposal naming convention, quote prefix and next quote number, deposit and progress percentages, payment options, and switches such as Disable Create New Proposal and showing estimator or field-manager jobs on the calendar. |
| Bid Types | The top-level kinds of work you quote, with their item categories and line items. See Bid Types & Quote Types. |
| Products | The priced catalogue behind line items — costs, standard cost, preset COGS, offers and offer prices, by year. See Line Items & Item Categories. |
| Templates | Proposal templates and the constants they use. See Templates & Constants. |
| Tax/Display | Tax districts, material and labor tax, the visual CSS control and the Long Quote default page settings. See Tax Districts and Quote Design & Layout. |
| PDF Details, Cover Page, About Me, Terms & conditions | The fixed pages that wrap around a quote, each with its own block editor. |
| Payments | Gateway keys for taking money on a proposal. See TetherPay. |
| Royalty | Royalty rates and hurdles, and the royalty report, for franchise networks. |
| Other | Production managers, subcontractors, specialty lists and similar supporting data. |
| Archives | Deleted bid types, categories, line items, quote types, notes and subcontractors — each with a Restore control, and a permanent delete. |
| Default (v1) / Painter1 Defaults | Legacy defaults for accounts still on an earlier proposal version. |
Deleted isn’t gone
Bid types, categories and line items you delete land in Archives and can be restored. Only Permanent Delete removes them for good — which matters, because old proposals reference them.
3Everything is dated by year
Prices, costs and royalty rates carry an Applies to Year. That’s how a quote written last year keeps last year’s prices while this year’s work is quoted at the new ones. When you set up a new year, use Duplicate for Year rather than editing the existing rows.
4Sharing down the network
Bid types can be shared with selected sub-accounts or with All Accounts, and a whole tree can be copied with Copy Bid Type Tree. Constants defined at the Enterprise level can be given local values per sub-account, so a national catalogue can still carry regional labour rates. See Templates & Constants.
5Troubleshooting
There’s no Proposal tab in Settings
The account has no proposal or quoting module enabled, or you aren’t an Admin. See Add-Ons.
A line item disappeared from the worksheet
Check Archives — it was probably deleted — and check the year it applies to.
6Related pages
- Proposal System — the flow a quote goes through.
- Bid Types & Quote Types, Line Items & Item Categories.