How-To

How to Write a Proposal for a Job, Start to Finish

By Travis Evans, Founder of TradeGOAT · 20+ years in the trades

Most guides on how to write a proposal for a job stop at the writing. The hard part is getting the price right first and keeping that number all the way through to the signed job. In TradeGOAT the price and the proposal are the same piece of work, so you only type the numbers once.

Here's how to write a proposal for a job, from the first click to the signed job.

Step 1: Start a new proposal

1. Click Proposals in the left menu, then + New Proposal.
2. Under Set up this job, answer What kind of job is this? and fill in Name this job.
3. Pick the customer from the search box, or click + New customer if they're new. Add the project location.

Step 2: Price the work

This is where the number comes from.

1. In What goes into this price, click + Add line for each piece of the job: labor, materials, equipment, travel, permits. Or pick a category and it arrives with the usual lines filled in.
2. Set the Profit margin you want on this job.
3. Set the Payment schedule, the draws you'll bill as the work goes.

Your labor rates come from your own settings, so a day of work prices the way your company prices it.

Step 3: Turn it into the proposal

1. Click Preview Proposal to see it on your template, with this job's customer, scope and price filled in.
2. Click Save Proposal.
3. When it reads right, click Finalize Proposal.

Step 4: Send it

1. On the proposal, the card reads Not sent yet. Click Send to customer.
2. Check the customer's email, the Subject and the Message, then click Send it. Your customer gets your proposal with a link to it. If you'd rather text it, choose Copy the link instead.
3. Click See what they see if you want to look at it the way your customer will.

The card changes to With the customer and tells you when their link was opened.

Step 5: They sign it

Your customer opens the link on their own phone or computer, reads the proposal, types their name and signs it with Agree and sign.

The card on your end then says who signed it. The job is created, carrying the price they signed and the payment draws from your schedule, and the signed copy is filed with the date. Click Send them the signed copy so they have it too.

If a customer signs a printed copy instead, open the proposal, click Sign Contract, pick the option they signed and the date, and click Mark as signed. The job is created the same way.

If the work changes later, it goes on the job as a change order with its own price.

What you end up with

You end up with one number from start to finish. The price you worked up is the price on the proposal, the price the customer signed and the price the job bills against. Nobody copies totals from a spreadsheet into a Word file and hopes they match.

Want to try it before you set anything up? The demo at thetradegoat.com/demo.html walks a made-up company through it. There's nothing to sign up for.