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Setting up your account

The first time you log into Better Proposals and see a blank dashboard, it may seem like you’ve got your work cut out for you. But what if we told you that you can get 70% of the job done only by setting up the basics of your account?

Now, if you’ve just signed up, our setup guide should help you sort out the basics in approximately 90 seconds. But if you skipped the guide and you’re now regretting the decision of exploring on your own, we’ve got you covered.

Basic brand settings

To start setting up, select Settings from the sidebar. Once you’re there, navigate to Branding where you'll see your company name. Click on the company name and add your brand colors, pick the language, and how you want your brand to be displayed to your clients.

Next, go to Sidebar and click the Browse for Logo button to add your company logo. As a rule of thumb, it’s best to use a transparent PNG with a minimum width of 400px. You will see a preview of what the logo will look like on your proposals on the right. In addition to that, you can also choose the navigation bar color from the same screen. It’s white with black text by default, but you can also invert it or completely customize your navigation.

Since branding is more than the logo, what we’ve got next are the Email settings. From here, you can control what happens when your proposals are sent and signed. Start by uploading a logo that’s suitable for a white background and filling in the default subject line and body for emails when you send out proposals. The default email that your clients will see when they sign is already there, but you can customize that one as well.

When it comes to Fonts, you’ll only need to set them up once and they’ll apply to all your proposals. You can either choose one of the pairings from the drop down menu or customize the presets to make your own.

Next, head over to the Finances section and set up your currency and taxes. It’s as easy as picking the options in two drop down menus.

Don’t forget to also fill in the Thank you and Payments sections. From here, you can set up the messages your clients will receive once they’ve signed your proposals and paid for your services.

And while we’re not big on PDFs, we understand your clients might want them. If that’s the case, head over to the PDF section to control what the PDFs will look like once downloaded. And if you don’t want your clients to be able to download a PDF version of your proposal, simply turn the option off.

Pricing that aligns with your business

To save some more time while putting proposals together, you can also set up your products and services inside Better Proposals. Once again, you’ll want to navigate to Settings, but this time, click on Products and Services under Admin.

If you’ve just signed up, you’ll see a few product examples that we’ve added for you based on your industry. You can edit those by clicking the Edit button. To add more, click the Create New Product button in the upper right corner of the screen. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to add a product name and description. You’ll be able to pull those into your pricing tables so you don’t have to fill out the details all the time.

Note that you won’t be able to change the product names in the proposal pricing table, so try to keep them as generic as possible. You will be able to change the descriptions in each proposal, so that’s where you should add the details.

Once you’re happy with the product name and description, you’ll have to tell the system how you charge for it. The options are:

• One-off
• Monthly
• Quarterly
• Annually

Optional and choice items

With our interactive pricing tables, you can offer your clients optional services or give them a choice between more packages. If you want to offer optional add-ons next to the products you already agreed upon, simply add the product to the pricing table. Next, click on the Settings icon next to the add-on product in your pricing table and select Make this Optional. You can add as many optional items as you want, and your client will be able to pick none or all of them.

By default, the optional items will have a blank checkbox next to them, meaning your client will need to select them to add them to the total. Alternatively, you can make the optional item checkbox appear ticked, meaning your client will need to opt out instead of opt in. To do that, preview the proposal before sending and tick the optional items. When you close the proposal, these settings will be saved and the boxes will appear ticked to your client.

Choice items are great for businesses that offer, for example, different service packages or delivery options. The process of adding them is the same as above, except that you’ll want to select Make this a choice when you click on the Settings icon.

Choice items are great for businesses that offer, for example, different service packages or delivery options. The process of adding them is the same as above, except that you’ll want to select Make this a choice when you click on the Settings icon.

Keep in mind that, unlike with optional items, your client will be able to pick only one choice item in a pricing table. So, if you’re selling three different services with three different packages, you’ll need to have three separate pricing tables. You can find detailed information on setting those up here.

Applying discounts

When it comes to giving your clients discounts, there are two ways of doing it in Better Proposals: percentages and amounts. To add a discount to an item in your pricing table, simply click on the Settings icon next to the item and turn on the Add a discount option. In the dropdown, choose either Percentage or Amount, put in the numbers, and you’re done!