Proposals

Creating a proposal starts with selecting the services the client needs. Pricing is pulled from your service definitions, but you can override it for individual clients when needed. Line amounts can be negative too - useful for showing a discount or a credit as its own line rather than burying it in an adjusted price.

The proposal automatically includes:

• Service descriptions from your content management system
• Pricing adjusted by any applicable factors
• VAT at the rate configured on each service (if your practice is VAT registered)
• Terms and conditions specific to each service
• Your branding and design theme

Clients rarely start on the first day of their financial year, so a proposal can also carry a catch-up fee for the months before they came on board. Price the backlog by month against the fee you have already quoted, spread it over the first few invoices if that helps them say yes, and it arrives on the proposal as its own explained section with the payment plan set out.

Proposals use the design themes you've configured in the content management system. Your logo, colours, and fonts are applied automatically, so every proposal looks professionally designed.

Generate a PDF preview to see exactly what the client will receive. Make adjustments, regenerate, and send when you're happy with the result.

When you send a proposal, the client receives an email with a secure link. They can:

• Review the proposal at their convenience
• Download the PDF for their records
• Accept with a digital signature

No printing, scanning, or posting required. The entire process happens online, and you're notified the moment they accept.

The proposal acceptance flow doesn't just cover the proposal itself. Clients also review and sign the engagement letter as part of the same process.

Engagement letter content is pulled from the content management system, with service-specific terms automatically included based on what they're signing up for.

Need to send an engagement letter without a proposal? That works too. Engagement letters can be created and sent independently when you don't need the full proposal flow - for example, when renewing an existing client's terms.

Once a proposal is signed, Sodium takes care of the paperwork. A copy of both the proposal and the engagement letter is automatically saved to the client's documents folder, giving you a permanent, searchable record without any manual filing.

The client also receives a copy by email for their own records. This is fully configurable - you can turn the email off entirely, or customise the wording to match your firm's tone.

The acceptance flow is configured once, in your proposal settings: whether clients are asked to set up a Direct Debit, whether they complete identity verification, and whether the acceptance page shows a pricing summary alongside the proposal document.

But not every proposal is the same. Each proposal shows your current defaults at a glance, and lets you change them for that proposal alone - skip the Direct Debit step for a client who pays annually, or leave out identity verification where it's already been done.

The pricing summary option is there for practices that structure proposals as a story. By default the acceptance page shows a summary of services and totals next to the proposal document - handy for straightforward quotes.

If you run a sales pipeline, proposals feed it automatically. Switch on Add Client to Sales Pipeline in your proposal settings and the first time a proposal goes out to a client, they land on your pipeline by themselves - card on the board, intake tasks created, follow-ups scheduled.

Every quote you send becomes a deal you're tracking, with no double-entry between your proposals and a separate CRM. And when the client accepts, the prospect becomes an active client on the same record - the pipeline hands over to delivery without anything being re-keyed.

Know exactly where every proposal stands:

• Unsent - Draft proposals still being prepared
• Sent - Delivered to the client
• Viewed - The client has opened the link
• Accepted - Signed and ready to go
• Rejected - Client declined

Filter and search proposals by status, client, or date range. Your dashboard can show proposals awaiting response so nothing falls through the cracks.

Rather a lot, and none of it needs you. The services on the proposal go from Proposed to Active, the onboarding tasks for each one are raised with their workflows already attached, the recurring work starts appearing on your task list, the signed documents are filed to the client, and whoever owns the relationship is told.

The client isn't finished either. They carry straight on into Direct Debit setup, identity verification for AML, and any forms you need answered - all in the same sitting, while they're still at the screen and still saying yes.

That whole journey - what you can collect, what fires automatically, and how to configure it - is covered in client onboarding.