Managing Proposals: Accepting, Printing, and Scheduling

Overview

This article explains how to manage proposals in ServiceMinder, including sending proposals to customers, accepting them internally or externally, viewing and printing proposals, and scheduling work once a proposal is accepted. You’ll also learn how to clear an acceptance if changes are needed, and understand the key actions and options available on the Proposal Details page.

This article will review:

On the Proposal Details page, there are many actions that you can take. These are listed at the top of the page. Some options may not be available to you due to your user permissions or the features included in your organization's plan.

Accept: Allows you to internally accept the proposal on behalf of the customer. The ability to do this is controlled at the service setting level.
Decline: Allows you to internally decline the proposal on behalf of the customer.
Schedule: Generates an appointment from the proposal.
View: Opens a preview of the proposal that is similar to what the customer will see (minus the payment field).
Print: Generates a printable version of the proposal.
Edit: Allows you to edit the basic details of the proposal (title, expiration date, line items, etc). This option is no longer available after the proposal has been accepted or scheduled.
Settings: Allows you to edit more advanced settings about the individual proposal. Learn more about those options here.
Unsubscribe: Stops the associated contact from receiving any further automated updates about this proposal.
Timeline: Opens the contact timeline to review any recent actions taken on their behalf.
Actions
- Send: Send the proposal using the automated email template (sends it immediately).
- Email: Send the proposal using an ad hoc email template. Choose a template, add emails to CC or BCC, and select to include a PDF version as an attachment.
- Add Deposit: Internally record a deposit that you collected from the customer.
- Invoice: Manually generate an invoice from the proposal.
- Add Task: Create a task associated with this proposal.
- Checklist: Assign a checklist to this proposal.
- Unbundle: Will display if you have already bundled this proposal with another and you want to undo that action.
- Copy: Make a duplicate copy of this proposal.
- Open Issue: Open an issue that needs to be tracked and resolved related to this proposal. Requires the Feedback & Issues add-on.

Video Tutorial

How to clear a proposal rescission/acceptance:

Proposal Acceptance

Once a proposal is created, you can send an email containing a proposal link to the contact. The link is live, so any edits update automatically, so no new link is needed.

External Accept

Customers can click Accept to apply an electronic signature. You’ll receive an email notification once the proposal is accepted.

Internal Accept

You can accept the proposal on behalf of the contact. Click Accept on the Proposal Details page and provide the name of the person for whom you are accepting. After acceptance, you can proceed to schedule the work.

Proposal Scheduling

After a proposal is accepted*, you can schedule the work:

Single Appointment: Click Schedule to pre-populate the appointment details, select date/time, and schedule.
Chained Services: For services with Chaining enabled, scheduling converts the proposal into a Project, automatically tracking completion percentage.
Multiple Appointments: Use Add an Appointment for proposals with multiple scheduled appointments. These convert to Projects and appear in the Projects snapshot until all appointments are completed. Learn more about Project-Based Business Flow.

*Proposals can also be scheduled directly before being accepted, though this is not our recommended workflow.

Clear an Acceptance

Sometimes you may need to make changes to a proposal that has already been accepted—either by the customer or internally. ServiceMinder allows you to clear an acceptance, returning the proposal to an Open status so it can be edited or resent.

Important: You can only clear a proposal if it has not been invoiced. Once an invoice has been generated, the proposal’s status cannot revert to Open. In such cases, use a Change Order to make edits.

Why You Might Clear an Acceptance

You noticed a mistake in the line items, pricing, or schedule.
The customer verbally agreed to changes, but you need the proposal to reflect it formally (and you don't want to use a change order).
The proposal was accidentally accepted or declined and needs to be corrected.

How to Clear an Acceptance

Navigate to the Proposal Details page for the proposal you want to edit.
Scroll to the Acceptance section at the bottom of the page. Here, you’ll see who accepted (or declined) the proposal and the date.
Click the Clear button. A confirmation popup will appear asking if you’re sure you want to unaccept or undecline the proposal.
Confirm by clicking Yes. The proposal’s status will now revert to Open, allowing you to make edits.

Once cleared, you have several options:

Edit the proposal: Adjust line items, pricing, or terms before sending it back to the customer.
Accept internally: If you want to mark the proposal as accepted on the customer’s behalf, you can do so with the Accept button.
Send for external acceptance: Resend the proposal link to the customer so they can sign electronically.
Decline or let it expire: If the proposal is no longer valid, you can decline it or allow it to expire naturally.

All acceptance and decline actions are logged in the system, including IP addresses for audit purposes. Clearing and re-accepting a proposal internally will update the audit trail to reflect the new action.

Print a Proposal

In Control Panel > Proposals, you can control whether or not the Print button will print the Web format or the PDF template.

The format of the PDF template can be edited in Control Panel > Print Templates by selecting Proposal from the dropdown menu and adjusting the code.

Clicking Print will include the signature block and all attachments, while "right clicking" to print the page will remove the signature block. Attached photos print "2-up" to save space. This is the same for proposals and/or invoices.

FAQs

If I clear the acceptance and then accept it again, it would change who accepted the proposal and the IP address. Does that make the terms and conditions not legally binding?

We are not legal counsel and it may be different depending on terms and conditions of the brand or your own attorney's recommendations. Within serviceminder, if the customer originally accepted the proposal that is considered an external acceptance and an IP address is captured. If you have to clear the acceptance for whatever reason and re-accept the proposal on behalf of someone then it is considered an internal acceptance and capture your IP address in the audit trail.

When is a proposal automatically invoiced?

If the service’s Invoicing Mode is set to Proposal Accept and the customer makes a deposit or initial payment at signing, an invoice is automatically generated. Change settings in Control Panel > Services > Edit > Invoicing.

Can I edit the Proposal Print Template?

Yes, but the template is HTML-based. Only attempt edits if confident in coding skills. Otherwise, submit a support ticket with requested changes. We cannot guarantee that we can accommodate every change request to the print template - that will depend on the complexity of the request and the bandwidth of our support team.

How do I handle edits on an already accepted and invoiced proposal?

You can use a Change Order if you need to edit an accepted proposal that already has been invoiced or scheduled. With a change order, you can add new items, or remove line items by entering a negative quantity. Once the change order has been accepted (either internally or by the client) you'll need to merge the invoices so that your techs see the final information.