What happens when a proposal is accepted
Work created, billing set up, and a prospect turned into a client — in one moment.
Acceptance is the moment a proposal stops being a document and becomes work, billing, and a client record.
What gets created
The client. A prospect becomes a client on acceptance. No separate step, and nothing to re-key.
The work. Each accepted service line spawns from whatever job template it names. The proposal knew what work it was selling, so the work arrives configured.
The billing. Whatever schedule you set up begins. A First charge set to On acceptance happens then.
The terms. Where the proposal carried an engagement letter, acceptance covers it.
Why this matters
The gap between "client said yes" and "work exists and billing is set up" is where firms lose things.
The client says yes on a call. Somebody means to set it up. Two weeks later the work hasn't started, nobody has invoiced, and the engagement letter is still unsigned. Nothing failed exactly — it just never got done.
Acceptance closing all four at once removes that gap entirely.
Only accepted proposals do anything
Draft, sent, viewed, and declined proposals create nothing. No work, no billing, no client.
That's worth knowing when a proposal has effectively been agreed verbally. Until it's accepted through the link, none of the setup has happened.
Spawning is safe to retry
Creating the work from an accepted proposal is idempotent — running it again won't produce duplicates. If something looks like it didn't spawn, triggering it again is safe.
Checking it worked
After the first few acceptances, verify:
- The client record exists and looks right
- The jobs were created in the right pipeline with sensible dates
- The billing schedule matches what was proposed
Once you've confirmed a proposal template behaves correctly, every acceptance from it behaves the same way. The checking is a one-time cost per template, not per client.
A billing-only proposal
A proposal with no job templates is valid — it sets up billing without creating work. Right for a retainer or a fee arrangement where the work is tracked elsewhere.
The detail view says No {jobs} (billing-only proposal) so it's clear that's deliberate rather than a misconfiguration.
Notes and limits
- Acceptance is recorded with a timestamp.
- Declining doesn't create anything, and the record stays.
- A voided proposal can't be accepted.
- Change orders follow the same path — accepted, then spawned.