Send and track a proposal
The acceptance link, the five states, and what Viewed actually tells you.
Sending generates an acceptance link. The client opens it, chooses, and accepts — no login, no account.
Where to find it
The acceptance link
Sending generates the link. You can copy it and send it yourself, or open it to see exactly what the client sees.
Look at it before the first one goes out. A proposal reads differently from the client's side than from the composer, and pricing is the last place you want a presentation surprise.
The five states
- Draft — not sent, still editable
- Sent — issued, not opened
- Viewed — they've opened it
- Accepted — signed
- Declined
What Viewed actually tells you
Viewed is the state worth acting on, and it's the one people misread.
A proposal sitting at Sent for a week means it didn't arrive, went to spam, or landed on someone who isn't the decision-maker. That's a delivery problem, and following up with "just checking in" won't fix it.
A proposal at Viewed for a week means they read it and haven't decided. That's a different conversation entirely — usually about price, scope, or something they didn't understand — and it's the one where a call helps.
Same silence, two completely different causes. Treating them the same is how proposals die quietly.
Voiding
Voiding stops the acceptance link working. Use it when pricing has changed or the proposal is superseded.
It's also the fix for an error in a sent proposal, since a sent proposal isn't editable — void, correct, re-send.
Change orders
Additional work on an existing arrangement can go out as a change order rather than a whole new proposal.
Use them. The alternative — absorbing scope creep because raising it formally feels awkward — is the single most common way a firm loses money on a client it likes.
Expiry
An expired proposal stops being acceptable. That's a feature: it gives you a natural reason to re-engage at current pricing rather than honouring a quote from two quarters ago.
Notes and limits
- A sent proposal can't be edited. Void and re-send.
- The acceptance link works without a login.
- Declined proposals stay as a record.
- Only accepted proposals create work or billing.