Creating and Pricing a Proposal

A proposal is the quote you sell to your client and, once accepted, the budget for the event. This page covers building one by hand: creating it, adding lines and groups, and pricing each line. To bill needs you already planned in procurement, see adding procurement needs to a proposal.

Proposals are on each event under Resourcing, then Proposals, and are available to event admins.

Create a Proposal

The left panel of the proposal holds its name, status, client, Terms and Internal notes. Terms are part of the deal and lock when the proposal is accepted. Internal notes are for your team and stay editable whatever the status.

You can keep as many proposals on an event as you need. Drafts do not count toward the event's budget or revenue, so building an alternative version never inflates the event's numbers.

Add Lines

Each line is something you are selling: a quantity, a unit cost and a unit charge. Unit cost is what you plan to spend per unit and becomes the line's Budget. Unit charge is what the client pays per unit and becomes the line's Revenue. Quantities can be fractional, so a line can budget 7.5 hours.

To add a line quickly, type a name in the Add line row at the bottom of a group. It is created with a quantity of 1 and no price, which you then fill in on the grid. Name, quantity, unit cost, unit charge and both notes can be edited directly in the grid. To change anything else, open the line's menu and choose Edit. Remove line deletes it.

A line does not have to be a single item. A bucket line such as "Food and beverage" at a negotiated figure is as valid as a line for one stagehand call.

Group Lines

Groups organize a proposal into sections such as Audio, Lighting and Staging, each with its own subtotal.

Removing a group keeps its lines. They move to Ungrouped.

Hide Lines and Prices From the Client

Some lines are for your own planning, and some prices are better shown as part of a total. Each line has two switches:

• Hide from client marks the whole line as internal.
• Hide price from client keeps the line but leaves its price off.

Hidden lines still count in every total, so the budget and revenue never change when you hide something. A hidden line shows an eye icon in the grid, and a line with only its price hidden shows Price hidden.

Each line and group also has a Client note, which is meant for the client, and an Internal note, which is never meant for the client.

Price a Line From a Target Margin

When you know the margin you want, let BackOps work out the price. The Target margin column on the grid opens a calculator for each line.

The calculation takes the proposal's adjustment columns into account, so a line with sales tax or a markup still lands on the margin you asked for, measured on its totals. It runs once and writes one unit price. Nothing recalculates afterward, so if you later change the cost, the line keeps its old charge and its margin moves. Results are rounded to the cent, so the margin can be off the target by a fraction of a cent.

The calculator refuses when there is nothing to solve from (no unit cost when calculating charge, or no unit charge when calculating cost), when a column multiplies by zero, when you ask for a 100% margin on the charge, and when the result would be a negative price.

A line with a target margin also shows a Spend ceiling: the most you can spend on that line and still hit the target. It is the line's total charge multiplied by one minus the target margin. You can also set Target margin % directly when you add or edit a line, which records the target and fills in the spend ceiling without changing any price.

Import Lines From a Spreadsheet

To bring in a quote you already built elsewhere, open the menu beside Add line and choose Import from CSV. Map your columns to Name, Quantity, Unit cost, Unit charge, Public note and Internal note. Every adjustment column already on the proposal is offered too, so a tax or fee value in your file lands on that line.

Every row needs a name and a quantity above zero. Imported lines arrive Ungrouped, and a row that has a name but no numbers is read as a section heading and skipped rather than turned into a group. A sell column headed Price or Rate is matched to unit charge, not unit cost. Import is not available once a proposal is accepted.

Delete a Proposal

Open the proposal's actions menu in the top bar and choose Delete proposal. A proposal that has been billed on an invoice cannot be deleted, because that would erase billing history. Remove it from the invoice first, or cancel the proposal instead. Any expenses pointed at its lines stay recorded but become unbudgeted.