Introduction to Proposals, Quotes and Event Budgets

A proposal is the quote you sell to your client and, once the client accepts it, the budget your event runs against. Every line carries two numbers: what you expect to spend and what the client pays. The first becomes your budget, the second your revenue, and the gap between them is your margin.

Why Proposals Matter

On most shows the quote lives in a spreadsheet or a PDF, and the budget lives somewhere else. Someone re-keys the numbers after the client signs, change requests arrive by email, and by load-out nobody can say with confidence whether the show made money. The quote and the budget drift apart because they were never the same document.

In BackOps they are the same document. The proposal you build for the client is the plan you spend against. When a vendor invoice lands or a crew member submits a receipt, it is measured against the line that budgeted it, so an overspend shows up on the line where it happened rather than in a reconciliation weeks later. When the client adds scope mid-show, a change order bills it without reopening the deal you already agreed.

How Proposals Work

Cost and charge. Each line has a quantity, a unit cost (what you plan to spend per unit) and a unit charge (what the client pays per unit). Cost is internal. Charge is what you sell. A line can be a free-form bucket, such as "Catering" at a negotiated figure, or it can be backed by a procurement need and priced from that need's rate card.

Budget, revenue and margin. Across a proposal, total cost is the Budget, total charge is the Revenue, and Revenue minus Budget is the Margin. Taxes, service fees, discounts and markups are added as adjustments, which are columns on the cost side or the charge side that run over every line.

Statuses. A proposal moves through Draft, Sent, Accepted and Paid, and can also be Rejected or Canceled. Only Accepted and Paid proposals count toward the event's Budgeted and Revenue totals. That lets you keep several alternatives side by side as drafts, such as a full production option and a scaled-back one, without either inflating the event's numbers until the client picks one.

Accepting locks the price. Once a proposal is Accepted, its lines, groups, adjustments, name, client and terms are locked. Internal notes, budget tracking, invoices and payments stay open, because that is the work of running the show. New scope goes on a change order, which is a smaller proposal that amends an accepted one and adds to the budget and revenue once the client accepts it.

Getting paid. Invoices are created at the event level and can bill several proposals at once, so a master proposal and its change orders can settle on one invoice. Payments recorded against an invoice settle it, and an accepted proposal moves to Paid on its own once every invoice billing it is settled.

flowchart LR
    N["Procurement needs"] -->|"Add from procurement"| P["Proposal (Draft)"]
    L["Free-form lines"] --> P
    P -->|"Sent, then Accepted"| A["Accepted proposal"]
    A --> B["Budget and Revenue"]
    A --> I["Invoices"]
    I -->|"Payments settle every invoice"| D["Paid"]
    O["Orders, needs and expenses"] -->|"Actual cost"| B

Where Proposals Live

Proposals are on each event under Resourcing, then Proposals. The page has two tabs: Proposals lists every proposal and change order with the event's totals across the top, and Invoices lists the event's client invoices. Opening a proposal shows its Line Items, Adjustments, Budget and Billing tabs under a summary bar of Budget, Revenue, Margin, Margin %, Billed, Received and Outstanding. Proposals and invoices are available to event admins.

What Proposals Do Not Do Yet

BackOps does not yet produce a client-facing proposal document or PDF, collect e-signatures, or give clients a portal to view and pay. You build and track the proposal in BackOps and send the client your quote the way you do today. Settings that describe what the client sees, such as hiding a line or a column, are saved with the proposal and never change any total.