Managing Proposal Jobs

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In Abtrac potential jobs that you’re quoting on (proposals) can be created separately from confirmed projects (billable jobs). By adding this work into Abtrac before it’s confirmed you can report on all jobs, and convert proposals into projects easily once they are approved, retaining all your fee estimates in one system.

What is the difference between a Proposal and a Job in Abtrac?

A proposal is a non billable job, whereas a job/project is billable.

A project can also be made non billable by removing the tick from the ‘Billable’ tick box in the Project Details page. Other legitimate non-billable projects in Abtrac might be administration work, those used for tracking leave etc.

The difference between a proposal and other non billable projects in Abtrac is that a proposal has a proposal number, whereas a non billable project has only the project code.

Only those non-billable projects with a proposal number are tracked and reported on as proposals in Abtrac.

How to Create a Proposal

From Clients, Contacts & Projects >> Search Clients and Projects >> click on any existing ‘Contact Name’ to add a new proposal for the contact.

If the proposal is to be created for a new contact, then click on the ‘Add contact’ button on the top right to add the new contact first.

In the ‘Details for’ Client page, click on the Projects/Jobs tab to go into Projects Summary page.

Now click on the ‘Add Project for this Contact’ button.

There are a range of options for how you track and manage proposal jobs from System Settings. (Read more details on how to set up proposal options below).You can manage proposal numbers in the same way as job numbers, proposals can also have unique prefixes/suffixes etc.

There is also a setting allowing users to choose between a project and proposal when a new job is created. When this prompt is enabled you can click on the ‘Proposal’ button to go to ‘Project Details’ page for that proposal.

Here, the project code and proposal number will be generated depending on your system settings. The ‘Billable’ box will be unticked by default.

Setting a follow up date on your proposal jobs

A follow up date for a proposal job can be set up in the ‘Follow Up’ section of the Job Details page. Here, you can also enter the follow up person and any follow up notes specific for that proposal.

Follow up notes for proposals can be set up as a required item from your System settings.

See System Settings for Managing Proposals section.

Based on follow up conversations with your client, you may either make the proposal non-current or billable from the Job Details page.

Making a Proposal Non-current

Untick the ‘Current’ tick box in the ‘Job Details’ page for the proposal to make the proposal non-current.

Converting a Proposal into a Project

To convert a proposal into a project, tick the ‘Billable’ box. A pop up box appears asking if you need to update the Confirmed Date field.

Click the ‘Yes’ button.

The ‘Project Details’ page will then be updated with the ‘Confirmed Date’ and the new ‘Project Code’ (depending on your preferences in System Settings).

system settings

System Settings for Managing Proposals

In the System Settings, you can set up your defaults for a proposal.

Here you can choose a prefix and/or suffix for a proposal number, and if desired, also choose to retain the proposal number as your project code.

The are also settings allowing users to choose between a project and proposal when a new job is created, and for making follow up notes a required field for any proposals created.