Building a Proposal: The Five Steps

P

Parth

Last updated on Aug 8, 2026

The proposal is the offer a client accepts and pays against. The builder has five steps — Basic, Terms, Documents, Note, Review — and you can move back and forth with Previous and Next before sending.

Step 1 — Basic

Date & Time carries over from the client's request. Check it matches what you've discussed.

Costs & Fees

  • Hourly Rate — your rate for this event, not necessarily your profile average
  • Payment StructureDeposit or Full Amount. See Deposit vs Full Amount
  • Deposit Type, then either Deposit Amount or Deposit Percentage
  • Travel Cost — type it in, or turn on Use Travel Calculator to work it out from a starting address

Use My Default appears next to several fields and fills in the values you saved under Manage Defaults.

Enhancements

  • Extras — the add-ons the client asked for, each with its own price
  • Additional ItemsAdd Item, then an Item Name and a cost, for anything that isn't a standard extra

Other

  • Equipment — what you're bringing. Use My Default pulls in your saved text.

Step 2 — Terms

  • Requisites — what you need the client or venue to provide
  • Expires On — the date this offer stops being valid
  • Cancelable Until — the last date the client can cancel for a full refund

Both dates are required. See Your Proposal Window: Expires On and Cancelable Until.

Step 3 — Documents

Attach the agreements the client signs. The table lists each document's Name, Status, Acceptance Type, and Completion Date, and New Document adds one. See Adding Documents to a Proposal.

Step 4 — Note

A free-text message to the client. Use it for anything the line items don't say — what you'll do during the ceremony, when you'll arrive to set up, what you'd like to know before the day.

Step 5 — Review

The full proposal exactly as the client will read it: the Service Breakdown table, the totals, and the Proposal Terms. Read it once before sending, then select Send Offer.

After sending

The status becomes Offer Sent and the client gets a notification. You can download a PDF of what you sent from the Progress tab.

Writing a proposal that gets accepted

Itemise rather than quoting one number. A single figure invites negotiation; a breakdown showing performance time, travel, and each extra shows the client what they're paying for. Set Expires On far enough out to be reasonable but close enough to prompt a decision — most DJs use one to two weeks.