This guide is based on a browser-recorded walkthrough in the rebuilt DrillerDB console. When a step can send, submit, export, or change account access, the guide calls out the review boundary.
The Proposal tab turns a project shell into a customer-facing quote. Use it to review line items, add pricing, set terms, choose recipients, configure down payments, and either send the proposal or create the customer proposal record without sending while you are still drafting.
Quick Start
- Open the project Proposal tab.
- Add or review proposal line items.
- Click Create Proposal.
- Confirm recipients, message, attachments, approval link, and down-payment settings.
- Click Send Proposal for real customer delivery or Create without sending for a draft/customer portal snapshot.
Step-by-Step: Send a Project Proposal
Open the project Proposal tab
From a project page, open the Proposal tab. This is where project pricing, proposal terms, customer-facing proposal records, approvals, change orders, and resend controls live.
Right after you create a project, the Proposal tab is the next step before converting the work to an open job.
Add or review proposal line items
Use the line-item editor to describe the work, quantity, unit, internal unit cost, retail price (what the customer sees; a blank retail price charges the unit cost), and tax setting. The section builder helps with grouped proposals; the flat list is fastest for a simple well quote.
Each section in the builder has an optional Section description, shown to the customer. The customer sees it on the online proposal. On the PDF attached to the proposal email, a section with a description prints its title in bold with the description under it, above its line items. A section with no description prints no title row on the PDF.
Save the proposal after major pricing changes. Create Proposal also saves pending edits before it opens the send dialog.
Click Create Proposal
Click Create Proposal in the header. DrillerDB saves the latest pricing snapshot and opens the Send Proposal dialog for proposal date, validity, name, recipients, CC, the email (change it with Customize), down payment, delivery options, attachments, and the signature line.
After the customer approves a proposal, this button reads Create Change Order and the dialog starts on Change order. To send a new proposal on the same project, choose Proposal under Document type.
Confirm recipients and customer-facing options
Review the primary recipient and CC list. To change the greeting, opening paragraph, message, or note for this send, click Customize on the Email row. Then decide whether to attach the PDF, include the approval link, add a signature line (Include signature line on the PDF), and set any required or optional down payment (a fixed amount or a percentage). Tick Also text the customer (SMS) to send a text as well, and use Preview PDF to check the customer copy first.
For a dry run, use Create without sending. For real customer delivery, verify the recipient address and then click Send Proposal.
Create or send the proposal
Click Send Proposal to email the proposal to the customer. If you are still drafting, click Create without sending to create the proposal record and customer portal snapshot without sending email. The new row shows as a Draft; its actions menu has Mark as Sent and a resend option for sending it later. The Sent Documents section then shows the proposal status, recipient, total, and customer-link controls.
Customer delivery and training mode
Use Send Proposal only when the recipient email, message, terms, attachments, approval link, and down-payment settings are ready for the customer. Use Create without sending when you want to create the proposal record, snapshot, and customer portal version without delivering email yet.
If the Customer Did Not Get the Proposal
- On the Proposal tab, open Sent Documents and find the proposal. Check that Sent To shows the right email address.
- Check Opened. Yes means an email open or online proposal page view was tracked, and Last opened shows when.
- Ask the customer to look in their spam or junk folder and, in Gmail, the Promotions and Updates tabs. If they find it there, ask them to mark it as not spam or add the sender to their contacts, to help with future delivery.
- To email it again, open the proposal's actions menu and click Send Reminder.
- To send it yourself, click Download PDF in the actions menu, or the download icon in the Open column, and attach the PDF to your own email. If you hand over a proposal you created without sending, use Mark as Sent in the actions menu so Sent Documents shows it as Sent.
Read any warning shown after you try to send. "The proposal was saved, but its email is held for a quick review before it goes to your customer" means it goes out on its own if the review clears it, so do not send it again. "The proposal was saved but the email was not sent" means it will not go out automatically. Fix the reported problem, then use Send Reminder on the saved proposal. If DrillerDB says it could not confirm delivery, check with the customer before sending again.