ArcSite proposal templates help you quickly create documents that win business in your industry. In this article, we will cover the basics of creating your proposal from a template.
Step 1. Update your company information.
Before working with your template you will need to update your company information. Navigate to our browser site at: https://user.arcsiteapp.com and login using the same email and password used for the app> click your email upper right> advanced settings> company account> accounts.
Here you can enter in your company name, address and logo in .png or .jpg format. Please see the one minute video below for more.
Step 2. Select and duplicate your proposal template.
Navigate to advanced settings> proposal templates and and select your industry proposal template. Open the Actions menu and click Duplicate. You will be prompted to give a name to your new template. Click OK and your new template will appear, ready to be edited.
To permanently remove a template, open the Actions menu and click Delete Template. You will be prompted to confirm by clicking Delete.
If you find you need to edit or archive a published template, we recommend first making a duplicate, which saves a copy of the template as a draft and removes it from use in the app. Then you may make any changes necessary and “re-publish” the copy at any point.
Step 3. Edit the proposal draft to fit your business needs.
Your draft proposal has standard sections and options used in your industry. These can be reordered to suit your needs. Additionally, you can add sections and also delete sections you do not want. You can add any of the sections listed in the table below. Please note: Company information and logo are edited in the company account area, see step 1 for more.
Starting fields and descriptions:
Company Info | This is where you can format how your company information appears.
3 layout options, Logo On Top, Logo On Left, or Logo On Right.
Additionally, formatting options allow you to, change font size, change logo width, add additional text, or hide company name. |
Client Profile | This is where you can format how your client's information appears.
2 layout options. 1 Date, job #, client & sales information. 2. client & sales information only.
Additionally, formatting options allow you to change label names and widths. You can also hide the following: client email, client phone, company information, sales email, & sales detail. |
Products | This is where you can select how much product information you would like to show.
9 layout options. All Columns, Name & Quantity, Name & Amount, Name Only, Grouped by Category All Columns, High Level Details, Grouped by Category Name and Amount, Grouped by Category Name and Quantity, Grouped by Category Name Only.
Additionally, formatting options allow you to select how many price digits to show, size columns, or hide fields. |
Payment | 1 standard layout option.
Additionally, formatting options allow you to hide payment fields, Payment Terms (left/right), & enter your desired payment terms. |
Additional Information | 1 standard layout option.
Additionally, formatting options allow you to change section name, hide fields, hide yes/no, change alignment, and date format. |
Products Not Included | 4 layout options. All Columns, Name Only, Name & Quantity, Name & Amount. |
--Page Break-- | No options, experiment with placement depending on the length of your average document (normally dictated by the drawings and product amount). |
Drawing | 3 layout options. Drawing w Legend Company Logo & Client profile, Drawing w Legend, Drawing Only.
Additionally, formatting options allow you to create a drawing label (for something other than Detail Plan), hide drawing label, and control drawing height. |
Signature | 4 layout options. Standard, Columns, Co-Applicant, Initials.
Additionally, formatting options allow you to set margin, & create titles for left and right signature. You can also enter placeholder text for customer and sales. |
Location Based Photos | 1 standard layout option.
Additionally, formatting options allow you to select number of rows and columns per page. |
Please see the video below putting it all together:
Step 4. Test your proposal.
The next step is to preview your template using real data. You’ll notice that up to this point your proposal template has been in Draft mode. This means it is only available for use within the User Site — not yet in the app.
Draft templates can be used to generate real proposals so you can accurately assess that your template is set up correctly. Just as importantly, it allows you to go back and make edits. Let’s try it out.
Navigate back to Home and open a project with an existing drawing. We recommend you test your template with a variety of drawings, but for now just pick one with takeoff and estimate data (one with some of your products in the drawing).
Open the Takeoff & Estimate tab, then click Export.
You’ll see your draft proposal listed in blue. Click it to generate a PDF with data from this drawing.
Open the downloaded file and check out your new proposal!
Remember: your proposal template is still in Draft mode. This means it’s still fully editable, but not yet available to use in the app.
If you have any changes to make, navigate back to Advanced Settings > Proposal Templates and open your draft template. Repeat as needed.
If your template is ready for prime time, the next step is to Publish to App.