Immutable proposals

With this update, we have moved to the next level to make the signed proposal/contract documentation highly reliable and legally binding. Fresh Proposals already restricts editing proposals once it is completely executed (signed/ accepted). With this new update/ feature, the proposals and other kinds of documents generated & signed using Fresh Proposals will turn into completely immutable (can not be changed).

Technically speaking, now onwards content of Accepted, Signed or Rejected proposals will be retained separately.

It also means the content in the online proposal, engagement letter, contract, quote, etc signed using Fresh Proposals can not be changed at all. Even if you change your company name, your name, client name, its custom variables, etc; it will not change the content of the signed document.

Proposals summary can not be changed (it remains read only: you can not change due date, valid till date, ProposalId, etc.

Users are already restricted from opening the signed document in the editor mode.

You will not be able to override the status of signed or accepted proposal. Even the content in the PDF generated for a given proposal, contract, engagement letter will not change once a document status turns Signed or Accepted or Rejected

 

However you will be able to
1 Rename the document (to organize signed documents) but document name as viewed by client or as it appears in the content will not change.
2. You can duplicate the signed document and all variables in the new document will start displaying values applicable to the new doc

We already rolled out part of this feature implementation (e.g. you can not change proposal status, you can not open signed proposal in the editor). With this update, proposals which will get completely executed proposals ( signed, accepted or rejected), starting this month onward will be immutable.

Naming a Fee Table: Label and identify a fee table by its name

Now you can name a fee table and identify/label it in your proposal / quotation/ engagement letter. Simply open the properties panel of the fee table in the editor, you will notice a new field as shown below. Input table name in this field.

 

The value you entered in this field, it will start displaying the table name, on top of the fee table as shown below.

If you intent to turn a regular fee table into a classic package, you can use the same label. You will see the same table name in the Package Name property as shown below.

 

Fee Summary Table

We have introduced a new content block in this update – Fee Summary Table. For those who have multiple fee table in a given section and their client would like to see summary of fees table, this is the feature you have been looking for..

All you have to do is to drag-drop the summary fee table to a new page. It is a placeholder fee table block.

In a proposal editor, you will not be able to view/ edit contents in the summary fee table. However once you view it in the proposal preview or your client views it, you will see summary of multiple tables presented in this table.

– Usually summary fee table is added towards the end of the document to summarize service-offer-bundle and pricing
– We are providing you a way to set name to a given fee table (like classic package) which will appear in the summary table
– Summary table is read-only block however it will be automatically populated in preview and in the client view.
– It is also updated based on the optional fee selection, package selection, change of editable quantity

You will notice a new icon for ‘Fee Summary Table’ in the toolbar as shown below.

Once you drag-drop the Fee Summary table to your page, it will appear like this (you will not be able to make changes to this block in the editor, it will get auto-populated in the client view and preview).

As you/ client make selection of fees, packages, quantities (wherever enabled), the Fee Summary Table will also get updated automatically.

 

Stripe Integration – Charge % of non-recurring Fee & First Instance of Recurring Fee

So far you have been able to charge % of proposal value to your clients as Advance amount. This was not ideal for all business.  Few businesses wanted to charge only % of fixed fee (like Set up Fee) but not entire proposal value or % of all monthly/yearly fee at once.

Now we have a solution for you.

Now you can accept % of non-recurring Fee in a proposal (versus total proposal value) using Stripe payment integration. Previously proposer could set percentage of the proposal value to collect as advance, while it still works for a set of users, to enable the businesses who wanted to charge just a percentage of set up fee and charge monthly recurring payment separately, neither they wanted to charge client % of entire proposal value as advance payment, we have introduced new options for Stripe connected accounts to collect percentage of non-recurring fee as advance payment.

Non-recurring fees are of type Fixed fee, unit-quantity fee. And Recurring fee type are Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly.

Hourly fee can not be billed literally on hourly basis using Stripe (i.e. Stripe does not support Hourly billing as yet) hence hourly fee is considered as good as unit-quantity and clubbed as non-recurring fee.

In this example, you will see client will be billed % of non-recurring fee as advance fee and s/he will not be billed for the recurring fee to collect advance payment.

You will see the default Stripe payment option in the proposal creation wizard as shown below.

Now you will be able to see list of options in the dropdown as shown below.

To charge only % of Non-recurring (such as Fixed fee, unit-quantity fee items, hourly fee items), you can select eh Fixed fee option as shown below.

If you want to charge your client % of non-recurring fee as well as First monthly fee as advance, you should select the third option as shown below.

If you are unable to set this option while creating proposal. No problem, you can set it up or change it in the proposal Summary page as shown below.

You can see other options in the dropdown list.

When you select the third option to charge % of non-recurring fee along with first recurring fee, it will look like this.

When you set up a proposal or engagement letter or contract or quote to collect percentage of non-recurring fee only, the client will see following payment option while making payment.

If you have configured Stripe Advance payment option as % of non-recurring fee and First Recurring option as Monthly, your client will see following payment popup

If you have selected Monthly as well as Quarterly fee option in the Stripe Advance set up, your client will see the following popup while making Advance payment.

 

If you have include yearly fee in the Stripe payment option as mentioned above, you will see yearly fee included in these calculations as well.

 

Recurring payment using Stripe

We are also going to introduce Recurring payment option using Stripe integration.

To begin the engagement (proposal work), you may want to % of collect non-recurring fee first; and collect monthly/ quarterly/ yearly recurring payment every month/ quarter/ year afterwards.

Or

You may want to % of collect non-recurring fee as well as First Week’s, First Month’s or First Year’s fees at the start of the engagement; and want to set up/ collect monthly/ quarterly/ yearly recurring payment in the subsequent month/ quarter/ year afterwards.

We are working on Stripe Recurring payment feature and it will allow you to set up recurring fee schedule. You will be able to automatically charge your client based on the recurring fees selected in your proposal/ quote/ engagement letter. And you do not need to go back to your client to request monthly, quarterly or yearly payment and re-enter payment details.

Client can view that s/he will be billed for recurring fee, see the tentative schedule of charges and agrees to pay (by signing the document)
Once Advance payment is successful, you can set up recurring payment schedule in Proposal Summary page

Once client makes payment successfully, there are a few things, we are going to perform in the background
1. As a proposer, you set up the recurring payment schedule for the client, those recurring fees will be automatically saved to
– Fee library in your Fresh Proposals account so that it can be reused in next proposal/ template, etc
– Your Stripe account as recurring product (and can be reused for next proposal)
2. A recurring subscription with a schedule will be created in your Stripe account for a given client & a given proposal
3. Fresh Proposals will send email to your client notifying schedule of recurring fee s/he will be billed going forward
4. Client will be sent email directly from Stripe whenever s/he is billed
5. Once recurring fee schedule is complete, the recurring subscription in your Stripe account will stop
6. In case, subscription billing fails, system will automatically perform retries to reduce churn

 

Client can open the tentative schedule of recurring fees and proceed to pay.

This step ensures that client is aware of recurring fees and agrees to pay as per the tentative schedule of the recurring payment.

Note: This feature is yet to be released the of publishing this note.

 

Page repeater click is Simplified

Previously if any repeater element was clicked accidentally, few users found its warning popup bit distracting

Brief background regarding this enhancement.

Fresh Proposals has pre-made templates right from the beginning. Most of these templates have page repeater blocks (e.g page number in footer, or some visual content like logo, shape, etc). Initially page repeater can only be accessed using Editor > Advanced > Repeater menu
Users wanted to change page-repeater blocks and didn’t know that these are page-repeating elements. Hence we introduced a highlighter to indicate that it is a repeater block and can be changed in a repeater mode.
Still many users would click on repeater block and couldn’t figure out how to change it. Then we introduced a repeater icon and clicking on a repeater block will display a popup so that users will know its s a repeating block and they have an option to change it. If user clicks Yes/Ok on this popup, we would open the proposal in repeater mode and users could change desired page repeating blocks.

Still it has been bit challenging for a set of users especially in those specific templates wherein repeater block would occupy larger part of the page. It means, roughly clicking on page would popup the repeater warning. This was certainly not the best experience. We knew it and decided to update the functionality in this version.

Hovering mouse over a page header/footer block will display that it is a repeating element and instead of displaying popup for simple click, the tooltip now informs user that he can right click to open the repeater mode. This has made the experience lesser obstructive.

 

Right clicking the repeater block in the editor will display ‘Edit Repeater’ menu.

Clicking on this button will open the document into repeater mode; you can make desired changes to the header/ footer and exit the repeater mode as shownbelow.

 

Introduced ‘Proposal Value’ variable usable in textbook, content table

Few users wants to use Proposal Value in their terms of contract so that client can view the amount while signing the document. We have introduced this as a standard variable. In the client view and preview, this variable will display updated value depending on the selection/changes client/user makes to the fees table.

 

Though this is a special variable (its value changes based on fees selected/ un-selected by client), it appears like a regular placeholder variable.

When you will preview the proposal or client will view the proposal, s/he will see updated value of this proposal whenever s/he selects package/ select or de-selects optional fee or changes quantity (if enabled).

Fee table – Editable Quantity : displayed with icon, border (highlighted for client)

We have improved the way editable quantity displayed in a fees table for clients. Clients will know that a given fee can be changed and it has bit of interactive transition of icon.

 

When client clicks inside the field, we have introduced a transition effect of changing the border color of the box, turning away pen.

It also shows a tooltip as shown below.

 

PDF Download popup introduced

Once a proposal PDF downloaded, the tab would stay. In couple of instances (browser related issues), the download did not start automatically.Hence we have introduced a popup with a Download PDF button and also a button to close the tab after successful download of the PDF.

If draggable content box goes partly outside the page, you can still view its controls

While editing a proposal/template, edge of content block would go out of the page. If it is on the top-side, user would loose access to the top-menu/control. We have added dynamic control menu which will keep displaying on the visible edge/side of the content block if other side is going out of the page boundary.

 

Proposal Created activity removed from proposal signature certificate

We received questions and few requests about ‘Created’ activity displayed in the signature certificate when a given document is signed by either party. While it may be good for transparency, quite a few users have their junior team members creating proposals and in some cases, they have to work on a given proposal for longer time. Some of you have been uncomfortable to display the ‘Proposal Created’ activity in the signature certificate. We have revisited it and decided to drop this activity from the signature certificate. The signature certificate will enlist important activities starting with ‘Proposal Sent’ activity.

 

Bug Fixes

Zapier: Proposal Send trigger while copying client link (manual sending) has a regression issue- Fixed
Template Preview: Top Zoom/scale panel replaced with side-icons – Fixed
Stripe Payment First option is enabled but Stripe payment option for a proposal is disabled; it displayed pay button – Fixed
Tooltip wasn’t clearly viewable in the Edit Client Contact popup – Fixed
Tiered pricing package creation – center aligned the wizard (which appeared to be shifted) – Fixed
Fixed ‘Load More’ button displayed in the bottom of proposals, templates listing, client listing – Fixed
Search sections UI issue while searching Internal / Display name – Fixed
Rectangle (Shape) properties fixed for display
Removed redundant icon in the listing of client contacts. The icon incorrectly depicted user (instead of contact) – Fixed
Custom variable should to be unique – Fixed
Firefox related UI fixes for client view – Fixed
Mobile view – Fixed UI for proposal creation wizard that required much scrolling after selecting a client to move to next step
Mobile view – Fixed viewing of proposal activities on mobile device
Internal Name of a section: Renaming from within editor would not update it – Fixed
Max characters limit to search section name – Fixed
Fixed UI for preview popup for snippet listing – Fixed
Onboarding – Template listing result when searched for unavailable template – to show not-found-image – Fixed

Quick Recap of (Previous) March 2023 Update

We released March 2023 update of Fresh Proposals software with new features such as introduction of new input form fields like Dropdown, Multi-select Checkbox, Radio button among others and many more enhancements and bug fixes.