Client Proposals

A Client Proposal uses an estimate’s figures to prepare what the client will see. Choose the pricing detail, review the scope and exclusions, and generate the PDF. Editing the proposal’s presentation does not change the internal estimate.

Create a Proposal From an Estimation

Client proposals belong to a specific estimation revision. To create or manage one:

Open the project and select the estimation revision from Estimations.
Open its Estimation Workspace.
Select the Proposal tab.
Create a draft proposal or open an existing proposal for that revision.
Configure the audience-visible content, then finalize and record delivery when ready.

The Proposal tab is a hub: it shows the draft’s state, totals, and last-modified time, and opens the full-page proposal editor for detailed work. The Client record holds the relationship, contacts, projects, requests, and files. It is not where proposals are built or delivered.

Pricing Display Modes

Client Proposals support four pricing display modes, giving full control over how much cost detail the client sees:

Mode	Meaning
Total Only	Just the bottom-line total — the default, most conservative view
Scope Value Summary	Scope-level groupings with their value, no cost breakdown
Commercial Summary	Aggregated commercial view suitable for executive or client review
Detailed Estimate Backup	Full itemized pricing — section and item-level pricing, quantities, unit rates

Additional visibility toggles control cost breakdown, quantities, unit prices, material-labor-expense splits, and appendix inclusion. These controls allow the same estimate to serve both internal review and external presentation without duplicating data.

Markup Distribution

Markup Distribution lets you move margin between disclosed rows before issuing a proposal, without changing the total. The project approver reviews the distribution and its accepted version remains on record.

When It Is Available

The feature is deliberately unavailable on most proposals. Where no unit prices are disclosed, aggregation already hides the cost basis, so there is nothing to protect. Darwin shows a requirement checklist — never just the first failure — and all of these must hold:

the proposal is in Draft
it discloses unit prices
it does not show the material/labor/expense split
the grouping produces unit rates (at least one rate-bearing row)
at least two eligible rate-bearing rows exist

Ineligible rows stay visible and read-only, with their reason, and contribute their unchanged balanced amount to both sides of the total.

Lifecycle and Authority

Draft → Submitted → Approved | Rejected → Superseded

The estimator moves amounts between disclosed rows; the total must agree to the smallest currency unit before saving. On submit, the project’s approver receives a task linking to the decision. Only the project approver may approve or reject. Approval preserves the accepted version and its signature.

Rejection returns the distribution to an editable Draft. Darwin keeps the submitted version and review decision so the estimator can respond without losing the earlier record. Where another person can author it, the approver cannot approve their own draft; a single-user company applies the approver-authority rule alone.

Deviation Policy

Your organization’s settings define two thresholds that require an explanation or show a warning:

Threshold	Default	Effect
Rationale	±15%	A stated reason becomes mandatory
Warning	±30%	The workspace warns prominently; the reason stays mandatory

These thresholds require explanation and review; they do not block work by themselves.

Boundaries

M/L/E split is prohibited on a distributed artifact — printing the cost composition beside redistributed margin is self-defeating
Internal costs stay unchanged — distributing margin does not change Cost Control, variance, or the costs attributed to modules
Preview of a distributed artifact is watermarked so it cannot be mistaken for an issuable document

The Full-Page Proposal Editor

Open the full-page editor from the Proposal tab to work with:

Proposal head and narrative — the proposal title, narrative sections, and pricing/visibility panels
Approved totals — the finalized amounts and the approval behind them
Markup Distribution card — opens the distribution workspace when available
Record Decision — the client’s response, recorded against the proposal

Save your changes before previewing, submitting, or finalizing. Preview requires a saved draft whose totals agree; the editor warns about unsaved work when you navigate away.

Status Lifecycle

Draft → Finalized → Sent → Accepted / Declined / Superseded

Draft — the proposal is editable; visibility settings and narrative are configured
Finalize — the project’s approver locks the proposal using formal, non-preliminary approval of that exact estimate revision. The approved sell amount, scope schedule, any markup distribution, and proposal total must agree. Darwin records the approval and keeps the finalized proposal unchanged if the estimate changes later. Create a new proposal when you need another version
Sent — records issuance to the client and preserves the exact PDF issued. This records the issue in Darwin; it does not prove that email was delivered or that the recipient received the PDF
Accepted / Declined — terminal states reflecting the client’s response
Superseded — another issued proposal in the same project supersedes earlier proposals still Finalized or Sent

Decisions and Loss Reasons

Record the client’s response after the proposal is Sent. The decision keeps its own record. Outcomes include:

Accepted — the proposal was accepted
Declined — requires a loss reason; some reasons also require notes
Negotiation Requested — leaves the proposal Sent; prepare another proposal to respond

Each decision records the proposal number, amount, currency, and estimation code as they stood at decision time. Decisions are numbered within the project so you can follow successive negotiation rounds.

Proposal Narrative

Client proposals can include AI-generated or authored narrative sections that explain:

Scope of work covered by the estimate
Key assumptions and exclusions
Pricing basis and market context
Commercial adjustments or alternates

Review any AI-generated text before finalizing. Editing the narrative does not change the estimate’s cost data.

Audience Boundary

A newly created proposal defaults to the most conservative visibility settings — Total Only pricing, no cost breakdown, no detailed appendix. Detailed cost backup is rendered only when explicitly opted in, and detailed estimate backup never exposes Darwin’s internal base-cost rows.

Workflow Role

An estimate is built and reviewed internally
A Client Proposal is created from the estimate (or cloned from a prior proposal) as a Draft
Visibility settings and narrative are configured
When eligible, the estimator distributes margin and the project approver approves it (Markup Distribution)
The approver finalizes the reconciled total; check the distribution limitation above. Send records issuance and retains the PDF, without proving delivery
The client’s response is recorded as a decision
A declined or negotiation-requested outcome can lead to a revised estimate and a new proposal

Next Steps

➡️ Estimation Workspace
➡️ Revisions