Whether you’re brand new or a seasoned user, understanding the full proposal workflow—from creation to acceptance, payments, change orders, and beyond—can streamline your business and help you win more jobs. This complete guide walks you through every major feature and best practice.
Start with the Catalog
Portal’s catalog, housing over 1.6 million items from thousands of manufacturers and suppliers, is where every proposal begins. Simply search for the products you need by brand, supplier, or MSRP. Use smart filters, and your favorites will appear first for faster quoting. Once you’ve selected a product, click "Add to Proposal" and start building directly from the catalog.
Build Out Your Proposal
Create areas like "Living Room" or "Kitchen" to organize your proposal. Add line items, including hardware, speaker wire, amps, and more. If products are installed in different areas than where they function (e.g., an amp for the kitchen housed in the living room), use item notes to clarify that for clients.
Proposal Layout and Design
Your proposal includes a customizable cover page, company branding, and About Us section. Use this to build trust and showcase what sets you apart. You can upload images, embed YouTube videos, or record personalized messages with Loom—especially useful for explaining complex systems or thanking the client.
Scope, Areas, and Pricing
Use the Project Description to outline your scope of work. Then organize rooms and zones using drag-and-drop area blocks. Line items can be nested under parent items (e.g., accessories under a TV), and pricing can be combined or shown on each line item. Toggle MSRP, apply discounts, and control what your client sees in their view.
Adding Labor to the Proposal
Add labor just like any other product. Pull it from your catalog or create new labor types as needed. It’s simple, flexible, and fully visible in your financial summary.
Adding Custom Items
Custom items let you price the stuff that’s not in your catalog. Misc materials? Misc connectors? No problem. You can even:
Upload images
Dynamically calculate prices (like 5% of area total)
Track costs for accurate margins.
Auto-Attaching Labor and Accessories
What if every time you added a product, the labor and accessories came with it? That’s exactly what auto attachments do. You can:
Attach labor or accessories to a product
Set those attachments as defaults for categories (like all TVs)
Combine prices for a clean client view
Use industry and company suggestions to get started faster
This is one of Portal’s biggest time-savers.
Client and Installer Notes
Each item and area includes both client-facing descriptions and internal installer notes. This dual-layer communication ensures the client understands the big picture while installers get the job done right.
Proposal Expiry
Don’t let old pricing come back to bite you. Set an expiration window, like 30 days, so clients can’t accept an outdated quote. After expiry, they’ll see a clean page that prompts them to contact you for updated pricing. You can also save defaults for your whole company.
Optional Items and Upgrades
With up to three area options, you can offer good/better/best scenarios or let them opt in or out of zones entirely. Their choices update the pricing automatically.
Recurring Service Items
Service plans, warranties, and subscriptions can be added as recurring service items. These don’t affect the area totals but appear separately in the financial summary to help clients understand ongoing costs.
Cloning and Templates
Speed up builds by cloning areas or entire proposals. Create template proposals and reuse common room setups or full job structures. Clone selectively or in bulk, and edit as needed for the new job.
Financial Summary and Profit Analysis
See a breakdown of parts and labor, apply global discounts, and view calculated sales tax via our TaxJar integration. Profit analysis automatically calculates your margins based on your default supplier cost data.
Payment Schedule & Payment Management
Build your schedule, and Portal handles the rest. Common setups include:
100% of parts due upon acceptance
Labor due at job start
Balance due at completion
Portal calculates payment requests automatically based on what the client selects. Credit card, ACH, check. It’s all built in. And yes, you can even add convenience fees.
Proposal Submission and Notifications
Submit proposals via email directly through Portal. The system checks profit margins and tax setup before sending. You'll get a notification when the client opens the proposal, and versioning begins automatically.
Proposal History and Version Control
Every time a proposal is submitted or edited, Portal stores a snapshot. You can view previous versions, revert to older ones, and track every action in the Proposal History. This makes it easy to manage updates or roll back changes.
Client Viewing and Acceptance
Clients interact with a clean, professional interface. They must choose options before accepting. Once accepted, their digital signature is locked in and stored with metadata and PDF snapshots.
Managing Change Orders
Need to swap a mount after the proposal is accepted? Create a change order. Portal shows:
What changed (with color-coded highlights)
What it costs
What’s new vs. what’s removed
Change orders are linked to the original proposal and tracked in the project total. It’s easy for clients to review and accept, and even easier for you to manage.
Purchasing and Post-Acceptance Workflow
Once accepted and paid, you can trigger the purchasing workflow to generate purchase orders directly within Portal. This links proposals to fulfillment without leaving the system.
Exporting and Integrations
Download client-facing PDFs, installer versions, pick lists, and CSV files. Export to Zoho or other tools as needed. Sync customer records with QuickBooks Online, Zoho, or Salesforce from the People module.
Conclusion
Portal’s proposal system is more than just quoting—it’s an end-to-end sales tool. With rich features like optional items, version history, change management, payment tracking, and CRM integration, you have everything you need to create polished proposals, win jobs, and run a professional, scalable business.