Sending proposals via HighLevel

If you've spent months building HighLevel workflows — email drips, SMS reminders, pipeline automation — you don't want to throw them away just because you're building proposals in a different app. When HighLevel is connected and you've set your proposal provider to HighLevel, BidCraft becomes the proposal builder while GHL handles every interaction with the client.

How it works end to end

The proposal lives in BidCraft. The communication runs through your GHL workflows. Tags are the glue.

[!steps]

1. You build the proposal in BidCraft like normal — capture, scope, generate, edit.
2. You click Send on the proposal page, check the details, then Send proposal.
3. BidCraft pushes the proposal link into a HighLevel contact custom field on the matching contact.
4. BidCraft adds the tag Action: send app proposal to that contact.
5. Your GHL workflow (the one you've already set up to listen for that tag) fires — sends the email, kicks off the follow-up sequence, whatever you've configured.
6. When the client clicks through and signs, BidCraft adds a second tag: Action: app proposal signed.
7. Your "signed" workflow fires — congratulate the client, notify your team, kick off a kickoff scheduling sequence.

The two tags are the contract between BidCraft and HighLevel. Whatever you build behind those tags is up to you.

What you set up in HighLevel

For this to work, you need three things on the HighLevel side:

• A custom field on contacts to receive the proposal link (you tell BidCraft the field key in your profile settings)
• A workflow that triggers on the Action: send app proposal tag — typically sends the email containing the proposal link from the custom field
• A second workflow that triggers on the Action: app proposal signed tag — does whatever you want after signing

CC'ing a second person. Your HighLevel workflow only reaches the contact's one email address. When you CC someone (the CC box on the Send panel, or a second address in the client's email field), HighLevel still sends to your client and BidCraft emails the people CC'd a copy of the same proposal, from your business name. Replies go to you.

When HighLevel doesn't send it. If HighLevel turns the contact down (for example, an email address it can't read), the workflow never runs and nothing reaches your client. BidCraft shows you HighLevel's reason right after you press Send, and gives you the link so you can send it yourself.

You can layer as many follow-up steps onto those workflows as you want: reminder emails, drip nurturing, sales rep alerts, calendar bookings. BidCraft doesn't care what happens between the tags — that's your business.

Sending change orders through HighLevel

When you send a change order on a signed proposal, the same custom-field push happens — the change-order link goes into the same proposal field on the contact — but a different tag fires: Action: send change order.

You can wire a separate workflow on this tag if you want change-order-specific email copy ("here's an update to your existing project," that kind of thing). If you don't have a workflow listening on that tag, the existing Action: send app proposal workflow will run instead and the link still resolves to the change-order page — so the homeowner gets the email and can sign without any extra setup on your part.

When a change order is signed — invoicing through HighLevel

When the homeowner signs a change order, BidCraft automatically creates a HighLevel invoice for the change amount (the difference from the original, not the full project total). This follows your existing Auto-create invoice on sign setting — the same preference that governs original-proposal invoicing:

• Send — the HighLevel invoice is created and sent to the homeowner the moment they sign. The change amount appears in your project's Payments view.
• Draft — the HighLevel invoice is created as a draft the moment they sign, but not emailed automatically. Review and send it from HighLevel when you're ready. The change amount appears in your project's Payments view.
• Off — no invoice is created automatically. A Create invoice in HighLevel button appears on the signed change order row so you can trigger it when you're ready, or retry if an earlier attempt failed. The change amount still appears in your Payments view.

Change orders that reduce the total don't create an invoice. If the net change is a credit — any change order that reduces the project price — BidCraft skips invoice creation entirely. There's no negative invoice to confuse their account. You settle the credit however works best: an adjustment directly in HighLevel, a refund, or a note in the job file.

[!tip] The Create invoice in HighLevel button on a signed change order works as a manual trigger AND a retry. If auto-create was on but something went sideways (brief API hiccup, connection issue), just hit the button on the project page and the invoice gets created fresh.

Auto-creating an invoice when they sign the original proposal

There's an extra toggle in your integrations settings: Auto-create invoice on sign. When this is on, the moment a client signs the proposal, BidCraft creates a HighLevel invoice automatically — line items pulled from the proposal, products created in GHL if they don't exist yet.

If you'd rather review the invoice before sending it, leave this off. You can create the invoice yourself from the project's Payments section with Create invoice in HighLevel.

[!tip] Even with auto-create on, BidCraft doesn't send the invoice. It just creates it as a draft in HighLevel. You decide when to send.

Creating the invoice yourself, whenever you want

That Create invoice in HighLevel button isn't only a post-signature retry. It works before the client signs too, which matters when they agreed some other way — a paper copy, a text, a handshake on the job.

Same thing from the other direction: the Invoice this proposal button in the Payments section does the HighLevel push and fills in your BidCraft payments ledger, and offers a tick box to mark the project signed while it's at it. Either route creates one invoice; whichever you use, the other one steps aside once an invoice exists. See Deposits and milestone invoices.

When to use this vs native invoicing

If you're already deep in HighLevel and your team lives there, route everything through GHL. If you're a smaller operator who hasn't built out GHL workflows, BidCraft's native email + Stripe payment flow will be faster to set up — and you can always migrate to the HighLevel path later.

Next steps

• Connecting HighLevel CRM
• Your account settings
• Subscription tiers, trial, and billing