Editing scope text and payment schedule

The line items table is the dollars-and-cents part of a proposal, but the language around it carries just as much weight. The scope-of-work paragraph sets the tone and tells the client what they're buying. The payment schedule tells them when they're paying. The terms & conditions cover your back. All three are editable on every proposal, and all three auto-save.

The scope of work

BidCraft generates a full scope-of-work paragraph based on your project synthesis and your chosen proposal style. It's written in client-facing language — not contractor jargon, not bullet points, but real sentences that explain what work is being done and why.

Click anywhere in the scope text to drop into edit mode. You get a full editor with a preview toggle so you can write in markdown and see how it'll look on the final proposal:

• **bold** for emphasis
• *italic* for softer emphasis
• ## Heading for section breaks
• - item for bullet lists
• 1. item for numbered lists

[!tip] Use the preview toggle to flip between the raw markdown and the final rendered look. The client never sees the markdown — they get clean, formatted text on the proposal page and on the PDF download.

If you'd rather rewrite the whole thing rather than tweak it, you can also just clear the field and start fresh. Or ask Biddy to rewrite it: "make the scope more conversational" or "shorten the scope to 3 sentences."

The payment schedule

Every proposal comes with a payment schedule — the one saved for the proposal style it was written in, or your company schedule if the style doesn't have its own. If you've never set one, it's usually two payments: a deposit when the client signs and the balance on completion.

To change the schedule new proposals start with, go to Settings → Proposal Settings and tap the Payment schedule card. Pick a quick start — 50 / 50, Thirds (34 / 33 / 33), All on completion, or Custom — then rename, add or remove payments as you like. A bar shows the split, a live check tells you when the payments add up to 100%, and example amounts show what each payment comes to on a $10,000 job. Tap Save when it looks right.

If you keep more than one proposal style, the card also asks Which schedule this style uses: the Company schedule (the one every style without its own falls back to — editing it changes it for all of them) or Its own schedule. Handy when builders pay on milestones and homeowners pay half up front.

You can edit any milestone right on the proposal page:

[!steps]

1. Click a milestone label to rename it (e.g. "50% deposit" → "Deposit due at signing").
2. Click the percent or dollar amount to change the value. Percentages auto-recalculate dollar amounts as the proposal total changes; dollar amounts hold steady regardless of the total.
3. Click the due date to adjust when each payment is owed.
4. Add or remove milestones with the +/× controls — useful for jobs that have unusual cash-flow needs.

The total of all milestones has to equal the proposal total. BidCraft warns you if you're under or over.

[!note] If you've connected BidCraft to take native payments, each milestone becomes a separate invoice the client can pay through their proposal link. The deposit fires automatically when the client signs; the rest stay on hold until you trigger them from the project's Payments section.

Adding a discount

Want to knock something off the total — a military discount, a repeat-customer thank-you, a "sign this week" sweetener? Open the ··· menu on the proposal bar and pick Add discount (owners and admins, before the client signs).

You get two ways in:

• Your saved discounts — one tap applies any discount you've set up in Settings → Proposal Settings → Discounts & client options. Save the ones you offer often (military, senior, referral) so you never have to type them twice.
• Custom discount — name it, pick percent or dollars, enter the value. Good for one-off deals.

A few things worth knowing:

• One discount per proposal. No stacking. Once one is applied, a small chip with its name and amount (e.g. Military Discount −$1,240) sits in the Notes row under the proposal bar. Tap it for Change or Remove; the ··· menu also reads Change discount.
• The client sees it as its own line. The proposal shows Subtotal, then the discount by name (e.g. Military Discount −$1,240), then the Total Estimate. Clients love seeing what they saved — that's the point.
• Everything downstream follows the discounted total. Payment milestones, deposits, and invoices all recalculate from the new total automatically. Your Cost Analysis shows the margin after the discount too, so you know exactly what the goodwill costs you.
• Locked at signature. Once the client signs, the discount is part of the deal — you can't change or remove it (the chip still shows it, marked locked). Price changes after signing go through a change order, same as any other money change.

Editing after a signature — the warn-don't-block banner

If you edit the scope, line items, or payment schedule on a proposal that's already been signed, an amber banner appears above the proposal, with your client's name in it: "Dana can't see this change. She signed the earlier version. Send a change order to make it official."

The reason: the version they signed is locked to that snapshot. Edits you make on your end after their signature stay invisible to them — the legal doc they're holding is the snapshot at signature time, not whatever you're editing right now.

The banner doesn't block you from editing — sometimes you legitimately want to make internal-only adjustments. But when the change actually matters to the homeowner (price went up, scope expanded, milestone moved), click Create change order right from the banner (it reads Edit draft change order if you already started one). Your pending edits convert into a draft change order automatically, no retyping. The homeowner signs just the change. Full walkthrough at Sending a change order.

Terms & conditions

The terms and conditions block sits at the bottom of every proposal in its own full-width section so it gets the visual weight it deserves. You set a default version during onboarding — "work proceeds after deposit cleared," "changes require written approval," "warranty covers workmanship for one year," etc. — and every new proposal uses that default.

If a specific job needs different terms, you can override them just on that proposal without touching your default. Hit Edit on the proposal bar, scroll to the Terms & Conditions section, and tap the Edit button in its header. Your changes stick to this proposal only — the default stays untouched for the next job. An amber "Edited for this proposal" tag appears next to the heading so you can tell at a glance, and Reset to template puts it back.

The price, deposit, payment schedule and date inside your terms are highlighted while you edit. Those figures fill in from the proposal, so they stay right when you change a line or the total moves. Edit the words around them as much as you like. To change a figure, change the proposal itself.

If a figure in edited terms no longer matches the proposal (for example, you rewrote the sentence around the total), a yellow note above the terms tells you which figure is off and what it should read. Fix it there, or use Reset to template. The note shows only to you; it never appears on the PDF or on your client's copy.

[!warning] Per-proposal terms overrides don't affect your default terms. If you find yourself making the same override on every proposal, update your default in Settings → Proposal Settings → Terms & conditions so you stop having to do it manually.

The date on the proposal

The date at the top of the proposal is the day you send it. A draft shows today's date, so a PDF you download today is dated today. Once it's sent, it shows the day it went out.

To use a different date, hit Edit on the proposal bar and click the date under the proposal number. Pick a day, then Done. Use the send date goes back to automatic. The date you pick shows on the header, the PDF and anywhere your terms mention the proposal date. You can also ask Biddy: "date this proposal October 1."

A link you've already sent keeps the date it went out with. The new date goes to your client the next time you send or resend it.

Attachments & photos

Below the terms you'll find Attachments & photos — the badges, insurance certificates, documents, and past-work photos going out with this proposal. Your defaults are already ticked; uncheck anything you don't want on this particular job, or swap the portfolio photos for ones that look more like this client's space. Full details in Badges, credentials, and portfolio photos on proposals.

Everything auto-saves

There's no Save button on the scope editor, the payment schedule, the terms block, or the attachments picker. Every keystroke is debounced and sent to BidCraft two seconds after you pause typing. Close the tab, switch projects, walk away — your edits are safe.

Next steps

For the line items themselves, head to Editing line items. If your hand-edits feel like they're fighting the AI's first draft, Regenerating the proposal explains how to ask BidCraft for a second pass that respects what you've already changed.