Sending a proposal to your client

You've reviewed the line items, the scope reads right, the total looks right. Time to put it in front of the homeowner. BidCraft handles delivery, signing, and tracking — you just hit one button.

The Send button

Open the project, go to Bid, and tap ② Proposal. The bar pinned across the top of the proposal shows the total, where the job stands (Ready to send, Sent · viewed Sep 23, Signed Sep 24), and one violet button on the right. Before anything goes out, that button reads Send. Once something has gone out it reads Resend, and once the proposal is signed it becomes Change order.

Pressing Send doesn't send anything yet. It opens a small panel right under the button (a sheet from the bottom on a phone) so you can check the details first:

• To — your client's email, or their phone number when HighLevel texts the proposal for you. If the client's email field lists two addresses, the first one is who it's to and the second is CC'd.
• CC — optional. Shows whenever the proposal goes out by email and your client has an email address. More on this below.
• Signable until — the last day they can sign. More on this below.
• Copy a link instead — skip the email and just grab the link. See Shareable link vs. Send below.
• Send proposal — the button that actually sends it.

If your client has no email (or no phone, for a HighLevel text), the panel says so. The button turns into Copy link so you can send it yourself, and Add an email opens the client's details so you can fill it in.

[!note] Quick one-time setup on your very first send. Before the first proposal ever goes out, BidCraft runs a short setup: pick how you take payment (a deposit split like 50/50, 50/25/25, or thirds) and confirm your terms — use BidCraft's standard terms or paste your own. Two taps and it becomes your default for every future proposal. In a hurry? Hit Send anyway and it goes out on the defaults, nothing saved. You'll only see this once — and if you already customized your Proposal Settings, you'll skip it entirely.

[!note] The first time you ever hit Send, BidCraft pops open a quick window asking you to set up your signature so it can be stamped on every proposal you send from now on. Takes about 30 seconds. Full walkthrough at Setting up your signature. You can skip it on the first send and the original send goes out without one — but you'll get prompted again next time.

The Send button does the work:

1. Generates a unique, secure share link for this proposal
2. Routes the link to your client through your preferred delivery method
3. Locks the proposal version so the client always sees exactly what you sent

Your client doesn't need a BidCraft account, doesn't need to download anything, doesn't need a password. They click the link, the proposal loads in their browser, and they can read it, sign it, and (if you've got Stripe set up) pay the deposit — all from a phone or laptop.

Where the link gets delivered

This depends on how you're set up:

If you have HighLevel connected and proposal-via-HighLevel turned on, BidCraft pushes the link into your HighLevel contact and fires the tag that runs your existing workflow. Your client gets the email, text, or sequence you've already built inside HighLevel. This is the right choice if you want to keep all client comms inside one CRM.

Otherwise, BidCraft emails the client directly. The email shows up with your business name in the From header, a clean "View & Sign Proposal" button, and the total. If your client hits reply, the reply goes straight to your email address — not into a BidCraft inbox. As far as your homeowner can tell, the email came from you.

You set this preference under Settings → Proposal Settings → Delivery (connecting HighLevel itself happens under Connected Apps). The default is direct email through BidCraft, which works fine for most contractors who don't have a CRM workflow built out.

[!tip] Looping in a second person. Plenty of jobs have two decision-makers — a spouse, a business partner, a property manager. Press Send, type the second address in the CC box, then Send proposal. They get a copy of the exact same email. Only your client can sign it — the CC is a courtesy copy. It applies to that one send only, so it starts empty every time and nothing gets saved.

You can also keep both addresses on the client, separated by a comma (dana@example.com, mike@example.com). The first address gets the proposal and the rest are CC'd on every send.

If HighLevel sends your proposals, your HighLevel workflow emails the first address and BidCraft emails everyone CC'd a copy of the same proposal, from your business name.

[!tip] How long they have to sign. The Send panel also shows Signable until with a date. That's the day this proposal stops being signable, filled in from your default in Proposal Settings → Expiration & reminders (30 days unless you change it). Pick another day, or choose No end date, before you press Send proposal. See Proposal expiration dates.

Shareable link vs. Send

Inside the Send panel, next to Send proposal, is Copy a link instead. The difference matters:

• Send proposal — BidCraft actually emails the homeowner (or fires the HighLevel workflow). History shows "Emailed to …".
• Copy a link instead — BidCraft only creates the link, with the same signable-until date, and copies it to your clipboard. No email goes out. This is for when you want to text the link, paste it into a follow-up email, or hand it over in person. History shows "Link made for you to send" so you can tell at a glance that it didn't auto-send.

The ··· menu on the proposal bar also has Get a shareable link (it reads New shareable link once one already exists). That one always adds a brand-new link at your default date. Links you already sent keep working until you revoke them.

If the proposal doesn't go out

If an email can't be delivered — HighLevel turns the client down, the email bounces, or HighLevel isn't connected — BidCraft tells you right away, with the reason, instead of saying it was sent. The job doesn't move to Sent, History shows that it didn't go out, and the link is handed to you so you can send it yourself or fix the client's details and press Send again.

After you generate a link, the project page shows an amber banner reminding you that BidCraft didn't send anything yet and the link is on your clipboard. Send the proposal by email and the banner clears.

Previewing your own proposal without polluting the view count

Often you want to open the homeowner-facing page to sanity-check what they're seeing — but a logged-in member opening /p/[token] would normally count as a homeowner view in the proposal's History.

BidCraft handles this automatically. If you (or any member of your org) open a share link while signed in, the visit is logged as a preview and does NOT advance the share's view count, viewed-at timestamp, or status. The public page also shows an amber banner at the top: "Previewing as <your business> — this view won't be recorded." So you can review without worrying.

The edge case BidCraft can't auto-detect is when you open the link while logged out — usually that's a mobile Safari tab, a borrowed phone, or a separate browser. For those cases, open the History panel (Open history › under the proposal bar): each "Viewed" line has a small "That was me, not my client" action. Tap it and the event is reclassified as a preview — the view count, first-viewed timestamp, and share status all walk back accordingly. The original event stays in the audit trail flagged as reclassified.

What "frozen at send time" actually means

This is the part contractors miss until they need it.

The moment you hit Send, BidCraft takes a snapshot of the proposal — every line item, every price, the scope text, your terms, your branding, the payment schedule, every badge, certificate, document, and portfolio photo attached to it, and any featured Future Vision renders. That snapshot is what the client sees — not whatever you happen to be mid-way through typing later that afternoon.

Before a signature, the snapshot is re-taken every time you send. Edit the proposal, hit Resend, and their link updates to match. Once they sign, it's locked for good — a signed document is a record, and nothing you change on your end can touch it.

[!note] This protects you both. The client can't claim you quietly changed the price after they agreed, and they can't sign a half-edited draft you never meant to send. The doc they signed is the doc they signed.

If you need to change something before the client signs — a typo, an extra line, a price tweak — edit the proposal and hit Resend. Same link, updated content. See Resending, revoking, and new shareable links.

What happens after they sign — change orders

Scope changes after a signature get handled through a different flow. Instead of editing the original signed proposal (which would orphan their signature on a doc that no longer matches reality), you create a change order — an amendment that sits on top of the original. The original proposal stays exactly as it was signed; the change order is its own signable document covering just what's different.

So if the homeowner adds a niche in week two of the job, you don't replace the signed proposal — you send a change order for the niche. They sign just the change. Your records show both: original signed for $24,500, change order signed for $1,200.

The full walkthrough is at Sending a change order. The short version: once a proposal is signed, the violet button on the proposal bar reads Change order, plus you can ask Biddy in plain English to draft one for you.

What your client sees

A branded proposal page with your logo at the top, your business name and contact info, the scope of work in plain English, the line items, the payment schedule, and a signature area at the bottom. It looks like a real proposal, not a software dashboard.

[!tip] Want your logo more prominent at the top of the page? Go to Settings → Proposal Settings, tap Branding & trust, and flip the logo switch to Small, Medium, or Large. Medium is the default. A live preview of the proposal header shows exactly how big it'll look, and once you tap Save the size goes on every proposal you send from then on, whatever the style.

[!tip] Don't want the client to see a price on every line? Go to Settings → Proposal Settings, tap Layout & pricing, and under Prices your client sees pick Total only (or One price per room to give each room a single price), then Save. With Total only, your client still sees every line item and the work involved — but the per-item quantities and prices drop away, and only the grand total shows a price. You always keep the full breakdown in your own view and in Cost Analysis. Need it for just one job? Open that proposal, tap the ··· menu on the proposal bar, and pick Hide per-item prices from client. A small Per-item prices hidden note appears under the bar; tap it and pick Preview client view to see exactly what the homeowner will get before you send (the same option is in the ··· menu). One exception: if the proposal offers options or add-ons, those prices still show — a choice with no price on it isn't a choice.

[!tip] Your trust badges, insurance certificate, license, and photos of past work go out with it too — once you've uploaded them. See Badges, credentials, and portfolio photos on proposals. Whatever's attached at send time is frozen into their copy along with everything else.

[!tip] Before you send your first one to a real client, send one to yourself. Use your personal email as the client email on a test project. You'll see exactly what they see, including the email and the signing flow.

Next steps

• The client signing experience — what happens after they click the link
• Tracking views and signatures — how to know when they opened it and when they signed
• Resending, revoking, and new shareable links — managing the link after it's out there
• Sending a change order — amend a signed proposal without scrapping it