Web-Enabled Proposals

You may optionally present sales proposals to customers on a web-page, rather than a PDF document, so that you don't have to manage PDF files during remote sales meetings . Here's how it works:

1. Generate a web-enabled proposal
2. Email proposal link to customer
3. View / revise proposal
4. Enable customer to download a PDF by marking as proposed

Each step is shown below.

1. Generate proposal by using a web-enabled template

Web-enabled templates are indicated by inclusion of a web icon appended to their name. See screenshot below.

Once generated, you can click on the document name to open and review the proposal in your own browser. Only web-enabled proposals can be viewed on a browser page.

2. Send proposal link to the customer via Email.

Click the email action to send the customer an Email that automatically includes a link to the web-enabled proposal.

Customer may use this link indefinitely. There is no need to resend if you make any changes to the document. If you delete the proposal, the customer's link will no longer be valid.

NOTE: No matter which Email template you choose when sending, SolarNexus will append a proposal hyperlink to the end of your email. You may optionally add another hyperlink to the proposal within your Email template's text (see section below).

3. View / Revise Proposal

After sending the customer a proposal link, you can see if they have opened it (see below).

Feel free to revise a solution, re-analyze, and regenerate the proposal. Once regenerated, ask the customer to refresh their browser to immediately see the revision.  Note that the web proposal displays the current version that you are viewing (see below).  Ask the customer to read you the version they are looking at to ensure they are looking at the current version.

4. Enable Customer to download a PDF of Proposal

When you and customer have settled on the proposal, you can allow them to download a PDF of the proposal by marking it as proposed. You can mark the solution as being proposed by either:

1. clicking the "Mark as Proposed" button on the proposal document
2. OR clicking the checkmark in the Propose to Customer milestone in the Project's Status section

Both actions change the solution to read-only mode and give the customer a link in their web view of the proposal that allows them to download the proposal as a pdf. This guarantees that both you and the customer have the same version of the proposal.

If you need to provide customer with a different proposal, you should CLONE the existing solution and make a new version. You will send the customer a separate Email so that she will now have two web-enabled proposals that she can review.  

How to Web-Enable Proposal Templates

Currently only proposal type documents can be web-enabled. SolarNexus defined proposal templates are web-enabled.

SolarNexus recommends web-enabling all your custom proposal template(s), but SolarNexus does not automatically web-enable your company's proposal templates because the template code may not be suitable for presentation in the browser. As such, you should test them before having your sales staff use them as web-enabled.

To test a template, you will need to web enable it. Edit your template as shown below and check the box to web enable it.

Generate a couple test proposals to verify your solution content presents well in both the browser and on PDF. If necessary, make updates to your template's CSS so that it presents well.

Most Common CSS Changes Needed

Most proposal content displays quite well without any changes. However, its typical for page styles to lack declarations to center the page in the browser window, as well as to not show content wrapping around the proposal page heading that SolarNexus automatically adds to include the document version info. These are easy to fix by adding the following style declarations to the .page class(es) in your CSS:

margin: auto;
clear: both;

Once finished testing, tell your sales staff to begin using them as described above.  

Placing Hyperlink to Proposal in Your Email Template

Regardless of which Email template a user chooses to send the Proposal, SolarNexus will automatically add a hyperlink to the end of the Email for the customer to click and open their proposal. If you choose to, you can also include this hyperlink in the text of your choice within the Email template body, for example:

<a href="{{proposal_url}}">Link to Your Proposal</a>