How to Create a Public Proposal in Dubsado
By Ema Katiraee, Certified Dubsado Specialist
TL;DR: Public proposals in Dubsado let you sell your services directly on your website or via a link, without needing a lead capture form or discovery call first. They act as both a proposal and a lead capture form in one. Here's how to set one up, attach a contract and invoice, and share it with potential clients.
Public proposals are one of those Dubsado features that don't get talked about enough. They let you sell your services directly on your website or via a link, without requiring potential clients to fill out a form or book a call first. Here's how they work and how to set one up.
What is a Public Proposal?
A public proposal is a type of proposal in Dubsado that allows you to sell your products or services to new clients, and in the same step create a new project in Dubsado. What that means is that the proposal acts both as a proposal and as a lead capture form.
Regular proposals are shared with potential client that already have a project created in Dubsado, because they’ve completed a lead capture form at some point. Regular proposals also have unique links - meaning each project has it’s own unique proposal link.
Public proposals however, are what the name suggests - public. You can embed the proposal on your website or share the link with anyone, and they can view the proposal, select their packages and add-ons, and submit the proposal to begin working with you.
Because of this, public proposals is best suited for services that don’t require a sales or discovery call, or an application process before allowing clients to sign up.
How to Create a Public Proposal in Dubsado
To create a public proposal, in your proposal form in Dubsado:
Go to the form Settings
Toggle on Create new project once proposal is completed
Once you toggle it on, you’ll see a new settings appear that only apply to public proposals. You can set:
Default flow: assign a workflow for each new client that submits the proposal.
Redirect URL: send each new client that signs up, to a URL on your site. This is a great way to share a thank you message or even get them started with course content or videos. Note: this option will not work if you have a contract and invoice connected to the proposal.
Project Status: assign the project status for each new client that submits the proposal. This will be the status you see in your Dubsado project list.
Project title: assign a name for each new project that is created when the proposal is submitted. You can use smart fields to pull client or project information into the project title.
Toggle on the button to turn your proposal into a public proposal
How to Attach a Contract & Invoice to a Public Proposal
To streamline the process even further for your clients, you can connect a contract and invoice to your public proposal, so people can complete all the steps in one form to begin working with you.
To attach a contract to a proposal form in Dubsado:
Go to the form Settings
Toggle on Include contract
Select the contract from the dropdown list
To attach an invoice to a proposal form in Dubsado:
Go to the form Settings
Toggle on Include invoice
For clients to be able to select multiple packages and add-ons in this proposal, toggle on Multiple packages can be selected.
If applicable, select payment plan from a dropdown list. This will apply a payment plan to the invoice and split the payment plan up for you automatically and send reminders on the dates set in the payment plan
📌 Important: If you attach a default workflow to the proposal that has a payment plan attached to it DO NOT attach a payment plan to proposal form as well. They will cancel each other out. Payment plans need to be applied in a single place, ideally the workflow.
Attach a contract and invoice to a Dubsado proposal
How to Share a Dubsado Public Proposal
Once your Dubsado proposal is a public proposal, the Sharing menu will be enabled in your form. To send your public proposal you have two options:
Embed Code: click the embed code to copy it, and place it in a code block on your website. This will embed your proposal directly into your website allowing you to use a URL on your site vs. a Dubsado URL.
Direct link: click the direct link to copy it. You can send it via email or you can place the link in your site, or anywhere else you’d like.
📌 Note: in order to share your public proposal, you must include the following form fields in your proposal:
First Name
Last Name
E-mail address
These must be required and mapped to the matching smart fields. What this does, is allow Dubsado to have the minimum amount of information necessary to create a new project each time the form is submitted.
Link or embed code to share a Dubsado Public Proposal
Tutorial: How to Create a Public Proposal in Dubsado
Below is a tutorial to take you through how to create a public proposal in Dubsado. I’ll take you through the steps to turn your proposal into a public proposal, how to attach the contract and invoice and how to share it with your audience.
Want Your Dubsado Setup Built Properly?
If you want your proposals, contracts, and workflows all set up correctly in Dubsado, I can help. Book a discovery call and let's talk about what that looks like for your business.
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