How to Use Better Proposals to Get Proposals Signed and Paid

The short answer: add your products and services, turn your current proposal into a template with a pricing table and one acceptance block, connect Stripe, create the client's document with a payment set to take the deposit on signature, set an expiry date, send a test to yourself, send it with the right recipients marked as required to sign, then read the tracking to time the follow-up and start any monthly subscription after it is signed.

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The job: your agency or consultancy sends a Word proposal as a PDF, waits, sends a contract, waits again, then sends an invoice for the deposit. Three documents, three chances for the deal to stall. Better Proposals puts the scope, the price, the signature and the first payment in one link. For what the product is and costs, see the Better Proposals glossary entry.

Before you build the template:

• Price the plan from your volume. For example, two people sending 30 proposals a month need Premium, at 2 x $21 = $42 a month billed annually, because Starter allows one user and 10 sends, per the pricing page checked on 24 October 2026. Re-sending a document is free; the allowance is shared by all users and resets on the 1st, per the sending limit article.
• Start from the proposal that last won. It becomes the template, through the Word importer.
• Note today's numbers: days from sending to signature and from signature to deposit, so the first month has something to compare against.

What you need

• A Stripe account, or GoCardless or PayPal, for the payment step.
• Premium or Enterprise if you want expiry dates, multiple signers or the AI integration.
• A view on the signature type. In the EU, Article 25 of the eIDAS Regulation on EUR-Lex says an electronic signature cannot be denied legal effect only because it is electronic, while only a qualified electronic signature equals a handwritten one. Most service proposals do not need the qualified kind; check the contracts that might.

Step 1: Load your products and services

Go to Settings, Products and Services under Admin, and click Create New Product, per the products guide. Give each a generic name and a default description, then set how you charge: one-off, monthly, quarterly or annually. A service with both a set-up fee and a retainer goes in twice, once as one-off and once as monthly, which the guide says is clearer for the client.

Step 2: Build the template

Click Templates, then Create template, and either start from scratch or import your Word document, per the template guide. Name it after its content rather than your company, choose the brand and document type, and add sections: problem, approach, timeline, price, terms. Add a pricing table and an acceptance block. A proposal takes one acceptance block, even with several signers.

Step 3: Make the price a decision

In the pricing table, add your line items, per the pricing table guide. To offer three tiers, add all three and switch on Make this a choice for each, then turn on Force a choice so the client must pick one before signing, per the packages guide. Add extras with Make this optional, which gives the client a checkbox and updates the total as they tick.

Step 4: Connect Stripe

Go to Settings, Integrations, find Stripe under payment integrations and click Connect Stripe, per the Stripe guide. The integration needs at least £1 or $1 to process a payment.

Step 5: Create the client's document

Click New Document, type the client's company under "Who is this for?", choose the template, and check the currency and tax, per the new document guide. Switch on the payment toggle and pick your onboarding flow. On the Details page, choose the payment type: a fixed amount, a percentage of the one-off total, the one-off total plus the first month, or the first month only. A 50% deposit on a project is the percentage option; a retainer's first month is the last.

Step 6: Set an expiry

On Premium and Enterprise, first switch on expiry under Settings, Admin, Document Expiry Messages, and write the message, per the expiry guide. Then choose for each document whether it expires on a date or a number of days after sending, and whether an expired proposal is blocked or only unsignable. Expiry messages do not follow your brand's language settings, so write one per language.

Step 7: Let an AI draft the next one

From the second proposal on, Premium and Enterprise can connect Claude, Cursor or another MCP client through Better Proposals' CLI and MCP server, per its AI page. Ask it to create a proposal for the client from your template, using your discovery notes; it can also look up past documents and companies.

The AI builds the draft inside your account; you add the client's problem, correct what is off and personalise it before it goes anywhere, which is the order the vendor's page sets out. Read the terms section yourself as well; the page warns that an AI's say-so is no defence against a clause you did not read.

Step 8: Test, then send

Send the first document to yourself. The test document guide notes that the first send counts against your allowance even when it is to you. Open it on a phone, try the choices, and check the payment step. Then send to the client: add each recipient and switch on Required to sign for whoever signs. On Premium and Enterprise you can collect several signatures on one proposal.

Step 9: Follow up, then collect

Open the document's information page to read the tracking: when each recipient opened, read, forwarded or signed it, the order of the sections and the time on each, per the tracking guide. Follow up on the section they spent longest on. Once they sign and pay, start any agreed subscription from the approved document with Start Subscription, choosing the Stripe plan and start date, per the Stripe guide.

What the help centre warns about

• A client who cannot sign. Either the acceptance block is missing or the recipient is not marked Required to sign, per the signing troubleshooter. Fix it and re-send, which is free.
• Changes after signing. A signed proposal is locked; a change means a new proposal, per the editing guide. Edits before signing show to the client straight away.
• Mixed one-off and monthly prices. List them as separate products and choose the payment type to match, so the deposit charges what you meant.
• The trial's first send. It counts, wherever it goes.

Four minutes on the price section looks persuasive in a vendor's demo, and it is easy to over-read in practice. Treat tracking as a cue for a phone call, not a forecast.

FAQ

Can the client pay without signing?

The payment step comes straight after signing in the onboarding flow, per the Stripe guide, so the signature comes first. You can change the wording of that step under Settings, Admin, Onboarding.

Can several people at the client sign?

Yes, on Premium and Enterprise. Add each as a recipient and mark them as required to sign; the proposal still holds a single acceptance block.

Can I take a monthly retainer this way?

Yes. Take the first month as the payment on signing, then start a Stripe subscription from the approved document for the months after.