Interactive Proposal Builder
Build your price as a menu instead of a single number, then copy the link and send it. Your client ticks what they want and watches the total, the deposit and the monthly figure update.
Total for the ticked options
$2,400
$1,200 due to book the work.
Where the total comes from
- Website design and build$2,00083%
- Add-ons$40017%
- Tax$00%
Send it as a link
Use “Copy link to these numbers” at the top of the page. The link carries the whole proposal, so your client opens the same menu and can tick options themselves.
Proposal text to paste into your email
Proposal for Acme Ltd Prepared by Your name Included: • Website design and build — $2,000 • Search setup and analytics — $400 Total: $2,400 Deposit to book the work (50%): $1,200 Balance on completion: $1,200 This quote is valid for 21 days. Work begins once the deposit clears. Anything outside the items listed above is quoted separately before it starts. To accept, reply to this message confirming which items you would like and I will issue the deposit invoice.
Why a single price gets ignored
Most freelance quotes are one number in a PDF. “Website redesign: 2,000.” The client has exactly two possible responses, yes or no, and when the number sits slightly above what they expected, the honest answer is usually neither — it is silence. You never learn whether the problem was the price, the scope, or the timing, because a single figure gives them nothing to negotiate with except a discount request.
A menu changes the shape of the conversation. Put the core work at one price, then offer three or four genuine extras with their own figures, and the client stops asking whether they can afford you and starts deciding what they want. That is a far better question to be answering, and it is the reason retailers have sold this way for a century.
How to choose the add-ons
Add-ons work when they are real. Padding a proposal with invented tiers is transparent and damages trust. Look instead at the things you routinely do for free, or the things clients come back and ask for a month later:
- Speed. A shorter turnaround is genuinely worth more to the client and genuinely costs you more, because it displaces other work. Price it honestly rather than absorbing it.
- Adjacent skills. Copywriting alongside design, analytics alongside a build, retouching alongside a shoot. The client needs it, and coordinating a second freelancer is a cost to them too.
- Aftercare. The monthly line is the most valuable item on most proposals. One recurring 250 a month is worth more across a year than a 2,000 project, and it turns a one-off client into a relationship.
- Extra rounds. If revisions habitually overrun, sell an additional round rather than arguing about it later.
The deposit is the proposal's real job
A proposal that does not name a deposit is a wish. Two thirds of freelance payment problems trace back to work that started before money moved, and the fix is a single line stating the percentage due to book the slot and that work begins when it clears. Half is normal with a new client and nobody serious objects. If somebody does object, you have learned something important for the price of one email.
Tax, currency and cross-border clients
If you invoice commercially in Saudi Arabia and are registered, VAT at fifteen percent is added on top rather than absorbed, so the tax slider exists to keep the client's total honest. Publishing from the Gulf and billing a European or American client adds two further wrinkles: quote in the currency you want to be paid in, and expect the bank to take a cut in conversion. Adding a small allowance for transfer costs to the core price is more sensible than discovering it at settlement.
Give the quote an expiry date
Fourteen to thirty days is standard, and it does two things. It stops a client accepting a price you set when your rate was lower, and it creates a mild, reasonable reason to decide. A quote with no expiry sits in an inbox forever, and “I am just waiting on the client” is how a month of pipeline evaporates.
Build the menu, copy the link, and send it with two sentences of context rather than a page of explanation. The proposal should be the thing that does the talking, and the client ticking a box is a far stronger signal of commitment than a polite reply saying it looks good.
Frequently asked questions
- How does the client see my proposal?
- Everything you type lives in the page address, so the “Copy link to these numbers” button gives you a link that opens the proposal exactly as you built it. Send that link and your client sees the same page, can tick options on and off, and watches the total change.
- Is anything saved or sent to you?
- No. There is no account and no database — the proposal exists only inside the link you copied. If you lose the link, the proposal is gone, so paste it into your own email or notes.
- Why offer options instead of one price?
- A single figure invites one answer: yes or no. Three or four ticked options turn the conversation into how much rather than whether, and clients regularly select more than the minimum once they can see what each piece costs.
- How big should the deposit be?
- A third to a half is normal for project work, and fifty percent is standard for a first engagement with a new client. The purpose is not cash flow alone — it is the point at which a conversation becomes a booked commitment.
- Should I put an expiry date on a quote?
- Yes. Fourteen to thirty days is usual. It protects you against a client accepting a six-month-old price and it gently encourages a decision, which is often the real problem with a quote that goes quiet.