Available in Sage 50 Premium Accounting and higher.

Enter a Proposal

How Do I...

Proposals let you enter proposals for a customer. Later, you can invoice the customer as portions of a project or job are completed.

  1. From the Tasks menu, select Quotes/Sales Orders/Proposals; then select Proposals from the submenu.

    Note: This procedure assumes you are using the predefined Standard template. To select a template, click the Layout toolbar button, and choose the template you want to use from the pull-down menu. If you choose a customized template, please adjust the instructions below accordingly. Learn more about templates.

What area of the proposal do you need help with?

ClosedWho to Bill and Ship to

  1. Enter or select the customer ID. To display a list of existing customers, type ? in this field, or select the Lookup button. To add a new customer, type + or double-click the field, which displays the Maintain Customers/Prospects window.

    When the customer is selected, Sage 50 supplies the customer default information, including billing and shipping addresses, sales account, shipping method, payment terms, and sales tax ID.

  2. Enter the date of the proposal if it is different from the displayed date.
  3. Enter the Complete By date for the proposal. You can sort proposals by the Complete By date on the proposal reports.
  4. Enter a proposal number if you want to change the one Sage 50 automatically enters.

    If you have not previously entered a proposal or sales order, this field is blank. Once you enter the first one, Sage 50 automatically increases the number by one.

  5. Note: Although Proposals share numbers with Sales Orders, Sage 50 will remember the last values separately.

  6. If this proposal has already been accepted by the customer, check the Accept Proposal button. This will make the proposal available for billing in Sales Invoicing and Progress Billing.
  7. If you have entered a default shipping address in the customer's record, the first shipping address will appear on the proposal. Change the customer's ship-to information, if necessary, by selecting an address from the choices in the Ship To drop-down list, or by manually entering another address in the Ship To fields.

Closed Proposal Information

  1. If you have entered a default P.O.# in the customer's record, it will appear on the proposal. If not, you can enter the customer's purchase order number now or change the default to any other piece of information that will identify this proposal to the customer.
  2. If you have entered a default shipping method in the customer's record, it will appear. You can select the Ship Via button if you want to select a different shipping method.
  3. If you entered a default sales representative in the customer's record, it will appear. Otherwise, select the code of the sales representative, if applicable.
  4. If yours is an accrual-based company, you can select the accounts receivable G/L account for this potential sale. On financial statements this will be your accounts receivable asset account. If yours is a cash-basis company, this field will display <Cash Basis>.

    Note: If you have the Hide General Ledger Accounts global option activated, Sage 50 will not display the A/R Account field in this window. To modify the A/R account used for this transaction, you must select the Journal button.

Closed Proposal Line Items

  1. Enter the information for each item included on the proposal on a separate line, including the item's quantity, item, U/M (displays if multi-packs is enabled in Inventory Item Defaults), description, unit price (the number of decimal places is selected in Global Options), sales tax status, amount, and job information (if applicable).
  2. Note: If you want to be able to bill for line items using the Percent of Proposal tab on the Select for Progress Billing window, be certain to include a Job ID (and Phase/Cost Code IDs as applicable).

  3. The default G/L sales account that appears for each line item is based on the customer sales account default or the item ID selected. To change the account ID, type ? in this field, or select the Lookup button. To add a new account, type + or double-click the field, which displays the Maintain Chart of Accounts window.

    Note: If you have the Hide General Ledger Accounts global option activated, Sage 50 will not display G/L Account fields in this window. To modify G/L accounts used for this transaction, you must select the Journal button.

Closed Other Amounts (Sales Tax, Freight)

  1. Select the sales tax ID for this proposal, if it was not filled in when you selected the customer.
  2. If you intend to charge freight for this proposal, include an amount in the Freight field. You can also add freight to the invoice at a later time.
  3. At the bottom left corner of the window, the selected customer's balance, credit limit, and credit status is displayed. You can click the arrow button to the right of the customer balance to display the current Customer Ledgers report for this customer.
  4. Select the Print button if you want to print and save the proposal; or select the Email button if you want to email and save the proposal. Otherwise, click the Save button.

    Note: Proposals are not posted to the general ledger. When you apply this proposal to a customer invoice, the proposal data is transferred to the sales invoice. Then, the billed amounts will be posted to the general ledger.

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