How to e-sign a proposal

Proposals and engagement letters are used to define the scope of engagement between you and a firm. Your accountant creates a custom proposal specifically for your situation. Usually, you’ll need to sign the proposal electronically before the firm gets started on the work you are requesting.

Covered here:

• E-Signing a proposal
• Adding a handwritten signature
• Your Proposals & ELs page
• Printing a proposal
• The signed proposal is still pending

E-Signing a proposal

Carefully review your proposal. Within it, you may discover the terms of services your firm provides, a price list, invoices (including recurring ones) or even requests for automatic payment, along with any other useful information your firm decides to include.

To review and sign a proposal, follow these steps:

1. Click on the proposal’s name.

2. Review the contents of the proposal, the services offered or invoices below (if any).

3. If requested, select the payment method or add a new one by clicking + Add payment method and entering your payment details. For multiple signers, adding the payment method only once is sufficient.

4. Click on the My signature button to e-sign the proposal, then accept the terms by selecting the checkbox at the bottom. That's it!  

The date will be automatically added so you can click To client portal to go back to the home page.

Adding a handwritten signature

Not everyone accepts typed signatures, but you can always create a handwritten one:

1. Click the  My signature or Initials field.

2. Switch to the Draw tab, then sign using your finger on your mouse pad or by using your mouse.

3. Click Insert.

Your Proposals & ELs page

Go to your Proposals & ELs page from the left sidebar. You’ll find the Waiting for action section with proposals pending signature or payment details update on the top of the page.

The proposal list goes down from it.

You’ll see the following information:

• NAME: This is what the proposal is called.
• STATUS: If the proposal is fully signed, the status reads SIGNED. If the proposal is not fully signed, the status reads PENDING.
• DATE: The date is the day the proposal was sent to you.
• SIGNED: The first figure is the number of users linked to the account who have signed the proposal; the second is the total number of signatories required to sign the proposal.

To sort your proposal list to find specific ones, click on the up-down arrows next to the NAME, DATE, or STATUS column header. 

Printing a proposal

Print any proposal, whether it is pending signature or signed. Click on the name of the proposal to open it, then click the Other drop-down at the top of the page and select Print.

The signed proposal is still pending 

If you’ve signed a proposal, but it is still in Pending status, it means that it needs to be signed by additional users of the account (for more details, go here). 

Accountants might request signatures from all users of an account or just one of several. If one of the users required to sign hasn’t done so yet, the proposal remains in Pending status in the Proposals & ELs page. You’ll also see any empty awaiting signature fields on the proposal itself.