This article provides a detailed overview of how to create templates for estimate and proposal options from the Housecall Pro web portal and mobile app.
š Help Article:
For information on how to use templates on the HCP web portal and mobile app, check out our Help Article, "Using Templates to Create Estimate and Proposal Options" in the HCP Help Center.
How to Access Estimate & Sales Proposal Templates
To locate your Estimate & Sales Proposal Templates:
Select 'Price book' from the navigation bar at the top of your account.
Depending on the size of your browser window, you may need to click 'More' and then select 'Price book' from the drop-down.
Select 'Estimate templates' from the left menu.
š ļø Pro Tip: You can manage templates just like any other Price Book resourceācategorize, edit, relocate, and move them with ease!
Sales Proposal (2.0) Templates
Sales Proposals allow you to add images and descriptions for your service options so you can impress customers with a visual "good, better, best" sales experience (visible only if you have Sales Proposal Tool 2.0 on your Housecall Pro plan).
If you have access to Sales Proposal Tool 2.0, you can create templates for proposals! Proposals provide an optimized presentation mode of your estimates so you can create more engaging sales experiences, provide better customer service, and easily upsell larger jobs.
Sales Proposal templates and Estimate templates are created in the same place. To ensure that your Sales Proposal gives your customer a more engaging experience, make sure to add a display image to each template.
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How to Access Sales Proposal Tool V1 (1.0) Templates
If you have existing templates from the Sales Proposal Tool (1.0), your work is safe! All of your templates are moved into the new Archived templates category in the Price Book.
To access your templates from the Sales Proposal Tool (1.0):
Navigate
Select 'Estimate Templates' from the menu on the left.
From there you should see categories for any templates you've already created, along with a category called "Archived Templates."
You may continue to edit archived templates and you can move them to a different category if desired.
You can also use this category to store the templates you're not using anymore but don't want to permanently delete.
Creating Estimate Templates from Scratch
To create an estimate template from scratch:
Select 'Price book' from the navigation bar at the top of your account.
Depending on the size of your browser window, you may need to click 'More' and then select 'Price book' from the drop-down.
Select 'Estimate templates' from the left menu.
Templates must be assigned to a category, so you'll need at least one category to begin creating templates.
While default categories are provided, you can easily create a custom one by clicking the 'Add Category' button in the upper-right corner of the page.
You can choose to keep or delete the default categories we created for you.
Once you've added a category or choose to use a default one you can add templates by clicking into the desired category and clicking 'ADD TEMPLATE.' This will open up a form that you can use to define the templateās content.
This includes the template name, Option details (Name, images, and description the customer sees when you send the estimate/proposal), and Line Items (Services & Materials).
Things to Note:
Options details are visible to your customers, however, the template name is not.
The image section of the Estimate Templates is only applicable if you use the Sales Proposal Tool 2.0.
Service and material line items - you can add as many service and material line items to your template as you want. You can either add line items manually in the template form, or you can pull the services and materials directly from your Price book.
Line items pulled directly from your Price book will be synchronized unless you update the line items directly in the template:
Learn more about the synchronization between templates and your Price Book line items in the "Templates and Price Book Line Items" section below.
Creating Templates from Existing Estimate Options
One of the most valuable aspects of templates is that you can quickly create them from options that you already have in your system.
If you have created estimate options in the past that youād like to reuse for your future customers, you can do so by saving this option as a template by following the steps below:
Open an estimate that you would like to use to create a template.
Hover over the Option tab at the top of the Estimate Details page.
Click the three dots that appear to the right. This will open a menu with a few items to choose from.
Select 'Save as template' from the drop-down menu. This will open a window that you can use to fill out the details required to save the selected option as a template.
Name the template and select the location (category) in the Price book you want to store your template in.
The name of the option will automatically pre-fill in the form. You can change the option name directly in this form.
Please Note: Changing the option name affects the template only, and will not update the name of the Estimate option.
If you have access to Sales Proposal Tool 2.0, the "Save option as template" form will look slightly different.
You will also be able to add the optionās description and cover image. This content will be prefilled if the option selected has the proposal presentation mode added to it.
š ļø Pro Tip: Providing enhanced presentations of good, better, best proposal options with the Sales Proposal Tool 2.0 allows you to better visually present options to customers which can upsell higher ticket jobs.
Managing Templates in Your Price Book
You can manage templates similarly to how you manage other resources (i.e. service and material line items) in your Price book.
Specifically, the following actions can be performed:
Categorizing templates - You can organize templates into categories. Each category can have an unlimited number of subcategories inside.
Additionally, categories can be updated, deleted, and reordered.
Editing and removing templates - You can edit and remove templates freely and independently from the estimate/proposal creation flow.
Reordering - Each template can be reordered within the category itās located in.
Moving location - You can change the location (i.e. the category) of the templates.
Templates and Price Book Line Items
When creating a template, you can create new service and material line items from scratch, but you can also pull line items directly from your Price book (similar to how you add line items from the Price book to an estimate or a job).
If you pull the line item from the Price book to your template, and you donāt overwrite that line item afterward (i.e., you donāt edit that line item after adding it to the template) the line item will be synchronized with your Price book.
Synchronization means that if you update the line item in your Price book, this change will automatically apply to all templates that have the updated line items inside.
Please consider that if you overwrite the line item after adding it (for example by changing its name or adjusting the price), the synchronization with the Price book will no longer exist.
Other important aspects of the Price book synchronization with estimate/sales proposal templates:
The synchronization works in one direction only ( i.e. changing the line item in the Price book applies to the templates, but changing the line item in a template does not synchronize back to the Price book).
Updating the line item in a template removes the synchronization.
Itās not currently possible to add new line items to the Price book from a template.
Overwriting anything about the line item pulled from the Price book on a template level removes the synchronization with the exception of quantity (thatās because the quantity field is not part of the Price book line items).
Send or Present Estimate & Sales Proposal Options to Your Customers from a Template
You can use the templates you have created to quickly send or present pre-built options to your customers!
Use Estimate and Proposal Templates on the HCP Web Portal
NEW! Send or Present Options from Pre-built Templates on the HCP Mobile App
Having trouble finding what you need?
For further assistance, please reach out to our Chat Support team
via the Blue Chat Bubble in your Housecall Pro account, or
contact our Phone Support team at (858) 842-5746.