This article provides a detailed overview on how to create templates for estimate and proposal options from the Housecall Pro Web App.
The Estimate Templates section in your Price book
Templates are stored in your Price Book in the new Estimate templates section. Please note that this section is only available on the web version of the Housecall Pro app.
You can manage templates in the same way that you manage other Price Book resources. You can: categorize, edit, relocate and move templates.
Creating new templates from scratch
There are two ways to create a template. You can create a new template “from scratch“ or you can create a template based on an existing estimate option.
Let’s review creating from scratch first.
Navigate to the Estimates templates section in your Price book.
Check out the categories and templates included for you by default:
Templates can’t exist without a category, so in order to start creating templates, you need to have at least one template category.
We have created a few default categories containing example templates for you! You may remove the defaults, use them as they are, or update them to better fit your needs!
To create your own template: Navigate to the category you want your template to be located in and click ADD TEMPLATE.
Clicking ADD TEMPLATE opens up a form that you can use to define the template’s content. Let’s break down what exactly can become a part of a template:
Template name - this is the name of the template. This name will not be visible to your customers.
Use this field to name the template in a way that will make it easier for you and your employees to find this template in your system.
Option name - this is the name of the option that your customer will see when you present them or send them the estimate or proposal.
Sales Proposal Templates
Sales Proposals allow you to add images and descriptions for your service options so you can wow customers with a visual "good, better, best" sales experience.
Option description and cover image
(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.
Simply add the option’s description and cover image when using the new template form shown below:
Pro Tip: With a subscription to Sales Proposal Tool 2.0, you will be able to quickly build good, better, best proposals in real-time to close larger jobs faster, while providing the right solution for your customers.
Sales Proposal Tool V1 (1.0) Templates
If you have existing templates from Sales Proposal Tool (1.0) Your work is safe! All of your templates are moved into the new Archived templates category. You may continue to edit these templates and you can move them to a different category if desired.
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:
Click here to learn more about the synchronization between templates and your price book line items.
Discounts and tax rates - You can apply a tax rate and add a discount to your template:
Existing Proposal Templates (From Sales Proposal Tool 1.0)
If you have existing templates from Sales Proposal Tool (1.0) Your work is safe! All of your templates are moved into the new Archived templates category. You may continue to edit these 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 templates from pre-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 you’d like to reuse for your future customers, you can do so by saving this option as a template by following the steps below:
Open the estimate option that you would like to use to create a template
Click the three-dotted icon next to the option’s name. This will open a menu with a few items to choose from:
3. Click Save as template from the menu:
Clicking Save as template opens a window that you can use to fill out the details required to successfully save the selected option as a template.
You need to name the template and also indicate the location in Price book (the category) 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 that changing the option name affects the template only, it will not update the name of the original 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 option’s description and cover image. This content will be prefilled if you the option selected has the proposal presentation mode added to it:
Pro Tip: Providing enhanced presentations of good, better, best proposal options with 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 it’s 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 don’t overwrite that line item afterward (i.e., you don’t 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.
Some other important aspects of the Price book <> estimate/proposal templates synchronization:
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.
It’s 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 (that’s because the quantity field is not part of the Price book line items).
How to send or present estimate and 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 Web
NEW! Send or present options from pre-built templates on the Housecall Pro mobile app