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Proposal software: The quest for extra efficiency

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31st Oct 2017
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AccountingWEB’s roving community software reviewer Glenn Martin gets his teeth into the specialist apps that automate quoting and on boarding new clients.

This year I set out to sign up a lot of clients, so I can switch away from chasing new client to selling additional services to existing ones instead.

This approach raises a lot of problems. On boarding clients is time-consuming and having good systems in place would help. My current system of pricing could be better, too. At present, I have a detailed spreadsheet model that calculates price. I then issue a Word document with the proposal on it and a service specification attached as an appendix.

My trusty spreadsheet has got me this far, but the output could be better and present a more professional image. I need to add an “Accept button” and have more standard pricing so that other people in the practice can issue quotes and get the same answer. I also need to look at what is included in my fixed fees. I am guilty of doing extra small tasks and not charging for them. I could easily go through all clients and pick up an extra £100 to £200 on each one, which would wash through as extra profit. When quoting a fixed price with my model, one figure covers everything. Some systems do it line by line, which might highlight the value to clients better.

I have looked at practice management systems to help, but with a few exceptions they didn’t go into the areas I wanted. When I delved into proposal tools earlier in the year, I was surprised at the cost. Go Proposal is £100 per month; by comparison I pay £120 for full TaxCalc suite for unlimited clients. I was put off initially, as I didn’t think what I wanted to fix was a £1,200 problem.

Some developers are a little too pushy for me and expect people to sign up on the spot before they change their mind – a bit like double glazing salesmen. I would sooner they gave their quote and left it to the customer to accept when they were happy to, not because they were talked into something they later regretted.

And I don’t buy these success stories where small firms “saw the light” and now charge seven times the fees for the same work they were doing before. I am looking to use systems and efficiencies to get maybe 20% to 30% extra out my existing clients. For me, this is a more realistic and attainable goal.

Assessing the contenders

After some research, I narrowed the main candidates down to Go Proposal and Practice Ignition. For a balanced view I also took a look at Pricingthecloud.com and Quotient. Those looking for built-in proposal facilities might look at practice management systems like Accountancy Manager and Prosper.

Go Proposal - from £100pm

GoProposal

Like Vincent Vega in ‘Pulp Fiction’ who cannot get his head around what a $5 milk shake looks like, I need to see what is involved in a £100 bit of proposal software so I thought I would start here first. After being bombarded with GoProposal marketing for months, I sort of didn’t want to like this software before I tried it, but to be honest, in the words of Vega, “It’s a pretty good milk shake.” I just don’t know if it’s worth £100.

GoProposal is very easy to use. Within 30 minutes a real person contacts you to get you all set up and ready to go, which is increasingly rare these days. The on boarding is first class and the software comes pretty much ready to go. It is already preloaded with the My Accountancy Place pricing built in. Some parts are a little rich for my clients, but it is easy to tweak to suit. I wonder if many firms in Manchester bought this software and then undercut MAP by a fiver to get the work?

The software is very well thought out and easy to use. You can be up and running, issuing quotes within minutes. It also links with Xero, so when quotes are accepted you can push that information out to sort billing.

GoProposal allows you to do mid-year sign ups, which I liked, and flexes pricing by five levels to adjust for quality of records. Once you have removed the cheesy Bruce Lee quotes from the preloaded template and tailored it to suit your practice, the final output is very professional looking.

The quote is very detailed and includes everything that you do, listed with its own price. There is nothing touchy feely about this product - it’s about getting paid for everything you do. Rolling this out could easily add 20%-30% extra to your fees by simply re-quoting current jobs and including everything you do.

The product expects you to review fees quarterly which would be overkill for my clients, and I would feel all I was doing was issuing updated proposals although I get the sentiment. Annual reviews are sufficient for me or maybe a 6-month review if a Xero client has ended up a lot bigger job than first anticipated.

Glennzy’s Verdict – 8.5/10

It’s not quite a 10 from Glenn, but it’s pretty damn good, and it will improve with each update. Although the pricing will put off most sole practitioners, I cannot think why any mid-tier firm would not adopt it. The developer also has an “army of one” plan where you can issue five proposals a month for £50, which is a bit tight. Make it 10 for £50 and I could see mass adoption from the army of one brigade. On the functionality side, they might work on the GoProposal dashboard to bring it closer to the level of Practice Ignition.

Practice Ignition – From £39pm

Practice Ignition

Practice Ignition is the obvious choice for firms that have gone down the 100% Xero route. It was included as one of the nine “super apps” that feature in Xero HQ, which I think is going to be big. The guys at PI are proud of that status and say that if you like the product now, you will be delighted as the integration with Xero HQ matures.

After signing up you are contacted by a real person, who spends a decent amount of time going through the software and showing you how to make it work for you. The on boarding is very good, but unlike GoProposal this is not pre-setup, so you have you build your own pricing templates. This is not that difficult and PI will set it all up with your own templates up and bring in clients from Xero or XPM for a fee, (I think £600). You could set up it yourself in a couple of hours with your main pricing templates and then add others as you become more proficient with the software.

The front end of PI is excellent the proposal and engagement letter issued look they part - they would be easy to accept. Once you get it back, the integration with Xero and XPM is very slick, which I expect to skyrocket as Xero HQ grows up. The product expects you to do a proposal every year, which may be overkill for smaller jobs; chasing tax-only cases for signed paperwork could become tedious.

Practice Ignition works on the principal that the quote is issued after an initial fact finding meeting and the customer will accept when they’re happy to commit. That’s more how I operate than pushing for acceptance face to face at a meeting.

What I really like is the PI dashboard, which shows all your key data, client numbers, GRF, proposals issued, conversions and so on. We love a good dashboard at Avery Martin. This one is a winner and should be used as a benchmark for dashboards. If someone asked how clients I have and what my fees are, I would have to go and work it out – so this feature would be very useful.

Glennzy’s Verdict - 8/10

A great bit of kit which is well supported and a must for the Xero-based, fixed price accountant. I can see these becoming an integral part within the Xero HQ setup. On the functional side, the only recommendation I would suggest would be to make the pricing part more intuitive to allow prices to be flexed for quality of records or industry type.

Pricingthecloud.com – from £29.99pm

Pricingthecloud.com

I initially signed up to V2 for pricingthecloud.com and was initially puzzled as to what it was. On signing into the trial, you get access to a blank website. After some digging, you are directed to Mark Wickersham’s online shop, where you have watch a series of eight videos on how to set it up. The you must buy a series of modules from said shop. After watching a few of the videos I gave up, as it seemed over-complicated and time-consuming. I emailed support and they suggested I try V1 instead as it was setup better for first timers, so I did.

As the name suggests pricingthecloud is a template for pricing cloud-based services. It does not issue proposals or engagement letters, so would only replace the spreadsheet template I use to calculate prices.

V1 looked more straightforward. The assumption is that you would sit with a prospect with this software open on a tablet and run through a series of questions to produce three price options at Premium, Full and Entry level. If you look at the screenshot above, the three figures it produces are £4,699, £4,067 and £259. It clearly has not divided the first two options by 12 to come up the monthly figure, which would be embarrassing in front of a client. When you consider who is behind the product that is a bit of a blooper.

The pricing principles seem fine and you amend the parameters to tweak the results, for example to add a weighting to the price if the business is a restaurant and so on. But I find some practice gurus are really detached from people at the sharp end. Pricingthecloud offers three-tier pricing for every service including payroll and tax returns. It may sound good at a conference when trying to sell marketing services to naïve accountants, but in the 30 years I have been in accountancy, I have yet to meet a client who wants “gold Level” payroll. They just want things like payroll auto enrolment to be done correctly and as cheaply as possible.

Glennzy’s Verdict – 4/10

There are “special prices” available to QuickBooks ProAdvisors, but even if it was free, the kinks in the software need to be ironed out if subscribers are expected to use this as a tool within their practices. You could spend an hour or so and build your own spreadsheet that would do a job that would just as well.  You’d be for better off spending the extra £10 and get Practice Ignition. Very disappointed.

Quotient – From £13pm for single user

Quotient

Quotient is worth a look for those just starting out or operating on a budget. It does not have all the bells and whistles of GoPropsoal, but it will do a job for you. It isn’t specifically designed for accountants like the others tested, but I actually like its simplicity and the support around the set-up is also very good. This will be very useful for those who offer a compliance-based service with a bronze, silver and gold offering, as it can be set up to give three monthly figures. The client simply ticks the option they want then press the “Accept” button and away you go.

If you just go in at gold level you may lose the client all together, so the three tier approach (also promoted by Mark Wickersham at Pricingthecloud) gives you three bites at the cherry. The product also links to Xero and QBO, and can pull existing client data in from Xero to prepare fresh quotes. Once accepted, it will push that info back to Xero to generate invoices and so on.

You have to set up Quotient yourself, but could probably get basic packages up and running in 30mins and issuing with your first quote, and then add others as you go on. The product comes with a decent dashboard showing quotes issued and accepted. The “Accept” button is included on the quote and quite slick. The program does not have built-in engagement letters, so you would have to issue your own once your quote is accepted.

This tool could also be used by clients in a host of business types that issue quotes before starting work, so it would be worth checking out for the portfolio of add-on apps you recommended to clients.

Glennzy’s Verdict – 7/10

For a new practice starting out that doesn’t want the cost of some of the other products, Quotient would work well. It will allow you to produce professional looking proposals and standardise your pricing with a minimum amount of setup. The easy accept button and Xero link will also meet most needs. At this price, it certainly offers great value for money and is worth a trial if you are considering practice pricing software.

Replies (37)

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
01st Nov 2017 13:15

Good article Glennzy.

Looks as though 'Fireproof' is the winner by a short head...?

Thanks (5)
Replying to Kent accountant:
James Ashford
By James Ashford
02nd Nov 2017 20:15

Ha ha thanks. That is my real name you know. Funny story :D

Thanks (0)
Replying to JamesAshford:
Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
02nd Nov 2017 20:49

I'm all ears...

Thanks (1)
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
01st Nov 2017 16:43

Ha Ha yes it is a useful bit of kit and comes out of the box ready to go with minimum tweaking, but that price man for sole traders, come on JA help a brother out.

Thanks (2)
Replying to Glennzy:
James Ashford
By James Ashford
02nd Nov 2017 20:16

We'll help you brother. Let's get you in the FB community and back on a call to show you how you can really crank the handle.

Thanks (0)
Richard Sergeant
By Richard Sergeant
02nd Nov 2017 10:30

Great article - cheers, Glenzy.

Thanks (2)
James Ashford
By James Ashford
02nd Nov 2017 20:09

Hey Glennzy. Thank you. We genuinely had no idea this was happening and it was both a great surprise and very humbling to read.

We've worked very hard to develop our product to this level and to help our users to get maximum value from it.

Our success has come down to our great team, but also down to the accountancy firms who have believed in our product and supported us.

I've learned that accountants have a real desire to help and deeply generous. I've seen this in the value they want to give to their clients, the support they want to to give to each other and the ideas they've contributed to GoProposal.

Just so you know, the Dashboards are on their way and getting the pricing to suit every firm is always a challenge.

Our belief is that if we focus on helping you to get such value from our product by getting you to massively improve your profitability, then the price won't be such an issue :)

If you're still using GoProposal, dive into our FB group and let's help you really start flying with it.

Our goal now is to focus on earning that extra 1.5 to take us to 10/10.

Just glad you had a sip to find out what a 5 dollar shake tastes like, and moreover... that you thought it was a pretty flippin good. (edited for the AccountingWEB audience.)

Thanks (0)
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By chatman
02nd Nov 2017 23:32

Great article Glennzy. Was that 8.5 for Go Proposal even after taking into account the high price?

Thanks (1)
Replying to chatman:
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
06th Nov 2017 11:21

Hi Chatman, GP shaded it for me overall as purely proposal software, as it comes out of the box ready to go and will work for 90% of practices with minimal tweaking, it is a more general product whereas the benefits of PI would only really be unlocked if you were a Xero based practice (which is a big chunk of the market). Practice Ignition would come into its own in year 2 onwards for renewals as its part of a complete system not just proposal software.

The end result is the bit the client sees is equally as good in PI it will just take a bit set up to get you there.

I don't really get the argument that you can get more money out of your clients so the cost of the product is irrelevant, all products will allow you to pick up your true value from your clients, just by going through the process of using GP will get you thinking about the extras you don't charge for in fixed pricing, its just the the others will do it for half the price or less.

To a mid tier firm issuing 20/30 proposals per month wont bat at eye at the pricing, to a sole trader issuing 10 proposals or less it would seem expensive. For me if there was some wriggle room on the numbers of the "army of one prices" I could see the product becoming mass adopted by the likes of you and I, but currently I think the price would put the "army of one" off.

I imagine that 50% of AWEB readers are in the "army of one" camp so there is an opportunity for GP to take some feedback on board and maybe look at that. The thought of a few thousand restricted subscribers may be appealing to GP, I am sure they would welcome the discussion as they do listen to feedback.

For Xero based practices you also need to consider the effect that Xero HQ will have, PI is part of much bigger thing, which will only grow, the benefits of its inclusion as a "super app" will only become apparent in future months.

Thanks (4)
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By chatman
03rd Nov 2017 06:52

I see to get the Practice Ignition £39/month price, you have to sign up for a year. Otherwise it's £49/month.

Thanks (1)
By Logan khan
03rd Nov 2017 07:22

Go Proposal is a Fantastic tool and if you cant make an extra £100 per month from it then i wouldn't want you advising my clients!

This may be just one more client converted a month through the fact your line by Line Pricing is transparent!

Give it a go the back up support is fantastic and first month is FREE! ;-)

Thanks (1)
Replying to Logan khan:
Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
03rd Nov 2017 10:26

(****)

Thanks (4)
Replying to Logan khan:
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By chatman
03rd Nov 2017 11:14

Congratulations on your first post on AccountingWeb.

Thanks (3)
Replying to Logan khan:
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
03rd Nov 2017 11:37

Surely you wouldn't want me advising your clients even if I was making £1,000 extra by using the software.

I think I will offer to pay my landlord more rent as I can just pass it onto my clients, so therefore it isn't a cost.

What an odd post to make, perhaps your clients might be better fixed getting advice of others.

Thanks (2)
By Martinaims
03rd Nov 2017 07:55

Great article, I have used & looked at most of this software too and agree with the marks out of 10.

Thanks (1)
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By JB - Super Accountant
03rd Nov 2017 08:10

I like the article Glenn. I think one of the main benefits of GoProposal (or another) over spread sheets is how it helps demonstrate value to clients. When this becomes your key focus, the actual price becomes secondary, as the client has peace of mind that they are getting the best advice and experience that they can possibly hope for. We've used other pricing tools before but GoProposal is our favourite.

Thanks (1)
Steve Edwards
By stevo5678
03rd Nov 2017 08:49

Hi guys. I've tried Mark Wickersham's pricing in the cloud and Goproposal.

I trialed GP around March this year and didn't feel at that time I could justify the £100 a month. When I cancelled I was impressed that I got a personal call from James asking how the trial went and I explained my reasons for not continuing at that stage.

A few months later thought I'd give Mark's software a go. Wow, what a faff!! Just setting up an account and understanding which version you need was a nightmare. There was a sense of arrogance about it in that you should have done your homework and spend hours learning it before you can even run through a quote. However, I bought into this idea of pricing.

I continued to receive GP's emails and felt that the private facebook group for accountants would go a long way to help justify the cost. We were taking longer and longer to get proposals and EL's signed and I could finally see how GP would benefit me with the cost no longer being an issue.

I'm not going to sound like one of these 'success stories' as it's still early days but what I will say is that the software (along with the FB group) has not only made my sign up process super slick but I am now charging how I should for our services.

The level of customisation and ease of use is a big factor also.

I looked at Practice Ignition but felt it was trying to be too many things. GP knows what it is and is not trying to be everything to everyone.

PS - Being able to pick James' brain in the FB group was also a big factor. A massive personal touch.

Thanks (1)
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By chatman
03rd Nov 2017 11:17

I might give it a go in February. People are going to be winding down for Christmas soon; then there'll be the busy season, so no point paying subs during those months.

Thanks (2)
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By Alan_Davidson
03rd Nov 2017 11:45

Having been in practice for many years, this is the best piece of kit I have used for pricing AND signing up. I have used Times Up/Spreadsheets/Pricing in the Cloud/Practice Ignition, custom excel sheets.

The cost (Known as investment!) of £100 pcm is peanuts compared to the value any user will obtain from it. I would go so far as to say it created its own category.

Practice Ignition - which we used for hundreds of engagements is great at signing up the client BUT doesn't deal with the big question of what to charge.

Cloud Pricing is great at giving value pricing figures, but then you need to sign the client up separately.

GoProposal combines the 2 and speeds the whole process up. So in the category of pricing AND signing up, GoProposal is on its own and the clear winner.

Thanks (1)
Replying to Alan_Davidson:
Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
03rd Nov 2017 12:14

"Practice Ignition - which we used for hundreds of engagements is great at signing up the client BUT doesn't deal with the big question of what to charge."

Yes it does.

Thanks (2)
Replying to Kent accountant:
Richard Sergeant
By Richard Sergeant
07th Nov 2017 10:41

Yes, I thoughts so too.

Thanks (0)
Kieran Phelan
By KPEM online
03rd Nov 2017 13:00

I've been going over various tools for the past few years too (PI, Pricing in Cloud, excel based tool-kits).......

I was worried about £100 per month with GP too, but if I combined PI with Pricing in the Cloud then the cost would be similar.

Having started using GP, it is by far the best onboarding and pricing combo tool out there. The cost is easily covered by the extra fees generated by using the tool properly. James and his team are second to none for advice and support. And their development plans are a great fit for most firms........they do know the market and it's not all about just selling you their software or their methodology.

The FB group is great value too. For support, I had a query I sent through one Saturday morning at 7.30 am when I was up early configuring the system a bit to suit our needs, Amanda from GP logged in and resolved within 15 mins!

The "out of the box" set up makes it easier to get going and easy to get thinking about how to tweak GP to suit your own methods.

Thanks (1)
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By theaccountantwho
03rd Nov 2017 13:08

As a reasonably new sole practitioner trying to build a digital practice such software reviews are appreciated. I have tried most of these myself and must admit to doing what you said and building my own spreadsheet off the back of pricing in the cloud! I wasn't comfortable using the PITC software in front of clients as it was just too unpredictable. Can't fault the support from Sarah though.

On the other hand I used GP during my free trail to win my largest piece of work and move into the virtual FD area. It helped to give me confidence in my pricing and upped the quality of my presentation (the spreadsheet wasn't going to cut it for this one). I was put off by the £100 fee but the £50 p/m for 5 proposals as an 'army of one' is fine for my size of new practice. I would say that it didn't seem that easy to find the price for sole practitioners- it did seem a little hidden on the website!

It's still early days but I do feel more confident in my ability to set better prices, be clear on who is doing what and get the proposal out the same day. Now just to get the rest of the practice management sorted....

Thanks (1)
Woods Squared
By info.woods-squared.co.uk
03rd Nov 2017 13:41

Enjoyed this article and pleased to be able to say that we are using the top scoring pricing software :-)

For anyone not yet using GoProposal then definitely take a look, it's not just a pricing tool but a full-blown onboarding system.

Thanks (1)
By miketombs
03rd Nov 2017 14:38

Just had a look at Practice Ignition. Their 'Mars' base pricing is £49 not £39. Really irritating that after about 10 seconds on the 'features' page it becomes illegible and a form appears with no obvious 'close' button that makes the page illegible and demands an email address to send reminder to try it letter. Final moan, the next tier (at 101 clients) shoots up to £149, so treble the price. We collect fees through our direct debit system. It looks like Practice Ignition wants to use its own payment system, and we use our own e-sign system but again it looks like PI want to use their own.

I'm surprised that pricingthecloud scores so low given Mark Wickersham's positioning as thepricing expert. I having looked at it so I'm not disputing your score, just surprised. Built in letter of engagement and T&C's are must-haves in any meaningful system system that produces 'ready to sign' proposals.

Thanks (1)
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By quintodc
03rd Nov 2017 15:00

Great article, really appreciate so many different cloud softwares being reviewed by Accountingweb, has helped tremendously in my research of various solutions in recent months, such as workflow.

I agree with the ratings and conclusions albeit my only experience of Practice Ignition is the trial period I had. It just did not look nearly as user friendly / intuitive as GoProposal.

After visiting Accountex this year I was all gearing up to accepting the inevitable cost of Practice Ignition to start automating engagements. I also linked up with Mark Wickersham's Cloud Accounting software - the concept of pricing in the cloud alongside the client really appealed to me and I could see that there was a huge amount of value I could quickly gain...once I had mastered the setup, psychology and 2 hour presentation to clients of these numerous packaged 3-tier priced service modules together with additional optional rewards and upsells... A bit of a mouthful, yes and admittedly a bit of an effort as well. Overkill on the complication to try to obtain the best “psychological price”.

I admit I enjoyed the process of setting up the Cloud Pricing modules and calculations behind the fees, but the variability in resulting quotes is potentially significant and really you have to get a handle on the calculations and learn them well or you could end up equally as shocked as the client sitting next to you when hitting the "quote me now" button....

I do love the marketing collateral the MW has created to go along with the software and I still intend to use wording from some of his brochures to describe my services in more detail and to communicate the value of what I do. A big thumbs up to MW. The whole process of working through his software has helped me a lot, the time has not been wasted in any way.

I found GoProposal simply from a book recommendation from Amazon.co.uk "Selling to Serve" written by this guy who claims he's not an accountant but is great at digital marketing - I concur! His digital (and real life!) marketing expertise makes you feel special even apart from the software itself!

I trialed the GP software and it really was a WOW compared to the previous Cloud Pricing system. The output is really top quality and of course produces the full detailed proposal, the LoE and T&Cs for any number of types of entities / service lines you may choose to set up. It was a Big Win for me.

GP forces you to think of a price for each detailed line of service which means you do not give anything away for free - unless you choose to. I was finding with the Cloud Pricing software I was bundling too many "green ticks" in the premium price option to make the higher price more attractive - not realising I was actually giving far too much value away.

It took some time to move to a very different pricing mindset and when I first started with GP I was trying to replicate within GP the 10 to 20 pricing calculations that varied each service price in the Cloud Pricing system so that I could obtain similar pricing levels which I had become so attached to after my many hours setting up CP. This didn't work too well as GP enables 5 levels of price variation calculations within one service line, but GP works in a different way that I had to get my mind around. I am now safely there I think and feeling a lot more confident with the pricing structure and output than I was with CP.

The videos of Paul Barnes explaining the standard pricing templates in the system, which have been used by his firm My Accountancy Place, on the GoProposal website are invaluable, such a generous guy to share !

Admittedly I am still in the process of setting it all up as I want it looking great and thoroughly personalised. Yesterday evening I finished copying over my ACCA engagement letter schedules into all the different service lines and just need to now provide my own style descriptions for all my services. Hey, if I want, the system even allows you to add videos in service lines for the client to watch you explain your mastery of value add servicing !

This week I did print out one quote (just the numbers bit) from the system and placed in front of an existing client, increasing their fee from £400pm to £778pm without too much resistance - she said what I had done was really amazing and she really liked it.

It has given me great confidence to go out there now and requote all my existing clients using the system even before going out there for new prospective client quotes. I am expecting that this will equate to 4 figure numbers per month even before new clients get a look in, oh what was the cost again ? (Yes I am a One Man Army so appreciate the £50 for now....heh heh)

Apart from the software, the Facebook group is absolutely amazing. I have never known such a lively Fb group. So many top top top accountants willing to give their time to share and is a great place for learning, personal development and chipping in with a few ideas.

Well that's my journey to date in proposal and engagement software and I'm really excited about the future of my practice now having GoPropsal as a real part of my sales team !

Thanks (1)
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By shelleykm
03rd Nov 2017 15:20

Been using PI for a while and demoing GoProposal now. Looking forward to seeing if I agree with your assessment!

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By miketombs
03rd Nov 2017 16:22

I trialled Go Proposal - liked it but not the price. I didn't see the small practice pricing option, but probably not suitable as I would initially use it with existing clients (starting with the longest periods since the last price review which is genuinely going to be about 8 years).
As far as I remember, it won't let me use Adobe Sign for electronic signatures although that won't be a deal killer if it's linked to another e-sign product at no extra cost. When I trialled a few of them Adobe Sign was the best in my opinion and our clients are now used to it because we use it for accounts, tax returns etc as well as LOE's. I also don't think I could just get a direct debit mandate authorised with GP to use with our DD system.

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Replying to miketombs:
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By Accounts12
03rd Nov 2017 18:13

Also use Adobe Sign for onboarding and never had one problem with it plus at £44 a year, it's incredibly cost effective (and like you say, clients are used to it as well).

Not every practice needs pricing software especially at the cost of the leading ones, Facebook group or not. But good to see that those who are with GP do find it worthwhile, well done James.

Great article Glenzy :-)

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By NickWilson
03rd Nov 2017 18:41

Cool article! Fantastic software. Give it a go and you will see why.

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Alex Falcon Huerta
By Alex Falcon Huerta FCCA
05th Nov 2017 09:32

Just reading through all of these comments, and I find it interesting to read about which one is best and who prefers what.
The competition between them is great and I’m sure there will be a lot more that develop and add on in the future. Over the past 6-7 years I’ve enjoyed watching the software products grow and in particular, add super exciting features to help with building in more efficiencies into the business.
What I have learnt over time is to work with products who genuinely listen on how to improve things.
Ultimately , you want to use the product as easily and possible. The main focus is the customer. You don’t want to worry about how something isn’t quite right. Isn’t that the point in why we bring them in? This is a great article and I enjoyed reading it. Choosing the software, I look to see how well a simple solution to a problem is fixed and not ignored.
When I set the practice up in 2015, I selected Practice Ignition. It was user friendly and super easy to set up. I didn’t need to call the team to do this. To me, this is really important. Since then, I have spoken to the developers, for example , with cool things that will help me... and they listened to that. Little things have been implemented that has made a difference. If they can’t develop and implement small changes ,it could be a product that could potentially end up failing. Which would concern me and I wouldnt want to invest time, then a few years down the road, have to select a different platform.Investment is important.
But choosing a product, you go with one that suits your business. I like mine to be simple and straight forward. Others may like it more detailed and various options. GP offers the detailed version with PDFs, where as PI, it’s contained within a link.
However. They are all fab and it’s great that they all want to help Accountants!

Thanks (2)
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
06th Nov 2017 11:25

Well folks thanks for the feedback its seems my views were pretty much what most others experienced when looking and pleased my notes were of use to others heading down the same track.

Great to see so many first time posters felt so strongly to come out of the shadows and make their comments known, even if they are a little prompted. I feel humbled.

Thanks for the feedback.

Next month I am reviewing Craft beer let me know if there is any particular you would like me to try.

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Replying to Glennzy:
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By chatman
06th Nov 2017 11:33

Glennzy wrote:
I feel humbled.

Humbled? That is the last thing I would feel if people told me I had written a great article.

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Replying to Glennzy:
Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
06th Nov 2017 11:47

Great article!!!

Get over yerself!!!

I'd say middling to sh1.te at best...

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By chatman
05th Dec 2017 13:10

Has anyone tried Quick Easy Quote http://www.quickeasyquote.co.uk/ ?

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By GilliKirkers
16th May 2022 03:05

Found this article 5.5 years on as I am trialling both GoP and PI. Any updated thoughts?

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By GilliKirkers
16th May 2022 03:06

Found this article 5.5 years on as I am trialling both GoP and PI. Any updated thoughts?

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