Services and payments in proposals: set up guide

When creating proposals, you have extensive customization options to tailor them to your needs. In this guide, we’ll explain the available configuration options and how to set them up.

The setup process centers around two key decisions: how to present your services to clients and what payment policy to apply.

Note

Setting up services, payments and packages in proposals is possible either when you are working on the proposals template or preparing a proposal for your client, so please make sure you are on the Services step of the proposal/template creation.

Step 1. Choose how to present your services

The way you present your services can impact how clients make decisions. You can either offer tiered packages that guide clients toward different service levels or present a single list of services.

• Tiered packages work well when you want to offer different levels of service or help clients choose between multiple options. This approach is commonly used for service level differentiation (basic, standard, and premium tiers) or scope-based packages (structuring tiers around the breadth of services included).

• List of services works best when the scope is already agreed upon or for one-off projects with clear deliverables.

Step 2. Choose your payment policy and fill out details

After deciding how to present your services, choose your payment approach. TaxDome offers three options based on common use cases and billing needs:

• Send a price list only
• Issue an invoice along with proposal
• Request a deposit within proposal

Once you’ve finished setting up the Services step, you can continue your proposal preparation. Learn more in the dedicated article .

Send a price-list only proposal

If you don’t want to collect payment from the client immediately within the proposal, you can send a price list only. This works with both tiered packages and fixed-price proposals. This option is ideal for engagement letters with new leads where you want to outline the scope and pricing, but will invoice later based on actual work performed.

How to set up

1. Go to the Services step of your proposal or template.
2. Select either Tiered packages or List of services . If using tiered packages, add up to 3 packages .
3. In the Payment section, choose a payment strategy:

• For Deposit requirement: select No – don’t collect deposit.
• For Issue invoice for balance: select No – don’t issue invoice.

4. Add line items and review the summary.
5. Click Save (when configuring a package) or just proceed to the next step if there’s a single service list.

Include invoice in proposals

Including invoices in proposals keeps your billing organized by connecting payments directly to the services clients agree to. You can either collect payment immediately when the proposal is signed or issue an invoice for later payment. Common scenarios include:

• Subscription-based services: Include recurring invoice with auto-pay for monthly bookkeeping or ongoing compliance.
• Discounted pricing: Add a discount to a one-time invoice with manual payment for loyalty offers.
• Milestone-based projects: Issue multiple one-time invoices at different stages.
• Hourly or variable-scope work: Use one-time invoice with manual payment for pay-as-you-go engagements.

How to set up

1. Go to the Services step of your proposal or template.
2. Select either Tiered packages or List of services . If using tiered packages, add up to 3 packages .
3. In the Payment section, choose a payment strategy:

• For Deposit requirement: select No – don’t collect deposit.
• For Issue invoice for balance: select Yes – issue invoice.

4. Set up an invoice requirements.
5. Add line items .
6. Click Save (when configuring a package) or just proceed to the next step if there’s a single service list.

7. Go to the Send step to turn on the automatic payment option . When enabled, clients provide payment details once, and invoices are charged automatically without additional authorization required.

Request deposit upfront

You can collect a deposit when the client signs the proposal. This ensures you receive payment before starting work on tax returns, audits, or advisory projects.

How to set up

1. Go to the Services step of your proposal or template.
2. Select either Tiered packages or List of services . If using tiered packages, add up to 3 packages .
3. In the Payment section, choose a payment strategy:

• For Deposit requirement: select Yes – collect deposit.
• For Issue invoice for balance: select No – don’t issue invoice.

4. Add line items .

5. Set up a deposit .

6. Click Save (when configuring a package) or just proceed to the next step if there’s a single service list.

Services screen: overview

Below are the key fields and options available when configuring the Services step of your proposal.

Package details

Once you’ve chosen the Tiered packages option on the Services step of the proposal/template creation, you will need to add packages. Click Set up package.

Here, you will be able to add all the information about a package:

Package details

a) Package name: For example, Basic, Gold, Ultimate, etc.

b) Description: A short summary about the package. You can include information about when this package would be the right choice and in what situations it may be useful.

Client-facing presentation

c) Selling points: add up to 20 selling points to showcase your services. You can copy them from the services added or click Add row to add them manually.

d) Highlight package: turn on the toggle to draw attention to the offer you would like to sell more often. You can also add a label.

e) Update account tags: turn on the toggle to assign or remove account tags automatically after the client signs the proposal.

On the right, you can see a preview of how the package will be presented to the client.

Add more packages

You should add at least two packages. Adding only one package works like a fixed-price proposal. You can create all packages from scratch or duplicate the existing ones and edit the copy. To add a new package, click Add another package and choose one of the options.

Once you’ve added two or more packages, you can reorder them by dragging and dropping.

Invoice

Here, you will be able to add all the information about an invoice:

a) Invoice type: Select whether you want a one-time or recurring invoice to be created for this proposal. Don’t forget that all recurring invoices need to be signed. That means after your clients sign the proposal, they must then sign a recurring invoice .

b) Invoice template: Select one of your one-time or recurring invoice templates from the drop-down menu.

c) Team member: Select a team member responsible for the client.

d) Issue invoice: Select when the invoice will be issued, whether on proposal acceptance or a specific date. The behavior of the invoice depends on whether it is recurring or one-time, and on the chosen issue setting:

For recurring invoices:

• On acceptance: The first invoice uses the proposal signing date as the Posted at date; future invoices follow the set recurrence schedule.
• Specific date: The first invoice uses the specified date; subsequent invoices follow the recurrence schedule.

For one-time invoices:

• On acceptance: Created immediately after the proposal is signed.
• Specific date: Created on the specified date; if the date has already passed, the invoice is created immediately.

e) Description: Add a description outlining what’s included in the invoice (optional).

f) Note to client: add a message to your invoice and personalize it using shortcodes . This note will be displayed in the client portal and the PDF invoice.

You can add several invoices if needed by clicking Add one more invoice.

Line items & Summary

Services are the individual work items or offerings you provide to clients that need to be itemized and priced in proposals and invoices.

a) Line items: Itemize the services performed. Click Line item and create a new service or select an existing one. You can add as many line items as you wish. Here are more details on line items fields:

• Description: Add the description of the service if necessary. If the description is too long, you can split it into paragraphs by pressing Enter.

• Tax: Check the box If you need to include tax rates . 

• Rate: Specify the tariff or rate applicable to the services specified in the invoice. If you change it in the proposal, it will remain the same for the service itself.

• Qty: Change if the number of services you provide exceeds one (the default value).

• Amount: Value is specified automatically by multiplying the rate by qty. You don’t need to change the default value if you include only one service.

b) Discount: Click Discount to set up the lowered price for the service .

c) Settings: Set up which columns  will be displayed in the line items.

d) Summary:

• Subtotal: This is the sum of the amounts for the services provided before tax.
• Tax rate: Once Tax checkbox is selected for the service, tax rate will be automatically added to the summary based on the default tax rate .
• Tax total: sum of the taxes for the services provided.
• Total: sum of the subtotal and tax total.

Deposit

In the summary section, you can fill in the deposit details:

• Deposit type: Select Fixed (enter a specific amount) or Percent (enter a percentage of the total)
  • Amount: Specify the deposit amount or percentage:
    • Fixed deposit: Enter any amount. If you don’t know the final scope yet, you can request a fixed-price deposit that exceeds the subtotal amount.
    • Percent deposit: Enter 1–100% (cannot be 0%)

The Balance represents the amount due after the deposit applies. You can issue a final invoice for this balance once work is complete, and the deposit automatically applies as a credit.

• When Subtotal = $0, the Balance line is hidden for both firm and client
• When deposit exceeds Subtotal (negative balance), it displays only in the firm’s view
• Negative Balance is never shown to clients and in PDFs

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