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Set Up the Proposal Tool: Order of Operations
### Scanifly Proposal Tool
* Setup and Global Settings
* Set Up the Proposal Tool: Order of Operations
##### Setup and Global Settings
### Set Up the Proposal Tool: Order of Operations
#### Configure the Proposal Tool in the right order so you build each setting once instead of going back to redo it.
The Proposal Tool has a lot of settings, and they depend on each other. Presets hold most of your configuration, libraries feed the editor, and variables feed your pricing rules. If you configure these in the wrong order, you will have to go back and rebuild work you already did.
Follow the nine steps below in order.
🚧 **Admin only** 🚧
Global settings require the **Manage proposals** permission. If you cannot see global settings, your permission level is set to Create proposals or lower.
For more information on Proposal Tool Permissions: Who Can Do What, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
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❗ **IMPORTANT: You Must Click Update Preset or Your Changes Are Lost**
Most global settings are stored on a preset, not on your company as a whole. When you change a setting in global settings, you are almost always changing preset information.
**Nothing you change is saved until you click Update Preset.**
When you make a change, you have three choices:
1. **Update Preset.** Saves the change to the preset you are working in.
2. **Discard.** Throws the change away.
3. **Save as a new preset.** Keeps your original preset as it was and saves your change into a new one.
If you leave the settings area without doing one of these three things, your change is gone. There is no recovery. Get in the habit of clicking **Update Preset** after every block of work, not at the end of a long session.
[Image: Screenshot of the global settings header with the Update Preset, discard, and save as new preset controls highlighted]
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##### 1. Set Permissions in Team Management
Before you touch any settings, make sure the right people can reach them. From the Scanifly homepage, go to **Team**, edit each user, and set their proposal permission level. A salesperson needs **Create proposals**. A sales manager who will do this setup needs **Manage proposals**.
Do this first so you are not configuring settings that your team cannot see, and so anyone helping you with setup has access.
[Image: Screenshot of the proposal permission section in the user edit panel]
For more information on Proposal Tool Permissions: Who Can Do What, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
---
##### 2. Create a Preset Before Anything Else
In global settings, create a **new preset** and start it as a **new blank preset**.
This is the step people skip, and it is the one that causes rework. A preset is a group of settings, and nearly everything you configure in the following steps attaches to the preset you are working in. If you configure company details, libraries, and pricing before you create the preset you actually want to use, you will end up rebuilding them inside the correct preset later.
[Image: Screenshot of the preset selector in global settings with the option to create a new blank preset highlighted]
📘 **Pro Tip:**
One preset is enough if your company works one way. Create more only when you genuinely need them, for example one for commercial and one for residential, or one per territory.
For more information on Presets: How Settings Are Grouped and Saved, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
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##### 3. Fill In Company Details and Branding
Open **Company Details** and add your proposal contact fields, your **Default Proposal Controls** (title, subtitle, and default page visibility on export), and your color scheme.
Your company name and address come from your Scanifly company settings in portal and are not editable here.
[Image: Screenshot of the Company Details settings panel]
For more information on Company Details, Branding, and Default Proposal Controls, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
---
##### 4. Add Credentials for AI and SignNow
Open **APIs and Credentials**. Add an OpenAI key if you want AI help later when building custom templates, custom variables, and rules. Add your SignNow API key if you send proposals for signature.
Do this before you build variables and templates, because the AI assistance in those areas depends on the key being in place. AI is not required to use the Proposal Tool at all, so you can skip this step if you do not want it.
[Image: Screenshot of the APIs and Credentials settings panel]
For more information on APIs and Credentials: OpenAI and SignNow, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
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##### 5. Build Your Libraries
Open **Defaults and Assumptions** and build out each library:
* Utility library
* Loan provider library
* Lease and PPA provider library
* Ground mount presets
* Environmental impact calculations
Build these before pricing and variables, because your libraries are what the editor offers your team when they pick a utility, a financing provider, or a ground mount installation type.
[Image: Screenshot of the Defaults and Assumptions section showing the library list]
For more information on Defaults and Assumptions: Utility, Financing, Ground Mount, and Environmental Libraries, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
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##### 6. Set Pricing Configuration and Build Your Equipment Library
Open **Pricing Configuration** and decide how you price modules. Leave module base pricing off to use a base price per watt, or turn it on to price modules in tiers from the equipment section.
Then build your equipment library: inverters, optimizers, and other balance of system items.
Make the pricing configuration decision before you build equipment, since it determines whether your module pricing lives in pricing configuration or in equipment.
[Image: Screenshot of the Pricing Configuration panel with the module base pricing toggle highlighted]
For more information on Pricing Configuration: Price per Watt or Module Tiers, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
For more information on Equipment Library and Module Pricing Tiers, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
---
##### 7. Create Your Variables, Adders, Incentives, and Import Adders
Open **Variables** and build your custom variables, AI variables, input variables, adders, incentives, and import adders.
This comes after pricing and equipment because import adder rules reference your variables and your pricing, so the pieces they depend on need to exist first.
[Image: Screenshot of the variables list in global settings]
For more information on Variables Overview: The Six Types and What They Do, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
For more information on Custom, AI, and Input Variables, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
For more information on Adders, Incentives, and Import Adders, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
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##### 8. Decide What Your Team Sees and What Customers See
Now that everything exists, decide what to show.
Use **Project Builder section visibility** to control which sections your team sees in the editor. Use **line item visibility** to control which cost and incentive lines print on the proposal your customer reads.
Do this second to last, because you cannot sensibly decide what to hide until you know what you have built.
[Image: Screenshot of the Project Builder section visibility toggle list]
For more information on Control What Your Team Sees: Section and Line Item Visibility, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
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##### 9. Add Media, PDF Content Pages, and Templates (Optional)
The standard proposal works with no further setup, so everything in this step is optional.
* Upload image assets to the **media library** if you plan to build custom templates.
* Add **PDF content pages** to append existing collateral, such as a spec sheet or an About Us page, before or after any proposal.
* Build **custom templates** in the template builder, which requires the Manage proposal templates permission from Scanifly.
[Image: Screenshot of the media library and PDF content pages sections in global settings]
For more information on Media Library and PDF Content Pages, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
For more information on Template Builder: Access, Templates, and Pages, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
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##### Before You Finish
Click **Update Preset** one more time and confirm your changes are saved. Then create a test proposal from a real design using your preset and generate it, so you can see your settings on an actual export before your team starts selling with it.
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For more information on Presets: How Settings Are Grouped and Saved, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
For more information on What's Included in the Standard Proposal, please see this support article: [link placeholder].
If you have any questions or need further assistance, please reach out to our chat support or email hello@scanifly.com.
---
## Draft Notes
*Not part of the published article.*
**Screenshot/GIF capture list:**
1. [Image: Screenshot of the global settings header with the Update Preset, discard, and save as new preset controls highlighted]
2. [Image: Screenshot of the proposal permission section in the user edit panel]
3. [Image: Screenshot of the preset selector in global settings with the option to create a new blank preset highlighted]
4. [Image: Screenshot of the Company Details settings panel]
5. [Image: Screenshot of the APIs and Credentials settings panel]
6. [Image: Screenshot of the Defaults and Assumptions section showing the library list]
7. [Image: Screenshot of the Pricing Configuration panel with the module base pricing toggle highlighted]
8. [Image: Screenshot of the variables list in global settings]
9. [Image: Screenshot of the Project Builder section visibility toggle list]
10. [Image: Screenshot of the media library and PDF content pages sections in global settings]
Capture 1 is the highest priority image in this article and in the whole admin set. It should clearly show all three save options together, since the point of the callout is that the reader has a choice and must make one.
Suggested addition if the reviewer wants one GIF: a short GIF showing a settings change, the Update Preset click, and the confirmation. That would reinforce the callout better than a still.
**Needs clarification:**
- Confirm the exact in-product labels for the three save options. This draft uses "Update Preset", "discard", and "save as a new preset" from the walkthrough. "Update Preset" is quoted as a button name; the other two are described rather than named, so their exact labels are unverified.
- Confirm whether there is any unsaved-changes warning today. The walkthrough implies there is not, and this draft is written on that assumption. If a prompt has since been added, the callout should be softened.
- Confirm the exact in-product section names used as headings in global settings (Company Details, APIs and Credentials, Defaults and Assumptions, Pricing Configuration, Variables, media library, PDF content pages, line item visibility). Casing is taken from the walkthrough and the plan, not verified against the UI.
- Step 9 mentions the template builder requires the Manage proposal templates permission. Confirm nothing else is gated behind a Scanifly-granted permission in steps 1 through 8.
**Product feedback, not a doc issue:**
- Update Preset silently discarding unsaved changes is the highest-risk behavior in the tool. This article warns about it as loudly as the style guide allows, but an unsaved-changes prompt would actually fix it. Worth raising with product before publish.
**Suggested cross-references:**
- A3 (Proposal Tool Permissions) should link here as the natural next step after setting permissions.
- D2 through D8, E1 through E4, and F1 should all link back here, since this is the spine article that orders them.
- A1 (Proposal Tool Basics and Key Concepts) should link here for readers who turn out to be admins.
- Every article that describes a global setting should carry the Update Preset warning by reference, linking here rather than repeating the full callout.