Enter your details, the client's, the project title and the description of the work, then set the price, the tax rate and the deposit percentage. The page assembles a one-page proposal you can print or save as a PDF. The deposit line is the important field: it is what turns an agreeable conversation into a funded start.
The "valid until" date is not decoration. A proposal with no expiry invites a client to come back in three months expecting the old price, and material costs do not wait.
A $4,800 project with 6% tax and a 50% deposit:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Project fee | $4,800.00 |
| Tax at 6% | $288.00 |
| Total | $5,088.00 |
| Deposit due to start (50% of the fee) | $2,400.00 |
| Balance on delivery | $2,688.00 |
Note where the deposit lands. Taking 50% of the fee and leaving the tax in the balance is the usual arrangement, because the deposit is a commitment to begin rather than a payment for delivered work. If your jurisdiction taxes the whole invoice at issue, take half of the total instead and say so in the proposal, so the client's bookkeeper is not reconciling two different halves.
The total is what the client budgets for; the deposit is what you can plan around. Those are different numbers and they belong on different lines. A proposal that shows only a total leaves the payment schedule to be negotiated after the client has already agreed, which is the worst moment to negotiate it.
Scope is the part the template cannot write for you. Name what is included, and name one or two things that are explicitly not, because the boundary is where projects go wrong. "Two rounds of revisions included; further rounds at $95 an hour" prevents the fourth round from becoming an argument about whether it was ever part of the deal.
Price the proposal from your rate, not from what you guess the client will pay. Decide how long the work takes, multiply by your hourly number, add your expenses and a contingency for the changes that always arrive. A quote built by working backwards from a competitor's price is a quote you will have to defend in month two, when the work is half done and the money is already spent.
The validity date protects both sides. It gives the client a reason to decide rather than drift, and it lets you re-quote if a supplier's price moved. Thirty days is a normal window for small work; longer for anything with a long lead time.
One page for work under about $10,000. The client is deciding whether to trust you, and a five-page document rarely changes that decision.
Only if the client needs to remove something. Itemising invites comparison shopping on each line; a single project fee invites a decision on the outcome.
Between a third and a half for most freelance work. The point is to cover your costs if the project stalls, not to fund the whole job up front.
Yes, for anything substantial. A signed proposal with scope, price, payment terms and a validity date is a reasonable starting point, but it is not a substitute for advice on your own situation.
Reuse the structure, rewrite the scope. A proposal that still mentions the last client's deliverables is the fastest way to lose the next one.
Deposit math is this page’s. Recordkeeping, if you work for yourself, is the IRS topic.
Last updated: November 2, 2026. Reviewed by David Liu.