Make your proposal available outside of a project so clients can select services, sign contracts, and pay — all from your website or a shared link. When a client submits a public proposal, Dubsado automatically creates a new project and contact record for them.
Before you begin
There are a few things your proposal needs before you can make it public.
Public proposals require a Premier plan. On Starter plans, the public proposal toggle and Default flow dropdown are disabled and show a "To use this feature, upgrade to Premier" tooltip. Proposals on Starter plans can only be sent within projects.
Your proposal must include short answer elements with field mapping configured to capture client information. At minimum, one short answer field must be mapped to Client Email Address — this is the hard requirement for enabling public sharing. If you save a proposal with the public proposal toggle on but no email-mapped field, a modal will warn you and offer to turn off the public proposal option.
Include short answer fields mapped to Client First Name, Client Last Name, and Client Email Address so Dubsado creates a complete contact record when the proposal is submitted. The email field is required; the name fields are strongly recommended.
For details on field mapping, see Map a form field. If you haven't built your proposal yet, see Build a proposal first.
Enable the public proposal toggle
Once your proposal has the required short answer fields, you can turn on the public proposal setting from the form builder.
Go to Forms ➔ Form Templates and open your proposal template.
Click the Settings tab in the form builder sidebar.
Scroll past the Proposal options section (which includes Include contract and Multiple packages can be selected) and the Invoice options section (which includes Include invoice) to find Public proposal options.
Toggle Create new project once proposal is completed to Yes.
After you toggle this on, an info banner appears: "These settings only apply to proposals that are shared publicly." Four additional fields appear below the toggle: Default flow, Redirect URL, Project Status, and Project title.
These settings only take effect when the proposal is accessed through a shared link or embed code. If the same proposal template is applied within a project, the public proposal settings do not apply.
Configure public proposal settings
The four fields that appear after enabling the toggle let you control what happens when a client submits your public proposal. Each is optional — configure only what applies to your setup.
Default flow
The Default flow dropdown lets you choose a flow that starts automatically when a client submits the proposal.
Select a flow from the Select a flow to apply dropdown. If you leave this blank, no flow starts automatically after submission.
If the flow you choose includes a payment plan, do not also apply a payment plan to the proposal. Applying a form or flow to a project replaces any existing payment plan on the invoice, which may cause unexpected results. Handle the payment plan in one place — either the flow or the proposal — not both.
Redirect URL
The Redirect URL field lets you send clients to an external page after they submit the proposal, instead of showing the default completion message. Enter a full URL including http:// or https:// — an inline warning appears if the URL is missing the protocol.
The redirect URL does not work if the proposal includes a contract or an invoice. To use a redirect, toggle Include contract and Include invoice to No in the Proposal options and Invoice options sections above. For more on attaching contracts and invoices to proposals, see Connect a contract and invoice to a proposal.
Project status
The Project Status dropdown assigns a status to every project created when someone submits this public proposal. Statuses are grouped by Leads and Jobs categories in the dropdown.
If you leave this blank, new projects appear under the Lead - No status filter in your Leads view.
Project title
The Project title field sets the name for every project created through this public proposal. You can enter plain text, Client smart fields, or a mix of both.
Use Client smart fields paired with your service type to create descriptive titles automatically. Examples:
{{client.firstName}}Wedding{{client.name}}Web Design
Project smart fields cannot be used in the Project title field.
If you leave this blank, the project title defaults to the name of the proposal template.
Share the proposal
After you enable the public proposal toggle and save the form, the Sharing tab appears in the form builder sidebar.
The Sharing tab only appears after you enable the Create new project once proposal is completed toggle and save the form. If you don't see it, check that the toggle is on and that the form has been saved.
Click the Sharing tab to access two sharing options:
Embed code — Copy and paste this code into your website's HTML or web builder to embed the proposal directly on a page.
Direct link — Copy this link to share in a text, on social media, or anywhere else.
Click either the embed code area or the direct link field to copy it to your clipboard. Both options point to the same proposal — clients see the same form regardless of how they access it.
For a similar setup using a lead capture form instead of a proposal, see Share a lead capture form.
FAQ
If I make changes to my public proposal, do I need to re-embed it or copy a new link?
No. When you save changes to your proposal, those changes update automatically — both at the embed location on your website and at the direct link. You do not need to copy a new embed code or link.
Can I use both the embed code and the direct link at the same time?
Yes. Both point to the same form. Clients who access the proposal through your website and clients who use the direct link all see the same proposal.
Can I assign more than one flow to a public proposal?
No. You can set one default flow per proposal. The flow element, which lets clients choose from multiple flows, is not available on proposals — it is only available on lead capture forms.
Can I attach a contract and invoice to a public proposal?
Yes. Clients can select services, sign a contract, and pay all in one submission. See Connect a contract and invoice to a proposal for setup details. Keep in mind that attaching a contract or invoice disables the redirect URL.
Can I customize the public proposal URL?
You can customize the domain name portion of the URL to replace the default Dubsado domain with your own by heading to Settings ➔ URL customization. The rest of the URL path cannot be shortened without a third-party URL shortener.