Sourced Sales Proposal Template
Every sentence typed by what it actually is, every assumption priced against the fee, and every expiry date in the document set separately.
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Validity Register · Marlowe Grid to Denholme Retail Group · cover dated 12 June 2026
The cover says thirty days. Five things inside are expiring on five different dates.
| What expires | Why | Date | Days | Who re-checks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licence at £50 per site per month | Price book v7 superseded at quarter end | 30 Sep | 110 | Deal desk |
| The 12% multi-year discount | The approval that authorised it is time limited | 15 Aug | 64 | VP Sales |
| The £38,000 fixed implementation fee | The Q4 delivery slot held for this deal is released | 31 Jul | 49 | Delivery lead |
| The 240 site count the price rests on | Their supplier contract renews and the estate moves | 31 Aug | 80 | Their energy manager |
| The £12,000 historical data load | Third-party data broker quote DB-8841 expires | 4 Jul | 22 | Partner manager |
| The validity printed on the cover | Written as a round thirty days from the proposal date | 12 Jul | 30 | Deal desk |
The cover promises the price for eight days longer than the quote one of its lines was built from. Set the cover to 4 July, say why in the document, and re-quote one line if you want longer.
Page one for this query is one document repeated. Cover, introduction, about us, why choose us, services, pricing plans, next steps, published as the structure by the vendor who analysed a million of them. The longer Word versions add a table of contents carrying 2.3 Assumptions, 2.5 Project Scope and 6.1 Cost Breakdown as named sections. So scope, assumptions, exclusions and a cost breakdown are all standard equipment. What none of them notices is that a proposal is four documents wearing one cover.
A sentence in it is one of four things. Something the buyer said, which needs a date and a speaker. Something you are committing to, which lands in the order form and belongs to whoever delivers it in month four. Something you are asserting about yourself, which is regulated advertising the moment it is addressed to a business. Or something that traces to nothing, which is most of the Why Choose Us page and gets cut.
Then the assumptions get priced, because a fixed fee places maximum risk on the supplier and three unconfirmed sentences carrying £19,700 against a £38,000 fee is a contract-type question rather than a drafting one. And the cover date gets set from the earliest of five clocks rather than a round thirty days, which is how a price stays valid eight days longer than the quote it was built from. The business case behind the number and the redline that comes back are their own jobs.
What is in the pack
Claim Provenance
Every substantive statement typed as buyer-sourced, commitment, assertion or unsourced, with its source, its owner and a verdict of keep, restate or cut.
Assumption Register
Each assumption with who confirmed it, on which side, on what date, and what it costs in money and weeks if it turns out to be false.
Validity Register
Every clock in the document held separately, so the cover date is set from the earliest one rather than from a round thirty days.
Pricing Build
The arithmetic behind every line, with each adjustment carrying its reason, its approver and the date that approval lapses.
Scope Definition
Every scope item carries a boundary test, because the dispute in month four is always a case neither the in list nor the out list anticipated.
Assumptions and Exclusions
The customer-facing version, where every exclusion traces back to a numbered assumption and carries the same cost figure.
Executive Summary
One page written to be forwarded, ending with what has to be true and the date the offer actually expires rather than a round number.
Claim Standard
The four types, what each one costs you to keep, and the two checks that catch a promise contradicting your own contract paper.
How it works
- 1
Type the claims
Send the draft. Every statement is sorted into four types, commitments get an owner, assertions get evidence, and unsourced copy is cut rather than reworded.
- 2
Price the assumptions
Each assumption gets a confirmer, a date, and a cost in money and weeks, then the unconfirmed exposure is totalled against the fixed fee.
- 3
Set the clocks
Every expiry in the document is recorded separately with its owner, and the cover date is set from whichever runs out first.
- 4
Answer when it returns
Weeks later, the register says in one line what still holds, what needs re-checking and what has moved, instead of a rebuild.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. Five Word documents and four CSV sheets, downloaded as a zip, no signup. River is the optional half: it types every claim in your draft, prices the assumptions and sets the clocks. Single-shot jobs live in River's tool index and the rest in the template library.
Why does an unconfirmed assumption change the contract type?
Because time and materials exists for exactly that case. It may be used only when the extent or duration of the work cannot be estimated with confidence. Three unconfirmed sentences carrying half your fixed fee is that situation, whether or not the paperwork says so.
What is wrong with a thirty day validity?
Nothing chose it. Underneath it a price book revises, a discount approval lapses, a delivery slot is released and a third-party quote expires, all on different dates. In the worked example the cover outlived the quote behind one of its own lines by eight days.
Does this replace my proposal software?
No. Proposal tools handle layout, sending and signature well. What none of them holds is where each sentence came from, what an assumption costs if it is wrong, and which of five expiry dates in the document runs out first. That is what these four sheets are. When the buyer sends their own scoring sheet instead, the matrix response answers inside it.
How is this different from an ROI model?
The business case argues that the spend is worth making, and that model is its own job with its own benefit register and cash test. This pack builds the offer itself: the scope, the price, the promises, and what has to be true for the number to hold. What that number actually conceded, once the non-price terms are priced, is the concession log.
What is a boundary test?
The rule that settles a case neither scope list anticipated. A site opened after the meter schedule date, a report field needing a new data source. Every dispute at implementation is one of these, so an in and out list alone never resolves it.
What happens when the buyer goes quiet and comes back?
You get a same-day answer instead of a rebuild. The Validity Register runs today's date against every clock and produces three lists: still holds, needs re-checking, and has moved. Re-issuing the whole document because one pass-through line changed invites the buyer to reopen everything. Keeping them from going quiet in the first place is the follow-up sequence.
Find out what your proposal actually says before four strangers read it
Send the draft, the price and your master agreement. The typing pass takes one read and it changes what the document contains.
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