Phases in a proposal are discrete stages in the delivery cycle such as development, implementation, test etc. Phases are normally associated with distinct blocks of time, but can also be broken down based on the type or kind of deliverable (product, service, support etc.). Phases are optional and represent the highest level of break-down of your proposal, over and above the proposal WBS cost breakdown or the priced line items or CLINS.

To start, select whether your proposal has one or multiple phases in the SETUP tab. Selecting multiple makes the PHASES tab appear.

1. If your proposal needs to be broken up into several phases select the "Several" option
2. More information about phases can be found by clicking this link

Proposal WBS elements are each assigned to one phase, WBS cannot be "shared" across several phases. Similarly priced line items are also associated with one phase and cannot be "shared". If you find yourself wanting to share WBS or line items across phases then your phases are too detailed and should be higher level.

Phases are defined in the PHASES tab of your proposal, and in turn WBS elements and line items are linked to each Phase.

1. Click the + button to add a new phase or the - button to delete phase. If you delete a phase be sure to remove that phase from any WBS or line items
2. Enter the description of each phase, briefly
3. If desired, select a contract type. Contract type for the whole proposal can be selected in the CLIENT tab
4. Optionally specify the start and end dates for each phase, keeping within the overall program start and end dates defined in the SETUP tab.  Dates for WBS elements and priced line items associated with this phase must be within the start/end dates defined here
5. If the entire phase (all priced line items associated) is optional, for example your customer asked you to give an option for extended support or larger quantities, then check the "option" box. All priced line items and their indentured part configurations associated with an optional phase will be costed independently of the non-optional items
6. Clicking on the WBS icon for any phase will jump to the WBS tab only showing those WBS elements linked to this phase. WBS elements below an element associated with another phase will be hidden
   • Clicking on the Deliverables icon jumps to the priced line item tab showing contract line items (CLINs) associated with this phase
   • Once you reach the WBS or priced line item tabs, use the phase selector in the top right corner to change or clear the phase filter
7. Click on the speech bubble to enter some phase-wide remarks, and on the pencil edit icon to edit phase details in a popup panel
8. Owner column is hidden from the view above but if displayed, allows you to select a phase owner
9. Phases can be sorted by sequence number (the default) or by some other column. Phase sequence numbers are automatically derived but can be edited in the phase popup or better by dragging rows for each phase up and down the list of phases

The bubbles in the screen shot above link to the same numbers in the text for both images.