To create a new proposal it is often beneficial to base it on something similar you bid for before, especially when the previous proposal was sanitized and added to your library of templates. To create a proposal with reference to a template simply click on the "Copy Template" option in response to "What is your starting point for this proposal" in the proposal SET-UP tab:

1. After your select "Copy template" select a template from the list in the field below. You can copy from a template and then add more data copied from another template to the same proposal later on
2. Once you select a template to copy from you will see the number of data elements which can be copied below, as:
   • Number of phases in your template proposal (if there are none, then this checkbox is faded-out as shown below)
   • Number of priced line items
   • Number of customer requirements assigned to your template
   • Number of WBS elements (there are 11 WBS elements in the example below)
   • Number of estimates whether labor, material, travel or other direct costs (there is one BOE in the example below)
   • Number of parameters which feed into formula in your template
   • Number of delivery schedule or billing plan lines in your template's priced line items
   • Number of proposal risks or opportunities
   • Number of response plan or proposal response workflow tasks
   • Any data element with one or more to copy can be copied from the template by checking the box next to it
3. Click the COPY button once you have decided what to copy to actually copy the selected data elements from the template into your new proposal. You can add more items later on by selecting another template again so don't worry if you missed something out by mistake

Templates are not actual proposals - they are proposals which have been copied and cleaned up specifically for the purpose of being copied in the future to make new proposals. Anytime you anticipate bidding for the same or similar work multiple times, it is worth creating a template proposal.

The benefit of templates is that they are not real bids. All the noise, changes and customer-specific mods done in the course of the sales cycles can be stripped away, leaving a clean and re-usable proposal structure as an ideal start-point for subsequent bids.

It is up to each company to decide how complex to make proposal templates and how extensive a library to maintain. Bear in mind that trying to build an extensive library with alot of people contributing, often leads to poor quality and therefore unusable templates. It is better to start simple and build up your template library slowly with a rigorous QA process.

Because you can copy data from multiple templates into one proposal think of your templates as "building blocks" or lego bricks which you can combine together into your new proposal.