Proposals, especially for complex large cost estimates, go through a series of iterations and changes driven internally or by the customer. Each time a completed proposal is changed there is a decision whether a new version is recommended. Typically this decision is based on:

• If the change is customer-driven and might be reversed then create a new proposal version, making it easy to "go back" to the earlier version at any time
• If the change is incremental, small or a correction of a previous error then do not create a new version
• Other changes e.g. significant internally driven changes which are not corrections of errors - create a new version if you anticipate needing to "go back" to the earlier version later on, or don't if the changes won't get reversed.

You would not normally create versions of a proposal while it is being developed. A proposal version is literally a copy of all proposal data - the WBS tree, line items, requirements, phases, the proposal bill of material, labor, material, travel and other direct cost estimates and of course the proposal itself. Bear in mind that when you create a new version of a proposal the original version is "frozen" and will not get updated with future changes. So when you go back to the original version you might need to remember what changes you actually want to keep and re-apply them again to the original version.

The only proposal data which is not copied for each proposal version is the risk register. The risk/opportunity list for a proposal is automatically adopted into whichever version is currently made active.

To create a new proposal open your proposal and click on "Copy current version to new" from the "Proposal Versions" option in the "More" toolbar button menu on the top right.

This gives a popup when you can enter the new proposal version description, label and/or code and confirm (to create the new version) or cancel.

Following the decision to copy, the new proposal version is not automatically opened. The original version remains open and remains as the active version.

1. The title or description of the proposal in the main header now has the version title after it in parenthesis. In this case the original version was not given a title so it is called "Original"
2. To open your new version, click again on the "Proposal Versions" more button menu and click on "Open" from the sub-menu. You will see a list of all current proposal versions, in this case the current open original and the new version you just created.

Select the new proposal version from this "Proposal Versions" > "Open" menu to open it. The system will:

1. Open the new (selected) proposal version showing the new version title in parenthesis after the proposal description in the main header
2. All the data displayed for this proposal will be for the new version.
3. To make the new version into the "active version" select "Proposal Versions" > "Make current version active" from the "more" toolbar button menu. This option only appears when you have an inactive version open

The "active" proposal version is the one which you can actively edit estimates, risks and other data for. When you go to the proposal list or estimates list you will only see active versions of a proposal in these lists. Making a proposal into the active one has the effect of:

• Ensure this new active proposal and its BOE-estimates are what now appears in proposal and estimates list
• Re-assign the risk and opportunity register to the new active version.

To open an inactive version you need to open the active one first, and then select "Proposal Versions" > "Open" and select the inactive version from the list of versions.

The active version is the one you are actively editing and submitting to the client. Inactive versions are essentially frozen "memories" of the same proposal at a previous points in time. Changes to the active version are not automatically applied to inactive versions - other than with risks and opportunities which are automatically transferred to the active version each time it is changed.

To make a new version active open it first and then select (#3) "Make current version active" from the proposal versions menu as shown in the screen image above

You can also:

1. Rename the current open version for example to add a new code or label to it
2. Delete the current version if it is not the active one (make a different version active first)
3. Copy the current version (active or inactive) to a new version

Remember that all proposal data aside from risks and opportunities gets copied to each version.

If you have created estimates in several versions of the same proposal you can compare these in the costing workbench > workbench tab. Select "Version" (#1) from the list of dimensions dragging it to either the top right (#2) columns or lower left (#3) rows definition. Click here for more information on changing pivot table rows and columns

The version comparison report will look something like this below.