10 Best Proposal Management Software & Systems Of 2023

Wrike is a versatile proposal management software solution that’s trusted by over 2.3 million customers worldwide and suitable for any size team. Wrike helps your sales teams manage complex proposal requirements in a streamlined manner thanks to Wrike’s intuitive work management software, with tasks, subtasks, folders, and dashboards. Each element can be customized to suit the needs of each proposal, ensuring you meet deadlines and supply the correct information.

Creating a winning proposal can be time-consuming and stressful. Wrike simplifies the proposal process by encouraging collaboration between team members, keeping tasks and files organized, and automating the approval process for proposal elements. Wrike also allows teams and individuals to arrange their dashboard and task list to suit their working style.

Wrike’s simple user interface helps team members quickly understand their priorities, see what tasks need attention, and give in-context feedback on images, PDFs, and other types of files. Wrike ensures teams cut down on up to 90% of emails and eliminates time wasted switching between apps. While Wrike is very user-friendly, you can also avail of the dedicated help center with interactive training, videos, a ‘getting started’ guide, and a thriving community.

In addition to organization and collaboration tools, Wrike users also have access to a variety of custom proposal creation templates that can help simplify the proposal planning, execution, and approval processes. Create custom reports to shore up your proposal information and put together Gantt charts to show how your proposal will be put into action. There are multiple plans available, including a free version and plans which offer greater automation and customization, as well as the ability to invite free external collaborators to a paid account.

Wrike’s powerful set of over 400 integrations will assist the proposal process, helping team members connect with Microsoft, Slack, Google, and Dropbox. Sales and marketing software like Salesforce and Marketo will bolster proposals and offer strong evidence of your ability to deliver.

Start free with Wrike, no matter how big your team is. Or, try a free 14-day trial of Wrike’s more advanced features and customization. Paid plans start at $9.80/user/month.

HoneyBook is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) built for small businesses. It’s an easy-to-use software designed to help small business owners streamline their business processes from inquiry to invoice. HoneyBook lets users manage projects, book clients, sign contracts online, send invoices and accept payments.

HoneyBook allows users to view and track various stages of a project, as well as keep invoices, contracts, and other documents in one place. Users can respond to clients quickly with automated follow-ups using personalized templates and notifications. In addition, automated payment reminders can be sent and task reminders can be created based on the projects.

HoneyBook can be used by small businesses for booking clients, staying organized, and streamlining their businesses as well as other types of users, such as creatives, entrepreneurs, freelance business owners, hospitality professionals, and health professionals.

HoneyBook is a fully functioning mobile app with a modern and user-friendly interface design, allowing users to manage the business on the go. The tool offers easy-to-use features, including lead capture, Project management, client management, templates, brochures, questionnaires, and bookkeeping.

HoneyBook integrates with tools such as QuickBooks, Calendly, Zapier, Gmail, and Google Calendar.

HoneyBook subscription plans start at $9/month and include a 7-day free trial. Only available in the US and Canada.

Jotform Enterprise is a robust document, form, and contract management software that can support the collection stage of the RFP process. The tool has ready-made and customizable templates that make it easy to create professional-looking forms, with the ability to save frequently used documents as templates for future use. All templates are optimized for mobile devices and fully editable, so companies can customize them with their branding and add additional fields according to their requirements. The software also has analytics abilities for insights into document engagement across all stages of the process.

Users can easily track all submitted proposals in the central dashboard. They can sort submissions by status, assign tasks or messages to team members, and add comments or notes on each request. Organizations can use custom rules such as setting forms to specific departments or adding alerts when tasks are not completed on time. Users can also set up automatic reminders for specific actions, such as collecting feedback from stakeholders or sending out follow-up emails after receiving a submission. These automation features help streamline processes so that all team members stay informed throughout the project lifecycle.

The software integrates with popular third-party applications like Salesforce, Dropbox, and Zapier, so users can connect their existing data and tools. Additionally, the software offers various add-ons like payment gateways, further customizing the user's capabilities.

Pricing details are available upon request.

Revver is a cloud-based document and work process management system that helps teams store, organize, and collaborate on documents such as proposals and contracts. Documents can be incorporated into broader business processes, and the software can also be used for workflow mapping and automation. In the case of proposals, it can help you keep your files secure, accounted for, and up-to-date.

Templates are available for automated file management, and the software can use metadata to automatically group like documents together. Users can upload and store files in various formats, including PDFs, images, and documents, and can attach them to specific workflow steps for easy reference. For businesses looking to undergo broad-scale digital transformations, the platform serves as a one-stop-shop for business process and document management.

Collaboration features are available for your documents. Team members can comment, provide feedback, and give their approval directly on documents within the platform. This not only streamlines the process but keeps a log of all changes and approvals along the document lifecycle. Files are protected with bank-grade security in the software.

Revver offers pricing upon request.

PandaDoc is an all-in-one document automation solution with advanced capabilities, but simple and easy to use for teams of all sizes. Their template and editing tools let users build proposals, interactive quotes, and contracts.

The freemium version of PandaDoc lets you upload documents, send for eSignature, and collect payment for as many items as you’d like. Upgrading to the paid Essentials plan will start to unlock additional functions, like document templates and a rich media drag-and-drop editor. Pricing tables and document analytics are also included in this plan, making it a great starting point.

PandaDoc integrates with PipeDrive, HubSpot CRM, Zoho, Copper, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Zendesk Sell, Insightly, Nimble CRM, Nutshell, Sugar CRM, Freshsales, SalesforceIQ,Stripe, Paypal, Authorize.net, Square, Quickbooks Payments, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, Single Sign-on, Freshbooks, Slack, Gmail, Google Sheets, Microsoft OneDrive, Pipeliner CRM, and more through an account with Zapier. Note that some of these integrations are limited to Premium paid accounts only, including Zapier connections.

A downside to note is that the editor is missing out on some simple automation. For example, you need to manually drag-and-drop an initials field onto every page rather than having an “add to all” function.

PandaDoc is free to use. Paid plans cost from $19/user/month and offer a free 14-day trial.

Proposify’s design editor offers users the ability to build proposals and maintain company branding across sales documents. It also has a wide range of proposal templates, including options specific to industries, such as advertising and construction.

The tool is packed with features and boasts the ability to increase sign-offs with its built-in, legally binding signature tool allowing prospective clients to sign documents digitally on any device. It also allows clients to input required information straight into the document, helping to reduce the unnecessary, and time-consuming back-and-forth between the rep and the client.

Other features document tracking insights to know how the client is interacting with the document (i.e., when they open it, how long they spend viewing each section), as well as the ability to create a content library with all the necessary descriptions, fees, images, and so on, for quick and easy access when creating documents.

Proposify offers integration with various tools, including Asana, Basecamp, Pipedrive, Trello, Slack, and Stripe.

Proposify starts at $19/user/month and has a 14-day free trial.

RFPIO is a request-for-proposal automation system used by Microsoft, Adobe, and Zoom. They have high-quality import and export functionality, CRM integrations, project management solutions, a user-friendly design interface, a dynamic repository (the Answer Library), and more.

The Answer Library is a welcomed amplification to a few items on our Features & Functions piece of the evaluation criteria. First of all, having a compiled database of regularly used content helps with the speed and accuracy of proposal templates. Secondly, it’s a hands-off collaboration key that can provide information to any interested party, per their access levels.

Integrations include Salesforce, Dynamics CRM, Pipedrive, Pipelinedeals, HubSpot, Sharepoint, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Microsoft ADFS, Microsoft Azure, Onelogin, Okta, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and more.

As far as critiques go, some navigation within projects was a bit cumbersome. Read-Only access to certain items would be a wishlist item.

RFPIO offers pricing by contact and has a free demo available.

InDesign is part of the Adobe software suite and is built primarily as layout and page design software for print and digital media. They have a wide range of templates, graphic designs, typography options, and image stock. Most printing companies can work with InDesign.

Adobe is industry-leading with its design, editing, and layout programs like InDesign and Photoshop and Lightroom. InDesign is incredibly flexible, diverse, and can integrate with many other apps and tools because of its popularity.

InDesign allows plug-in modules and other integrations with other software; for example, Asana, Shutterstock, Paymo Timetracker, Getty Images, Workfront, Wrike, and an app for any feature you can think of (overlays, barcode generation, CMS, version control, collage templates, et cetera).

InDesign loses points on our evaluation criteria spectrum because Usability can be a major hurdle to overcome. Like many Adobe programs, it has a steep learning curve and there are whole college courses dedicated to it alone. That means it’s not great for novice designers.

Adobe InDesign starts at $20.99/user/month and has a 7-day free trial.

Google Slides is a free, web-based presentation software provided as part of Google Drive along with Docs, Sheets, Forms, and more. Slides is an intuitive tool allowing the application and arrangement of images and texts on pre-designed templates. It can be launch in any web browser and has a mobile app.

Launched in March of 2009, Slides became a viable free alternative to the widely-used Microsoft Powerpoint. No-cost-to-entry scored it highly in the Value for Cost evaluation category, particularly since Google is not known to skimp on features, support, or update.

Google Slides plays well with add-on integrations, including other Google Drive products, competitor products like Microsoft, Adobe, Shutterstock, options from the G Suite Marketplace (some paid, others free), and many other tools through Zapier.

The major con is that most of the presentation slide templates are simple or generic and not particularly easy to adapt to your brand image. You would be better off starting from scratch in most cases and bringing in a designer for help.

Google Drive is free to use.

Better Proposals is a proposal management solution that lets you pick and customize cover pages and internal documentation by tapping into their creative Marketplace (or designing from scratch). They have analytics, notifications, digital signatures, proposal AI, and more.

As far as our evaluation criteria items are concerned, Better Proposals is easily one of the best choices for paid programs in the Value for Dollar category. They have a low barrier to entry cost-wise, making them ideal for small businesses.

Integrations include Active Campaign, Agile CRM, Base, Capsule, Close, Freshsales, Highrise, Hubspot CRM, InfusionSoft, Insightly, Nimble, Salesforce, Salesflare, Zoho, Stripe, Paypal, Drift, Jivochat, Pure Chat, Zendesk Chat, Asana, Basecamp, Trello, Teamwork, Wrike, and more. If you subscribe to their Premium or Enterprise Plans you get Zapier bundled in, opening up 1500+ more options.

During the design stage, more types of content blocks would be a welcome addition to many templates. This would increase the usability and flexibility for users who are working with a lot of content and data.

Better Proposals starts at $19/user/month and has a 14-day free trial.