I need to send the client something that is not a spreadsheet

The bid goes out tomorrow, and the people reading it want a clean offer, not a cost breakdown in rows and columns. Every budget in Splinde carries an Offer Document beside it: a page you write on, with your cover text and terms around tables fed live from the budget. One click turns it into a PDF on your letterhead, and the numbers in it are the numbers you costed.

Build the offer

1. Open the budget and open the document pane. The control at the right-hand end of the app header shows and hides it, and so does the chevron on the right edge of the budget area. A white page appears with a formatting bar across the top.

2. In the sidebar, open Insert, then the Document tab. Everything you can put on the page is there in three groups: Text Blocks, Budget Blocks and Images & Page Elements.

3. Drag Headline 1 onto the page for the offer title, then Text for the client name, the project and your introduction. Drag Image for the logo. A blue drop line shows where each block will land.

4. Drag in the numbers. Cost Overview gives one row per Section with its total, which is the summary most clients read. Cost Details goes down to the individual lines with quantity, unit and rate. Classic Budget puts the whole budget on the page.

5. Write the terms below the table with more Text blocks: payment terms, validity, exclusions.

6. Click Download PDF, the cloud icon at the top right of the pane. The file is named after the budget and is A4, ready to attach.

Good to know

• Typing saves itself as you go, so your text is kept without a Save step.

• Select a budget table and a blue frame appears with Settings and Delete. Settings opens the panel where you decide how much of the budget that table shows.

• The page keeps one order: text above, the budget block, text below. Plan the shape of the offer, then fill it in.

• Headings run Headline 1 to Headline 4. Set out terms as short paragraphs and print any web address as plain text.

• A long budget takes a moment to render. One click on Download PDF is all it needs.

• For a clean printout of the whole working budget, with no cover page, see Can I print the budget itself rather than a client offer?.

Related

• My budget changed after I wrote the offer. Do I rebuild the document?

• The client's cost controller wants the composition, not just totals

• Every page needs the project name and a page number

• Can I print the budget itself rather than a client offer?