First Proposal Walkthrough

From an opportunity to an exported draft: the path most teams take the first time.

6 min read

New Users

Create the Proposal

1
On an opportunity in Federal Opportunities or State Opportunities, click + (Add to Proposals). Or use New proposal and upload the solicitation yourself.
2
In the Quick Automation window, choose the lifecycle stage and which AI tasks to run. The proposal is created with the notice details filled in and its attachments copied into Documents.
3
If you started with New proposal, the Kickoff Setup wizard then asks for the question due date, lets you assign the team to roles, and lets you choose which AI tasks to queue.

The recommended AI chain

Generate Opportunity Overview, then Run RFP Analysis, Generate Proposal Outline, Generate Compliance Matrix and Generate Proposal Submission Checklist. The matrix and checklist wait until the outline is finalized. Progress shows in the AI Activity panel, and each result opens where it lives - the overview and analysis on the Lifecycle tab, the outline, matrix and checklist on the Workspace tab.

Decide and Plan

The Lifecycle tab walks a final-RFP pursuit through five phases: Opportunity Overview, Opportunity Analysis, Bid / No-Bid Decision, Capture Plan, and Final Check & Sign-off. Two of them are gates - the Bid / No-Bid Decision, and Final Check & Sign-off, which must be given before a final-RFP proposal can move to submission - and a progress meter shows where the pursuit stands.

Write

The Workspace tab holds three canvases: the Outline to plan the structure, the Proposal for the response itself, and a Scratchpad for notes. Select text to open the AI presets, or open the AI chat to ask about the solicitation while you write.

Check and Export

1
On the Compliance Matrix (open it from the Workspace tab), run Check vs proposal: every row is checked against the written proposal and reported as found under a heading or not addressed.
2
Work through the Proposal Submission Checklist (also on the Workspace tab) for page limits, formatting and submission details.
3
Have someone who did not write the proposal complete Final Check & Sign-off.
4
Export the proposal to Word (.docx), with your headers, footers, page numbers and heading numbering.
5
Submit through the portal the solicitation names, before the deadline.

Generate the Outline

On the Outline canvas, Generate outline (or Regenerate Outline) lets you pick which solicitation documents it reads, runs in the background, and asks before replacing an outline that is already there. Ask the AI chat for an outline and it offers the same Generate outline button. The Workspace steps then run Finalize outline, Matrix & checklist, Write the proposal, Final Check & Sign-off and Submit.

Pre-Award Notices

A Sources Sought, RFI, pre-solicitation or draft RFP runs a four-phase pre-award lifecycle instead: Opportunity Overview, Opportunity Analysis with a decision to track it, Capture with a decision to prepare a response, then Watch & Convert. When the final RFP is released, the pursuit moves on to the final-RFP lifecycle with nothing re-entered.

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