Welcome to our video series of how to create your very first proposal! Each portion is broken out into chunks so you can watch them at your leisure. Let's get started!
#1 Prerequisites: Settings & Catalog
Before creating your first event, make sure your account is properly set up. You can follow along with the videos for a visual walkthrough, or click into the linked articles for more detailed guide.
Settings
Tax rates, profitability, and accounting – Set these up first so proposals calculate correctly.
Markup profiles – Define how markups are applied to your items or recipes for accurate pricing.
Item categories – Organize your recipe components by categories like flowers, ingredients, or fees (these can vary by industry).
Additional settings – Configure timezone, currency, and custom measurement units to apply to your recipes.
Payments – If you want clients to pay online, visit the Payments tab and set up your preferred credit card processor.
Automations – Set up rules to automatically update event stages, send notifications, or trigger actions when key milestones occur. This helps save time and keeps your events on track.
Notifications – Configure which notifications you receive (e.g. Email alerts for payments.)
Custom Properties – Add any custom fields to capture information specific to your workflow or events.
Product Catalog & Contacts
Product Catalog – Add your recipe components in advance so they’re ready when creating proposals.
Contacts – Add clients or collaborators for easy proposal sharing.
Tip: You can also add categories, catalog items, and contacts on-the-fly while creating a proposal if that’s easier.
Once these prerequisites are set up, you’re ready to start creating your first event! Don’t forget, you can refer to the videos above or click into the linked articles for a more detailed guide.
#2 Getting Started
This section demonstrates how to create your first proposal by using the + New Event panel. You’ll be guided through each required and optional field, including event details, customer selection, ownership, tax profiles, venues, and tags. It also covers how duplicating an existing event can be used to speed up setup or create a starting point for future proposals.
Video Walkthrough
Creating Event
First, you'll want to access your Events page, which shows a list of all events added to your account, and click on "+ New Event" at the top right.
A panel will appear on the right where you can add the name of the new event and other required information, such as the event date and the contact linked to the event. Once ready, click "Create" to create the event and go directly to the Workroom.
Tip — Create Event Templates Faster
If you have events you build repeatedly, consider using Duplicate to turn an event into a reusable Event Template. This helps keep Designs, Settings, etc. consistent while still letting you customize details per client.
👉 Learn more: Event Templates & Duplicating Events
Note: Fields marked with a * (red asterisk) are required and must be filled out before you can proceed.
Event Overview
You can access the Event Overview in two ways: from the left-side panel under Quick Access → Overview, or by clicking the Overview button in the top-right corner of the Event page.
The Event Overview gives you a clear snapshot of the event, including status, value, date and time, branch, owner, guest count, markup, tax profile, and production notes. As you scroll, you’ll also see portal information, Google Calendar sync settings, and custom properties such as labor fees or color palettes. This Event Overview is fully interactive: most fields can be updated directly from this page, making it easy to quickly adjust event details.
#3 Navigation in the Workroom
There are a couple of functionalities at the top of the workroom page that's worth noticing, before getting started with our recipes and contracts.
Firstly, you'll find the "publish" button and the versions menu. Anytime you publish the proposal, you're creating a new version, which also shows as the public view which your client may have access to. You can access this and any other version of the proposal via the dropdown menu at the top left.
To send the public view of the proposal to your client, you'll want to click on "share". A module will pop up that will allow you to build an email for your client including the proposal link. Also, you may simply copy the link onto your clipboard to then paste it on your browser's address bar to access the public view, or even download a PDF file of your proposal!
Lastly, there's the settings wheel icon at the top right. There, you may set up the default markup profile to apply to the whole proposal, although you may change it by item as well. You may also change the proposal theme and add an expiration date for the public view to be accessible for a specific period of time.
#4 Cover and Inspiration Board Sections
This video covers the cover and inspiration board sections of the workroom.
These are both sections where you may add images to give personality to your proposal and guidance to your client as to what style you're going for.
Feel free to click on any image field on those boards to open the media library and upload images from your computer or even Pinterest. You may also manage your images within your library and move them between folders in order to store them better!
#5 People & Vendors, Dates & Locations Sections
This video covers the People & Vendors, Dates & Locations sections of the workroom.
The People & Vendors section will show the contact linked to the proposal by default. You may then add as many more contacts linked to the event, such as friends and relatives to the client involved in the event, or vendors, such as event planners, florists, caterers, photographers, etc., simply by clicking on the plus button at the top right. At the bottom of the box, there's also a text field that will allow you to add a description of the event.
Below it, you'll find the Dates & Locations box, which will show the event's date and times by default, but will also allow you to add any other dates or times relevant to the event, such as delivery times, ceremony, reception, etc., again, by clicking on the plus button at the top right.
#6 Proposal Details (Orders) Section
This video covers all the basics of adding products and recipes to an event! Tons of tips and tricks are shared in this video to help speed up the creating process for future proposals.
You may open the orders section by clicking on the proposal details box, the "edit" button at its top right, or even access the "Orders" tab at the very top of the proposal. Either way, you'll be managing all the line items and components offered in your proposal.
You may separate your line items in as many section as you'd like. Then, either add the line items' data on its own row within the section, or click on the arrow button at the lefthand side. That will open the editing module of the line item, which also includes a recipe tab that will allow you to add your recipe components, as well as add the tax rates and markups applied to them.
#7 Payments
This video covers how to setup a payment schedule, entering payments if you're taking payments outside of Curate and begins the discussion of Payment integration.
Similarly to "Orders", you may open the payments section by clicking on the scheduled payments box, the "edit" button at its top right, or access the "Payments" tab at the very top of the proposal. That will allow you to add, edit and manage your scheduled payments and received transactions.
Click on "+ Add scheduled payment" to add a new payment. The amount of the payment maybe be a percentage of the whole total, or you may set all the payments to be divided equally from the total. You may also customize the amount at will. To mark a payment as paid, you'll just want to click on "+Add transaction" for the same amount of that payment. You'll also be able to add notes to that transaction as well.
#8 How to build out your contract
This video covers the basics of setting up a contract in the system. We have have a light discussion on how contract templates work.
Contracts have their own tab as well. To add a contract, you'll just want to click on the plus button at the top of that page. Then you'll be able to edit your contract at will. You may add more than one contract and more signatures as well, by clicking on the plus button below the signatures. To sign the contract yourself, as the company, you'll just want to click on "Add Your Signature".
#9 It's time to publish and sharing the event!
We're at the finish line! We're now ready to publish the event so it can be shared with your client! This will also cover how to create a PDF file of the event for sharing or safe keeping.