Contracts & Proposals

Manage client contracts and create professional proposals to win work.

Managing contracts

Go to Contracts → New Contract to create a contract record. Contracts are linked to a client and track:

• Name, A descriptive name for the contract
• Client, The client this contract is with (required)
• Value, The contract value
• Status, Draft, Sent, Signed, or Expired
• Start / End date, The contract period
• Renewal date, When the contract is up for renewal
• Payment terms, Net 30, milestone-based, or whatever you agree on
• File, Upload the contract document
• Notes, Internal notes about the contract

While you’re creating or editing a contract, Kiaro tracks your unsaved changes. If you try to navigate away (sidebar, back button, or closing the tab) before saving, you’ll be asked to confirm before your changes are discarded. Saving the contract clears this automatically.

Contract statuses

• Draft, Being prepared
• Sent, Delivered to the client for review
• Signed, Fully executed
• Expired, Past the end date or renewal date

AI Contract Analysis

Analyze any contract or statement of work before signing. There are two ways to access it:

• Before signing (pre-signature): Go to Contracts and click Analyze a Contract to upload and review a contract before adding it to your system.
• After uploading: Open a stored contract and click Analyze in the header, the system automatically extracts text from the attached PDF and pre-fills the analyzer.

How it works

Step 1, Provide the contract

• Upload a file (default), Drag and drop a PDF, Word document (.docx), or text file (up to 50MB), or click to browse. Text is extracted automatically.
• Paste text, Switch to the Paste tab to enter contract text manually.
• Optionally select the client and enter the client’s location (e.g., “London, UK”)
• Your location is auto-populated from your invoice settings
• Click Analyze Contract

The AI reviews the contract and returns:

• Risk Summary, Overall risk level (Low/Medium/High)
• Gap Analysis, Missing or weak clauses (scope, IP, termination, payment, etc.)
• Red Flags, Particularly unfavorable terms
• Jurisdiction Notes, Cross-border issues, governing law, data protection considerations (when locations are provided)

Step 2, Generate a checklist

After the analysis completes, click Generate Checklist to produce a numbered list of specific, actionable changes to make. Each item describes exactly what to add, modify, or remove. Copy the checklist and share it with your legal counsel.

Jurisdiction awareness

When you provide your location and the client’s location, the analyzer considers jurisdiction-specific issues:

• Missing governing law clause in cross-border contracts
• Different data protection regimes (e.g., GDPR vs. other frameworks)
• Tax withholding implications
• Dispute resolution forum considerations

Save to Kiaro

After analyzing a contract, click Save Contract to Kiaro to create a contract record in your system. The contract name and client are pre-filled from the analysis context.

Copy and share

Both the analysis and the checklist have a Copy button to copy the full output as markdown. Share with colleagues, paste into documents, or forward to your lawyer.

All AI contract analysis output includes a disclaimer that it is not legal advice and should be reviewed by a qualified legal professional.

Proposals

Proposals are a first-class entity in Kiaro with their own section in the sidebar at Proposals. Use them to pitch new work, scope engagements, and get client sign-off before starting.

Creating a proposal

Click New Proposal to get started. You have three options:

• Create with AI (recommended), Fill in the client, project, scope description, and budget. The AI generates a structured proposal based on your inputs, style guide, and past proposals. Review the output, then save. The AI also extracts pricing line items from the generated content automatically.
• Start from Template, Pick from five industry-specific templates (Consulting, Development, Design, Marketing, Strategy). Each template includes pre-written content sections and placeholder pricing line items. Select a template and customise it to fit your engagement.
• Start from Scratch, Opens a blank editor where you can write or paste your own proposal content.

The Project field is optional on all three options. You can leave it as “No project” when the project doesn’t exist yet, after the proposal is accepted, you can create the project directly from the proposal.

Client snapshot sidebar

In the Start from Scratch and template flows, picking a client surfaces a Client Snapshot panel on the right. It always shows the client’s default currency and primary contact so you can confirm both before drafting. If there’s prior history, you’ll also see proposals sent and accepted (with accepted value), the most recent proposal as a deep link, and any active projects already in flight. Rows with no data yet are hidden. On mobile, expand it from the Client Snapshot toggle above the form.

Editing proposals

Proposals open in a rich text editor (Tiptap WYSIWYG) where you can format headings, lists, tables, and more. Edit the content as many times as needed before sending.

If you have saved sections in your Content Library, you can insert them directly from the editor toolbar using the Insert Section button.

While you’re drafting or editing a proposal, Kiaro tracks your unsaved changes. If you try to navigate away (sidebar, back button, or closing the tab) before saving, you’ll be asked to confirm before your changes are discarded. Saving the proposal clears this automatically.

Pricing

Every proposal includes a structured pricing section below the content editor. Add line items with:

• Description, What the line item covers (e.g., “Discovery & Assessment”)
• Qty, Quantity or number of units
• Unit Price, Price per unit in dollars
• Optional, Check this box for optional add-on items

The editor automatically calculates subtotals and totals. Optional items are displayed separately so clients can see what is included in the base price and what is available as an add-on.

If you start filling in a line item, Kiaro asks you to complete the description before saving. Completely empty rows are still allowed, so the default empty row at the bottom of a new proposal won’t block you, but a row with a price or quantity but no description will be flagged inline so it isn’t quietly dropped on save.

All prices exclude VAT/tax, this is noted on the pricing section in the proposal, portal, and PDF. Tax is applied at invoice time.

Pricing is displayed in the proposal detail view, the client portal, and the exported PDF. When you convert a proposal to a project, the total from required (non-optional) line items becomes the project budget.

Expiration dates

Set an optional expiration date on any proposal. After this date:

• Clients cannot accept the proposal on the portal, they see an “expired” notice instead
• The proposal shows an Expired badge in your proposals list and detail view

This protects you from clients accepting stale proposals at outdated rates. Set the expiration when creating or editing a proposal using the Expiration Date field.

Preview and PDF

The proposal preview page shows a professional, branded layout including:

• Your business logo (from Settings → Invoices)
• Client and project details
• Proposal date and expiration date (if set)
• The full proposal content
• A structured pricing table with line items and totals

Click Download PDF to export the proposal as a PDF with a cover page, branded accent color, pricing table, and page numbers.

Sending and resending proposals

Click Send to Client to email the proposal. The email includes:

• The proposal as a PDF attachment
• A link to view the proposal on the client portal
• Your business logo and brand accent color

After a proposal has been sent, the button changes to Resend. Resending generates a new portal link and re-emails the proposal with an updated PDF. Use this when a client didn’t receive the original email or when you’ve made changes to the proposal content or pricing.

Resending a proposal that has already been accepted or declined does not change its status, the acceptance or decline record is preserved.

Client acceptance

Clients can view the proposal on the Client Portal and accept or decline it. To accept, the client enters their full name and confirms consent. Kiaro records the acceptance with:

• Signer name
• Timestamp
• IP address

If the proposal has an expiration date and it has passed, the accept/decline buttons are replaced with a notice that the proposal has expired.

Proposal statuses

• Draft, Being written or edited
• Sent, Delivered to the client
• Viewed, The client has opened the proposal on the portal
• Accepted, The client has signed off
• Declined, The client has declined
• Expired, Shown as a badge alongside the status when the expiration date has passed

Accepted proposals are locked

Once a proposal is accepted, it is locked from editing. The Edit button is replaced with a Duplicate button, and a notice on the detail page explains the lock. This protects the acceptance record, the signed proposal stays exactly as your client approved it.

To revise the scope or pricing of an accepted proposal, click Duplicate. Kiaro creates a new draft copy including the title, content, line items, client, and project. The copy starts in Draft status with no expiration date so you can review it before sending. The original accepted proposal is unchanged and keeps its acceptance record.

Resubmitting a declined proposal

If a client declines a proposal and you address their concerns, open the proposal, click Edit, make your changes, and click Save Proposal. Then return to the proposal detail page and click Resend.

Resending a declined proposal automatically resubmits it: the status flips back to Sent, your client can respond to the revised version from their portal, and the timeline on the detail page extends with a Resubmitted event so you retain a complete history of the decline, the resubmission, and the new response. The original Declined event stays in the timeline for audit.

If you save edits without resending, the proposal stays in Declined state. The client does not see the new version until you click Resend.

Converting proposals to projects

When a proposal is accepted and has no project linked to it, a Create Project button appears on the proposal detail page. Click it to open a confirmation dialog that explains what will be created. The new project is pre-filled from the proposal:

• Project name, Derived from the proposal title
• Client, Carried over from the proposal
• Budget, Calculated from the total of all required (non-optional) pricing line items

After conversion, the proposal shows a View Project link so you can navigate directly to the created project. The proposal also appears in the project’s Proposals tab, keeping the full history linked. If the proposal already had a project linked when it was created, the Create Project button does not appear, the project relationship is already established.

Proposals on client and project pages

Proposals linked to a client or project appear under a Proposals tab on the respective detail pages, giving you a full history of proposals for each relationship.

Proposal templates

Kiaro includes five built-in proposal templates to help you get started quickly without using AI:

Each template includes a full proposal structure (Executive Summary, Scope of Work, Deliverables, Timeline, Terms) and placeholder pricing line items. After selecting a template, you can customise every field, templates are a starting point, not a constraint.

Templates are a zero-cost alternative to AI generation. They do not use any AI commands from your monthly allowance.

Custom templates

You can save any draft or sent proposal as a reusable custom template for your workspace.

Saving a proposal as a template

Open any draft or sent proposal and click the Save as Template button. Enter a name for your template and confirm. The proposal is saved as a custom template that appears in your workspace.

Using custom templates

When creating a new proposal via New Proposal → Start from Template, your custom templates appear in a dedicated Your Templates section above the five built-in templates. Select a custom template to use it as the starting point for a new proposal.

Managing custom templates

Workspace admins can manage all custom templates from Settings → Proposal Templates. From there you can:

• Rename a template to reflect its purpose or audience
• Duplicate a template to create variations without editing the original
• Delete a template when it is no longer needed

Built-in templates cannot be modified or deleted, custom templates are fully under your control.

Content Library

Save reusable sections that you use across multiple proposals, like “About Us”, “Our Process”, or “Terms & Conditions”, so you don’t have to rewrite them every time.

Managing saved sections

Go to Settings → Content Library to create and manage your saved sections:

1. Click Add Section
2. Enter a name (e.g., “About Us”)
3. Write or paste the content in the rich text editor
4. Click Save

You can edit or delete any section from the same page. While you’re editing a section, Kiaro tracks unsaved changes and will ask you to confirm before navigating away or cancelling.

Using saved sections in proposals

When editing a proposal (manually or from a template), the editor toolbar includes an Insert Section button. Click it to see a dropdown of your saved sections. Select one to insert its content at the current cursor position.

Sections are inserted as editable content, you can modify them after insertion without affecting the original saved section.

Branding

Proposals use the branding configured in Settings → Invoices:

• Logo, Displayed on the proposal detail page, client portal view, PDF cover page, and email notifications
• Accent color, Applied to the PDF accent bar and heading colors, the portal header bar, the email CTA button, and the accept button on the client portal

To update your proposal branding, go to Settings → Invoices and upload a logo or set a portal accent color. These settings are shared with invoices and the client portal.