Client proposal template: the approval that authorises you to spend
An itemised interior design proposal template — client price, quantity, lead time and a per-item approval column, plus the terms a proposal has to state before a deposit is taken. Free CSV.
By Idan Mann, founder of NYA
The short answer
A proposal is the itemised list of goods a client approves before anything is ordered. This template carries the header terms — validity, deposit, cancellation — plus one line per item with client price, lead time and a dated approval column, so an approval is a record rather than a memory.
Purchasing starts with an approval, and the approval has to be attached to specific things at specific prices. A proposal that says "Living room furnishings — $48,000" is not an approval; it is a number the client will later remember differently from you.
Header — what each field carries
| Field | What goes in it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Proposal # | Sequential, and referenced by every purchase order raised from it. | PR-2026-019 |
| Date | The date it was issued, which is what the validity window below counts from. | 2026-07-31 |
| Client | The party who is approving and paying. | A. & J. Bergman |
| Project | Which project and phase these items belong to. | Bergman Residence — Phase 1 |
| Valid until | Prices and lead times expire. Without a date, a proposal approved four months later commits you to numbers a vendor has already changed. | 2026-08-21 |
| Deposit required | What must be paid before purchase orders are raised, as an amount or a percentage. | 100% of goods, due on approval |
| Freight, receiving & delivery | Whether they are included, estimated or billed separately. This is the single most common source of proposal disputes. | Estimated, billed at cost on delivery |
| Sales tax | Whether it is included in the prices shown or added at invoice. | Added at invoice |
| Cancellation terms | That custom and COM orders cannot be cancelled once in production, and what a restocking fee looks like on the rest. | Custom/COM non-cancellable once in production |
Line items — what each field carries
Client-facing columns only. No net cost, no markup — this is generated from the schedule, filtered.
| Column | What goes in it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Item # | Matching the schedule, so an approval maps to a row you can act on. | LR-04 |
| Room | Which space it is for, so an approval maps to a room rather than to the project in general. | Living Room |
| Item | Description a client recognises from the tearsheet you showed them. | Lounge chair |
| Manufacturer / model | So the approval is unambiguous months later. | Vitra AC-402-L |
| Finish / fabric | The variant being approved, not the family. 'Chair' is approved; 'chair in the other oak' is a change order. | Natural oak / F-220 |
| Qty | How many of this exact configuration, in this room, at this price. | 2 |
| Unit price | The client price. Never list price, never your net. | 3740.00 |
| Extended | Unit price × qty. The column the proposal total is summed from. | 7480.00 |
| Lead time | Per item, stated at approval rather than discovered at deposit. This is what sets the install expectation. | 12 wks from deposit |
| Approved (date) | The per-item record. An initial and a date beats a signature on a cover page, because it says exactly what was approved and when. | 2026-07-28 |
Proposal, invoice, purchase order
| Document | From → to | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Proposal | You → client | Offers specific goods at specific prices for approval |
| Purchase order | You → vendor | Orders the approved goods, with sidemark and terms |
| Invoice | You → client | Requests payment for approved goods or fees |
There are no fee terms in this template on purpose. How you are paid for your work belongs in your letter of agreement, which is a contract — and we do not publish contract templates, because nothing here has been reviewed by a lawyer and a document people sign should have been. If you are still deciding how to charge, the fee calculator compares the models without telling you what to sign.
Common questions
- Can a proposal double as an invoice?
- Many firms send one document that becomes payable on approval, and it works — but keep the two states distinct in your records. A proposal that has not been approved is not revenue, and treating it as such overstates what the business has earned.
- What happens if a client approves and then changes their mind?
- It depends where the order is. Before the purchase order goes out, nothing is lost. After it does you are bound by the vendor's cancellation terms, which for custom and COM orders usually means no cancellation at all once production has started — which is why that line is in the header block.