Proposal templates are reusable sample proposals — including items, text modules, and optional attachments. They save time for recurring constellations (standard consulting package, maintenance proposal, HOAI fee calculation) and ensure all employees calculate with identical building blocks.
Templates overview
Under Proposals > Templates, you see all previously created templates. Use the arrow icons to reorder — the templates at the top appear first in the selection when creating a new proposal.
Create template
Click New template. The dialog has the same structure as the regular proposal form, except that all fields not meaningful for a template are omitted. Enter:
Language: German, English, or French — matching the target audience
Short name: compact label for the selection list (e.g., „Standard consulting")
Label: full template name for internal overview
Currency: default currency of the template
Category and keywords: for filterability in the templates overview
Note: internal hint for other employees (e.g., „Only for DACH region")
In the second step, you add the items and text modules — just as for a regular proposal.
Link a template with T&Cs or other attachments
When creating or editing a template, you can upload files via Attach documents that will later be automatically attached during email sending. Typical attachments are:
General Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) as PDF
Privacy notice or data processing agreement
Technical data sheets, reference lists, certificates
Order confirmation template as ODT for later sending
Note: Template attachments apply to all proposals created from this template. Anyone who wants to add an attachment only for a single proposal uploads it directly in the sending dialog (see article Create and Send Proposals).
Create proposal from template
When creating a new proposal (via Proposals > My Proposals > New Proposal), you select a template in the first dialog via the Template SelectBox. ZEP then takes over all contents of the template:
Title, language, currency
All items including order and groupings
All text modules (top and bottom texts)
The note as internal memo
If stored: the implementation period as placeholder
NOT taken over are customer-specific data — these you enter per proposal:
Customer, contact, department
Project, ticket
Responsible, processor
Proposal number (newly generated)
Valid until (newly calculated based on the default validity)
Keywords
Save proposal as template
A well-prepared proposal can be directly turned into a reusable template. In the list My Proposals or All Proposals, you find the icon Save as template at the end of each row. This creates a new template with all items, text modules, and attachments of the source proposal. The customer-specific fields are automatically removed.
Tip: Maintain 3–5 mature templates for your most frequent proposal constellations. This saves 10–20 minutes per proposal and reduces errors caused by copy-and-paste from old proposals.