The manual version
Every proposal starts as a copy of the last one. Find-and-replace the client name and hope it caught all five instances. Rebuild the pricing table by hand. Somewhere in the firm there are eleven versions of the SOW, and nobody is certain which one is current. The document that wins the work is the one produced under the most time pressure.
What gets built
- The firm’s proposal, SOW, and engagement letter templates, cleaned and standardized into a single current version of each
- A short form that captures the choices that actually vary per client
- Generation that fills the template, computes the pricing tables by rule, and produces a finished document
- An optional approval step before anything is sent
- A record of what was generated, for whom, and when
How it works
- Whoever owns the client fills a short form: who, what, which options.
- The document generates from the firm’s current template, numbers computed, names correct everywhere.
- It arrives as an editable document, reviewed, approved if the firm requires it, and sent.
What changes
Proposals go out in minutes, while the conversation is still warm. Every document is the current version, with math that checks out. The eleven-versions problem ends, because there is one template and it lives in one place.
The straight answer
An accounting firm should buy Ignition and move on. It bundles proposals, engagement letters, billing, and payments from about $39 a month, it is practice-native, and a custom build does not beat it at its own game. This build is for the firms those tools are not built for: consultancies, agencies, and technical firms whose SOWs carry options, staged pricing, and structures a template tool cannot compute.
Common questions
Does it use our templates or impose new ones?
The firm’s own templates, standardized during the build. The output looks like the firm, because it is the firm’s document.
Can we edit a generated document?
Yes. Generation produces a normal editable document. It is a head start of ninety-five percent, not a locked file.
Can a partner approve before it goes out?
If the firm wants an approval step, the flow includes one. Documents wait for sign-off before sending.
What about pricing options and scope variations?
The form captures them and rules compute the tables, which is exactly the part hand-built proposals get wrong under deadline.
The engagement
Two weeks, $4,500 fixed. Week one maps how the work actually happens. Week two builds and tests against real cases. Handover includes source code, documentation, the accounts it runs on, and thirty days of fixes. No retainer, nothing locked in.