The three ways a proposal gets built
Updated August 14, 2026
The Build proposal button on New proposal does not always do the same thing. What it builds depends on what you loaded before you clicked it. There are exactly three paths.
| What you loaded | What gets built | Options step? |
|---|---|---|
| A carrier quote PDF | A priced proposal | Yes |
| A pulled call or found client, no quote PDF | A discovery brief | No |
| A sample button | A seeded demo deck | Yes |
#Path 1: a quote PDF builds a priced proposal
If you dropped a carrier quote PDF, ProClose parses it for real in your browser, extracts the fields, stamps your Vault's fees, runs the coverage gap scan, and takes you through the options step before assembling a fully priced deck. Add a current policy alongside the quote and the deck also gets a side-by-side comparison. This is the path for real client work: see Build a proposal from a carrier quote.
#Path 2: a pulled call with no quote builds a discovery brief
If you pulled a call or found a client in the CRM card but never dropped a quote PDF, clicking Build proposal builds a discovery brief instead. This is an honest, unpriced document: no premium, no binding requirements, no fabricated numbers, built entirely from what the call actually said. Because there is no quote to run a gap scan against, this path skips the options step and goes straight to the deck. Full detail at Discovery briefs.
#Path 3: a sample button builds a seeded demo deck
Clicking Sample: new business or Sample: renewal with comparison loads a complete, pre-written fictional deck instead of running the real parser. It still walks you through the options step so you can see how that screen works, then builds the seeded proposal. This is the fastest way to see the whole app working before you touch a real client document. See Try it with the sample proposals.
#A separate path: entering numbers by hand
There is one more way to reach a fully priced proposal, and it does not go through the Build proposal button above at all. Click Enter the numbers by hand on the New proposal page instead of dropping a PDF, fill in the form, and click Build the proposal inside that form. It produces the same shape of priced deck as path 1, renderer, editor, presenter, export, and gap scan all included, with one difference: there is no options step, since there is no parsed quote for a coverage gap scan to run against first. See Enter the numbers by hand for the full walkthrough.
#Why the order matters
If you drop a quote PDF, that always wins, path 1 runs regardless of anything else on the page. If no quote is present, ProClose checks whether you pulled a call or found a client: if so, and no sample button was clicked, you get the discovery brief. A sample button click is what routes you to path 3, and it only applies when no real quote file is present.