Proposals
Proposal statistics from 17 finished proposals
A finished service proposal in this set is five or six pages and about 760 words, follows eight sections from cover to acceptance, prices five lines with two optional extras, and asks for a deposit 14 times out of 17. Twelve of the 17 hold their price for 30 days.
Indunil Asanka · Co-founder
4 min read · Published
The 17 finished service proposals counted on this site run five or six pages and about 760 words, follow the same eight sections from a cover to an acceptance block, price a median of five lines with two optional extras, total a median of $13,090 including GST and ask for a deposit in 14 cases out of 17. Most hold their price for 30 days, and 11 are accepted with a click while 6 go out for e-signature.
What was counted
The set is the 17 proposal examples on this site as they stood on 21 October 2026, for fictional Australian businesses offering accounting, bookkeeping, coaching, consulting, event planning, grant writing, interior design, IT, legal, marketing, SEO, social media, software, sponsorship, training and website work, plus a furniture supplier’s office fit out. Each example stores its sections, pricing, deposit and accept mode as data, so a script counted them, and the pages and words were counted from each rendered document.
One thing explains the most uniform row in the table. Every example was made in the proposals module, which writes a proposal in a fixed section order, so the eight section skeleton is a property of the tool as much as a finding. The rest, the length, the price, the deposit, the validity and the extra sections, varies by the business and its client.
The section order
All 17 run in this order:
- Cover. The title, the client, the sender and the date.
- About us. One short section on who is proposing.
- Understanding your needs. The client’s situation in their own terms.
- Our approach. How the work will be done.
- Deliverables and timeline. What the client receives and when. Five proposals split the timeline into its own section, among them the website design proposal and the software development proposal, where phases matter.
- Investment. One pricing table with the deposit and balance.
- Terms. Payment, cancellation and the conditions specific to the job.
- Next steps and acceptance. What happens after yes, and the name and date lines.
Two proposals add a why us section, the consulting engagement and the marketing retainer. The legal fee proposal adds a costs disclosure, which law practices in several Australian states must give clients about their legal costs. The executive summary page explains when a summary section earns its place on top of this order.
Length
Ten proposals are six pages and seven are five, with a cover counted as a page. Words run from 709 to 868. That is short against the proposals people imagine, and it is deliberate: the problem, the approach and the price fit in that space when each section does one job. The how long should a proposal be page sets out when a longer document is justified.
Pricing
The median proposal prices five lines, from four on the consulting engagement to eight on the website, event and software proposals. Every proposal offers at least one optional extra, and the median is two. Totals including GST run from $3,352.80 for a month of bookkeeping to $101,145 for a software build, with a median of $13,090. The proposal pricing psychology post looks at why the extras sit below the base price.
Deposit and validity
Fourteen proposals ask for a deposit, from 11.6% on the marketing retainer to 50% on the coaching, grant writing, sponsorship and website proposals, with a median of 27.5%. Three ask for none: bookkeeping, accounting and managed IT, all billed monthly. Twelve hold their price for 30 days, four for 14 days and one, the legal fee proposal, for 21. The proposal validity period page explains how to choose.
Acceptance
Eleven proposals use click to accept and six use e-signature: the accounting engagement letter, the furniture fit out, the consulting engagement, the managed IT service, the legal fee proposal and the software development project. The e-signature group is the larger, longer engagements and the regulated professions, where the proposal doubles as the contract.
What to take from it
- Keep to one job per section, in the order the client decides: problem, approach, deliverables, price, terms.
- Five or six pages is enough for most service work.
- Price five or so lines, and put extras underneath.
- Ask for a deposit unless you bill monthly.
- Hold the price for 30 days unless your costs move faster.
In the product
The proposals module writes a proposal or quote from a structured brief (client, deliverables, price hints, currency, deposit percent, validity days, tone) in a fixed section order with exactly one pricing table. Each recipient gets a tracked link, the activity page shows opens and time viewed, and the client accepts with a click or through e-signature with an email code, after which the deposit invoice is issued. The proposal from a brief page shows the brief, and the guide to sending a tracked proposal link covers sending and tracking.
| Measure | Median | Range | Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pages | 6 | 5 to 6 | 10 at six pages, 7 at five |
| Words | 762 | 709 to 868 | 17 proposals |
| Sections | 8 | 8 to 9 | Cover to acceptance in every one |
| Priced lines | 5 | 4 to 8 | 97 lines in all |
| Optional lines | 2 | 1 to 4 | Every proposal has at least one |
| Total including GST | $13,090 | $3,352.80 to $101,145 | 17 proposals |
| Deposit asked | 27.5% | 0% to 50% | 14 of 17 ask for one |
| Price held for | 30 days | 14 to 30 days | 12 at 30 days, 4 at 14, 1 at 21 |
| Accepted by | Click to accept | Click or e-signature | 11 click, 6 e-signature |
A finished example
A website design proposal has to show the client what is wrong with the site they have, what the new one will do about it, and what each part costs. This example from a design studio to a three clinic physiotherapy practice opens with the practice's own analytics, prices the redesign at $19,850 plus GST, and leaves local search setup and a monthly care plan as options the client can tick.
Read the website design proposal example with an optional seo add onQuestions people ask
How long should a business proposal be?
Long enough to show you understood the client and to price the work, which in this set is five or six pages including a cover and about 760 words. A proposal that answers a formal tender is a different document with the buyer's page limits and forms. The question page on proposal length covers when to go longer.
What are the main sections of a proposal?
In all 17 examples: a cover, about us, understanding your needs, the approach, deliverables and timeline, the investment, the terms, and next steps with acceptance. Five split the timeline into its own section and two add a why us section. The order moves from the client's problem to the price, which is the order a buyer decides in.
Where should the price go in a proposal?
After the approach and the deliverables, never before them. In every example the investment section is sixth or seventh of eight or nine, so the client has read what they are buying before they reach the number. The price is a single pricing table with the deposit and balance underneath.
Should a proposal ask for a deposit?
When work starts on acceptance and the client could walk away mid project, yes. Fourteen of the 17 here do, with a median of 27.5%. The three that do not are monthly services: bookkeeping, accounting and managed IT, which bill each month instead. The deposit data post shows the percentages by trade.
Is e-signature better than click to accept for a proposal?
It is heavier, and worth it when the proposal is also the contract and both sides need a certified signed copy. Six of the 17 examples use e-signature, among them the legal fee proposal, the accounting engagement and the software project. Smaller, faster jobs use click to accept with a typed name and a drawn signature.
Written by
Indunil Asanka · Co-founder
Builds the generation pipelines behind OneCraft: the slide, flyer and poster layout engines, the document grid and the render workers that turn a written brief into a finished file.
LinkedIn profileWritten and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .
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How to write a sponsorship proposal
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The psychology of proposal pricing comes down to one shift: a single total asks the client whether to buy, while a base price with one or two optional extras asks which version to buy. Keep the extras few, price them so the base still stands on its own, and let the client see the total change as they choose.
For the steps inside the builder, read the guide on this topic.