Proposal Generation Agent

Use the Proposal Creation Agent to create, organize, and track proposal responses for government solicitations in Costpoint. The agent uses AI and Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) to help you turn solicitation documents into a structured proposal outline, assign contributors to sections, draft content in Microsoft Word, and move sections through review and approval until the proposal is complete.

The proposal process starts in Manage Opportunity Proposals and continues in the Costpoint Proposals Word add-in for section drafting and approvals.

The Proposal Creation Agent helps you:
- Create a proposal directly in Costpoint
- Link the proposal to an opportunity
- Upload solicitation documents and supporting files
- Generate a proposal outline from selected source documents
- Create a Word document for proposal writing
- Assign contributors and approvers to proposal sections
- Track section and proposal status automatically
- Route sections through approval
- Complete the proposal after all sections are approved

Applications Used in the Process

Depending on your role, you may use these applications:
- Manage Opportunity Proposals: Create and manage the proposal
- Manage Opportunities: Start a proposal from an opportunity and maintain linked opportunity data
- Configure Opportunity/Proposal Settings: Control proposal defaults and behavior
- Manage Contract Management Roles: Define proposal access by role
- Manage Contract Management Document Types: Define the default document type for proposal documents
- Manage Capture Stages: Identify which stages allow proposal creation

Before You Begin

Before you use the Proposal Creation Agent, make sure the following setup is in place.

Proposal Settings

You or your administrator should review proposal-related settings in Configure Opportunity/Proposal Settings (CTMOPSET):
- Auto-assign Proposal IDs
- Last Proposal ID
- Allow Edit for Proposal ID
- Default Proposal File Location
- Proposal Template File Name
- View Only Assigned Sections
- Allow Edit for the View Only Assigned Sections option

These settings control how proposals are created and how users work with proposal documents.

Proposal Access by Role

You or your administrator should define proposal access in Manage Contract Management Roles. Proposal access is assigned by role code, and those role assignments determine what users can do in Costpoint and in the Word add-in.

Access values include:
- Full/Approver: Contributors can work in the proposal and approve sections.
- Edit: Contributors can draft and update assigned sections, but cannot approve.
- Read Only: Contributors can view content but cannot edit or approve.

Document Type Default

In Manage Contract Management Document Types, one document type can be flagged as Proposal Default. That value defaults when users add documents on the Documents subtask in Manage Opportunity Proposals.

Proposal Stage Setup

Use the Manage Capture Stages screen to review and manage stages used for opportunities and proposals.

Word Add-in Access

Contributors and approvers must have access to the Costpoint Proposals Word add-in to draft and approve sections.

Proposal Workflow at a Glance

The proposal process follows these phases:

1. Create the proposal
2. Assign the proposal team
3. Add solicitation documents
4. Generate the proposal outline
5. Generate the Word document
6. Assign contributors to sections
7. Notify contributors
8. Draft sections in Word
9. Submit sections for approval
10. Approve or reject sections
11. Complete the proposal

Proposal Status and Section Status

Proposal Statuses

Costpoint automatically updates the proposal status based on section activity:

• Not Started: The proposal exists, but the outline is not generated yet, or all sections are still not started.
• In Progress: At least one section is in progress, in review, or rejected.
• Approved: All sections have been approved.
• Completed: The proposal has been completed.

Section statuses

Each outline section can move through these statuses:

• Not Started
• In Progress
• In Review
• Rejected
• Approved

How Proposal Data is Populated

When you link a proposal to an opportunity, Costpoint brings information from the opportunity into the proposal. Linked opportunity data can populate proposal fields such as:

• Customer
• Capture stage
• Estimated value
• Duration
• Organization
• Opportunity labels
• Opportunity date fields
• Opportunity team

If the opportunity already has a team, that team automatically populates the Proposal Team subtask in Manage Opportunity Proposals when you create the proposal.

I. Create and Manage a Proposal

1. Create the proposal

You can start a proposal in either of these ways:

• Open Manage Opportunity Proposals and create a new proposal.
• Open Manage Opportunities and start a proposal from an opportunity record.

In Manage Opportunity Proposals:

1. Click New.
2. Enter a Proposal ID and Proposal Name.
3. Optionally, enter an Opportunity ID to link the proposal to an opportunity.
4. Click Next or Save & Next.

Proposal ID behavior

Proposal ID behavior depends on your settings in Configure Opportunity/Proposal Settings:

• If Auto-assign Proposal IDs is not selected, you must enter the Proposal ID manually.
• If Auto-assign Proposal IDs is selected and Allow Edit is not selected, Costpoint assigns the next proposal ID and the field is not editable for a new proposal.
• If Auto-assign Proposal IDs is selected and Allow Edit is selected, Costpoint can assign the ID, but you can also enter or override the Proposal ID during creation.

What happens when you link an opportunity
If you link an opportunity when you create the proposal, Costpoint automatically populates shared proposal data from the opportunity, including team and header values.

2. Assign the proposal team

After you save the proposal header, go to the Proposal Team subtask.

1. Add team members to the proposal.
2. Review each team member’s role and proposal access.
3. Make sure at least one team member has Full/Approver access. You cannot continue until the proposal team includes at least one team member with Full/Approver proposal access.

If the proposal is linked to an opportunity, Costpoint automatically populates the proposal team from the opportunity team.

3. Add solicitation documents

Open the Documents subtask and add the source documents the Proposal Creation Agent should analyze.

Examples include:

• RFP documents
• Attachments
• Amendments
• Supporting reference files

For each document:

1. Add or upload the file.
2. Select Include in Outline for each document that should be used to generate the proposal outline.

Document handling notes

• The Generate Outline button remains disabled until at least one document is marked Include in Outline.
• If the proposal is linked to an opportunity, opportunity documents display automatically on the Documents subtask.
• The default Document Type comes from the Proposal Default document type defined in Manage Contract Management Document Types.
• File location and template-related behavior are defined by the settings in Configure Opportunity/Proposal Settings.

4. Generate the proposal outline

After you add at least one source document and mark it Include in Outline, generate the outline.

1. On the Documents subtask, click Generate Outline.

Costpoint sends the selected source documents to the Proposal Creation Agent. The agent analyzes the content and creates outline rows in the proposal. Each new section starts in Not Started status.

During generation

• Costpoint displays a progress or transition screen.
• Costpoint notifies you when outline generation finishes.
• If generation fails, the system retries up to two times before surfacing an error.
• You can continue working elsewhere in Costpoint while generation runs.

Regeneration

If the proposal already has an outline, Costpoint warns you before replacing it.

When regenerating the outline, Costpoint:

• Replaces the current outline
• Removes contributor assignments
• Keeps the existing proposal document as a backup
• Creates a new blank proposal document when needed

Use regeneration only if your source documents changed and you need to rebuild the proposal structure.

5. Generate the Word document

After generating the outline, create the Word document for proposal authoring.

1. On the Proposal Overview tab, click the Generate Word Document button.

Costpoint creates a Word file in the configured file location and stores the file link in the proposal record. The generated Word document uses settings from Configure Opportunity/Proposal Settings.

When the document is created successfully, the Proposal Link on the Proposal Overview tab becomes a clickable hyperlink. Contributors can open the document and begin working in Word.

6. Assign contributors to proposal sections

After the outline is available, assign users to specific outline sections.

You can assign contributors from either of these locations:

• Proposal Outline subtask → Contributors
• Proposal Team subtask → Assignments

1. Open the Proposal Outline subtask.
2. Select a section.
3. Click the link under Contributors.
4. On the pop-up window, add or modify contributors assigned to the section.
5. Click the Apply button.

1. Open the Proposal Team subtask.
2. Select an employee.
3. Click the link under Assignments.
4. On the pop-up window, select the Include checkbox for the sections you would like to assign to the employee, if not already selected. You may also clear this checkbox for sections you want removed from the employee's assignments.
5. Click the Save button.

Section assignments are stored at the outline level. Access is validated against the user's role and proposal access. Each section must have at least one Full/Approver before that section can be submitted for approval.

7. Notify contributors

After you assign contributors, notify them of their work.

1. Open the Proposal Outline subtask.
2. Select a section.
3. Click the link under Contributors.
4. On the pop-up window, click the Notify button.

1. Open the Proposal Team subtask.
2. Select one or more team members.
3. Click the Notify button.

Costpoint emails the selected contributors with information about their section assignments and a direct link to the proposal.

II. Draft and review proposal sections in Word

After the proposal document is generated and contributors are assigned, writing and approvals happen in the Costpoint Proposals Word add-in.

Open the generated proposal document using the Proposal Link or through your standard document location.

1. Open the document in Microsoft Word.
2. Use the Costpoint Proposals ribbon tab.
3. Open the sidebar.
4. Click Sync to Costpoint to load the proposal and your assigned sections.

8. Draft a section

To begin writing:

1. Open an assigned section in Word.
2. Edit the section content.
3. Save or sync the changes back to Costpoint.

When you save a section for the first time, the section status changes from Not Started to In Progress. The proposal status also changes from Not Started to In Progress.

Only users assigned to the section can edit it through the Word add-in.

9. Submit a section for approval

When a section is ready for review:

1. Open the section in Word.
2. Click Submit for Approval on the sidebar.

When you submit the section for review,
- The section moves to In Review.
- The proposal status remains In Progress.
- Costpoint sends email notifications to all Full/Approver contributors for that section.

A section must have at least one Full/Approver assigned before it can be submitted. If no approver is found, the user receives an error.

10. Edit a section after submitting it

If you reopen and edit a section after submitting it, but before an approver takes action, the section moves from In Review back to In Progress. No notification is sent.

Use this when you need to make additional changes before review is complete.

11. Approve a section

Approvers review assigned sections in Word.

To approve a section:

1. Open the section in Word.
2. Review the content.
3. Click Approve.

If the section is currently In Review, approval changes the section status to Approved.

If the approver is also the contributor and has Full/Approver access, that user can edit the section, and then click Approve directly. In that case, the section can move from In Progress directly to Approved without going through In Review.

Each time a section is approved, Costpoint reevaluates the entire outline. If all sections are approved, the proposal status changes to Approved and the Complete Proposal tab becomes available.

12. Reject a section

Approvers can reject a section from either In Review or Approved status.

To reject a section:

1. Open the section in Word.
2. Click Reject.
3. Enter rejection comments.

Rejection comments are required. If a section is rejected, its status changes to Rejected. The proposal stays In Progress or returns to In Progress if it was previously Approved.

When an approver rejects a section, Costpoint sends an email to all contributors assigned to that section, including the rejection comments.

After the rejection, a contributor can reopen the section, make changes, and save it. That action returns the section to In Progress, after which the contributor can resubmit it for approval.

III. Complete the Proposal

13. Complete the proposal

After all sections are approved, the proposal moves to Approved status. At that point, the Proposal Manager can complete the proposal.

To complete the proposal, use either of these methods:

• In the Word add-in, click Complete Proposal.
• On the Complete Proposal tab of Manage Opportunity Proposals, select the I certify that this proposal is complete, accurate, and has been submitted to the requesting agency. checkbox.

When the proposal is completed, Costpoint stores the sign-off user and sign-off date. The proposal status on the header then changes to Completed.

14. Unlock a completed proposal

If you need to reopen a completed proposal, do one of the following:

• In the Word add-in, click Unlock Proposal.
• On the Complete Proposal tab of Manage Opportunity Proposals, clear the I certify that this proposal is complete, accurate, and has been submitted to the requesting agency. checkbox.

When you unlock the proposal, Costpoint changes the proposal status back to Approved, clears the sign-off user and sign-off date, and allows further edits to the proposal as needed.

Review and maintain milestone dates

Milestone dates become available after outline generation. If the proposal is linked to an opportunity, RFP dates from the opportunity populate the proposal, but you can still edit them.

Use the dates on the Milestone Dates tab to help you track proposal deadlines and other solicitation milestones.

Tips and Best Practices

• Add at least one Full/Approver to the proposal team before you continue.
• Mark only the correct source documents with Include in Outline so the generated outline reflects the right solicitation content.
• Generate the outline before assigning section contributors.
• Generate the Word document after the outline is available.
• Use Notify after assignments are complete so contributors receive section details and proposal links.
• Avoid regenerating the outline after writing has started, because regeneration replaces the outline and removes assignments.
• If a section is rejected, update it and resubmit it rather than creating a new section.

Troubleshooting

Parent Topic:

Manage Opportunity Proposals