Liquid makes it easy to create and send Project Proposals, so you can focus on your work and get paid quickly
Not sure how to create and track your freelancing projects? Managing a number of projects across different clients and deadlines doesn’t have to be difficult. With Liquid, we’ll help you gain clear visibility into your active projects and more quickly invoice your clients to get paid sooner.
Projects created on Liquid are automatically tied to your Master Contract / Master Services Agreement (MSA) with the specific Client. This automatically applies the terms of your engagement (payment terms, confidentiality, etc.) to every Project. Additionally, tying Projects to your Master Services Agreement saves you time and money by eliminating the need to negotiate legal terms each time you start a new project.
We’ll walk you through how Liquid helps you create clear Project Proposals, ensuring both parties agree to project deliverables, rates, and expectations upfront.
Create a New Project
Before you can create a Project, you must be fully onboarded to a Client using Liquid. Once you have completed onboarding from one or more Clients, select the Projects section from the left menu options to begin setting up a new Project:
Click the + Project button on the upper-right side.
You’ll first need to select which client the Project is for. If you don’t see the client you need, you can click the link below to invite them to set up a Liquid account right from this screen.
Next, you’ll need to name the Project. The name should be short and descriptive, like “Graphic Design.”
Creating Deliverables for your Project
Within one Project, you can create multiple deliverables, each with its own description, schedule, rate structure, and billing frequency (what we refer to as the Fee Schedule).
Project Deliverable: Describe the Work
From here, the Define Services and Deliverables part takes on a Mad Libs style of walking you through the setup for each deliverable.
Populate the first blank with the title, usually a short phrase that describes the work; for example, “Logo Design: Joe’s Coffee.” Click outside of the text box or hit enter or tab to move on.
Then, provide a summary of the service or deliverable. We know you might need extra lines, so hitting enter will create a new line, rather than move you on to the next entry field. This summary should be clearly defined; for example, “After reviewing our brand guidelines, and two 1 hour brainstorming sessions, the Vendor shall propose four or more options for Joe’s Coffee’s new logo.” Click outside of the text or press tab once you’ve finished the summary to progress.
Next, describe the required deliverable or milestone that will define the Project as completed. The milestone should be something that can be clearly identified as completed or not completed. For example, you might write “Completed four or more designs for a new logo. The proposed logos are reasonably consistent with the brand guidelines. Each logo should be submitted individually and on a transparent background as an Adobe Illustrator (.ai) file as well as an editable, PDF file, via Dropbox.” As with the previous field, pressing enter will give you more lines, so click out of the box or press tab to move on.
Project Deliverable: Set the Schedule
Now that the description of the deliverable is complete, you can set the schedule for the work.
Begin by selecting the start date of the deliverable.
You’ll then need to select whether or not the deliverable has a due date. If you select has, the next field will require you to choose a date. If you select does not have, you’ll choose an estimated completion date instead.
Project Deliverable: Set the Fee Schedule
The last part required to complete your new Project setup is the fee schedule for the work, which sets the payment frequency and when you will invoice your client.
In the drop-down menu, choose from the rate options: flat fee to hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. If none of the choices describes your fee schedule closely, you can choose as follows to describe it in your own words.
If you select to pay hourly, you can choose whether to set a maximum hour cap or not. You can also choose if the rate should adjust or if you will stop all work when they exceed the hour cap.
You’ll then select when you want to invoice your client for the work. If you are paying with a flat fee, you can choose between after we have confirmed receipt of the deliverable or on the specific date of. With quarterly payments, you have the additional option of on the last day of each quarter. Paying monthly allows the quarterly option as well as on the last day of each month. An hourly, daily, or weekly rate allows all of those options listed above as well as every other week on Friday and on the 1st and 15th of each month, on the last day of each month. As with the rates, you can choose as follows and write it out yourself if none of the available options best describes what you need.
Project Deliverable: Other
In this part, you have some optional opportunities to provide additional context for your client. You can provide a total estimated fee for the service or deliverable, as well as any other notes. For example, you may want to include if all invoices should be paid in USD, if the Vendor may bill the Client for invoice processing (ACH/Wire) fees, or any other applicable terms specific to how you operate.
Creating additional Deliverables for your Work Order
To add more deliverables, click on Add another, and go through the same step-by-step process to define the deliverable. Distinctly breaking up a Project into several deliverables can be useful for clearly defining when you expect each task to be completed. It also allows for different rates for the range of tasks that can fall within one Project. For example, the earlier deliverable example of graphic design work for logos may take a week and will be paid with a flat fee of $110. In contrast, a different deliverable of designing graphics for the client’s website may take longer and have a different rate.
Sending your Project
All that’s left to do now is to send your Project to your client. If one of the deliverable start dates has already passed, you’ll receive a warning message. You can go back and change it, or press Confirm to acknowledge the warning. Press Send to deliver your Project. From there, your client can choose to accept certain deliverables individually.
Accepting Projects / Work Orders
Your clients can also send Projects / Work Orders to you for approval, which you will see in the Projects tab. Clicking on a Project from a client will allow you to read through the project details, where you can then choose to approve deliverables individually.
In addition, from this detailed Work Order page, you can also send a message to the Client, letting them know if you’re accepting all deliverables, or if something needs to be changed or clarified. In addition to accepting Projects and sending messages to your Client, you can also review Invoice History from this Projects details view.
And soon, you will also be able to upload Files and attach Links to Projects. You will be able to keep those Files/Links Internal only or share them with your Clients.
From Project Proposals to Invoice
Creating a clear Project ensures both parties agree to project deliverables, rates, and expectations upfront. Liquid provides the project management tools to organize, communicate, and track the details of all active and past projects, letting you focus on the work itself. In addition, Liquid supports Projects in select foreign currencies and also supports invoicing in select foreign currencies.
