Why our new proposal experience is a game changer for the US and Canadian tax seasons

I've got some big, awesome news... 🎉 Today, we're launching our New Proposal Editor in the US and Canada* for new and existing customers in time for tax season!

If you're new to Ignition, you’ll begin your journey with us using our brand new proposal experience – which offers more flexibility than ever before. If you're an existing customer, you’ll be able to simply switch on our New Proposal Editor at any time.

The main benefit of our new proposal experience is that you can customize your proposals to suit every client, with endless billing combinations, pricing and service options to choose from. You’ll now have more ways to service your clients, regardless of their budget, billing preferences, organizational setup or financial situation – to help you build long-lasting relationships.

Based on all the amazing feedback we've already received, we’re confident you’ll love our New Proposal Editor. During the past few months we've heard from existing US and Canadian customers in our beta program, like Aaron Welch from ACW Consulting in Sacramento.

We understand that you want to put your clients first, and that no two clients are ever the same. And, we listened to your feedback that Ignition needed to be more flexible to meet the differing needs of your clients.

Our new flexible proposal experience is just the beginning. We’re evolving as a platform to add value at every stage of the client lifecycle so you can easily manage your client relationships as they change over time.

For example, if your firm has a client that employs a casual shift workforce that changes every month, you can now easily bill them using our new variable unit price type field - simply add the number of employees at the end of each month. If your firm is not ready to transition your clients to fixed fees, you can bill by the hour and simply invoice your billable hours at the end of each month using Ignition. Or, if you have a client that requires multiple services that need to be billed differently at different times of the year, you can create any combination of one-time or recurring billing types in a single proposal.

Regardless of whether you want to bill annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly, hourly or by unit (i.e. per hour, per employee), Ignition now gives you more billing options to best match your clients’ needs.

One of the other features in the New Proposal Editor that I'm super excited about is Proposal Options**, which has been one of our most requested updates and is now more important than ever.

Allowing your clients to choose from up to three pricing and service options is an absolute must if you want to position your firm as the trusted advisor to your small business clients this tax season. And after 2020, this is ultra-critical as firms start to ramp up new business in the new year.

Proposal Options allows you to present your services in unique ways that speak to your unique clients’ needs - and give your clients the choice to pick the option that best suits them. You can offer different packages based on service types, billing frequencies, pricing models (i.e. hourly, fixed, or variable) or even payment options (i.e. monthly or annual). This allows you to craft proposals that clients understand and can more easily buy into, which is critical for your cashflow and new business while ensuring clients get the services they need during ever-changing and uncertain times.

In addition to releasing our New Proposal Editor in the US and Canada, we’ve also got more good news for customers when it comes to payments. In the US, we're optimizing payments so you can get paid faster, starting with reducing ACH processing times from seven to six business days.

For Canadian customers, we’ve launched Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) to streamline your payments process. This means less time chasing overdue invoices or bank visits to cash in cheques, and more time to focus on providing services to your clients. You can get paid instantly on the invoice due date by collecting your client’s direct debit payment details upfront in your proposals.

As you can see, it’s been a huge year for Ignition and we’re excited that we can bring our biggest product updates to you in time for the US and Canadian tax seasons to help your business grow and build better client relationships. There’s a lot more to look forward to in 2021 as we continue to improve our new proposal experience, such as support for Xero Practice Manager to automate workflows, and adding even more functionality to help you re-engage existing clients. Watch this space!

*If you live outside of the US or Canada, don’t fret - you can still use our new proposal editor by joining our public beta program. Just speak to your account manager or switch it on yourself via Ignition Settings from 23 November. ** Proposal Options available on Pro or Pro+ plans only.