The Proposal Generator empowers your agents to easily provide clear and detailed proposals for your merchants.

Proposals may be created either from the lead or by navigating to the Proposal Generator from the Navigation Bar.

Creating a Proposal From a Lead

To create a proposal from the lead, navigate to the desired lead and click the Create New Proposal button:

The Proposal Generator page will open up and guide you through the proposal creation process which consists of several steps as described below:

Step 1. Pick a pricing plan comparison type:

Here is an explanation of the available choices:

• Tiered to Tiered – Tiered Pricing is a merchant services pricing plan usually comprised of a Qualified / Mid-Qualified / Non-Qualified framework, although with the potential to have many more tiers at the processors’ discretion. 
• Tiered to Interchange: Exact – This is used when a merchant is currently on ERR (Enhanced Reduced Recovery: qualified rate and non-qualified surcharges assessed over Interchange categories), with the interchange downgrades outlined, and you are switching them to Interchange Plus pricing.
• Tiered to Interchange: Estimated –This is used when you are moving a merchant from Tiered to Interchange Plus. The generator can estimate the approximate interchange cost equivalent for that tier to assist in creating a 1:1 comparison. 

Which option is used for the following scenarios?

• Tiered to Interchange - Tiered to Interchange
• Tiered to Tiered - Tiered to Tiered (check Show Tiers box)
• Tiered to ERR - Tiered to Tiered (uncheck Show Tiers)
• Tiered to Flat Rate - Tiered to Tiered (put the flat rate for all of the tiers under Proposed)
  
  
• ERR to Interchange - Tiered to Interchange (Exact)
• ERR to Tiered - Tiered to Tiered (check Show Tiers)
• ERR to ERR - Tiered to Tiered (uncheck Show Tiers)
• ERR to Flat Rate - Tiered to Tiered (uncheck Show Tiers)
  
  
• Interchange to Interchange - Interchange to Interchange
• Interchange to Tiered - Tiered to Tiered (check Show Tiers, put the flat rate for all of the tiers under Current)
• Interchange to ERR - Tiered to Tiered (uncheck Show Tiers)
• Interchange to Flat Rate - Tiered to Tiered (uncheck Show Tiers)
  
  
• Flat Rate to Interchange - Tiered to Tiered (uncheck Show Tiers)
• Flat Rate to Tiered - Tiered to Tiered (put the flat rate for all of the tiers under Current)
• Flat Rate to ERR - Tiered to Tiered (uncheck Show Tiers)
• Flat Rate to Flat Rate - Tiered to Tiered (uncheck Show Tiers)
  
  
  

Step 2. Fill in or update the Merchant information:

Steps 3–6. Enter the Volume, Current Rate, and Proposed Rates for Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover card types:

Step 7. Fill in any standard fees if applicable:

Step 8. Fill in any additional fees if needed:

Step 9. As the proposal is being completed, the Proposal Review section on the right will update the savings calculation with each line item, including the current and proposed effective rates. 

The Proposal Review section also allows you to select the document template that your proposal will be generated with:

In the preview, the far right column shows the estimated profit based on the amounts entered. Its calculations are shown below: 

• Debit & Credit: Volume * ((Proposed Rate - 0.01) / 100)
• Transactions: # * (Proposed Rate - 0.045)
• Statement Fee: Proposed Fee - 7.50
• Batch Fee: # * (Proposed Fee - 0.05)|
• Amex Transaction Fee: # * (Proposed Fee - 0.05)
• Pin Debit Transaction Fee: # * (Proposed Fee - 0.06) [only shows in Total Profit]
• Customer Service Fee (Step 7): no calculation
• PCI Fee (Step 7): no calculation
• TIN Fee (Step 7): no calculation
• Misc Fees (Step 8): no calculation

Note: the Profit will never show in the generated proposal file. If needed, you can also have the Profit column disabled (by contacting Merchant Central Support).

Pennies to Percentage Converter
This tool is used to determine the cost/gain in basis points when adjusting rates to ensure the offer remains profitable.

To use it, enter an Average Ticket amount and click Calculate. Then adjust either the $ or % sliders to see the values below them update.

Step 10. Once all the information has been entered, click Save and Generate Proposal.  The generated proposal document will download to your computer. The proposal document will display a table of the fees that were entered, as well as the new proposed fees and associated savings:

If needed, you may edit this document further, and when finished, email it to your prospect. The generated proposal will also be saved on the lead as an attachment:

Should this proposal need to be edited afterward, you may open the proposal and continue working on it by clicking the View link from the Proposal section on the lead:

Creating a Proposal from the Navigation Bar

To create a proposal from the Navigation bar open the Proposal Generator page via the Tools > Proposal Generator menu.

The steps to generate the proposal via the Navigation bar are the same as when initiating the proposal creation process from a lead. However, since initially the empty proposal will not be linked to any lead, you will need to create such a link manually. 

You can link your proposal to an existing lead (using the Link to Existing Lead box) or you can also create a new lead and link the proposal to it:

After you have linked the proposal to a lead, the generated proposal will be attached to that lead after it is saved.