How To Add Upgrades To A Proposal

Upgrades are estimates, exactly like your primary packages. The only difference is how they’re designated.

When would I use this?

Offering gutters or siding alongside a roof replacement
Presenting a premium alternative without replacing your main recommendation
Giving a homeowner something to say yes to beyond the core job
Increasing job value without a second proposal

What’s the difference between an upgrade and an add-on?

Upgrades are estimates — fully built packages with their own pricing, scope, and content, presented in the upgrades section of the proposal.
Add-ons are additional cost elements added directly to a proposal, not driven by an estimate. See How to Add Add-Ons to a Proposal.

What’s the best way to create upgrades?

Designate them when you create the estimates — the fastest path, and they flow into the proposal automatically.

Go to Estimates and create a new estimate.
Select your measurements.
Select all the packages you want, primary and upgrade alike. A good/better/best set of roofing packages plus your gutter packages, for example.
On each package, use the dropdown to designate it as Primary Offering or Upgrade.
Generate the estimates.

When you click Create Proposal and select your template, the packages you marked as upgrades appear automatically in the upgrade section, while your primary offerings appear in package selection.

Upgrades don’t have to be a different service. Gutters alongside a roof is the obvious case, but a different roofing package can be an upgrade to a roofing primary offering.

How do I add an upgrade to a proposal later?

If an estimate wasn’t designated as an upgrade when you created it, you can still add it from the proposal builder.

In the proposal builder, open the Upgrade component.
Click Add Upgrade Category.
Name the category — “Gutter Services,” for example.
Choose an icon for the category if you want one.
Click Add Category.
Add a tier option, which shows a list of all estimates you’ve created.
Select the estimates you want as upgrades.

Where do upgrades appear in the proposal?

After your primary packages. The homeowner sees package selection first with package card information, then the available upgrades grouped by category.

Click View Proposal to see the order exactly as the customer will.

How do I edit an upgrade?

Exactly as you edit a primary package:

Open the Upgrade component.
Click the pencil icon on the package you want to edit.
Edit any of the templated content.
Turn sections on or off.
Save.

Content is pre-filled from that estimate’s package settings, and which sections show by default comes from your proposal template. See How to Edit and Customize a Proposal for a Project.

What happens when a customer selects an upgrade?

They select upgrades the same way they select a primary package, and the upgrade is added to the total — which flows into:

Total project value for invoicing and financial tracking
Material orders
Work orders in production

An accepted upgrade is a real part of the job, not a note on the proposal.

Tips and gotchas

Designate upgrades at estimate creation. It’s one dropdown during a step you’re already in, and it removes the entire manual category-building process later. The builder path exists for when you didn’t — not as the normal route.
Build upgrades for every roof job. Gutters, ventilation, skylights, attic insulation. The homeowner is already spending five figures and has already decided to trust you. An upgrade section costs nothing to present and is the easiest revenue in the business.
Name categories the way a homeowner thinks. “Gutter Services” is clear. “Upgrade Category 2” is not. The category name is what the customer reads.
A different roofing package can be an upgrade. Upgrades aren’t limited to other trades. If you want a premium system presented as an upgrade rather than competing in your good/better/best, designate it that way.
Check the upgrades page in preview. An empty upgrades section doesn’t render, and an upgrade you thought you added but didn’t is invisible until you look. View Proposal before sending.
Remember upgrades flow downstream. Selected upgrades hit material orders and work orders. Before production starts, confirm which upgrades were accepted so the crew and the material list match what the customer bought.
Edit upgrade content like you mean it. Upgrades inherit templated content from their package settings. Generic gutter copy on a proposal where you’ve written specific roofing scope reads as an afterthought — and gets treated like one.