Guides
Moving company proposal outline for account work: the nine sections to include
A moving company proposal for account work laid out in nine sections, covering who reads it, scope, the fee schedule, and what the proposal does not do.
What to take away
- A proposal is what you send an account, not a household. Property managers, corporate relocation departments, and senior communities buy a service standard across many moves; a proposal describes that standard and how each move within it will be priced.
- Nine sections, in fixed order. The two that decide whether the account renews are the scope boundary and the fee schedule, because those are where the surprises would otherwise live.
- Fees in a proposal are a schedule, not a number. Each move is still surveyed and priced from the schedule; the proposal fixes the schedule, not the total.
- Attach the estimate types you offer and say which the account will get by default. An account that expected binding figures and received non-binding ones will not renew.
Who reads a proposal
A household reads a quote. An account reads a proposal, and the reader is often not the person who will be moved. A property manager wants tenants treated the same way on every move-out, and wants the building's elevator rules respected.
A relocation coordinator wants to know how the employee's claim will be handled if something breaks. Neither cares much about the price of a single move. What they care about is not getting a phone call. The proposal answers that by describing a standard.
The account conversation itself, and where the proposal sits in it, is described in the sales and proposal guide. What follows is the document.
The nine sections
- Cover and account reference.The account name, your company's legal name and authority numbers where applicable, the proposal date, and the period it covers.
- Understanding of the account.Two or three paragraphs in the account's own terms: how many moves a year, what kind (tenant move-outs, employee relocations, resident moves within a community), typical volumes, and the buildings involved. This section proves you listened during the discovery call and it is what the reader checks first.
- Scope of services.What every move under the account includes: survey method, crew size rules, packing options, disassembly and reassembly, placement, debris removal, and specialty item handling. Write each as included, optional at a listed fee, or excluded.
- Scope boundary.What is never included, and what happens when a move needs something outside scope. A change-order process with a named approver on the account's side.
- Fee schedule.Crew rates by crew size, minimums, travel treatment, access units (per flight, per long carry, elevator wait, shuttle), materials, packing, storage-in-transit, waiting time, and cancellation terms. This is a schedule; every move is surveyed and priced from it.
- Estimate type and documents.Which estimate type each move receives by default, what documents the moved party gets, and, for any interstate moves under the account, a note that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Protect Your Move requirements govern what the individual shipper must receive. Do not restate those rules; point to them and comply with them.
- Protection and claims.The valuation options available, who selects them per move (the account or the moved party), and the claims process with timelines you actually meet.
- Service standards and reporting.Arrival windows, communication before and after each move, damage reporting, and a monthly summary to the account: moves completed, claims opened and closed, and any move that missed its window.
- Term, acceptance, and contacts.Period, renewal, who signs, and the named people on each side.
Scope: the section that prevents the phone call
The scope boundary is where most account disputes are born. A tenant asks the crew to take a sofa to the dump; the crew does it; the account gets an invoice line it never approved. Section four prevents this.
It names, in advance, who on the account's side can approve out-of-scope work and how the crew reaches them from the truck. Crews are trained on that process under the hiring and training guide; the proposal is where the account agrees to it.
Fees: a schedule, not a total
An account asking "the price" gets the honest answer: the schedule in section five plus a worked illustration in variables.
Worked fee illustration
- Vcubic feet moved
- Hcrew-hours at rate R
- 2 x Sdestination stair flights
A move of V cubic feet, ordinary access, taking H crew-hours at rate R, produces H x R plus materials. Add 2 x S if the destination has two flights of stairs. Show the arithmetic, not a number, so the account understands each move still gets a survey.
Any claim in the proposal about price, service, or comparison is an advertising claim. The Federal Trade Commission's advertising FAQs for small businesses require claims to be truthful and supported, and "no damage in three years" is exactly the kind of statement the account will ask you to prove.
What a proposal is not
It is not the contract. The contract, with the terms that settle disputes, is a separate document; the proposal is the offer that the contract formalizes. It is also not a quote for any single move; each move still receives its own estimate under the schedule.
And it is not a place to state licensing or insurance requirements as fact. Say which authority you hold and which regulator governs the account's moves, and the licensing and compliance guide explains how to identify that regulator for intrastate work.
Keep the proposal with the account file
The proposal, signed contract, per-move estimate, and invoice form one account file. IRS guidance on what kind of records to keep asks for a system that clearly shows income and supports transactions.
Account file trail
- Proposal
- Signed contract
- Per-move estimate
- Invoice
An account file tracing each invoice back to the schedule it was priced from does that. You will also grab it when the account questions a line six months later.
When the account is in a new market
Accounts arrive from a market you do not serve; a property manager has buildings in two cities.
Before accepting, run the test in the expansion and market guide: can the account alone justify the truck, crew, and authority the second market needs?
A proposal committing to a market you cannot staff is the most expensive document you will ever send.
Common questions
Should the proposal include a discount for volume?
If it does, put it in the fee schedule as a stated rule, not as a gesture. A discount that appears on invoices without a rule in the schedule becomes an expectation you cannot withdraw.
How long should the proposal be?
As long as the nine sections need. Section two is usually the longest; section five is the most read.
Can I reuse the same proposal for every account?
Sections one, two, and eight change every time. The rest can share language, provided the schedule in section five is the one you actually price from.
What if the account wants a fixed price per move?
Offer a not-to-exceed figure per move category, conditioned on a survey and on the access rules in section four. A fixed price with no survey is a bet on every tenant's furniture.
