Proposal tracking
You sent the proposal. You don't know if they opened it.
That's the whole problem. A PDF attached to an email stops reporting the instant you press send, so the silence that follows has at least three explanations — it was never opened, it was opened and is being discussed, or it was opened and you lost. Every one of those needs a different response from you, and you're choosing blind.
Proposal tracking replaces the attachment with a link that records each open. ApeiroCraft timestamps the first view and every reopen, so the follow-up you send is based on what actually happened rather than on how many days have passed.
Three things you can't see, and what each one costs.
Unopened looks exactly like ignored
Both are silence. If it was never opened, the right move is to resend to a different address. If it was read three times, the right move is to call. Treating the first case like the second is how proposals die of a follow-up that answered the wrong question.
Follow-up timing is a coin flip
Chase on day two and you look anxious before they've had a chance to read it. Wait until day ten and the decision was made on day six. Without an open signal, you're picking a number of days rather than a moment.
You never see the second reader
Your contact forwards it to whoever signs off. That person never emails you, never appears in your thread, and is the one actually deciding. A file gives you no trace of them at all.
What tracking actually gives you.
First open, timestamped
The moment the proposal is opened, it's recorded against the document with a date and time. Not an inference from an email pixel — the proposal itself reporting that it was viewed.
Every reopen after that
Repeat opens are the strongest signal in the whole funnel. A proposal read once is being skimmed; a proposal read four times across two days is being discussed with someone, and that's when the price conversation is live.
Follow-up you can time
You stop sending 'just checking in' on a schedule and start sending it the afternoon the document was read. Same email, different day, materially different reply rate.
And then it gets signed and invoiced
Tracking isn't a separate product here. The same document takes the electronic signature — verified name, email, timestamp — and the signature creates the invoice with the figures already quoted.
Email open tracking vs proposal tracking.
These get confused constantly, and the difference matters. A mail-merge pixel tells you an email was rendered. It cannot tell you whether the attachment was opened, and it fires on image preloading whether a human read it or not.
What's actually measured
Email tracking pixel
That an email was opened — or that a mail client preloaded a 1×1 image on its own.
With ApeiroCraft
That the proposal document was opened, by a real page load, with a timestamp.
The attachment
Email tracking pixel
Invisible. A PDF sitting in an inbox reports nothing whether it's read or deleted unopened.
With ApeiroCraft
There is no attachment. The proposal is the page, so opening it is the event.
Repeat views
Email tracking pixel
Indistinguishable from the mail client re-rendering the thread.
With ApeiroCraft
Each reopen recorded separately — the clearest indicator that a decision is in progress.
After it's forwarded
Email tracking pixel
Nothing. The new reader never touched your email.
With ApeiroCraft
The link still records opens once it reaches the person who actually signs off.
What you do with it
Email tracking pixel
Guess a follow-up day and hope.
With ApeiroCraft
Follow up the day it was read, then sign and invoice from the same document.
- Free plan with no credit card and no trial clock.
- Tracking, e-signature, and invoicing in one subscription, not three.
- $19/month flat for the workspace when you outgrow free.
Common questions.
How do I know if a client read my proposal?
Send it as a link rather than a file. ApeiroCraft records each open against the proposal with a timestamp, including repeat visits, so you can distinguish an unopened proposal from one that's been read four times. There's no reliable way to do this with a PDF attachment — email open tracking measures the email, not the document inside it.
Is this the same as email read receipts?
No. Email read receipts and tracking pixels fire when the message is rendered, which many mail clients do automatically during preloading, and they say nothing about the attachment. Proposal tracking records an actual page load of the proposal itself.
Does the client know they're being tracked?
They're opening a hosted document at a link you sent them, which is the same visibility any web page has. There's no hidden pixel and nothing installed on their side.
When should I follow up after a proposal is opened?
The same day, ideally within a few hours of the open, while it's still the thing they were just looking at. Repeat opens are worth a call rather than an email — someone reading a proposal for the third time usually has a specific question about the price or the scope.
What if they never open it at all?
That's the most useful thing tracking tells you, because the fix is different: resend to another address, check it didn't land in spam, or find the person who actually decides. Without tracking you'd have spent two weeks writing better follow-up emails to an inbox that never saw it.
How much does it cost?
There's a free plan with no expiry and no card required. Paid plans start at $19/month flat for the whole workspace, and every plan includes every feature — plans differ in capacity, not capability.
Send a proposal today. Know when they open it.
Set up your workspace in under a minute, send a real proposal this afternoon, and watch the first open land.
Start freeKeep reading
Guide
How to know if a client read your proposal
Four methods, from the honest ask to read receipts — with the trade-offs of each.
Guide
Why clients ghost proposals
The psychology behind the silence, and the exact five-touch follow-up cadence that breaks it.
Guide
Proposal software, explained
What separates a proposal that gets signed from a PDF that gets ignored — and the tools that help.