AI Sales Proposal Draft Review Checklist for Small Businesses

Why this matters

AI can turn messy sales notes into a polished proposal quickly, but polish is dangerous when the draft invents requirements, overstates ROI, changes scope, guesses pricing, or implies approvals that never happened. This review card keeps a human owner between the AI draft and the customer.

STOP AUTOMATION: do not send an AI-generated proposal, quote, sales recap, implementation plan, or next-step email until a named owner verifies source notes, scope boundaries, pricing, timeline, exclusions, assumptions, required approvals, and customer-facing wording.

Copy/paste proposal review card

Field	What to capture	Review rule
Source notes	Discovery call notes, CRM record, intake form, email thread, current price sheet, approved package, and proposal template used.	Do not let AI use memory, assumptions, or a prior customer example as proof.
Buyer problem	Confirmed pain, desired outcome, constraints, budget/timing signals, and decision-maker names from the source notes.	Mark uncertain needs as questions, not facts.
Scope included	Deliverables, quantities, service area, implementation steps, handoff items, and what the customer receives.	Match approved offer language and remove invented add-ons.
Scope excluded	Out-of-scope work, dependencies, customer responsibilities, unsupported integrations, travel/parts/permit limits, and optional upgrades.	Every exclusion should be customer-safe and consistent with the approved offer.
Pricing proof	Approved price source, discount/coupon authority, taxes/fees handling, payment timing, and expiration/review date.	Do not invent discounts, financing, savings, ROI, tax treatment, or renewal terms.
Timeline proof	Availability source, start date assumptions, shipping/vendor dependencies, customer approvals, and internal capacity check.	Replace guessed dates with “after approval” or “to be confirmed” language.
Approval owner	Who reviewed the draft, what changed, whether legal/finance/ops review is needed, and when the proposal can be sent.	High-risk proposals need owner review before sending or publishing.

Customer-safe proposal snippets

Assumption note: This proposal is based on the notes we confirmed so far: [scope], [constraints], and [timeline]. If any of those details are off, we should update the proposal before approval.

Timeline note: Start dates and completion windows are confirmed after approval and scheduling review. We will not treat this draft as a guaranteed calendar hold until the team confirms capacity.

Scope note: This proposal includes [included items]. It does not include [excluded items] unless we add them in writing before work begins.

AI review prompt

Act as a cautious sales-proposal reviewer for a small business. Use only the verified notes below. Do not invent customer requirements, pricing, discounts, ROI, savings, approvals, dates, legal terms, financing, warranties, integrations, or implementation capacity. Return: 1) unsupported claims to remove, 2) missing source fields, 3) scope included/excluded table, 4) pricing/timeline proof checks, 5) customer-safe proposal wording, and 6) STOP AUTOMATION items.

Verified notes:
- Customer/prospect:
- Source notes and links:
- Confirmed buyer problem:
- Approved offer/package:
- Included scope:
- Excluded scope:
- Pricing source and expiration/review date:
- Timeline/capacity source:
- Required approvals:
- Owner/reviewer:
- Questions still open:

Fast QA before sending

Check every number, date, discount, deliverable, and guarantee against a source.
Separate draft assumptions from confirmed customer facts.
Remove invented ROI, “guaranteed results,” legal/tax/finance claims, and unsupported implementation capacity.
Ask: “Would we be comfortable if the customer forwards this sentence as a promise?” If not, rewrite it.

Disclosure: Horizon Flow is Andrew Burton's digital product catalog. This worksheet is useful without purchase; product links are labeled and UTM-tagged.