Proposal scorecard

A workbook with two sheets. The first explains what the scorecard is and what it is not. The second is the scorecard, with up to four proposals in columns. Your figures and answers go in the yellow cells, each of which is also labelled "Your entry". Scores take whole numbers from 0 to 5, and weights take any number of 0 or more. The arithmetic sits in locked cells so that it is not changed by accident. There is no password. Unprotect the sheet from the Review menu if you want to change the layout.

The scorecard contains no rating, ranking, benchmark or recommended score from this site. Every figure, criterion, weight and score is yours, and the ten contract questions are facts about each letter that the sheet does not score. The sheet adds up what you enter and does not say which proposal to choose.

• Part 1, the fees on the same two claim figures. Your expected claim and half of it. For each proposal: the fee at each figure, the extras charged separately, and your cost in a bad year when the claim is reduced after filing. The totals are formulas.
• Part 2, the contract terms. Ten yes or no questions of fact, one for each clause in the contracts section, answered from the engagement letter and its standard terms. The sheet does not count or score the answers. Each one is a fact to weigh, and a reason to read the clause page if the answer surprises you.
• Part 3, your own criteria. Up to eight criteria you name yourself, a weight for each, and a score from 0 to 5 for each proposal. The weighted total is a formula. Below it is space for your decision and the reasons, which is the part that matters most a year later.

1. Ask every adviser for a worked example on your expected claim and on half of it, and for the engagement letter with its standard terms. The request for proposal template asks for both.
2. Enter the figures from each worked example, not from a summary. If a proposal is missing a figure, ask for it before you score; scoring an incomplete proposal is unfair to its author and to the others.
3. Answer the ten contract questions from the letter in front of you. The engagement letter checklist walks through them clause by clause.
4. Set your own criteria and weights before you look at the totals, so that the weights are not fitted to a preferred answer.
5. Decide on paper, write down why, and keep the sheet with the proposals as your record.

The how to compare proposals guide explains the method behind Part 1. The how to run a request for proposals guide shows where the scorecard fits in a fair process.

• How to compare proposals and the fee comparison calculator
• Contracts and the engagement letter checklist
• Case study: two proposals, one claim