Turn intake submissions into proposals

Intake forms collect requests from people who do not work in Onplana, stakeholders, other departments, even external clients. When a submission turns out to be a real initiative rather than a quick task, you can convert it into a governance proposal in one click and let the pipeline take it from there.

Convert a submission

1. Open Intake Forms in the sidebar and open the form’s submissions from its Submissions count.

2. Expand a submission to read the answers, then select To Proposal on its row.

3. A draft proposal is created immediately, with you as the submitter. Open it from the Governance page to review what carried over.

What carries over

The conversion maps the submission’s answers onto the proposal using the field names your form uses. A title-like field (such as a project title or subject) becomes the proposal title, falling back to the form’s name when there is none. Problem statement, justification, or description text becomes the proposal’s description and business justification, and an estimated budget field carries over as the estimated budget. Everything else stays readable on the original submission, which remains linked.

Tip

Treat the converted proposal as a starting point, not a finished submission. Inbound requesters rarely supply a sponsor, duration, or risk level, so fill those in before you select Submit for Review, the first gate scores executive backing and clarity, and a bare proposal will score poorly. See Submit a proposal for what reviewers expect.

Who can convert

Converting requires intake management rights, Portfolio Manager and above by default, plus the Enterprise governance feature. Intake forms themselves are available from the Pro plan; it is only the conversion to a proposal that needs governance.

Safe to click twice

Conversion is idempotent. If a submission has already been converted, selecting To Proposal again simply returns the existing proposal instead of creating a duplicate, so two managers triaging the same inbox cannot flood the pipeline with copies.

Best practices

1. Triage submissions weekly, not whenever. A weekly intake review session catches new submissions before they go stale. Half an hour per week, the inbox stays manageable; ad-hoc triage means submissions sit for months.
2. Add missing fields BEFORE submitting to review. Inbound requesters rarely supply sponsor, duration, or risk level. Fill them in while triaging so reviewers see a complete proposal, not a question-mark stub.
3. Reach out to the requester for clarification before converting. A submission with a vague “we should improve onboarding” can become a focused proposal after a 10-minute conversation with the requester. Convert the focused version, not the vague one.
4. Reject (or close as task) submissions that aren’t proposals. Not every intake submission deserves a governance review. If it’s a quick bug fix or a single-team request, create a task or close the submission with a comment. Don’t promote everything to proposal — that defeats the gate review’s purpose.
5. Tag the linked submission with how it resolved. Convert / Reject / Defer / Convert to Task — track outcomes on the intake side so you can measure intake quality over time.

Troubleshooting / common pitfalls

• To Proposal button is missing. Two causes: (a) the org doesn’t have the Enterprise plan (governance is Enterprise+); (b) the user doesn’t have intake management or Portfolio Manager+. Verify both.
• My converted proposal lost some data. The conversion maps a subset of well-known field names (title, description, justification, budget). Free-form fields stay on the submission, linked from the proposal — they don’t migrate into proposal fields.
• Two managers converted the same submission. Conversion is idempotent — the second “To Proposal” click returns the existing proposal rather than creating a duplicate. If you see duplicates, the submissions themselves were duplicates (forms allow multiple submissions per requester by default).
• The original requester isn’t notified about the converted proposal. Public requesters aren’t Onplana members, so they don’t receive proposal notifications. The requester’s email is captured on the intake submission for manual follow-up.
• Proposal title looks wrong. Conversion prefers a title-like field; if none, falls back to the form’s name. Edit the proposal title to fix.

How this combines with other features

• Intake + Proposal pipeline. Intake is the front door for external requests; proposals are the formal gateway for org-internal initiatives. Together they cover both intake patterns. See Understand the proposal pipeline.
• Intake + Custom fields. Forms can include custom fields that auto-fill onto the proposal. Use this for org-specific intake data (cost center, sponsor email, urgency). See Create custom fields.
• Intake + AI Assistant. Ask the assistant “summarize unconverted intake submissions from the last month” to spot patterns. See Chat with Onplana AI.
• Intake + Workflows. A workflow automation can auto-route certain submissions (e.g. by budget > threshold) to proposal creation immediately. See Build a workflow.

Coming from another tool

Tool	Mapping
ServiceNow Demand intake	Direct concept; ServiceNow Catalog requests ≈ Onplana intake submissions
Wrike Request Forms + governance	Similar two-stage intake-then-review
Spreadsheet intake	Onplana adds first-class conversion + audit trail
Smartsheet Intake	Direct
Custom intake portals	Onplana intake forms replace these with PMO-friendly UX

FAQs

The submission should be a project or task, not a proposal. What then? Intake forms can also create tasks or projects directly, depending on how the form is configured. Conversion to a proposal is the right path only when the request needs a governance decision before work starts.

Who is recorded as the proposal’s submitter? You, the person who converted it. The original requester’s details stay on the linked intake submission, including whatever name they entered, which is shown as unverified since public forms cannot prove identity.

What stage does the converted proposal start in? Draft, like any other proposal. Nothing enters review until you submit it, and from there it follows the standard proposal pipeline.

Can I un-convert a proposal back to a submission? No. The conversion is a one-way transition. If you regret converting, delete the proposal (it stays in the recycle bin for the standard window).

Does the original intake submission stay editable? No, submissions are immutable once received. The original requester can submit a new one if the work has changed.

Will the requester see when their submission becomes a proposal? Not automatically. The intake form can be configured to send a confirmation email to the requester at submission; post-submission updates require manual follow-up.

Can custom fields from the intake form carry through to the proposal? Yes, when the field names match. Use consistent naming conventions (e.g. “estimatedBudget” on both the intake form and the proposal form) to make the auto-mapping work.

Related

• Create public intake forms — how the inbox starts
• Submit a proposal — the manual proposal flow
• Understand the proposal pipeline — what the converted proposal goes through