Use Flowcharts to Design Your Code

 The time needed to create a proposal depends on how complex the proposal is, how many people need to participate, and how organized everyone is. Things to consider for the schedule are: Research time First draft writing time First draft review time Second draft and incorporating comments Final review Changes from final review Final proofread of all pages Production of PDF and/or printed proposal If the writer starts with the needed information in hand, the research time will be negligible. If the writer must collect all the data from multiple individuals, the research process will obviously take a while. If you have handed the writer an outline for your proposal, that will make writing the first draft more efficient than if the writer needs to "wing it." Here again, a pre-designed proposal kit can help with ideas and examples about the best organization for successful proposals. Every proposal needs at least one review and one final proofread. For a very simple proposal, this might take only an hour or two. But if your project is complicated and has many sections, you probably have a whole list of reviewers whom you want to approve the proposal, and a review could take days or even weeks. Complex proposals may require several review cycles. Be sure to inform all reviewers about the date on which they will receive the draft proposal and the date you need all comments back from them. You might find it efficient to break the proposal into parts so that the expert for one part can review that section while the writer progresses on other sections. In any case, after each review is handed in, you need to allow time for the writer to consider and incorporate comments before circulating the next draft. When all reviewers are satisfied, then it's time for a final proofread before creating the PDF or proposal you will hand off to your client or grant committee. The final proofreader should be someone other than the proposal paper writers.