Vinyl's Anchor integration lets you turn any external client meeting into an Anchor proposal draft without leaving Studio. After a meeting, click Draft Proposal. Vinyl matches the client and the services you discussed against your Anchor account, shows you a review card, and creates a draft in Anchor when you approve it. You review and send it from Anchor itself.
Three things are always true:
User-initiated. Draft Proposal never runs automatically.
Draft only. Vinyl never sends the proposal, never signs anything on your client's behalf, and never touches an agreement your client has already signed.
Approval-gated. Everything Vinyl writes to Anchor waits for you to approve it first.
Before you start: two prerequisites
Draft Proposal only appears after external client meetings when both of these are in place:
Anchor is connected in Vinyl — go to Integrations, choose Anchor, click Connect and sign in to Anchor to authorise it.
Proposals are enabled in Vinyl — your firm's Master Admin needs to check that the Anchor toggle is on under Settings → Permissions → Proposals. Only the Master Admin can see this tab. The setting is team-wide, individual members cannot override it.
One proposal tool at a time. Vinyl works with one connected proposal tool (Ignition, Socket or Anchor). If another one is already connected, disconnect it from Integrations before connecting Anchor.
How Draft Proposal works
Open Studio after an external client meeting. Click Draft Proposal, or ask for one in chat.
Vinyl finds the client. It looks the client up in Anchor by name, then by email. If there is no match, it offers to create the client on an approval card you must confirm first.
Vinyl matches the services. It compares what was discussed against your Anchor service library and uses your pricing exactly as you have set it up.
Review the card. You will see the client, the services and the prices. You can ask for changes in the chat before anything is created. Nothing is written to Anchor until you click Create, and Discard creates nothing.
Open it in Anchor. Use the Open in Anchor link on the confirmation to fine-tune the draft and send it to your client from Anchor.
What Vinyl can and cannot do
Vinyl can:
Draft a proposal in Anchor, ready for you to review and send
Identify the client from the meeting and look them up in Anchor
Create a new client in Anchor, shown as an approval card you must confirm first
Match services discussed against your Anchor service library. Your pricing comes across as configured: discounts, per-unit rates, ranges, staged payments, caps and packages
Write a short introduction to the proposal that references the meeting
Give a real "Open in Anchor" link on the confirmation
Vinyl cannot:
Send, publish or approve a proposal. It is always a draft in Anchor
Invent a price, a service or a date. If it was not discussed in the meeting and is not in your service library, it does not appear
Add new services to your Anchor library. This is deliberate: AI-created services can break the job templates built on them. A service you have not set up cannot be proposed, but once you add it in Anchor yourself, Vinyl picks it up on the next attempt
Edit your service library or correct client details. Anchor does not make these actions available to Vinyl
Add work to an agreement your client has already signed. Extra work is always a fresh proposal, never a quiet amendment
Change the price of, or cancel, a service a client is already being billed for. Vinyl only reads live agreements, so it does not propose work the client already buys
Delete anything or export your data from Anchor
How pricing works
Prices always come from your Anchor service library, not from what was said in the meeting. Your configuration comes across exactly as set, and packages stay as packages rather than being flattened into a list.
If a figure discussed in the meeting does not match your library, Vinyl will not quietly overwrite either one. It shows you the difference and asks which you meant.
When things don't line up
Four situations you may run into, and what happens in each:
Situation | What Vinyl does | What you need to do |
None of what was discussed is in your service library | Nothing is written. Vinyl lists the services that came up and any prices agreed, and asks you to add them to Anchor first. | Add the services in Anchor, then tell Vinyl. It re-checks your library and carries on from where it left off. |
Most services matched, but one is missing | The draft is created with everything that did match, plus a note naming the missing service. Nothing is lost. | Add the missing service in Anchor and tell Vinyl. It adds it to the existing draft, so you do not start again. |
A draft already exists for this client | Nothing new is written. Vinyl shows what is on the existing draft and points you to it. If it is a colleague's draft, it says whose. | Open the existing draft in Anchor. |
Two clients could be the one you mean | Vinyl matches by name first, then by email. If two records both look right, it stops and asks. It will not guess. | Pick the correct client when prompted. Attaching a proposal to the wrong client would expose one client's pricing to another. |
Common questions
How do I connect Anchor to Vinyl?
Go to Integrations in Vinyl, choose Anchor and click Connect. You will sign in to Anchor to authorise it. Then ask your Master Admin to make sure the Anchor toggle is on under Settings → Permissions → Proposals.
There is no Draft Proposal option after my meeting.
Two things to check. First, was the meeting classified as internal? Draft Proposal only appears automatically after external client meetings, meaning at least one attendee who is not on your Vinyl team. For an internal meeting you can still type "draft proposal" in the Studio chat. Second, ask your Master Admin to go to Settings → Permissions and check the Anchor toggle is on. It applies to everyone on the team, and only the Master Admin can see that tab.
Does Vinyl send the proposal to my client?
No, Vinyl only creates a draft. Use the "Open in Anchor" link on the confirmation to review, fine-tune and send it from Anchor.
Can Vinyl create a service that is not in my library yet?
No. If a service is not there yet, Vinyl names it and asks you to add it in Anchor. Once you do, Vinyl picks it up on the next attempt, and it is available for every future proposal too.
Can Vinyl amend a proposal my client has already signed?
No, Vinyl will not touch a live signed agreement. Any extra work needs a fresh proposal.
The price on the draft does not match what I quoted in the meeting.
Prices always come from your Anchor service library. If the figure discussed does not match your library, Vinyl flags the difference and asks which you meant rather than quietly overwriting either one.
Can I change the proposal before it is created?
Yes. Ask in the Studio chat, for example "add the advisory service" or "remove the payroll line", before you click Create. Once the draft exists, you can finish any edits in Anchor.
Can I connect Anchor and Ignition or Socket at the same time?
No. Vinyl works with one proposal tool at a time. To switch, disconnect the current one under Integrations and connect the other.
Before you send
Vinyl builds a complete draft, not a finished proposal. Before clicking send in Anchor, run through:
Read the services and prices against what you actually agreed, especially anything with a range, a discount or staged payments
Check the payment terms and start date. These come from your firm's defaults, not from the meeting
Confirm the terms of service attached are the right ones for this client
Read the introduction Vinyl wrote. It is a first draft, so change it if it is not quite right
Check nothing is missing that you meant to include