Contracts
Business → Paperwork → Contracts. Write a contract once as a template, fill it in for a client, send it, and they sign in a browser with a finger or a mouse.
Writing a template
Contract templates live with your other templates, under **Business → Paperwork → Templates, on the Contracts tab. (Templates on the Contracts** screen takes you there too.) See templates.
- On the Contracts tab, press New contract template.
- Give it a Name, such as "Wedding agreement".
- Under The agreement, edit the text. A new template starts with our standard
photography agreement rather than a blank page — read it through, rewrite it in your own words, and have a solicitor look at it once if you shoot weddings.
- Press Create template.
To change one later, press Edit on it on the same tab, and Save template.
Headings, paragraphs, bold and lists all work. Anything that could run as a program — scripts, embedded pages, forms — is removed when the contract is created, because a contract is a document, not a web page.
Placeholders that fill themselves in
Words in curly brackets are filled in from the booking when you send a contract:
| Placeholder | Becomes |
|---|---|
{client_name} |
The client's name |
{client_email} |
The client's email |
{studio_name} |
Your studio name |
{session_name} |
The session or package booked |
{session_date} |
The date of the shoot |
{session_time} |
The start time |
{location} |
Where the shoot happens |
{total} |
The total price |
{deposit} |
The deposit |
{balance} |
What remains after the deposit |
{today} |
Today's date |
The same list is shown under Placeholders on the template screen. A placeholder that is not on the list is refused when you save, rather than vanishing from a contract a client is reading. Names such as O'Brien & Sons come through exactly as written.
Sending one
- On Business → Paperwork → Contracts, press Send a contract.
- Choose the Template.
- Choose the booking under For which booking — the date, location and amounts
fill themselves in. Or choose Or just a client if there is no booking; dates and amounts are then left blank.
- Under Signatures needed, choose One, or Two — a couple, both signing.
- Leave Email it to the client straight away ticked, or untick it to send it
later with Send to client on the contract's own screen.
- Press Create contract.
The client is emailed Please sign: … with a link.
Once it is created, it is fixed
The moment a contract is created, the finished wording is saved along with a fingerprint — a short code worked out from every character of the document. From then on it is fixed. Editing the template afterwards does not change a contract already out with a client.
Before anyone signs, the saved wording is checked against its fingerprint. If they do not match, signing is refused, because a signature on a document that has changed since it was sent would not mean anything.
A contract can be signed for thirty days. After that the client is asked to get a fresh copy, rather than it being quietly signable a year later.
Signing
The client opens the link. No account, no app, no printer. They type **Your full name and Your email, Draw your signature, and press Agree and sign**.
What is recorded with each signature:
- the name and email they signed as;
- the moment they signed;
- the internet address they signed from and the browser they used;
- the fingerprint of the document as it was at that moment.
That last one is what makes the rest worth having.
Two signers
With Two signatures needed, both people open the same link and each signs. Nobody can sign twice with the same email address. The contract shows as partly signed until the second signature arrives, then signed — at which point each person who signed is emailed a link to the signed copy, and any automation waiting on a signed contract starts.
Declining and voiding
A client who does not want to sign can press I don't want to agree to this. The contract is marked declined.
You can press Void on a contract's screen to cancel it. Neither deletes anything, and signatures already given are kept as a record.
Proving it later
Open any contract from the list. At the top it says either Verified — the document is unchanged since it was issued and every signature matches this exact version — or This document does not verify, with the reason, such as somebody having signed a different version.
This is the answer to "that is not what I agreed to", and it is why the fingerprint is taken when the contract is created rather than when it is signed.
The contract's screen also lists each signature with when and where it was made, the Signing link, and The agreement as sent.
Copies
Press PDF on the contract's screen for a copy, including the signatures recorded so far. The client can download the same PDF from their signing page at any time. The contract stays against the booking and the client, beside the invoice and the gallery rather than lost in an email folder.