An essential part of your business is booking clients––and you can't book them without a good contract. We take good to a whole new level with our seamless, beautifully branded, easy-to-use Contract Document! When it comes to creating and sending contracts to new clients, already having your Contract Templates in Aisle Planner makes it fast and easy, so we recommend investing some time in familiarizing yourself with the Contract Document. We'll walk you through the basics below!

Creating a New Contract

To create a new contract, head on over to your new client's lead record, and scroll down to the Documents section, then click on the gold plus sign. The Add Document menu will appear, with the option to create a new document from scratch, or create a document using your templates - select the option that works best for you.  

Renaming Your Document

Once you've created your new contract (especially if you're using a contract template), the first thing you'll want to do is to rename your contract so that you can easily find this contract within your Documents tab using the search feature. If you don't take the time to rename your contract, all of your documents will look exactly the same in the documents view, and differentiating one client's contract to the next may be challenging. 

We recommend adding in your client's last name and/or event date before your contract name. For example:  "Smith-Jones 081119 - Full-Service Contract"

Adding / Managing Signers / Multi-Step Send

If you've created this contract within a lead record that already includes a full name and email address for your lead, we'll already pre-populate your lead as a signer, and you'll see their name appear in the Who Will Be Signing This Document section. If you don't see their name, or if you need to add additional signers, click on the gold Manage Document Signers button and add the name and email address of each party (or additional party) that needs to sign on behalf of your client(s).

Assigning a Primary Document Signer and Multi-Step Send

If you have two or more signers on a contract AND input fields that need to be filled out, you will need to choose who the primary signer is on the contract by choosing the radio button located to the left of their name. Once that signer has filled in all the information you have requested, we will automatically send the contract to the other document signers, the second step is a multi-step send. The secondary signers will receive the same initial email that was originally sent. Sending a follow-up to get that contract signed? Not to worry, email follow-ups will only go to secondary signers unless the primary signer has already signed.

Finally, if needed, confirm that the person from your organization that should be designated as the countersigner of this contract is correct in the Who Will Be Countersigning This Document section. If this contract requires a countersignature, we'll automatically designate the org member who created this contract as the countersigner, but you can update as needed by choosing a different countersigner from the drop-down menu.

Editing Your Contract

Even if you've started this contract using one of your contract templates, you'll still need to take the time to update the content. Simply click on the document to edit the content as needed.  

Previewing Your Contract

Once you're done editing the contract, we recommend you reconcile all the merge fields so not only can you view the merged data, but so you can also replace any errors, which will be indicated by a red highlight. You can delete the merge field, replace it with new text, or you can update the lead record and try again.

We also recommend is that you take the time to Preview and Print (or just view as PDF) to be sure that everything looks just right, and that page breaks are where you want them.

Sending Your Contract / Requesting Signatures

Once your document is ready to go, send it off for review and signature - click on the gold action (arrow) button towards the top right of your screen, and then select the Send option from the drop-down menu. From there, you'll want to personalize your subject line and message by either selecting an email template or writing an email from scratch. Double-check your document viewers/signers and add, remove, make any adjustments as needed by clicking on Manage Recipients, then, hit send. 

Collecting Signatures and Getting Notified

After you’ve sent the document off, the recipient will find a beautifully branded email (with your logo, not ours) in their inbox, along with your custom message and a link to View Document. 

When the recipient clicks on the link to view their document, the contract will open in a new tab, where they can review the contract, fill in any requested fields, and ask to show where certain fields still need to be filled out. Once everything is in order, they can electronically sign your contract right on the spot.

Once Your Clients Have Signed the Contract

Once your client (or clients, depending on how many signatures you've requested) have signed the contract, you’ll receive both an email and in-app notification, letting you know that the document has been signed and prompt you to countersign. Click through either the email link or the in-app notification to be taken to the document viewer, where you'll be able to scroll to the bottom of the document to digitally countersign this contract.

If you're looking at the document within Aisle Planner, but don't see an open/clickable field to countersign at the bottom of the document, click the gold arrow to the top right of the document, and then click 'Countersign.' This will open the document viewer - just scroll down to the bottom of the contract and type in your counter signature.

Please note, the countersign option will only appear if all parties on behalf of the client have signed this contract.

Once All Parties Have Signed the Contract

Once you've countersigned the contracts / all parties have signed, everyone who has signed will be notified by email and will be provided a link to view and print/save the executed contract.  

Within this respective Lead Record in your Lead Manager, the contract status will automatically change to "Accepted" and you'll always be able to find/reference the signed contract there. You're on your way to building excellent contracts!