Sending and signing

Sending

Send contract opens the email composer with the contact filled in, a Subject and Message you can edit, and a live preview of the email. Share copies the link instead, to send however you like. Sharing a draft asks Mark as sent? first.

Sending moves the contract from Draft to Sent.

What the client does

They open the link and read the contract in the page. No sign-in, nothing to install.

If you left client fields, they fill them in under a Client Fields heading, and the answers appear in the contract text as they type.

Then they scroll to Sign Below, or use Jump to signature at the top, and sign one of two ways:

• Draw their signature with a finger, a stylus or a mouse, with a Clear button if it goes wrong
• Type their name and have it written out in a signature typeface

There's no option to upload a photo of a signature.

They tick a box confirming they've read and understood the contract, consent to signing electronically, and understand the signature is legally binding, then press Sign Contract. A confirmation says the action is legally binding and cannot be undone.

What gets recorded

Alongside the signature: the signer's name and email, the exact date and time, their IP address, the browser they used, and the exact wording of the consent they ticked.

That's the evidence trail. It doesn't record their location.

Signed, then completed

Once they sign, the contract becomes Signed. Whether it then becomes Completed depends on how it was set up.

A contract you send yourself waits for your counter-signature. So does a proposal's contract, unless you set it to use your saved signature. A contract attached to a booking service always applies your saved signature the moment the client signs.

This trips people up often enough to have its own page: Your saved signature.

Counter-signing

Open a signed contract and press Counter-sign. It becomes Completed, that's the version both parties hold, and your client is emailed a "Contract fully signed" note with a View completed contract button. A contract that completes on your saved signature sends no such email.

Your Home screen lists contracts waiting on you under Needs attention. Two reasons not to leave them sitting there:

• Your client can't download their PDF until it's complete. Signed isn't enough for them
• Until you sign, only the client has committed on paper

Chasing

Unsigned contracts can be chased automatically. See Chasing documents.

If they decline

The contract closes as Declined. Usually that's the start of a conversation rather than the end of one. People decline over a specific clause more often than over the whole thing.

They're invited to leave a reason, and most do. It appears in the Declined by contact banner on the contract, and it's worth reading before you reply.

If it expires

The client can't sign after the expiry date, and the contract reads Expired. You can reissue it.

Reissuing

An expired or voided contract offers Reissue contract, which produces a fresh version to send again. On a declined one the button reads Reissue unchanged, so you can send exactly what they turned down once a conversation has settled it.

Voiding

Void contract, in the three-dot menu on a sent or signed contract, closes one you sent by mistake or that's been superseded. CoreHue warns that voiding is permanent and the contact will not be able to sign it.

Editing after sending

A sent contract can still be edited, as long as nobody has signed it and it hasn't expired.

Update the sent contract? confirms first and spells out what happens. The existing link keeps working when the recipient email stays the same. A new link is created if you change the contact or the recipient email. The earlier agreement is kept as private evidence. Nothing reaches the client unless you choose Save & send.

What your client sees

Signing a contract walks them through it. Worth sending to anyone who's never signed anything online.