Activate Rental Contracts in the Apps tab
Use our Contracts feature with an e-signature template to rent out your space(s), equipment, services, etc.; and allow clients to securely review and sign a contract electronically or in-person.
Add multiple facility reservations on the same invoice
Send contracts to clients to e-sign or print and sign on paper
Invoice the contract automatically when a client e-signs
Get notified when a contract is approved
Adjust pricing on individual events or on series of events
Stored contracts are readily available to admins and clients
View a history every change made to a contract
How it Works
1.4 Notes
2.1 With e-signature
1. How to Create a Contract
Before you start, it's important that your facilities, price schedules, extras and your e-signature contract template(s) are set up. We recommend linking facilities to your activities for accurate schedule availability.
Done? Ok, go to the Contracts tab and click + New contract to select a client, book reservations in the calendar and add extras, custom fees and/or notes.
1.1 Select a client and attach a template
In the General information section:
The version number increases each time you revert an approved contract to Draft and save new changes. Learn more about contract versions here.
Write a contract number and name. Pick a saved e-signature template and then select a client for the contract. Learn more about templates here.
Save. To make changes to the General information of version 1 of the contract, hit the small Edit button. As of version 2, you can only edit the contract's name.
Use the Actions panel to manage a contract's approval status, send for e-signature, download for manual signature, compose emails, and view the history of changes. There are four other sections in the contract: Facilities, Extras, Custom fees and Notes.
1.2 Facilities - Book a reservation
Click + Book a facility to see the calendar. Pick a facility from the drop menu and then click your cursor in the schedule; or click + New booking to open the New reservation window.
In the Schedule tab, configure the reservation as usual. The slot is reserved tentatively until the contract is approved and will be unavailable for other online facility bookings or private lessons. It will come into conflict with any event an admin tries to schedule.
In the Pricing tab, choose from your existing price schedules. You can still edit the price of individual events (aka occurrences) in the Facilities table.
The contract must be in draft to make changes in the Facilities table:
To add another booking, click + Book a facility.
To edit the price of a booking occurrence, click in the Price column.
To remove a booking occurrence, click Remove. It can always be Restored.
To edit a booking's schedule, click the facility under the Name column.
To learn the finer details of editing contract bookings, click here.
1.3 Add extras and custom fees
An extra is an item or service (ex: sports equipment, cleaning service, catering, etc.) that you can add to the invoice. They're created in the Contracts > Extras subtab.
A custom fee is a custom invoice item that can be added to the invoice. They're created in the Discounts and fees > Custom items subtab.
Click + Add an extra/ +Add a custom fee and choose from your existing items.
For extras, click in the Quantity and/or Price field to edit the amount.
For custom fees, click in the Description field to change the label linked to the custom item, and click in the Price field to edit the amount. Click the tax button to set taxes.
You can add, edit, remove and/or restore items as required.
1.4 Notes
Anything you type in the Notes section is visible on the official contract and invoice. Once a contract is approved, this section can't be changed unless you send the contract back to draft to add or remove billable items.
Admin notes aren't seen by the client and can be added anytime to the contract.
2. How to Approve & Invoice a Contract
There are two ways to approve and invoice a contract from the Actions panel:
When approved, click View invoice to go to the client's billing and make a payment. If the contract has multiple versions, admins can View the up-to-date invoice which lists what's billed on the final version of the contract and refers to each invoice and/or credit created along the way to arrive at the final amount.
2.1 Automatically approve & invoice with e-signature ✍️
Use this method to send the contract to the client's Documents tab in their personal account so they can e-sign. Once the e-signature is obtained, the contract is automatically invoiced and the admin who created the contract will be notified. The signed document is saved in the client's personal account and admins can download it from the Actions panel.
While in Draft, Request e-signature in the Actions panel to send the contract to the client's personal account for their e-signature. An email is also sent to the account owner's email address to notify them the contract is ready to sign.
While in Pending e-signature, nothing can be edited except the Admin notes. It remains in this state until the client e-signs from the Documents tab in their personal account. If you need to change the contract, click Cancel signature request. The unsigned contract disappears from the client's Documents tab (no harm done). Request e-signature to resend the new version when ready.
When the client e-signs, the contract is automatically Approved, invoiced, and bookings are confirmed in the facility calendar.
❗ If you need to edit an e-signed contract after it's been approved and invoiced, click Create new draft to make your changes, and then Request e-signature to resend the new version and wait for the client to e-sign again.
2.2 Manually approve & invoice ✏️
Use this method if you don't want to send a contract for e-signature. Instead, an admin must manually approve the contract to invoice. You can download a paper copy and ask for an in-person signature if required. An unsigned copy is saved in the client's personal account.
When the contract is ready in Draft, click Set to pending in the Actions panel to preserve the document until it's approved.
While in Pending approval, nothing can be edited except the Admin notes. It remains in this state until an admin hits the button to approve and invoice the contract. If you need to change the contract, click Send back to draft. When the new version is ready, you can Set to pending again (or even change your mind and request an e-signature)!
When all parties are in agreement, click Approve & invoice to bill the client's account and confirm the booking(s) in the facility calendar. You can opt to send a confirmation to the client's email address. Clients can also refer to the History section in the Documents tab of their personal account to view an unsigned copy.
❗ If you need to edit the contract after it's been approved and invoiced by an admin, click Create new draft to make your changes. When finished, click Set to pending, followed by Approve & invoice to update the client's billing. Clients can refer to an updated version of the contract under the History section in the Documents tab.
3. How to Edit or Cancel a Contract
You may edit a contract when it's in Draft only. If it's Pending e-signature/Pending approval or already Approved, you must revert it back to draft in the Actions panel to create a new contract version to edit. You'll find more in-depth details about editing a contract in this article.
To cancel an approved contract, use the Actions panel:
Click the Cancel contract button and send a cancellation email to the client; or
Click the View invoice button to see the expanded contract invoice in the client's billing and select the 'Cancel/refund contract' option.
Bookings are cancelled. One or more credit memos appear in the client's billing. Cancelling a contract is final, but you may still download or send a copy of it by email.
You can archive approved, pending approval or cancelled contracts in the Contracts subtab. You can only delete a contract if it's never passed the draft stage.
4. Frequently Asked Questions
Which permissions do I need to create and manage rental contracts?
🔑 Admins have access to contracts based on their Facilities permissions:
View facilities (required): View facilities and online facility booking configurations.
View rental contracts (required): Ability to simply view rental contracts.
Manage rental contracts (required): Ability to access and modify rental contracts.
Manage reservations (required): Create and modify bookings in the calendar.
Allow scheduling conflicts when booking facilities (optional): Create bookings even if they conflict with existing bookings.
Allow booking to overlap existing buffer period(s) (optional): Create bookings even if they conflict with existing buffers periods.
❗ The 'Client billing' permission is required to see the client's billing in the Clients tab.
What's the difference between contracts and online facility bookings?
Contracts and online facility bookings can be used to book your facility and charge extras (aka merchandise). However, online bookings give clients the autonomy to create their own reservations, whereas contracts can only be created by admins. Also, contracts are the only way to bill multiple facility reservations on one invoice.
There's another way admins (only) can book facilities without using contracts. Click here to learn more about manually booking a facility with (or without) an invoice.
Do I have to use an e-signature template?
Please do! As of January 18th, 2023 the new sample template provided by SmartRec is embedded with the necessary tags to support e-signature. Whether you choose to obtain the client's e-signature or a manual signature, we recommend using the e-signature template to ensure the feature works as intended.
If your organization used the Contracts feature prior to January 18th, existing legacy templates lack the necessary tags to support e-signature (unless you added them manually). For now, you can still use the legacy template for manual approvals.
If you don't use an e-signature template, here's what happens:
You can't send the contract to the client's personal account for their e-signature. When you try to click 'Send for e-signature', SmartRec will prompt you to swap the legacy template for an e-signature template before you can proceed with sending.
The only way to approve a contract with a legacy template is by having the admin click the 'Approve & invoice' button. An unsigned copy is saved in the History section of the Documents tab in the client's personal account.
Do I have to assign a contract to the account owner?
A contract can be assigned to an account owner or an account member. The e-signature will match to the client whose name is on the contract. However, similarly to when an account owner registers an account member, the invoice is billed to the account owner.
Can I change the price of a single booking occurrence?
Contract bookings are broken down by occurrence in the Facilities table and
you can manually edit the price of each unique occurrence.
However, say you change the price of that occurrence but return to the facility calendar and edit any component of that occurrence, it overwrites the manual changes you made in the table for that specific occurrence.
Likewise, if you jump to the facility calendar and edit the series, it overwrites the manual changes made to the table for all the occurrences in the series. It's best to leave manual changes in the Facilities table for last.
Learn more about editing contracts here.
What if there's a schedule conflict?
Admins with the right permissions can reserve a facility regardless of conflicts. However, if you want to make changes to existing activities or reservations so that no conflict(s) occur, remember:
If an activity is causing the conflict, you can edit the conflicting activity occurrence. Click here to learn more.
If another contract reservation is causing the conflict, find the facility and the reservation in the Facilities > Calendar subtab. You can edit a facility occurrence if need be. You can also select the contract in the Rentals > Contracts subtab and modify or remove the facility reservation.
If it's simply a regular facility reservation (with or without an invoice) that is causing the conflict, edit the reservation and its occurrences by clicking on it in the Facilities > Calendar subtab.
What is an up-to-date invoice?
If you approve a new version of a contract, an additional invoice or credit appears in the client's billing to reflect the items that were added or removed from the first version of the contract (v1). It can get complex to track the final billed amount when there are many versions of the contract floating around!
To see what's finally invoiced after a contract is approved, click the View up-to-date invoice button to show an invoice that summarizes everything billed up to the latest contract version with a reference to each invoice and/or credit created along the way to arrive at the final amount. This is only available for admins right now.
How do clients provide their e-signature online?
When you click Send for e-signature, the contract sent to the client's personal account. Clients must click on the Documents tab to view and e-sign a contract that's Awaiting approval.
Here's an article for your clients that explains the process.
Can I edit a contract even after it's sent for the client's e-signature?
Yes. If the first version of the contract is sent to the client and you change it to draft before they have a chance to sign, it disappears from the client's history in the Documents tab. You can learn more about it in this article.
Can I edit a contract after it's been approved?
Yes. Click Create new draft/Send back to draft in the Actions panel to create a new version. Learn more about editing contracts versions here.
How do I collect payments from contracts?
Whether the contract is manually approved by an admin or automatically following the client's e-signature, the payment isn't made at the same time. Here's some options:
a) ‘Make Payment’ button available to clients
To give clients the option to pay via their personal account, make sure your organization allows online payments and enables clients to pay their outstanding balance online. This is checked in the Accounting and finance > Payments subtab.
If your client has a balance, a 'Make payment' button appears in the Billing tab in their personal account when your organization is selected.
We’ve also included a ‘Make payment’ button that appears on the document when you email an invoice; and a clickable link in the pdf attachment that’s sent when you email an account statement via the Operations menu in the client's billing. When the client opens the invoice email, they may click the ‘Make payment’ button. If they open the email with the account statement and then open the pdf, they may click on the link to make the payment.
b) Process the client's payment with a saved payment method
If your organization has the authorization from the client, you can make a payment on the contract invoice and select the saved payment method you're authorized to use.
c) Have the client contact your organization directly
If your organization doesn't allow clients to pay their balance online or you are unauthorized to use a saved payment method, have the client contact your organization to make payment arrangements over the phone or in-person.
Is there a notification sent to admins when a client e-signs?
When a client e-signs, an automated notification is emailed to the admin who created the contract. Keep in mind that an automated notification is not sent if the admin manually approves and invoices the contract.
However, did you know it's possible to set up notifications that are sent to admins when a contract is invoiced? Go to the Account > Email preferences subtab and add one or more admin email addresses so they'll get notified when any contract is invoiced to a client's account.
* Last updated in June 2023
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