[Video Walkthrough] All about Contracts

INTRO: WHERE DO I SIGN?

I’m sure most of us are familiar with the concept of Contracts, but we will define it here as a legally binding agreement between vendor and Client.  Contracts should really be used any time you are getting paid to provide a service and/or sell products; any time there is an exchange of money, even if it seems insignificant to you, Contracts help protect you and your Client!  The most commonly reported reason vendors give for failing to provide a Contract to their Clients is a lack of time to write one up for every single transaction, but as usual, Pixifi is here to solve that problem!

BUILDING A CONTRACT TEMPLATE (00:46)

Writing a new Contract for every Event would not only be certifiably insane, it would also open up the opportunity for many errors on a legally binding document!  Any time you have a need to send a Contract through Pixifi, we strongly recommend you take the time to carefully construct a Contract Template first so that it can be perfected and reused later.  Pixifi’s Contract Templates are nothing more than Contracts that you plan on reusing, but can be populated with dynamic data (or data that changes based on the Client/Event it is associated with because it uses variables).

To create a Contract Template, go to TEMPLATES, CONTRACT TEMPLATES, and you will land on a tab that even has some pre-written Templates you can build from for your own use.  If you’d like to start from scratch or insert a Contract you already have saved on your computer, simply select [+ Add New Contract Template] and paste your information into the body.  The “Type" for a Contract Template will vary between Events and project which will offer different variables and organize them so they can only be offered where you need them.  So, make sure if this is a Contract Template for a wedding or another type of Event that your Contract Template type isn’t set to “Projects" or else you won’t be able to select it from your Event Contracts drop-down menu when you’re trying to send out an Event-related Contract.

Just like the E-Mail Templates we have created, Pixifi Contracts use variables so that you can write up a very specific Contract one time but anywhere that it includes Event-specific or Client-specific data within the Contract, those variables can be replaced with the real dynamic data that changes with each new Contract.  

Let me show you an example:  In this finished Contract, you can see all of the necessary and recurring legal jargon with many references to my Client, their Event date, and other various details about their purchase and Payment Terms.  This is how each of the Clients I send this Template to will view their Contracts.  The bulk of the Contract remains the same for every wedding Client I send this to, while the information represented by each variable will change for each instance.  You’ll see that under some of these paragraphs are variables labeled as {initial} where you can require your Client to initial that they’ve read and understand that section/paragraph.  You can also insert check boxes if you’d like your Client to be able to select from a few options or you can also enter required checkboxes which function similarly to initial fields in that they cannot proceed unless they have checked the required boxes.  That signature field you saw at the bottom of my sample Contract is actually automatically appended to every Contract I send out, as will be the case with your Contracts, so don’t worry about inserting this into each Contract Template.  In order for you to set up your customized signature that will be appended to your signed Contracts, go to THINGS TO DO, CONTRACTS, settings and draw your signature.

Now let’s take one of our Contract Templates and assign it to one of our Events.  From within an Event, if you go to the Contracts tab and click [+ Create New Contract] A pop up will appear where you can then select from your various Contract Templates.  If your Contract Template pulls any data through variables such as Invoice line items, Locations, Payment schedule, etc you will want to make sure that you have the necessary information filled out prior to the creation of your Contract so that Pixifi can pull the desired data in to populate your Contract Template.  If your data isn’t filled in, those variables will not be populated.

SENDING A CONTRACT (04:21)

When your Contract is ready to be sent, you’ll want to make sure you add the people you would like to sign it.  All recipients you add will be required to digitally sign the Contract.  If you want someone to simply view or have a copy of the Contract, once it’s signed you can send them a copy as a PDF.  Now that you’ve added all of your recipients, click on the [Send Contract] button and you will be able to choose from a drop-down list of your Contract Template E-Mails.  This is yet another area where you will want to have already created a Contract-Type E-Mail Template or choose from one of our pre-loaded Templates.  If you are creating your own E-Mail Template, you want to make sure you have the following variables contained within the body of your E-Mail:  {contract_externallink} and {recipient_password}.  Each recipient that is added to the Contract has a unique system-generated password specifically for them.  Only they will see this unique password (even you won’t be able to view it) and they will need it to login to sign their Contract which is why it is important that this variable be included in this E-Mail.  If the Contract external link isn’t included, your Clients won’t even be able to view the login page, let alone sign-in with their unique password!  So that variable is definitely important as well.  

SIGN IN-PERSON OPTION (05:41)

Sometimes your Client will want to sign their Contract with you in-person, and in instances like this, you won’t need to make your Client jump through all these hoops.  If you’d like to have your Client sign their Contract in-person, you will add them as a recipient just like you would if you were sending the Contract but instead, you can click the [In-Person] button located next to their name and click the [SIGN In-Person] button and a link will pop-up in a new window where the Client will be taken to a system-generated link where they will view the Contract and sign.  Each recipient you add must go through the same process in order to sign the Contract.

REQUIRED PAYMENTS (06:17)

When you link up an Invoice to the Contract, you will see under the Required Payments section that there will be a pre-populated Payment amount from your Invoice for you to select as the required Payment upon signing the Contract.  This Payment amount is being pulled from the Payment section of your Invoice which, as we discussed at length in the previous class, Class 202: Invoices, you can either manually create or populate from a Payment Term Template.  In the event that you do not want to use the Invoice to populate this Contract-signing required Payment, you can enter your own amount in this section.  If no Invoice is linked to this Contract, it will create a general Payment that isn’t attached to an Event or Client, which can get messy.  

Because of this we recommend that you do attach an Invoice to the Contract so that the Client’s Payment can at least show up as a Payment against their balance for this Event.  Also, the pay-by-check option will disable them from making a Payment online.  So, if you really just meant to display instructions for where a Client could send a check, don’t check the “Pay By Check Only" just go back to your SETTINGS and MERCHANTS section to add “Manual Payment Instructions" as one of the merchants in your Client’s list of merchants like we showed you in Class 202: Invoices.

CONTRACT EXPIRATION DATES (07:37)

The digital nature of these Contracts means you can literally get them signed within minutes, but believe it or not, people still drag their feet, procrastinate, etc.  Creating a deadline for your Clients allows you to provide motivation for your Clients to get their Contract signed by a specific time/date.  Some like to offer discount or gift incentives if the Contract is signed by a certain date; others simply inform the Client that their Event date/session time will be back up for grabs if the Contract is not signed by a certain time.  Whatever your purpose may be for using this feature, we will show you how to create an expiration date for your Contracts!  Under the Contract Info section, simply click on the Expiration Date and change it from “Never Expires" to whatever date and time you’d like to assign as your Contract’s expiration date.

AUTO-RESPONSE OVERRIDE (08:30)

In your THINGS TO DO, CONTRACTS, and Settings tab you can set a thank-you E-Mail to go out automatically after each Contract is signed, however if you want to send a custom thank-you E-Mail for a specific Contract, this auto-response override feature will let you send a completely different message to your Clients than the one you have already set to go out.  In other words, if for whatever reason you wanted to send a different message than your typical “thank-you for signing" E-Mail Template to this specific Client upon signing, you can set it to send from here and it will take the place of your default Template message.

CLOSING REMARKS (09:05)

Class dismissed!  Thank you for taking the time to learn all about Contracts.  In this video, we covered what Contracts are, how to create Contract Templates and assign them to Events, how to add Recipients and send Contracts, how to attach required Payments, how to assign Contract expiration dates and how to have your Clients sign their Contracts in person if you prefer.  In the next video, we will be teaching you about Questionnaires and all the cool ways you can use them to make your Client’s experience amazing!