Sales

Contracts

Contracts is where you put in writing what you do for a customer, what it costs and what happens if something comes up. You fill in a template by answering a few questions, send the contract as a sealed PDF and drop the signed copy back into Folnaro. The contract then becomes the deposit, the partial invoices and the final invoice.

What a contract is in Folnaro

A contract is its own kind of document next to quotes and invoices. It records what you agreed with a customer: the work, the date, the fee, the usage rights and what happens if the job is called off. The quote says what it costs. The contract says what applies.

Folnaro doesn’t write contracts from scratch. Each one comes from a template made of clauses. Every clause is a numbered section on the page. Which clauses appear and how they read depends on your answers in the fill-in help. How that works is described in Contract templates.

Start a contract

1. Click Contracts in the sidebar or press ⌘4. It’s in the sales section, right below Quotes.
2. Click Contract in the toolbar, choose File > New > Contract or press ⌥⌘N while Contracts is selected. The New contract from template window opens.
3. Choose a template, for example Wedding photography or Fixed-price software project. At the top, under For what you do, are the templates that match what you entered under What you do. Use the Search templates field to find any other.
4. Choose the customer at the bottom with Choose a Customer…. You can also do that later. Name and address come from their customer details. If there’s a matching quote, you can pick it as well.
5. Click Create Contract or press ↩. Press esc to cancel.
6. Answer the questions next to the page. Every answer changes the contract right away.

A draft has no number yet. Delete Draft… (⌘⌫) removes it without leaving a gap in your contract numbers. You can undo the deletion. You can also start a contract for a customer right in the customer’s inspector under Contracts.

A contract for a quote

If the customer accepted a quote, or you want to send it together with a contract, start from the quote.

1. Select the quote in Quotes.
2. Choose Document > Contract for This.
3. If you entered something under What you do, Folnaro takes the first matching template and opens the draft. Otherwise you choose the template in the library.

Customer, subject, service period and total come from the quote. The quote’s lines become the description of the work, the total becomes the fee. In the editor, such answers show From quote with the quote’s number. The contract and the quote are linked in the inspector from then on. If the quote changes later, the contract stays as it is.

The editor

The page in the middle shows the contract as your customer gets it. The questions of the fill-in help are on the right. Show or hide questions hides them when you only want to read. Use View above the questions to choose how they appear:

• Step by step: Folnaro shows one topic with its questions at a time, with a line such as Question 3 of 9 at the top. Use Next and Back to change the topic.
• All questions: all questions in one column.

Next to an answer you see where it comes from: Same as last time, From quote or Suggested by the template. That way you see what you should still check yourself.

Each clause on the page has small buttons:

• What does this cover? explains in a few sentences what the clause does in general and names the legal rule under Sources. The page itself doesn’t change.
• Your Own Wording (the pencil) opens the clause text for editing, see Your own wording.
• Hide takes an optional clause out of the contract. It then appears under Hidden at the end of the page and comes back with Show.

Under Notes, Folnaro collects what’s missing or doesn’t fit, such as a date before the contract date or a deposit larger than the fee. Before sending, you fix every error. You also fix a note, or hide it with Hide… and say briefly why it’s fine like this. Until then the bottom reads You can send once the marked details are right. Once everything is answered, Folnaro says: Done. Read the contract through once at your own pace, it is yours. More in Notices and errors.

Send a contract

1. Click Send… in the editor, choose Document > Send Contract… or press ⌘↩. The Send Contract window opens.
2. Check To, Subject and Message. The message includes short instructions on how your customer signs.
3. Under Signature, set until when your customer can sign (Sign by) and after how many days Folnaro reminds you (Remind after). The defaults for both are under Settings… > Contracts.
4. If you saved your signature there, turn on Sign it yourself first. You confirm with Touch ID, and Folnaro places it on the signature page. Without a saved signature you sign the PDF just like your customer.
5. Click Send. Folnaro assigns the contract number, for example V-2026-0001, seals the PDF and sends it through your email account. If none is set up, a new email opens in Mail with the PDF attached.

To hand over the PDF yourself, choose Document > Save PDF Only… (⌥⌘↩). Folnaro then seals the contract without an email.

From now on the contract is Sent and locked. You can read it, save it as a PDF (⇧⌘S), print it (⌘P) and send it again, but not change it. That way you always know which version your customer got. To change something, write an addendum, see below. How your customer signs and how the signed copy comes back is described in Getting contracts signed.

The contract list

For each contract the list shows number, customer, status, when it was sent and signed, the event date and the next step. Click a column heading to sort by it.

• Use Show above the list to switch between Open, Awaiting Signature, Active and All. Open shows everything that still needs something from you or your customer.
• The Next Step column says what’s due, for example Create the partial invoice for the deposit, Open for 7 days, send a reminder or File the signed copy.
• Edit > Find (⌘F) searches number, customer, title and the text of your contracts.
• Press Space or ⌘Y to preview the selected contract. Press ⌘↓ to open it.
• File > Duplicate (⌘D) turns a contract into a new draft with the same answers.

What the statuses mean

If no signed copy arrives within the days set under Remind after, Folnaro reminds you to follow up. The default is 7 days. Folnaro checks in once more three days before the time to sign runs out. If your customer needs longer, choose Document > Extend… and set a later day under New date. Content, number and seal stay the same. This also works when the contract has already expired.

If the signature only comes after the time to sign, you still record the copy. The contract then shows Signed, and the history notes that the signature came after the deadline.

Withdraw… only works while the contract is sent and not yet signed. Your customer can no longer sign that version, and it stays in the archive. A signed contract can’t be withdrawn. It ends with a termination or a cancellation agreement, see below.

The inspector

Select a contract and click Inspector in the toolbar or press ⌥⌘I.

• Next step: what’s due right now, with a button that does it.
• Still open: for a draft, how many details you have to settle before sending and how many notes there are.
• Parties: you and your customer as you appear on the contract.
• Key terms: fee, deposit, date, milestones, usage rights and notice period from your answers.
• Signature: when the contract was sent and signed, until when your customer can sign, whether your signature is on it, the Page comparison and the Fingerprint. After a termination it also shows Notice received and Ends on. See The audit trail.
• Files: the sealed version, which stays archived unchanged, and the signed copy next to it.
• Linked: the quote the contract comes from and every invoice, addendum and cancellation agreement for it.
• History: when you created, sent and extended the contract and recorded the signed copy.

Invoices from a contract

A signed contract knows what you bill and when. You don’t type amounts and services again.

1. Select the contract.
2. Choose Document > Create Final Invoice. Folnaro creates an invoice draft with customer, service and amount from the contract.

Invoices from a contract are ordinary invoices. You finalize and send them like any other, see Writing invoices. The contract’s inspector lists them under Linked. Once a final invoice exists, Folnaro doesn’t offer another one.

Deposit and milestones

The deposit is the amount your customer pays before the work, for example so you keep the wedding date free for them. Milestones split the fee into parts with their own date, such as design, build and acceptance. In the editor you add them with Add a Payment and set Due on for each.

• Choose Document > Partial Invoice for the Deposit to bill the deposit. Until you do, it shows up as the next step in the list.
• Choose Document > Partial Invoices for the Milestones. Folnaro creates one invoice draft per milestone with amount and description from the contract.
• The last invoice for a contract is the final invoice. It deducts the partial invoices, see Partial and final invoices.
• If the contract says the deposit is kept when the job is called off, that is part of the cancellation clause. The invoice is still a partial invoice.

Change something: the addendum

A sent contract stays as it is. When something changes, such as an extra hour on the wedding day or a new module in the software, you write an addendum.

1. Select the signed contract.
2. Choose Document > Create Addendum. Folnaro creates a draft from the Addendum template that refers to the contract and its number.
3. Describe what changes and enter the new amount if the fee changes.
4. Send the addendum like a contract. It gets its own number and is signed on its own.

The contract lists its addenda under Linked. The contract itself stays unchanged.

End a contract: the cancellation agreement

If you both want to end the contract, for example because the wedding is off, record it in a cancellation agreement.

1. Select the signed contract.
2. Choose Document > Create Cancellation Agreement.
3. Enter when the contract ends and what happens to money already paid, for example whether you pay back the deposit or keep it.
4. Send the cancellation agreement. Once the signed copy is back, the contract shows Ended.

Invoices you already finalized stay. If you pay something back, correct or cancel the invoice, see Correcting and canceling invoices.

Record a termination

If one of you terminated the contract alone, for example an ongoing retainer with the agreed notice period, record it in Folnaro. To end the contract together, use a cancellation agreement instead.

1. Select the signed or active contract.
2. Choose Document > Record Termination….
3. Enter the day the notice came in under Notice received on and the day the contract ends under Ends on. The end can’t be before the notice came in.
4. If you like, add under Note how it was terminated, for example by email.
5. Click Record.

The contract then shows Ended. Under Signature in the inspector you see when the notice came and when the contract ends. Keep the termination letter itself together with the contract. Invoices you already finalized stay.

Common problems

Send… is dimmed

Something is marked under Notes, such as a missing answer or a customer without an address. Click the note and Folnaro jumps to the question.

I want to change a sent contract

A sent contract stays unchanged so it’s clear what your customer got. If they haven’t signed yet, choose Document > Withdraw…, duplicate the contract with ⌘D and send the new version. If they signed, write an addendum.

I want to withdraw a signed contract

That isn’t possible, because both sides agreed. To end it together, create a cancellation agreement. If it ends by termination, record it with Record Termination….

Contract for This is missing from the menu

The command needs a sent or accepted quote. Send the quote first or start the contract directly in Contracts.

The contract number doesn’t match my format

Contracts have their own number range, V-{YYYY}-{####} by default. Change it under Settings… > Documents > Number Ranges before you send your first contract.

I can’t start new contracts any more

Your trial or subscription has ended. Reading, exporting, recording signed copies, declining, withdrawing and terminations keep working, see What always stays, even without a subscription.