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A contract is the agreement a customer is on: what it is worth, when it starts, when its term ends, and whether it renews. Each one is named by a number such as C-0007 and sits on the customer’s record and under Revenue → Contracts. In Revenue → Contracts, use + Filter to narrow by status (including Needs your signature), source, whether it renews, customer, start or term end, and search by contract number, customer, title or quote number.

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Where contracts come from

  • An accepted quote. When a customer accepts a quote, its contract is written for you, with the quote’s value and start date. If the quote required a signature, the signed PDF is kept on the contract.
  • Mark accepted. For a deal agreed on a call or by email, open the sent quote and choose Mark accepted…. Enter who accepted and when, and attach a signed copy if you have one. Billing starts on the quote’s terms. This works for quotes billed by invoice; an autopay quote needs the customer to add their own card from the link.
  • New contract → Start billing. Bill a customer without sending a quote. Billing by invoice starts right away; autopay gives you a link for the customer to add a card.
  • New contract → Record existing. Record a contract signed outside Custral, with its dates and value, and attach the document. Nothing is billed.

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Status

A renewing contract rolls forward by its original term length, so its term end always shows the term in force.

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Signed contracts

Turn on Require a signed contract in the quote builder, and the customer signs before accepting. Pick which contract under it; the workspace’s default is preselected.

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Your own contract

On the Contracts tab of Settings → Payments & quotes, choose New template:
  • Upload a PDF. Your exact layout is kept. Contract in Word or Google Docs? Save or download it as a PDF first.
  • Write it here. Plain text, with values in double braces such as {{customer}} and {{products}} filled from each quote.
Then place fields on its pages. Drag a field from the right onto a page; it snaps to lines, blanks, the margins and other fields (hold ⌥ to place it freely).
  • Customer fills (yellow): signature, initials, date signed, full name, title, a text box or a checkbox.
  • Filled from the quote (green): customer, contact, quote number, products, total, start date, way to pay, your company name, or any field on the customer record.
If your PDF already has form fields, Custral offers to map each one. A PDF with no fields placed is signed as it is, with a signature page added at the end.

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Your company signs too

Add the purple Your company signs fields (our signature, our name and title, date we signed) and choose when your side signs, in the editor’s toolbar:
  • After they sign. The customer signs first. The quote shows Waiting for your signature and a Countersign button, and whoever sent the quote is notified. Anyone who can edit the customer can countersign.
  • Before it’s sent. Send becomes Sign and send, and the customer sees your signature already on the page. Editing the quote back to a draft clears your signature, so a changed quote is never shown signed.
Billing starts when the customer accepts either way; your signature completes the paperwork.

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What the customer sees

The quote page shows your contract with the quote’s values already in it. A flag walks them to each box; they type or draw one signature, which fills every signature and initials box, and the date fills itself. The signed copy is your PDF with every field fixed in place, plus a certificate page: who signed, their title and email, when they opened and signed it, from which IP address, who signed for your company, and a fingerprint of the signed pages, so a changed copy no longer matches. It’s attached to the contract and kept on the customer’s record, and once every signature is in, the customer is emailed the signed PDF. The email comes from Custral in your company’s name, and replies go to whoever sent the quote. This is a typed or drawn e-signature with the signer’s consent; it doesn’t verify identity the way a notarised signature does.

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Renewals

Once per term, when a contract comes within its notice days of its end, Custral fires the Contract Up for Renewal workflow trigger and the contract.renewing webhook. Use it to remind the account owner, start a renewal quote, or email the customer. See Revenue automations.

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Ask Stella

Stella can list contracts (“which contracts renew this quarter?”) and read one in full. When drafting a quote, she can ask for a signature on a named contract template (“quote Arketa 12 seats, signed on our MSA”). Contracts are created by people, from the screens above.

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From your own app

Read contracts with GET /v1/contracts and GET /v1/contracts/{id}. List the templates a quote can name with GET /v1/contract-templates, and pass requireSignature and contractTemplate when you create a quote. See The Contract object.