Contracts and signatures
How to add and sign a contract on an offer, the rules for signature images, how your client signs, where the signed PDF is kept, and how to invalidate a contract.
A contract is an optional part of an offer. It carries two signatures, yours and your client’s. You sign first, before you send the offer, and your client signs when they accept it.
Add and sign a contract
Open the project and click Edit Project.
Go to the Contract step.
Turn on Include a contract.
Click Edit & Sign Contract.
Check the contract text on the left and edit it if needed.
On the right, check Full name and Company. They are filled in with your name and your workspace’s legal name.
Draw or upload your signature under Draw your signature.
Tick the consent line, which confirms that your electronic signature is legally binding.
Click Sign Contract.
Billow shows “Contract signed successfully.” The Contract step then shows your name and company with “Signed on” and the date.
The offer can’t be sent until you have signed. Signing is only possible while the project is Draft.
The contract text
Billow generates the contract from your contract template, filled in with your project information and deliverables. The dialog, titled Revise & Sign Contract with the account’s name, lets you edit the wording for this offer only.
Load template… above the editor replaces the text with one of your templates: Fixed-fee or Retainer. If you have already edited the text, Billow asks first:
Replace contract? Loading a template will replace your current edits. This cannot be undone.
To keep your edits without signing, click Save as draft.
Missing contract details
If the contract uses a value that Billow doesn’t have yet, such as an address, clicking Sign Contract opens the Complete contract details dialog. Fill in the missing values and click Save & Continue. Billow saves them for next time and signs the contract.
Some values belong to your workspace and only owners and admins can set them. If none of the missing values are ones you can fill in, the dialog reads “Only workspace admins can set the values below. Ask one to complete them, then sign again.”
Your signature
You can draw your signature on the pad with a mouse, a trackpad or a finger. The bin icon above the pad clears it.
You can also upload an image instead. Drop the file onto the pad, or click the upload icon above it. The upload replaces anything drawn on the pad. The file has to be:
A PNG
On a transparent background
1 MB or smaller
A file that breaks a rule is rejected with a message:
Problem | Message |
|---|---|
Not a PNG | That file is not a PNG. Export your signature as a PNG with a transparent background from your signature tool. |
Larger than 1 MB | That file is larger than 1 MB. Export your signature at a smaller size and try again. |
Solid background | That image has a solid background. Export your signature as a PNG with a transparent background from your signature tool. |
More than one file | Drop a single PNG file. |
Photos and flatbed scans fail the transparency rule. A solid background would show as a block around your signature on the contract.
How your client signs
Your client signs on the offer page when they accept the offer.
They enter their verification code, read the contract in full, and then sign it with their full name, their company, a drawn or uploaded signature, and the consent line. The same image rules apply to their upload.
Billow creates the signed contract at that moment. Your name, company and signature sit on one side and theirs on the other, each with the date it was signed. Any add-on your client declined is left out, and the fee in the contract is recalculated to match.
Where the signed contract is kept
Billow stores the signed PDF with the project and emails it, attached alongside the accepted offer, to the person who accepted.
Your copy is the Contract button on the project overview. Once your client has signed, it downloads the stored file, so the contract stays exactly as they signed it even if your template, logo or details change later.
Your client’s copy is that email. The offer page stops offering documents once they sign, and tells them the documents were emailed.
Invalidate a contract
Invalidating unsigns the contract so you can change it. You can invalidate while the project is Draft, Offer Pending or Rejected.
Open the project and click Edit Project.
Go to the Contract step.
Click Invalidate.
Confirm with Invalidate in the Invalidate contract? dialog.
Billow shows “Contract unsigned successfully.” Your edits to the contract text are kept. Sign again before you send.
Going back to the Essentials or Deliverables step of an offer with a signed contract opens the same dialog.
What invalidating does
Clears both signatures and their images
Makes the link your client has stop working
Moves the project back to Draft if it was Offer Pending or Rejected
When you send the offer again, your client gets a new link and a new code. On a rejected offer, invalidating is how you change the terms and send it again.
Turning the contract on or off
On a draft without a signed contract, the Include a contract toggle changes straight away. If the offer is Offer Pending or Rejected, or the contract is signed, Billow asks you to confirm first.
Confirming unsigns a signed contract. On an Offer Pending or Rejected offer, it also moves the project back to Draft, and the link your client has stops working.
Your contract text is kept when you turn the contract off, and comes back if you turn it on again.
After the project is active
Once your client accepts, the contract is locked. The Include a contract toggle is disabled with “Can’t be changed once the project is active”.
