Set up e-signatures and contracts

Use a master agreement for the terms that rarely change and a short order document for the parts that do. The master covers payment terms, liability, confidentiality, intellectual property and termination. The order document covers scope, price, dates and the chosen option from your proposal.

This split means a returning client signs only a one-page order. It also keeps your legal text stable, so you pay for review once.

Have a lawyer who knows your type of work review or write the master. Ask them to keep the language plain and to mark which clauses are negotiable. Their time is a one-off cost, and the document serves every deal.

Check three clauses yourself: payment terms, what happens when scope changes, and who owns the work. Most disputes come from these.

In the UK and the EU, a simple electronic signature is generally accepted for most commercial contracts. Some document types need stricter forms, so ask your lawyer if you sell anything unusual. Tools differ in the audit trail they keep, such as time stamps and IP addresses. That trail is what you rely on if a signature is ever challenged.

You have three realistic routes. Use the signing feature inside your proposal tool, such as PandaDoc, so acceptance and signing are one step. Use a dedicated signing tool such as DocuSign or Dropbox Sign if you already send contracts separately. Or use the signing feature in your CRM if it has one.

Choose on four points: does it connect to your CRM, can you build templates, can you add reminders, and does it store a signed copy where your team can find it. If you have not picked a proposal tool yet, read How to choose proposal software first.

Turn the order document into a template. Pre-fill your own details and your signature block. Mark the buyer's fields clearly: signatory name, job title, company, date and signature.

Pull scope, price and dates from the accepted proposal, so nobody retypes numbers. Retyping is where a 12,000 becomes 21,000. The same blocks you built in How to build proposal templates should feed this document.

Configure the flow once.

• Signing order: buyer first, then you, or you countersign automatically.
• Signatory: send it to the person with authority to sign, not only your champion.
• Reminders: one after two days and one after five.
• Expiry: a date after which the order lapses, usually 14 days.
• Copy: the signed file goes to everyone and to the deal in your CRM.

Ask on the call who signs and how contracts get approved on their side. Ten minutes of asking beats two weeks of waiting.

When the contract is signed, three things should happen without you. The deal moves to won in HubSpot or Pipedrive. The signed file attaches to the record. The first invoice or subscription is created, for example in Stripe.

If your tools do not connect natively, use Zapier or Make with the trigger "document completed". Test with a dummy contract before real money is involved.

Send it while the buyer is still in the call, or within an hour. The longer the gap, the more internal doubts appear. In your reply, tell them what happens next and when work starts. The framing in Make the yes easy, the scope clear, and the no expensive helps here.

• Sending a long contract written for much larger deals.
• Using a different scope wording in the proposal and the contract.
• Sending to a contact who cannot sign.
• Forgetting an expiry date, so old offers stay open for ever.
• Storing signed files in someone's inbox.

Median time from verbal yes to signature is under two working days. Nobody prints anything. Every signed contract is attached to its deal, and the first invoice goes out without you doing anything. When a client asks for a copy, you find it in under a minute.