With Studio Manager's Templates feature, it is easy to create custom templates to streamline your workflow. Templates can be applied to future documents, so they are a great way to get a head-start. In this article, we will go over the ways that you can create a contract template, and also how to design your contract with formatting and variable options.
If you are looking to create an invoice template instead, click here.
On this page:
- Creating a Contract Template
- Designing a Contract Template
- Applying a Contract Template to a new Contract
Creating a Contract Template
There are two ways that you can create a contract template: from scratch within the Templates page, or from an existing contract.
Creating a Contract Template from the Templates page
To create a brand new contract template from scratch, go to Studio Manager Dashboard > Templates. Then, click New Template > Contract.
You will be taken to a blank draft contract template that you can begin editing right away!
Creating a Contract Template from an existing Contract
If you have an existing contract that you want to use as a template, you can also create a template based off of it!
To do this, click into the specific contract from your Contracts page. Then, in the top right hand corner, click Actions > Create template.
You will be taken to a new draft contract template based off of the specific contract, which you can edit further as needed!
Designing a Contract Template
Studio Manager provides powerful tools for designing your contract template, including intuitive template settings, formatting options, and custom variables.
Title and Formatting Options
To customize the title of your contract template, simply click directly onto the title in the top-left hand corner and edit it.
To edit the content of your contract template, click directly onto the template to begin filling or pasting in your content. Formatting options, such as headings, bolding, and bullet points, are located directly above the contract's text field.
Template Settings
In the left-hand panel, you can toggle on different settings that will automatically be applied to any contracts you create using this template.
The template settings are as follows:
- My Signature Required: Set whether your own signature is required to complete the contract.
- Document Expiry: Set contract to automatically cancel if it is not completed by a certain number of days after being sent (e.g. 3 days after, 7 days after, 14 days after, etc.). Canceled contracts cannot be signed.
- Document Reminders: Automatically send email reminders to signers who have not yet signed the contract after a certain number of days (e.g. 3 days after, 7 days after, 14 days after, etc.).
Client Fillable Fields
Fields allow your client to input information into the contract themselves. You can use fields to collect extra information from your client that you may not have had on hand before putting the contract together. You can label your fields so that your client knows what kind of information to be inputted. They will be required to input this information before they can sign.
Variables and Custom Variables
Variables are dynamic fields that automatically populate specific details into your contract. They are a great way to easily auto-fill a contract with pre-existing Client or Business information, such as Name, Email, Phone, and Address.
If there is different information that will need to be added to each contract depending on the specific client (e.g. Event Location), you can accommodate this by creating a custom variable.
To do this, click Variables > Custom Variable to create your new variable. When the custom variable is added to your contract template, you can click on it to label it (e.g. Event Location, etc).
When creating your contract later you can then easily fill out the custom variable field based on the client you are working with.
Additional Design Options
To edit the overall design of your contract template, click Edit Design in the upper right hand corner. From within the Edit Design panel, you can select a specific Cover Image for this template.
If you'd like to access additional design settings for all your documents, such as assigning a default Cover Image, Color Theme, and Font Theme, go to your Studio Manager Dashboard > Settings > Branding.
You can also check out our "Customizing your Branding for Studio Manager" guide here!
Applying a Contract Template to a new Contract
Once you have created your contract template, you can easily apply it to new contracts!
If you are on your Contracts page, you can click New Contract in the top right hand corner. After you select a client for your contract, you will be asked if you'd like to start with a blank contract or one of your existing templates.
If you are starting from your Templates page instead, you can click into your template and select Action > Use this template. You will be asked to select a client to create a new contract for, using your template.
