Create a Contract Template
Navigate to Settings > Templates > Contracts. You need the User Permission ‘Sales Templates’ to access this page. Here, you can edit existing templates and create new ones. If you are editing an existing template, you can use the ellipses icon on the table to perform actions on that template. The actions include editing the template, cloning it, disabling, or deleting. The action to ‘Set as Default’ is primarily used for creating orders using the API but can also come in handy within the system. When a default is set, that template will be auto-selected on the Review and Send step of creating orders. Finally, you can also edit the Included Mandatory Products for the template. For more information about what Mandatory Products are, click here.
If you want to create a new contract template, select Add New Contract Template at the top of the page. The Create Contract Template page will open. The first thing that you'll want to do is name your new template. Also on the page, you'll need to choose either Blank, to start from scratch, or use one of the premade templates.
Once you've made your choice to start from scratch or use a ready to customize template, click Submit. At this point, you'll start on the Edit (Your Template Name) page. You can drag and drop from the elements on the right-hand side of the page or customize any that have already been placed on the template.
At any time during the design and editing process, you can preview your template by clicking on PDF Preview in the upper right corner. This will open a preview of your template in another window. You can also add a header or footer by clicking on Layout. Be sure to save your Layout choices.
Also in the upper right corner, you'll see the Settings link. Click here to set up additional items for your template:
Invoice Template – Associate an invoice template with your contract. When set, this is the default invoice template that will be used for orders that use this contract template. This setting is required if you wish to require pre-payment on line items, where an invoice will be automatically generated upon order approval.
Quick Order Invoice Template – When creating Quick Print Orders, invoices and payments are generated automatically upon order submission. Choose an invoice template here if you wish to use the quick order functionality with this contract template. For more information about quick orders, click here.
Price Expiration Period – If set, your orders that use this contract template will expire if they have not been client approved by the time interval determined in this setting. For more information about this feature, click here.
Date Format - Choose how you want the date displayed on orders that use this contract template.
Show Items with $0 gross - If set to Yes, this will show all line items on the order that have a gross price of $0. Set this to No if you do not wish those items to show.
Publishers – Associate the contract template with specific publishers. If no publishers are set, the template can be used for any publisher. If there is at least one publisher chosen in this field, the template can only be used on orders for the chosen publisher(s).
To place an element from the right hand side into your template, simply click on the element, then drag and drop onto the template. On any of the elements, once you place the element on your template, hover over the element and click the pencil to display the configurations for that element. The options are different for each element, for most you can change what displays, the alignment, font, point size, and color of the text.
Tip
For better alignment capabilities, there is a link to Toggle Grid, this will display a grid pattern on the template to allow for better alignment capabilities, both horizontally and vertically.
Elements
Basic Contact and Order Information
The following elements help you personalize your templates and make sure your team is communicating with the correct contacts.
Company – Displays information about the company. Depending on how you configure the element, it can display the name, address, and ID of the Ordering Company, Parent Company, or Agency. If you do not check the option to ‘Always Show Country on Address’, international addresses will include the country, but any addresses within the US will not. If you check this option, the US and international addresses will both include the country.
Contact – Displays the Primary, Billing, Print, or Digital Artwork contact on the order. You can choose to display their name, contact information such as email and phone number, as well as company name.
Date – Displays the date the order is entered; in whatever format you have set on your template settings.
Campaign Name – If a campaign name is entered when creating the order, it will display in this element.
Contract Number – Displays the order ID.
Sales Rep – Displays contact information for the sales rep You can choose to display either the Order Rep or the Primary Rep of the company.
Tax ID – Shows the Tax ID of a company associated with the order. You can choose from Agency, Advertising Company, Billing Company, or Artwork Agency for this element.
Item Descriptions
These elements show the details of exactly what is included in this order.
Ad Hoc Groups – Displays items in Ad Hoc Groups on your order. Any similar items will be grouped together on the contract, for example you may see two Ad Hoc elements on your order for the same Ad Hoc Group, one for digital media items and one for print ads.
Ad Items – Displays all print and/or digital ad items on the order that are not in groups or packages. You can choose to display only Print, only Digital, or both Digital and Print items in the same element. There are also options to choose a default sort order for the element, as well as whether or not to display discounts below the items and include a summary footer or not.
Digital Media Items – Displays all digital media items on the order that are not in groups or packages. You can choose to either display all digital media items in the same element or choose from the individual product types such as Impressions or Targeted Display items. There are also options to choose whether or not to display discounts below the items and to include a summary footer.
Service Items – Displays all service and event items on the order that are not in groups or packages. You have options to choose the default sort order for the element, as well as choose whether or not to display discounts below the items and to include a summary footer. The ‘include table name’ setting allows you to turn on or off the system header for the element. The service item headers will either display the billing group when applicable, or ‘Services’ for items not in a particular billing group.
Item Changes – Displays any changes made to line items after the order is fully approved (100% complete). Changes made to line items before finance approval will not be included here.
Packages – Displays any line items that are part of a display group or package on the contract. For each package element, you must choose to display either Ads, Services, or Digital Media. If you are using packages for multiple product types, we recommend including one package element for each product type on your templates to make sure all of the products show up properly. You should also choose the Item Group Display, which will determine how display groups appear.
Costs and Discounts
The costs and discounts elements may be the most important part of the contract for your customers. These elements show how much the order will cost them as well as any discounts or charges that have been added.
Summary (Ad Sale Total) - Displays the total of all ad items on the order.
Summary (Agency Discount) - Displays the total value of the Agency Discounts.
Summary (Barter Due) - Displays the combined total of Barter Due for all items.
Summary (Cash Due) - Displays the combined total of Cash Due for all items, before tax.
Summary (Gross) - Displays the gross total of all items on the order.
Summary (Service Sales Total) -Displays the total of all service items on the order.
Summary (Taxes Due) - Displays the total of all taxes due on the order.
Summary (Total Cash Due) - Displays the combined cash due for all items, including tax.
Summary (Total Discount) - Displays the total of all the discounts applied to the order combined.
Summary (Volume Discount) - Displays the total of all volume discounts applied.
Charges Applied– Displays any charges applied to the order. This number comes from any named charges you apply to any line items and displays as a negative discount.
Discounts Applied – Displays the total value of all named discounts added to the order.
Billing Information
The following elements show your customer the financial details they need to know about the order.
ACH Information – Displays the ACH account information being used on the order. This is pulled from the ‘ACH Account’ drop-down selection of the order creation process.
Credit Card Information – This element displays the Credit Card information used on the order. This is pulled from the ‘Credit Card’ drop-down selection of the order creation process.
Payment Schedule – Displays the payment (installment) schedule.
PO Number – Displays the PO number on the contract. The PO number is specified during order creation.
Additional Elements
These elements allow you to personalize your contracts with images, page breaks, and more. There are also some additional elements that do not fall under a specific category, but can be extremely helpful for your customers, such as a signature box and terms and conditions telling them exactly what they are signing on for.
Heading – Allows you to add a single line text field to the contract.
HTML text – Allows you to add a text field to the contract that can be customized using HTML. Custom merge tags can be added to this element for company and contact information.
Image – Allows you to upload an image to the template.
Page Break – Forces a page break wherever the element is placed.
Text – Allows you to add a text field to the invoice. This element is similar to the HTML text element but does not support merge tags.
Dynamic Attributes – Displays any order dynamic attribute that is configured to display on the contract with a value specified.
Order Notes – Displays the ‘notes appended to bottom of order’ on the contract.
Terms and Conditions – Allows you to choose from your Terms & Conditions templates, set up under Settings > Templates > Terms & Conditions. The element will display whichever Terms & Conditions you choose.
Signature Box – Displays the signatures of both the order rep and the approving contact from the ordering company, if captured.
Updated 10/10/2023