Editing a Contract Template
To make a permanent change to your contracts — wording, which sections appear, which fields are shown, or where signed PDFs are saved — edit the contract template the contracts are created from.
When a contract is created, its sections are copied from the template at that moment. Editing a template changes every contract created from it going forward. Contracts that already exist, including drafts and signed contracts, keep the content they were created with.
1. Open the Template
- Go to Settings > Projects > Contract Templates
- Click the template name to open it
The template opens as a preview of the finished contract, with two buttons in the top right: Manage Template and Edit Template.
The template editor requires a wide browser window. On smaller screens the preview and editing tools are not shown.
2. Manage Template — Structure and Settings
Click Manage Template to open a dialog with three tabs: Sections, Fields, and Settings.
Sections Tab
Lists every section in the template, in the order it appears on the contract.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Drag handle (left of the name) | Drag a section up or down to reorder the contract |
| Toggle switch | Show or hide the section on contracts using this template |
| Pencil icon | Edit the section's name and settings |
| Trash icon | Delete the section |
| Add Section | Add a new section to the template |
See Template Sections for what each section type does.
Fields Tab
Controls the fields shown in the panel alongside the contract — the same panel users see when they open a contract on a project.
- Enabled / Disabled tabs split the fields by whether they currently appear
- The toggle beside each field turns it on or off
- Search Fields narrows a long list
- The pencil icon sets the field's Width on desktop and on mobile/tablet
- Reorder mode lets you drag fields into the order you want
Settings Tab
Settings save as you change them — there is no separate save step.
Signed Contract PDF — Pick an Auto-Save Folder. When every party has signed, the signed PDF is filed there automatically. Leave it on None - Do not auto-save to skip this. This is set per template, so repeat it on each template you want filed.
Signature Request Email — The Default Message pre-fills the email body when someone sends a contract from this template for signature. Whoever sends it can still edit the message for that one send without changing this default. Leave it blank to use the standard message.
Project Duration Fields — Available on project proposal templates. See Project Duration Fields below.
Click Close or Save when you're done — both close the dialog.
3. Edit Template — Contract Content
Click Edit Template to edit the contract's content in place: text, headings, images, and tables. Click Back To Template to return to the preview.
Click into any section to start editing. The formatting toolbar appears above that section and stays visible the whole time you are editing — you do not need to select text first. Sections you are not editing show as read-only previews.
The Formatting Toolbar
| Toolbar group | What it does |
|---|---|
| Undo / Redo | Step back and forward through your edits |
| Paragraph style | Switch between body text and heading levels |
| Font family / size | Change the typeface and size of the selected text |
| Bold / Italic / Underline | Basic emphasis |
| Text color / Highlight color | Color the text or apply a background highlight |
| Alignment | Left, center, right, or justify the paragraph |
| Lists | Bulleted and numbered lists |
| Clear formatting | Remove all styling from the selection |
| Paste as text | Paste copied content with all formatting stripped |
| Insert | Checkbox groups, client fields, and template variables |
The same toolbar is available everywhere contract content is edited: contract templates in Settings, the template header and footer panel, and the contract on an individual project.
The Right-Click Menu
Right-clicking inside a section opens a menu with:
| Menu item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Link | Add or edit a hyperlink |
| Show blocks | Outline the paragraph blocks so you can see the structure |
| Spellchecker | Spell-check options for the section |
| Insert Client Field | Drop in an input the client fills out while signing |
| Insert Variable | Insert a project or contact value (for example the project address or client name) that resolves to the real value on each contract |
| Image | Insert an image, in sections that allow images |
Editing the Logo and Title
In Edit Template mode, the header logo becomes editable — upload an image, then scroll over it to resize and drag the sides of the crop box to fit the width. The contract title below the header is edited by clicking it and typing; it saves when you click away.
Font Choices and the Signed PDF
The font family dropdown offers a fixed set of typefaces — Roboto (the default), Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman, Courier New, and Merriweather. These are the fonts guaranteed to render identically in the editor, in the client-facing contract, and in the signed PDF.
Other fonts are deliberately not offered. A font that is not available when the PDF is generated would be swapped for a substitute, so the signed document would not match what you designed.
This also applies to text pasted from Word. Word documents commonly use Calibri, Times New Roman, and Arial, and those are carried over and render correctly in the signed PDF rather than falling back to a generic typeface.
Pasting from Word
Content pasted from Microsoft Word or Google Docs keeps its formatting — headings, bold text, lists, fonts, sizes, and colors all carry over. The hidden markup those programs add behind the scenes is stripped, so a pasted clause never carries junk into the signed contract.
Content pasted from a website is cleaned instead: its structure is kept but its styling is dropped, so the text takes on your template's look. A web page's styling does not belong in a contract.
To paste with no formatting at all, click Paste as text on the toolbar before pasting. That strips everything and drops in plain text.
Project Duration Fields
On Project Proposal templates (including custom templates with the Project Proposal custom type), the Settings tab controls the Starts Within and Project Duration fields that appear beside the contract.
Show/Hide Toggle
- On — Starts Within and Project Duration appear on the contract. When the contract is signed, production dates are calculated (Predicted Start Date, Predicted Finish Date, Contracted Finish Date).
- Off — The fields are hidden and signing the contract does not update production phase dates.
Existing contracts that already have saved duration values continue to display the fields and apply dates when signed, even if the toggle is later turned off on the template.
Custom Default Values
When the toggle is on, you can set defaults that pre-fill on new contracts:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Default Starts Within | Number of weeks or days until work begins. Leave blank for no default. |
| Default Project Duration | How long the project will take. Leave blank for no default. |
Each field has a Weeks / Days selector. Changes save automatically when you leave the field or change the interval.
Production dates are calculated only when both Starts Within and Project Duration have values at the time of signing.
Related Topics
- Creating Templates - What a template is made of, and adding a new one
- Template Sections - What each section type does
- Managing Templates - Renaming and deleting templates
- Payment Schedule Templates - Reusable payment schedules