Contracts

What contracts are

Contracts are the documents your firm sends a client to review, sign, and — when there is a fee — pay, all in one sitting. The most common contract is the engagement letter, and the whole flow is built around the moment a client decides to hire you: the letter, the signature, and the payment arrive as one continuous experience, so nothing is left hanging between "they signed" and "they paid."

Every contract starts from a template, is sent to one contact, and is usually attached to a matter. When the client signs and pays, the matter moves to Retained automatically.

What the client sees

The client receives a branded email (and a text message when they have a phone number on file) with a secure link that is unique to them. The link opens a cover page with the document, then walks them through:

1. Review — the full letter, with your firm's logo and an optional personal note from the sender.
2. Sign — a legally binding e-signature, drawn or typed, on any device.
3. Pay — when the contract carries a fee, an embedded checkout appears immediately after signing. The client is told their engagement begins once payment is received.

After payment they land on a confirmation page with an itemized receipt, and they receive an email with the executed letter attached — the complete audit trail is appended to the end of the PDF. If the contract has no fee, signing completes the engagement and the payment step never appears.

Set up templates

Open Contract Templates to build your library.

1. Click New template, or import a letter you already use — imported documents are converted into an editable template.
2. Write the letter. Merge fields fill in the client's name, the matter, your firm details, and the fee at send time.
3. Attach service line items. These become the itemized fees on the letter and sync to the matter's value when the contract is signed.
4. Set the template's defaults: fee, ordering (sign first or pay first), and payment destination (operating or trust).
5. Optionally tie the template to a service or practice area — this is how auto-matching picks the right template for a matter.

Choose your default template

Go to Settings → Contracts and choose your default engagement letter template. Every firm should set this.

When you send a contract from a matter, Superpractice picks the template automatically:

1. A template tied to one of the matter's services wins first.
2. Then a template matching the matter's practice area.
3. Then your default template.
4. If none of those exist, the most recently updated template is used.

You can always change the template in the composer before sending.

Check your setup status

The same settings page shows whether contracts are ready to send:

• Payments — whether a payment account is connected, with a link to Integrations if not. Without a connection, clients can sign but not pay — and the composer warns you before any letter with a fee goes out.
• E-signature — always ready; there is nothing to configure.
• Branding — a reminder appears if your firm hasn't uploaded a logo yet. Your logo appears on the signing page and in every email the client receives.

Send a contract from a matter

This is the two-click path you'll use most.

1. Open the matter and find the Contract card.
2. Click Send contract. Superpractice creates a draft with the matched template, the matter's client, and its line items already filled in.
3. Review the letter in the composer. Adjust the fee, line items, or wording if needed.
4. Click Send. Confirm the recipient's email and phone, and add an optional personal note — it appears in the email and on the cover page, quoted with your name.

The matter's stage reflects the contract from here: sent, signed, and — once payment lands — Retained.

Send a contract without a matter

From the Contracts page, click Send contract and choose a contact and template. This is useful for documents that don't belong to a pipeline matter. You can attach a matter later.

Track every contract

The Contracts page shows where each one stands:

• Draft — created but not sent.
• Waiting on signature — sent, and whether the client has opened it.
• Waiting on payment — signed, fee not yet paid.
• Retained — signed and paid.
• Declined / Voided — the client declined, or you cancelled the letter.

Opens are tracked from the secure link itself, so you'll see when a client has viewed the letter even if they don't finish.

Automatic reminders

Superpractice follows up so you don't have to. Each reminder sends at most once, by text when the client has a phone number, with email backing it up:

• 1 day after sending, if the letter hasn't been opened.
• 3 days after sending, if it hasn't been signed.
• 1 day after signing, if a fee is due and unpaid.

If a contract is still unsigned after 7 days, Superpractice creates a task for the sender so a human follows up. Reminders stop the moment the client completes the step, and you can pause them per contract.

Payments on contracts

Connect your payment account under Settings → Integrations (see Stripe). Once connected:

• The contract's fee is collected in the embedded checkout right after signing.
• Each template chooses its destination — operating account, or trust for retainers.
• Payment plans split the fee into a down payment at signing plus scheduled installments, charged automatically to the card the client saves at checkout.
• A contract with no fee simply skips payment — signing completes it.

Payments flow through your connected account and appear in Payments like any other transaction. The matter's Value is set from the letter's line items at signing; Collected grows as money actually arrives.

Signed documents and the audit trail

When a contract is signed, Superpractice archives two PDFs in your firm's private, encrypted storage:

• The executed letter with the complete audit trail appended as its final pages.
• The audit trail as a standalone document — envelope ID, signer identity and IP address, timestamps for every step, and cryptographic hashes of the signed document.

Both are downloadable from the contract's Documents card, retained until you delete them. The client automatically receives the executed letter by email and can re-download it from their secure link at any time.

How contracts work with matters

• Send in two clicks from the matter's Contract card, with the template auto-matched.
• The letter's line items become the matter's value at signing (matters that already have line items keep them).
• Signed + paid moves the matter to Retained — the payment itself is the trigger, so a matter is never marked retained before money arrives. Pending bank transfers count only once they clear.
• The matter timeline shows the contract's progress alongside calls, emails, and meetings.

How contracts work with procedures

Procedures can carry a client all the way to a signed engagement:

• A procedure can send a contract as one of its actions — choose the template (or let auto-match pick), and the client receives the same branded signing experience. Under Ask me first permissions, the send waits for your approval like any other procedure action.
• A contract being signed or paid ends the procedure's follow-up automatically — a chase sequence stops itself the moment the client signs, so nobody gets a reminder for something they already did.

Security and encryption

Contracts are the most sensitive documents in your practice, and the pipeline is built accordingly:

• Signatures are executed through DocuSeal, a SOC 2 certified and ISO 27001 certified e-signature provider. Signed documents are legally binding under the ESIGN Act and UETA in the US and eIDAS in Europe.
• Every link is unique and unguessable — a 64-character random token per client, transmitted only over HTTPS. Links can expire and are never shared between contracts.
• Executed documents are stored encrypted in Superpractice's private document storage (AES-256 at rest, TLS in transit), scoped to your firm — no other organization can access your contracts under any circumstance.
• The audit trail is tamper-evident: signer identity, IP address, timestamps, and document hashes are recorded for every signature and preserved with the executed letter.
• Card details never touch Superpractice. Payment is collected by your connected payment provider's PCI-compliant checkout.
• Retention is yours to control — archived contracts are kept until your firm deletes them.