Sending a Contract for Signature

Sending a Contract for Signature

Once a contract draft looks right, sending it for signature is a single action with a few optional customizations that make a real difference in how often it actually gets signed.

Triggering the send

From a draft contract (on the reservation's Contract tab), click Send for Signature. A modal appears with three editable fields.

Choosing the signatory

By default, the signatory is the email on the renter's profile. That covers almost every case. But some common overrides:

• A company renting for an employee — you want the email to go to the company's rental administrator, not the employee driving the trailer.
• A renter who prefers a different email than the one they used for registration (personal vs work).
• A case where you are on the phone with the renter and want to send the signing link to a second device for them to sign from their desktop.

Change the signatory email in the modal and TrailerBase emails the link to that address instead. The renter profile's email stays untouched.

You can also add multiple signatories: put each email on its own line. The contract is not considered fully signed until every signatory has completed their part, and each signatory signs their own copy of the signature block. The completed audit trail lists all of them.

Email subject and message

The modal pre-fills the subject and body with sensible defaults ("Please sign your rental agreement with {{business.name}}"), but you can override either.

Things that tend to land well in the subject line:

• The trailer name or type.
• The pickup date.
• A short call to action ("sign to confirm").

Example: "Sign your 14 ft dump trailer rental agreement — pickup Saturday"

The body message is your chance to add a human touch. "Hi Mike — signed this one up for you. Let me know if anything looks off and I will adjust. — Sarah" is much more effective than "Please see attached."

Reminder emails

The biggest reason contracts do not get signed is that the email gets buried. The modal has a Reminder days field where you can say "send a reminder N days after the original if still unsigned." A good default is 2 days.

Reminders use a softer subject line ("friendly reminder: sign your rental agreement") and stop automatically when the contract is signed, declined, or when the reservation reaches pickup day.

You can also send a reminder manually at any time from the contract detail page — click Send reminder and it goes out immediately with today's timestamp.

After send

The contract moves to Sent status. On the contract detail page you see a timeline: sent at T, viewed at T+X, reminder at T+2d, signed at T+3d. Each event is logged with its timestamp, IP, and device.

If the send fails

If the email bounces — usually because of a typo in the signatory email — you get a notification the next day and the contract status flips to Bounced. Open the contract, correct the email, and click Re-send.

Tip: send before pickup day, not on it

A signed contract is the cleanest pickup. Try to send and get signatures 2–3 days before the scheduled pickup so you have time to chase the renter if they stall without putting the pickup itself at risk.