Agreements and Templates - Preview and functionality suggestions
Answered
Hi! We have been working hard at maximising the functionality of Templates and Agreements, however have come across a number of challenges.
Rather than submit multiple posts, here is a summary:
1- Currently when sending agreements to multiple users/signatories (eg: directly from a session or class) we are unable to preview each prior to sending to ensure the data is correct. Only the first user on list is previewed however the data in the template will vary between users.
This also means we cannot customise pre-fillable fields/check boxes relevant to each user prior to sending from a group, it must be done individually.
Templates have the functionality to preview individual users from the drop down menu in a group situation, to check information is correct prior to sending. It would be great if Agreements would allow the same.
Both Templates and Agreements could benefit from the ability to "preview", "enter fields", "save", and "next" before sending. This will assist with the high volume of work.
2 - Once an agreement has been sent, it currently cannot be amended/version controlled, nor can it be labelled as a Draft. This results in multiple "Open" agreements remaining in the portfolio by the time signatories have reviewed, agreed and signed.
It would be helpful to have additional agreement status options or the ability to review, amend and send new version where amendments have been requested.
3 - Notifications and reminders - When working with a high volume of documents/agreements, it would be a great help for chosen users to be notified when agreements have been signed, and for signatories to receive automatic reminders leading up to and after the due date.
4 - A "Parent/Guardian" automated signatory field would be extremely helpful when working with minors that require Consent, to ensure the correct authorised person is the recipient and signing party.
5 - Currently, the location of where a template is generated from determines whether or not it works. And there are many locations and many templates. This causes lots of confusion and uncertainty when sending. It also makes automation (which cannot be tested in staging) impossible to trust that the correct and full information will be received by the recipient..as we cannot be sure of which fields will/wont work based on where the system generates them from.
If the templates be generated from one "location" and draw the same information based on the requested fields, we will know the information is consistent, regardless of whether it is manually or automatically generated).
Thank you
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Official comment
Hi Ally,
Thanks for your feedback and it's great to see people using Agreements as always!
To run through some of these points:1- This seems like a good suggestion since we do now offer a lot of configuration per Agreement!
2 - This is an interesting one as you are correct we don't have a concept of a draft for communication. What are the use cases you find you need to draft communications and come back to it later?
Also, to the points around amendments, since there is no draft state or similar, once an agreement is sent, we consider that the final version and in discussion with other clients have been hesitatnt to add editing since it could lead to situations where one party has signed a document and its been edited post that which would lead to the entire document being void.
3 - In speaking to other users with Agreements, they have seen a lot of success with using workflows to get notifications around completion or due dates. This would involve setting up the workflow to trigger around the Reporting you can do on agreements, but has so far allowed a high degree of flexibility that would be unable to build out (in a flexible way) for you.
4 - Parent/Guardian fields are now available as part of Agreements; however, we are unable to perform any checks on when they will need to be added!
5 - This one is fairly inherent to the template system in general. A template can only pull information to the fields within it if it is sent from the relevant context (Class field information when being sent via a class; otherwise, it can't know which Class to pull from). Sadly, there is not a very easy way to get around this other than some trial and error OR by reaching out to Support to help make sure things are configured correctly.
Thanks again for all the feedback,
JackComment actions -
Good feedback, I raised a similar issue about having multiples of the same agreement that are left open and being able to get notifications.
You've raised some good suggestions :)
https://support.axcelerate.com.au/hc/en-gb/community/posts/7496337128079-Agreements-Dashboard-Widget
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We would definitely like this function added too, especially if a fillable field for the client to enter their name (not us) before signing the agreement could be added, the creating manual field only provided sections where we (admin) could amend the details prior to sending.
We have a form where we need guardian consent for an underage student to attend our course but we can only send it to the participant (which is totally fine and they pass it on) but when signing the agreement it notes it was signed by the student we sent to and not the parent's details.
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Thanks ladies, I know tech support are working hard in the background to make the improvements and they have been really helpful with the glitches along the way.
For those also trialling agreement uses: We have been trialling using the agreements for Assessors to be able to sign off students remotely which is great but practically still a long way to go. We've customised the signature request template to have the student's name if sending individually, otherwise there is no way to identify one agreement request to another. With a large volume of students this was going to be a long term issue so we resorted to sending by session (all session students, one agreement) but now cannot get the workshop/session name field to work so again, no way of telling them apart haha.
We have also learnt that if you send the agreement to the trainer (under their name within session view), the Agreement will save to the trainer's portfolio. If you send individual students to the same trainer, it will save under the student's portfolio. If all agreements were saved to the signatories portfolio and if axc can make it possible to view and sign directly from there, they are all in the same place without needing to search through emails that look identical.
Admin (or whoever generates the agreement) really needs to be able to preview, amend and resend without needing to wait for signing to see comments or differentiate between agreements.
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Certainly agree with point 3. Whether it can be built into the workflow tools or have a dashboard widget showing outstanding, recently completed (ie last 3 or 7 days), etc.
I think it is a great tool that aXc have built, and are excited to use it, but we cannot rely on admin staff checking portfolios on the hope that an agreement has been completed.
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We have received some feedback that agreement emails look like spam, it would be beneficial if we could also customize the email that is sent to have more context about the agreement needing to be signed. Also received feedback from organisations that have multiple students employed and receive multiple agreements that it is hard to track who each agreement relates to.
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