Contract signers, links and locks

A contract has parties: the people or businesses who sign it. A party is either a member (a United Pet Club profile, who signs in the app) or an outside signer (someone without an account, who signs with a one-time link). This page covers the signing side once you press Send for Signature. Open a contract from Paperwork → Contracts to see its parties, their status, and the actions on this page.

Outside signers’ links

When you send a contract, each outside signer gets a signing link. The links appear once, in the Signing links (shown once) card, each with a Copy button. Copy each link and send it to that signer yourself, unless the card says it was e-mailed from your mailbox. Members among the parties don’t need a link: they are told in the app and by e-mail.

If you chose a check for outside signers (an access code, or a one-time code by e-mail, SMS or WhatsApp), the signer passes it before they can sign.

Signing one after another

With One after another, parties sign in the order you set. An outside signer later in the order gets their link at send time like everyone else, but until the parties before them have signed, the link opens the contract read only and the page tells them to come back later.

When their turn comes, United Pet Club e-mails them at the address you entered for them: Your turn to sign, with the contract’s title, your business as the sender and, if the contract expires, the date to sign by. The e-mail has no link in it, on purpose: they open the link you sent them earlier. If they can’t find it, they ask you for a new one (see Re-issue a signer’s link). The e-mail is written in your account’s language, since an outside signer has no account with a language of its own. A signer with no e-mail address gets no reminder: tell them yourself.

When a link locks

A signer who types a wrong access code or one-time code gets a few more tries. After 5 wrong tries at one one-time code that code stops working, and they ask for a new code on the signing page. After 15 wrong tries in all on the same link, the link locks: it stops working for good, whoever holds it.

You hear about it straight away:

a notice in the bell (Focused tab): Signing link locked, with the contract’s name and the signer’s role;
an e-mail with the same news and an Open the contract button.

On the contract page the signer shows a red Link locked badge. Someone may have been guessing the code, or your signer may simply have mistyped it. Either way, nobody else’s signature is affected.

Re-issue a signer’s link

Re-issue link gives one outside signer a new signing link. Use it when their link locked, or when they lost the one you sent. It is on each outside signer who hasn’t signed yet, on a contract that is out for signature; on a locked link the button is highlighted.

On the contract page, in Parties, choose Re-issue link next to the signer.
Read the confirmation and choose Re-issue link.
The new link appears once, in the Signing links (shown once) card. Copy it and send it to the signer.

What changes:

The signer’s old link stops working, and the lock is lifted.
They pass the access code or one-time code check again with the new link, even if they had passed it before.
Signatures already made stay, and every other signer’s link keeps working.
In a contract signed one after another, the new link still waits for the parties before it.

You can’t re-issue the link of a signer who already signed, of a member (members sign in the app), or on a draft or a contract that is completed, declined, voided or expired.

Health certificates: the vet party

A contract that must be signed by a licensed vet (for example a Health certificate, whose Issuing veterinarian party requires the VETERINARIAN qualification) has two extra rules.

Bind the vet party before you send. In the contract’s Parties step, under Bind to a profile, choose the practice (or the vet’s own profile) that will sign. Until you do, Send for Signature and Create & Send stay off and the page says Bind the vet party to the practice or vet profile that will sign. You can still save the draft. This stops a vet you didn’t choose from signing your certificate.

The vet needs a verified licence. To sign, the vet acts as the practice the party is bound to, holds a vet role on that practice’s team, and has a Veterinary License that United Pet Club has verified on their own profile (it shows under UPC recognitions, see Certificates and awards). A vet role on the team is not enough by itself. A vet without a verified licence sees Not qualified when they try to sign.

If the check can’t run at that moment, the vet sees We couldn’t check your qualification just now: nothing was signed, and they try again in a few minutes.

If something went wrong

You see	What it means	What to do
Link locked on a signer	Too many wrong codes were entered on their link	Re-issue the link and send them the new one
Bind the vet party before sending	The vet party isn’t bound to a practice	Edit the contract and choose the practice under Bind to a profile
Not qualified when a vet signs	The vet has no vet role on the practice, or no verified veterinary licence	Add them to the team with a vet role; the vet gets their licence verified
We couldn’t check your qualification just now	The check couldn’t run	Try again in a few minutes
A signer says the link is read only	It isn’t their turn yet	They wait for the e-mail saying it’s their turn