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Contracts

Create, review, send, and manage customer contracts in Neptune

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Contracts turn a proposal’s sales scope into the documents your customer reviews and signs. Neptune builds a contract from a proposal, so the proposal should contain the correct products, prices, customer details, and consultant before you begin.

If contracts are enabled for your organisation, staff with access to Sales Docs can find contracts there and on the customer’s Documents tab.

Before you start

  • Create the proposal and check its selected products and total. See Creating Proposals.
  • The proposal must belong to a customer. If it still belongs to a lead, Create Contract asks you to convert the lead first.
  • Review the reusable wording under Templates → Contract. See Contract Templates.
  • If you split work into separate agreements, set up the required Contract Document Types before creating the contract.
  • Review the organisation’s payment schedule and, if used, its Contract Payment Options.

Create a contract

  1. Open the proposal.
  2. Click Create Contract.
  3. Check the customer and build address.
  4. Complete the property details that apply, including the lot and deposited plan numbers, local government authority, sewer information, easements or services, datum point, obstacles, and excavation unit.
  5. Review Special conditions. The form starts with the organisation’s saved special conditions, and you can change them for this contract.
  6. Review the payment schedule and contract price.
  7. Choose whether to include the standard conditions.
  8. If document types are available, select the separate documents that should be included. Neptune offers only document types that match products in this proposal.
  9. Review the selected products, then click Create Contract.

Neptune creates the contract, changes the proposal to its contract status, and opens the contract summary.

Current and earlier contract flows

Neptune supports contracts created through both the current and earlier sales flows.

  • A current proposal opens the current Create Contract form. Its contract appears under Sales Docs → Contracts and on the customer’s Documents tab.
  • An earlier proposal continues to open its existing contract form and summary. When the current sales flow is available, these entries are marked as earlier contracts in document lists.

Continue managing each contract from the summary that Neptune opens. You do not need to recreate an earlier contract in the current flow.

Review the contract

The contract summary shows the contract ID and status. Depending on the contract and your organisation’s setup, it can include tabs or documents for the main contract, terms, payment details, signatures, approvals, supply, landscaping, or separately configured document types.

Before sending, check:

  • the customer and build address;
  • the contract scope and price;
  • the payment schedule;
  • special conditions and standard conditions;
  • the business details on each separate document type; and
  • every generated PDF that will be sent.

Use Preview in Gateway from the actions menu to review the customer-facing experience. Use View proposal to return to the source proposal.

Send a contract

  1. Open the contract summary.
  2. Click Send contract. On an earlier contract, use the send button shown on its summary.
  3. Choose the recipients and sender.
  4. Review the subject and message.
  5. Keep the contract review button in the message. Neptune will ask you to add it if it is missing.
  6. Add any allowed brochures or documents if required.
  7. Send the message.

The current flow sends the contract PDF and any selected supporting contract documents, then returns to the contract summary. A sent contract can be opened and signed through the customer-facing review page.

Customer review and signature

The customer opens the contract from the review button in the email. The customer-facing page takes them through the available sections, which can include Contract, Terms, separate supporting documents, Payment, Checklist, and Sign.

To accept the contract, the customer:

  1. Reviews the contract, terms, payment details, and each included document.
  2. Signs each separate document when the contract includes document types that require their own signature. Earlier contracts can instead require signatures for approvals, supply, or landscaping sections when those documents are included.
  3. Completes every item on Checklist, when your organisation has configured one.
  4. Opens Sign, types their full name, and acknowledges the contract and terms.
  5. Clicks Accept Contract.

Only the customer using the secure review link can complete the signature. For a current contract, opening a sent contract changes its status to Viewed. Successful acceptance changes the contract to Signed, stores the signature details, and notifies the consultant. Earlier contracts also change to Signed after successful acceptance, but continue to use their existing review experience.

If a signed contract was completed outside Neptune, open the actions menu and choose Mark as signed. Use this only when you have confirmed that the signed document is valid.

Continue to invoices or a Job

If Invoices is enabled for your organisation, a signed current contract can show suggested invoices under its Invoices tab. Review each suggestion before selecting Create invoice. See Invoices.

Signing a contract does not create a Job automatically. When your team is ready to hand the customer into delivery, open the customer and choose New → Job. If Work Orders are enabled, link the proposal and optionally the contract in the Job details. See Jobs and Work Orders.

Create a variation

Open the contract’s actions menu and choose Create variation. Variations work with both current and earlier contracts. See Contract Variations.

Find a contract

Open Sales Docs → Contracts to view contracts across your organisation. You can also open a customer and select Documents.

The organisation-wide list supports both current and earlier contracts. If you search by contract ID, enter the ID in the format requested beside the search field.

Common issues and limits

  • Create Contract opens a lead conversion prompt: Contracts require a customer record. Convert the lead, then return to the proposal.
  • Create Contract is unavailable: A contract has already been created from that proposal, or your organisation does not have sales documents available.
  • A separate document type is missing: It appears only when the proposal contains products from categories assigned to that document type. Check Contract Document Types.
  • Contract wording is wrong: Update Templates → Contract for future contracts, or change the contract’s available fields before creating it. Template changes do not rewrite saved contract details.
  • The send page rejects the message: Keep the required contract review button in the email.
  • The customer cannot sign: Confirm they opened the secure customer review link. Staff previews are read-only.
  • The customer is told the checklist is incomplete: Every configured checklist item must be selected before Accept Contract can continue.
  • The customer is told a document is not signed: Open and sign each included supporting document before accepting the full contract.
  • A signed contract cannot be resent: The current send page is unavailable after the contract is signed.
  • An earlier contract looks different: Open and manage it through the summary Neptune provides. Earlier and current contracts remain supported side by side.