How to Generate and Sign Order Contracts
Every rental should be backed by an agreement, but you shouldn’t have to retype terms for each booking. Rentablez can generate a contract straight from an order using your default template — pulling in the customer, dates, and pricing automatically — so all you do is confirm a few order-specific details and send it for signature.
Why Generate Contracts from the Order?
- No retyping — the customer, rental dates, and totals flow in from the order.
- One place to work — generate, review the PDF, and resend the signature request without leaving the order.
- A clear paper trail — every order shows its contract number, status, and effective date at a glance.
Order contracts reuse your Contracts setup. The template, clauses, and variables are defined once in the Contracts module and then applied to each order. See Contracts Overview to set those up first.
Before You Start
A few conditions must be met before the Generate Contract button will work:
| Requirement | Why |
|---|---|
| Order is not in Draft or Cancelled status | Contracts are only for confirmed orders |
| A default contract template exists | Generation always uses your default template |
| Asset/vehicle allocation is confirmed | The contract references the specific stock on the order |
| You have contract write permission | Generating and sending is a write action |
Order contracts are available on rental and lease orders only. Sale orders don’t have a Documents drawer, so they don’t offer contracts.
Step 1 — Open the Contracts Section
- Open the order from the Orders list.
- In the order header, click the Documents icon (the folder icon).
- The Order Documents drawer opens. The Contracts section sits at the top, above your uploaded files.
If no contract exists yet, you’ll see the message “No contracts generated yet for this order.” along with a hint to generate one once allocation is confirmed.
Step 2 — Generate the Contract
- Click Generate Contract in the top-right of the Contracts section.
- Rentablez builds the contract from your default template, filling in the customer, dates, and pricing from the order.
- On success you’ll see a confirmation and the new contract appears as a card in the list.
The Generate Contract button is hidden once the order already has an active contract. Each order carries a single live contract at a time — only expired or terminated contracts leave room to generate a new one.
If allocation isn’t ready, generation is blocked and you’ll see a clear message. Confirm dispatch/allocation on the order, then try again.
Step 3 — Fill in Order-Specific Details (if asked)
Some templates include manual variables — details that can’t be pulled automatically and must be entered per order (for example, a site contact or a special instruction).
If your template uses them, a Fill in contract details window opens before the contract is created:
- Complete every field. All listed fields are required.
- A sample or hint is shown under each field to guide the expected value.
- Click Generate Contract in the window to finish.
These values are permanently stamped into the contract for this order. Enter them carefully — they become part of the generated document.
To learn where manual variables come from, see Custom Variables.
Step 4 — Review the Contract PDF
Each contract card shows its contract number, the created and effective dates, and a colored status badge.
- Click View PDF on any contract to open the generated document in a new tab and check the terms before it goes out.
Step 5 — Send for Signature and Track Status
Sending the contract for signature — the internal company signature and the customer’s signature request with OTP verification — is handled in the Contracts module, where you finalize the contract and send the request. The order’s Contracts section then reflects wherever the contract is in that journey through its status badge.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| DRAFT | Generated, not yet finalized |
| FINALIZED | Ready to send for signature |
| PENDING_SIGNATURE | Signature request sent; waiting on the customer |
| ACTIVE | Fully signed and in force |
| EXPIRED | Past its expiry date |
| TERMINATED | Ended early |
For the complete signing walkthrough — company signature, sending the request, and the customer’s OTP-verified signature — see Signing Contracts.
Resending the Signature Request
When a contract is in PENDING_SIGNATURE and the customer hasn’t signed yet, a Resend button appears on the contract card. Click it to send the signature request to the customer again. You’ll get a confirmation once it’s resent.
Resend only shows while a contract is waiting on the customer. It won’t appear for draft, active, expired, or terminated contracts.