Digital contract signing
Set up employment contracts once, send them for signing, have them signed on a phone or in the office and countersign them – without paper
→ Open employment contracts in SimpliServ · Open my documents
With SimpliServ you send new staff their employment contract as a link. They fill in their details themselves, read the contract and sign with their finger on their phone. You approve the contract, SimpliServ inserts your stored signature and the company stamp and sends the final PDF together with the collective agreement to the staff member. This saves the most time when you hire many people every season, e.g. in a ski school, in hospitality or in retail.
Setting up and approving requires the permission Employment contract → Full access, usually held by the management and HR roles. The basics on weekly hours, leave and contract versions are in Employment contracts.
Set up once
Signature, stamp and documents
Under Administration → Staff & time → Employment contracts click Contract signing at the top to open Digital contract signing.
Signatory and place
Enter the Signer (employer) (e.g. the managing director) and the Place of signing. Both appear in the contract later.
Sign once
Under Employer signature sign once in the field and click Save signature. This signature is inserted into the contract and sealed on every approval. Sign again replaces it.
Upload stamp and documents
- Company stamp (optional) – an image, ideally a PNG with a transparent background.
- Collective agreement (PDF) – staff can view it while signing and email it to themselves. It is also attached to the final contract.
- Company rules (PDF, optional) – sent along like the collective agreement.
Defaults for new contracts
Under Defaults for new contracts you set values every new contract is prefilled with: Planned end of season, Hours per week, Gross monthly salary, Hourly rate, Vacation days per year and Additional agreements. The additional agreements appear in every contract, e.g. notice period, staff provident fund or the refund of a season pass. If you created your own contract fields (see below), you set their default values here too.
Save
With Save. As long as signatory or signature are missing, the sheet shows the notice Not ready to countersign yet and contracts can't be countersigned yet.
Your own contract fields (optional)
If the contract needs details SimpliServ doesn't provide, e.g. accommodation, accommodation € per week or professional qualification, create them as custom fields: Administration → Layout & fields → Fields: Employment contracts (Custom fields). The fields then appear in the contract form, in the invitation, among the defaults in the contract settings and in the PDF.
If you have several contract templates, set under Fields per contract template in the contract settings which fields a template uses, e.g. accommodation only in the contract for seasonal staff. Without a selection All fields apply.
Design the contract template
How the contract looks is set under Administration → Documents & POS → Document templates with the document type Employment contract (Document templates). You edit the template in the design editor just like an invoice. You can create several templates, e.g. one for office staff and one for seasonal staff.
- Placeholders for the staff member (
employee.…, e.g. name, date of birth, address, IBAN and social security number) and for the contract (employment_contract.…, e.g. start, end, weekly hours, pay) are only available in this document type. - A list block with the source Contract custom fields shows your own contract fields.
- In the Signature lines block you choose per line under Digital signature which signature is inserted there: the employer's signature (with stamp) or the staff member's.
Email texts (optional)
Under Administration → Communication → Email templates you find the group Staff with three scenarios: Employment contract to sign, Employment contract concluded and Employment contract documents. Without your own template SimpliServ sends a suitable default text (Email templates).
Send a contract for signing
Create the contract
Click New contract and pick the staff member. The values from the defaults for new contracts are already filled in. If someone returns, e.g. for the next season, SimpliServ takes over the terms of their last contract.
End and template
For seasonal contracts switch on Ends with the season: instead of a fixed date the contract then says "end of the season". If you have several templates, choose the right one under Contract template; without a selection the Default template applies. Below it you fill in your own contract fields.
Send
Save & send for signature saves the contract and the staff member immediately gets an email with the link. A contract that is already saved is sent from the row menu with Send for signature.
You can also include new people right when inviting them: in the Invite member form (Users & roles) and for course instructors under Add course leader → Invite new switch on Send the employment contract right away and enter start, end, weekly hours and pay. After signing up, the person fills in their details and signs on their phone. Only users with the employment contract permission see the switch.
Keep track of the status
The Signature column in the contract list shows where each contract stands:
| Status | Meaning | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting for employee | The link has been sent, the staff member hasn't signed yet. | Sign on this device now or Withdraw signature request |
| Awaiting approval | The staff member has signed, your approval is missing. | Approve & countersign |
| Signed | Both sides have signed. | View contract (PDF) |
When a staff member signs, you get a notification. View contract (PDF) shows the contract as a PDF at any time, also before sending.
If you still need to change a contract that was sent, withdraw it with Withdraw signature request. After correcting it you send it again. Once the staff member has signed, the contract is locked; you then make changes as usual with a new version.
Sign on a device in the office
If the staff member is sitting with you, choose Sign on this device now in the row menu. The dialog walks through the same steps as on the phone:
- Details – whatever is already in the staff profile is prefilled; you complete missing required fields together. With several templates you choose the Contract template here.
- Read contract – View contract shows the finished contract.
- Sign – you hand the tablet or phone to the staff member, they sign with their finger and confirm with Sign.
The contract then shows Awaiting approval and you approve it as described below.
Approve and countersign
Choose Approve & countersign on the contract and confirm. SimpliServ inserts the stored employer signature and the company stamp, seals the PDF and emails it together with the collective agreement and work rules to the staff member. The status changes to Signed.
If signatory or signature are still missing, Digital contract signing opens instead.
How it works for the staff member
Open the link
The staff member gets an email with a link. It works without a SimpliServ account, right on the phone. If they have an account, they also see a notification, the notice Your employment contract is waiting in My courses and under Scheduling → My documents the contract with Fill in & sign now.
Fill in details
Under Your details they enter e.g. date of birth, address, social security number and bank details. These go into the contract and are only visible to them and HR.
Read the contract
They open the contract, can view the collective agreement and work rules and email everything to themselves with Email the documents to me. Then they confirm they have read the contract.
Sign
They sign with their finger and tap Sign. Until you countersign, they see Signed – waiting for your employer.
Receive the final contract
After your approval the PDF arrives by email. The contract stays available in My documents at any time.
If a staff member reports that their link has expired or is invalid, withdraw the signature request and send the contract again.
Related topics
- Employment contracts – weekly hours, leave, versions and contract end
- Users & roles – invite staff and assign permissions
- Custom fields – extra details like accommodation for the contract
- Document templates – how the employment contract looks
- Email templates – texts of the contract emails
- My courses – view for course instructors
How is this guide?