Planning is under way, the contract is not back
The client emailed to say they would love to go ahead. Your sales manager marked the booking confirmed, sent the contract as a PDF and handed over to the events coordinator. Three months later, the coordinator is finalising menus and AV, and finance asks for the signed contract to raise the balance invoice. It was never returned. The person who said yes has left the company, and the new organiser is not sure what was agreed.
Everything may still be fine. But if anything goes wrong, such as a cancellation or a dispute over numbers, you have less to rely on than you thought.
Confirmed means different things to different people
In a busy sales office, the priority is the next enquiry. Once a client has said yes, following up a contract feels like admin. The client, meanwhile, may need their legal or procurement team to review it, which takes time and falls off their list. Contracts sent as PDFs are printed, signed, scanned and returned, or not.
- Booking status moves to confirmed on a verbal or email yes.
- Contracts are built by copying a template and editing it, so versions vary.
- There is no reminder when a contract is not returned.
- Returned contracts sometimes have handwritten changes nobody reviews.
What an unsigned contract exposes
Your cancellation terms, number guarantees and payment schedule all live in the contract. Without a signature, relying on them becomes harder, and your adviser is the person to tell you how much harder. The practical cost is a weaker position in any disagreement, and staff time spent reconstructing what was agreed from emails.
We do not write or review your contracts. Your terms come from your own legal adviser.
How we build contract signing into the booking
- Contracts are generated from the booking data and your approved template, so dates, spaces, numbers, packages, payment schedule and terms are filled in without retyping.
- The contract is sent for e-signature through a tool such as DocuSign or a similar service you choose, with the signer's details and a record of when it was opened and signed.
- The booking has a separate status, for example agreed but unsigned, and only moves to confirmed when the signed contract comes back.
- Unsigned contracts trigger chasers on a schedule, and the booking owner is alerted if a contract is still out close to the event or a payment date.
- If a client asks for changes, the edited contract is regenerated and resent, and the version history is kept.
- Signed contracts are stored against the booking so finance and operations can open them in one click.
| Booking status | Meaning | What the system does |
|---|---|---|
| Provisional | Hold on the space | Hold tracking and expiry |
| Agreed, unsigned | Client said yes | Contract sent and chased |
| Confirmed | Signed contract received | Handover to events and finance |
| Changed | Amendment requested | New version generated and sent |
A cleaner handover from sales to events
Coordinators start work on bookings that are properly confirmed, or at least know when they are not. Finance can find the contract without searching email. Sales managers see a short list of contracts outstanding, and chasing becomes routine rather than a clean-up exercise before month end.
Is this your venue?
- Events have taken place without a signed contract on file.
- Contracts are built by editing a Word template each time.
- Nobody chases contracts once the client has said yes.
- Finding a signed contract means searching someone's inbox.
- Clients have made handwritten changes that nobody noticed.