The agreement that never came back
A new client is ready to go. The administrator prepares the client agreement and the fee agreement, fills in the client's name, the service level and the agreed charges, saves them as PDFs and emails them. The client means to print them. Their printer is out of ink. A week passes.
Meanwhile the adviser has started work, because the client is keen and the meeting went well. When a file check later finds the agreement unsigned, or signed weeks after work began, nobody quite remembers how it happened.
Why signatures lag
Printing, signing and scanning is a genuine barrier for many clients. And the firm's side is manual too: documents prepared by hand, sent from someone's mailbox, tracked in memory. If the administrator is busy or away, nobody is watching.
Some firms have an e-signature tool but use it only for some documents, or send through it without linking the result back to the client record.
- Documents typed up by hand with client details and charges.
- Sent as attachments that need printing.
- No reminders unless someone remembers.
- Signed copies arrive by post, email or photo.
- No single list of unsigned agreements.
Joint clients add another step. Both partners need to sign, often at different times and from different places, and a document signed by one and not the other looks finished at a glance. Paper makes this worse, because the half-signed copy tends to sit in someone's kitchen drawer.
What unsigned agreements cost
| Problem | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Agreement unsigned when work starts | Awkward questions at file check |
| Charges typed by hand | Mismatch between agreement and back office |
| Signed copy not filed | Search when it is needed |
| Updated agreement at review | Old version still the latest on file |
Time chasing is only part of it. Mismatches between the signed agreement and the charges set up with the provider are harder to spot and harder to fix later.
The sending and tracking we build
- Your client agreement, fee agreement and other standard documents become templates filled from the client record: names, service level, agreed charges.
- Documents are sent through an e-signature service such as DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign, or the one your back office includes, from a single button.
- Reminders go out on a schedule you choose, and unsigned documents move to an administrator after a set point.
- Signed documents are filed to the client record automatically, with the signing certificate.
- The agreed charges are compared with those set up in your back office, and differences are flagged.
- A board lists every document out for signature, by client, adviser and age.
- Where your firm wants it, cases cannot be marked ready for submission until the relevant agreement is signed.
How the office runs afterwards
Clients sign on their phone the day they receive the document. Signed copies file themselves. The board shows the few that are outstanding, and the charges on file match what the client signed. When a review changes the service level, the updated agreement goes out and is tracked in the same way.
Administrators stop preparing documents field by field, because the details come from the client record. The owner can see how many agreements are outstanding at any moment. And the file for each client holds the signed agreement with its date, which makes later questions about when work began easy to answer.
Could this be your firm?
- Clients are asked to print, sign and scan agreements.
- Client details and charges are typed into agreements by hand.
- You have found work started on unsigned agreements.
- Signed copies arrive in several formats and channels.
- Nobody can list all unsigned documents today.