Contracts and Change Orders

Misti_Shaver
New Contributor II

Hi All, My question is how are 'you' doing contracts and change orders? 

The state of Oregon requires a contract for any job over $2,000 along with notices to be given to the customer to protect them from liens.  With our last CRM/FSM we were able to use an e-signature program that pulled the information straight from the estimate and put it into the contract.  It eliminated so many issues with the contract not matching the work order.  There was no double or triple entry from estimate to contract to the job.  We are still using the same e-signature program, but we are not manually entering the information. So, what are you using for contracts?

Another issue we have are change orders.  We are a water filtration and pump company.   There are times we may go out to do a filtration installation and discover that a pressure tank is bad.  If we can, we will replace it while on site.  However, we need to do a change order.  I uploaded a PDF of our Change Order into Forms.  Which is okay, but not very user-friendly.  My technicians were like... 'Can we still use the old carbon copy?'    What are you using for change orders? 

Any recommendations would be appreciated!

2 REPLIES 2

AHennager
Contributor II

Hi @Misty,

Thanks for posting your question in ServiceTitan Community!

At my old organization here in California, we used ServiceTitan, and we also had an ongoing conversation about contracts. We had a contract that I designed as a fillable PDF using Adobe Acrobat. We were steadfast in abiding by the rules presented in the CSLB's guide for Home Improvement Contracts and designed the contract per their requirements. We ultimately relied on a manual data entry process within the contract for job-related information, and we also used DocuSign for the e-signature process.

You can do a lot with Forms in ServiceTitan, but one roadblock we encountered was the e-signature process. Often times our technicians had to complete the contract when no longer dispatched and arrived at a job. While ServiceTitan does offer an e-sign option with Forms, it only operates for Mobile users when dispatched and arrived at a job. Additionally, it also doesn't allow you to obtain multiple signatures and initials in specific areas where you need it, in a single document. Our contract, following the rules presented by the CSLB, required multiple signatures and initials in various areas. Due to this, we felt DocuSign was the best external solution for our contracts at that time.

The rules for contracts may be different in Oregon, so perhaps you can explore possibilities for contracts using Forms and smart fields, as Brandon previously suggested.

Relevant resources to check out:
Academy - Forms Basics
Academy - PDF Forms

Knowledge Base - Forms (Landing page)

I would recommend checking out Knowledge Base's article on PDF forms if you haven't already. This may be helpful in making your Change Order PDF form more user-friendly. 

Best,
Adam

bmattson36
New Contributor

Hello Misti,

I don't have a solid answer to your "contract" question more a suggestion to check out creating a "Form" and using the "Smart Field" where appropriate to create your contract.

Concerning the change orders we address on-site changes to the job two ways. Our techs in the field can just simply add items to the current invoice. Second, our office personnel can add items to the current invoice OR add an adjustment invoice to the job.

Brandon Mattson
Water Doctor of WA