✍Contracts

It sends documents for signature and records what has happened to them. Create, send, have signed, countersign, file — every step is logged, from creation through the recipient opening it to the signature.

The page has two tabs:

• Sendings — everything that has gone out or is meant to go out, with the counters Total, Sent, Pending and Completed.
• Templates — your own documents and the four non-binding samples.

You decide which documents you send: Aurora Hive Sales does not come with ready-made contracts for a particular business, but with the tools you use to create your own.

Via Contracts → “Templates” tab → “New template”. A template consists of sections, and each section of paragraphs — just as a contract is structured.

While writing, you have the following at your disposal:

• Placeholders, which are replaced by real details when sending.
• Text blocks, which you insert at the cursor.
• Your own fields, if your contract needs details that are not available as standard.

“Preview” shows at any time what the finished document looks like with your company details. A template can be copied — the quickest way to a second type of contract is the first one with a different title.

Administrators may create and change templates. Everyone else sees them and sends with them.

A place in the text that is only filled in when sending — such as the recipient’s name or the agreed amount. In the text it looks like this: {{empfaenger.firma}} or {{betrag}}.

You do not type this out: put the cursor at the spot and click the placeholder in the list. It is inserted where the cursor last was.

Available are the recipient’s details (company, name, address), your own company details, the details of the sending (amount, service, term, date) and all your own fields that you have created.

If you misspell a placeholder, the preview reports it as unknown instead of silently leaving it empty. That is intentional: an empty spot in the contract is noticed by the recipient, not by you.

For details that only your contract needs. As standard, Aurora Hive Sales knows amount, service, term and date — anything beyond that you create yourself.

A field of your own has four settings:

• Key — the short name by which you address it in the text as a placeholder, for example stunden.
• Label — what appears above the input field when sending, for example “Hours per week”.
• Type — text, number, date or amount. The input aid depends on this.
• Required yes/no.

A required field blocks sending for signature as long as it is empty. That is the brake that prevents a contract with a gap from going out.

Keys that already exist (such as betrag) are rejected — otherwise nobody would know any more which value ends up in the document.

For everything that recurs across several templates: payment and termination terms, data protection paragraphs, notices that belong in every document.

You maintain the text once and insert it with a click when writing a template.

The difference from adjusting a paragraph: a text block is reusable; a paragraph adjustment applies only to a single sending. Whatever you write by hand for the third time should be created as a text block.

What is not suitable as a text block: anything that differs from case to case — amounts, deadlines, names. That is what placeholders and your own fields are for.

Yes. “Upload a document” accepts a PDF file or a Word document (.docx). Other formats are rejected.

• PDF is taken over unchanged. That is the most reliable route if the appearance has to be exactly right.
• Word is converted into a PDF. As a rule, the layout is preserved. If that does not work, the text is taken over in simplified form — headings, paragraphs and tables remain; images, headers and footers and the layout are lost. The template then visibly carries a note that it was converted in simplified form.

The safe rule: if the appearance matters, upload a PDF. From Word, that is one click (“Save as” → PDF).

After uploading, you place the signature fields on the pages.

After uploading, you see the pages of the document as a preview. On them, drag the fields to the right place:

• Signature
• Date
• Name

Each field belongs either to the recipient or to your side. A placed field can be moved and resized by dragging its corner. Finally, “Save fields”.

Without a signature field for the recipient, the document cannot be sent — Aurora Hive Sales tells you this before you try. That is the most important brake in this area: a document without a signature field looks to the recipient like an attachment to be filed away, not like something to sign.

Fields for your side are optional. They are filled in when countersigning.

Yes, four — as a starting aid, not as legal advice:

• Service agreement
• Order confirmation / quote for signature
• Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
• Data processing agreement (AVV) under Art. 28 GDPR, with required details on the type of data and the group of people concerned.

They are marked in yellow as a Sample and are read-only: they can be viewed and used directly, but not changed or deleted. If you want to use your own wording, choose “Adopt as your own template” — you then work on a copy.

Every sample carries the note: Non-binding sample — have it checked legally before use. That is meant seriously. The samples are kept general and know neither your industry nor your negotiating position nor the law of the country your counterpart is in.

With “New sending”. The route has four steps:

1. Search for the recipient. The search goes through your address book and takes over name, email, company and address.
2. Click the documents. You can bundle several in one sending — the order follows the order of your clicks.
3. Fill in the details. Which fields appear depends on the selected templates: amount, service, term, date and your own fields. Required fields block sending as long as they are empty.
4. Choose the mailbox and send.

When sending, you have three routes, and the choice determines what happens immediately:

• Send for signature straight away — the finished document goes directly to the recipient.
• Send a draft first — for viewing, without a signing link.
• Do not send yet – check and adjust first — you land in the preview and can check things and adjust paragraphs at your own pace before anything goes out.

Route 3 is the right one if in doubt.

Yes. The detail view shows every document exactly as the recipient sees it — text templates as a page, uploaded files as page images with the marked fields.

What you can still do there, as long as nothing has been signed:

• Edit the details — amount, date, your own fields.
• Adjust individual paragraphs, just for this one sending.
• View the PDF for each document.

Always look at the preview before sending with a new template for the first time. A wrong figure stands out in context, but not in the input field.

Yes, with “Preview & adjust paragraphs” in the detail view. Click the paragraph and change it — the template remains untouched. Adjusted paragraphs are marked; “Reset to the template” restores the original.

The editor starts with the placeholders, not with the text already filled in; text blocks can be inserted here too.

This is the right place for special arrangements: you change the one document without bending the template for all the others.

Once it has been signed, that is it — you can then only view the paragraphs.

Via a link in the browser — without an account, without an app. They receive the link by email and go through the documents one after another.

In the process, they can correct the company and address if you have stored something different from what is in the commercial register. They sign either by drawing with the mouse or a finger or by typing their name.

Aurora Hive Sales records the date, time and method. That is the core of the evidence: not just that it was signed, but when and how.

On a mobile phone, a signature drawn with a finger is rarely pretty. That is legally irrelevant — a sentence beforehand (“the signature does not have to look perfect”) removes the uncertainty.

As soon as the other side has signed, “Countersign now” appears in the detail view. Alternatively there is a link that you can pass on to the authorised signatory in your company — they do not need an account for Aurora Hive Sales for this.

After countersigning, the finished PDF files go automatically to both sides: to the recipient and to your notification address. “Send the signed documents again” repeats this if an email gets lost.

Do not forget this step: a document signed by only one side is, if in doubt, not what you want to present.

In the detail view with “Cancel the sending”. You give a reason — it stays internal and is not sent to the recipient.

What then happens:

• The recipient’s link becomes invalid. They can no longer sign.
• If something has already gone out — the contract itself or a draft — the recipient receives a short, factual message with the titles of the documents and a note that the link is no longer valid.
• If nothing had gone out yet, nobody is notified either. The message on the page says so explicitly.

The history then shows whether the recipient was notified.

Completed cases cannot be cancelled. A signature that has already been given is not taken back by switching off a link — that requires a termination agreement.

They map the route: Draft → Draft sent → Sent → Opened → Signed – countersignature pending → Countersigned → Completed. In addition there are Expired and Cancelled.

At the top, the same figures appear as tiles: Total, Sent, Pending, Completed.

“Opened” is particularly useful: it says that the recipient has clicked the link. Anyone who has neither opened nor signed after three days has probably not seen the email — then a call makes more sense than a reminder email.

As long as it has not been signed, details and paragraphs can be adjusted in the detail view — the recipient then sees the new version.

After that, no longer: a signed document cannot be changed. That is not technical convenience, but the whole point of a signature.

For a later change there is only one clean route: a new document or an amendment, also signed.

In the Activity log of the detail view. It lists every step with a timestamp: created, sent, opened, signed, countersigned, cancelled — and whether an email actually went out.

Together with the recorded details of the signature, this is the document you present in a dispute. Keep it together with the signed PDF; the log is what has evidential value, not the image of the signature.

Every sending keeps its documents in the record: the template as a snapshot at the time of sending and the finished PDF files after signature. If you later change or delete a template, a document already sent remains unchanged — otherwise you would have a contract whose wording shifts afterwards.

After countersigning, the finished files are also sent by email to both sides.

On retention: under German commercial and tax law you should generally reckon with six to ten years, from the end of the year in which the contract ended. So also back up signed documents wherever you back up your accounts. A generated document can be rebuilt — a signed one is a piece of evidence.

For the great majority of business contracts in Germany, freedom of form applies — no signature is needed at all, and one given in the browser is, as a simple electronic signature, evidence like any other.

You should know two restrictions:

• Where the law requires written form (Schriftform) (for example when terminating employment relationships, guarantees by private individuals, notarial matters), it is not sufficient. There, a qualified electronic signature or paper is needed.
• The evidential value is lower than with a qualified signature. The log — time, method, delivery route — is therefore important.

If in doubt, your solicitor clarifies this for your type of contract, not this help page. That applies all the more to the samples supplied.

The person who is to sign. They receive the link by email.

Check this carefully: a contract that goes to a company’s shared address ends up with someone who is not authorised to sign — and in the worst case they sign anyway. A signature without power of representation does not bind the company.

For larger contracts, a look at the commercial register (Handelsregister) is worthwhile: who is authorised to represent the company is listed there publicly, and the search takes two minutes. If two people have to sign jointly, you need both signatures.

Without a stored email address nothing goes out; that is the same prerequisite as for campaigns.

First look at the status: “Opened” means the link has been clicked — then it is a matter of decision, not delivery. If it shows “Sent”, the email has probably not reached the recipient or is in the spam folder.

In the first case a call helps; in the second, a second sending to a different address.

Call instead of sending a third email. The most common reasons only come out in conversation: a question about a clause that nobody wanted to ask; a decision that lies with someone else; a budget that has changed.

And set a Follow-up straight away when sending — otherwise nobody will remind anyone.

The deadline for signing has passed; the link no longer leads anywhere.

That is not an error but a safeguard: a signing link that still works months later is a risk — the basis of the contract may have changed.

The way back is a new sending with the same documents.

Because the instance’s sending brake is active or no outgoing mail has been set up. Aurora Hive Sales says so honestly instead of reporting “sent” and doing nothing — when creating, when sending again, for the draft, when countersigning and for the final sending.

The history then shows “Not sent (sending brake)”. The case remains; only the email is missing.

What to do: connect the mailbox or have the sending brake switched off, and then choose “Send again”.

Conversely: on test and acceptance environments without a sending brake, contract emails really do go out. For trial runs, use an address that belongs to you — not that of the real contracting party.

On yourself, completely — not just in the preview:

1. Send to an address of your own that you do not otherwise use.
2. Read the email as a recipient receives it — on a mobile phone too.
3. Open the link and go through all the documents.
4. Sign.
5. Countersign and check whether the finished PDF files reach both sides and what the log looks like.

That takes ten minutes and finds the mistakes a customer would otherwise find. Do it before the first real sending — and again whenever a template has changed.

• Administrators (owners and administrators) create templates, change them, upload documents and place the signature fields.
• Team members see the templates and send with them, but cannot change them.
• Read only sees the list and the records, but has neither “New sending” nor the edit buttons.

That is intentional: a contract template is a legal document. Whoever changes it changes it for all future sendings at once.

The menu item “Contracts” is in the Contacts & campaigns group and belongs to the Agency plan. It is missing in the Start plan.