Understanding Contracts in Sure Send
Understanding Contracts in Sure Send
Purpose: Learn how contracts work in Sure Send so you can manage deals from start to finish in one centralized workspace.
What Is a Contract?
A contract in Sure Send is a standalone deal workspace. It is not a tab on a contact record or a single data field. It is its own record with its own activity feed, contacts list, tasks, documents, notes, milestones, and change log.
When a deal moves forward, you create a Contract in Sure Send. That contract becomes the single source of truth for everything related to that deal.
Think of it this way: a contact record tracks the relationship with a person. A contract record tracks the progress of a deal. They are connected but serve separate purposes.
The Four Building Blocks
Sure Send contracts are built on four layers that work together. Understanding how these layers relate is the key to setting up contracts effectively.
1. Contract Types (Your Blueprints)
A Contract Type is a template that defines how a specific kind of deal should be structured. You create one for each deal scenario your business handles.
Examples of Contract Types:
- Standard Sale
- Service Agreement
- Renewal
- Referral Partnership
Each Contract Type defines which fields are visible, which milestones and task checklists are included, and which pipeline the contract follows. You build a Contract Type once and reuse it every time you start a new deal of that type.
Where to set it up: Click Settings in the left navigation, then select Contract Types.
Good to know: Contract Types are versioned. When you update a Contract Type (add a field, change a milestone), existing contracts are not affected. Only new contracts created after the change use the updated version. This protects active deals from mid-stream changes.
2. Pipelines (Your Stage Sequences)
A Pipeline is an ordered sequence of stages that represents how a deal moves from start to finish.
Example pipeline stages:
- Qualification
- In Progress
- Under Review
- Final Approval
- Completed
Every Contract Type links to a Primary Pipeline and optionally a Secondary Pipeline.
| Pipeline | Purpose | Triggers Automations? |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Tracks deal progression through stages | Yes |
| Secondary | Categorizes why deals were lost or cancelled | No |
Your primary pipeline is the one that matters for day-to-day workflow. The secondary pipeline is optional and used solely for reporting on lost deals (for example: "Client Withdrew," "Budget Issue," "Timeline Mismatch").
Where to set it up: Click Settings in the left navigation, then select Pipelines.
3. Milestones (Your Workflow Checkpoints)
A Milestone is a workflow checkpoint with a checklist of tasks attached to it. Milestones are defined on a Contract Type, and each milestone contains task templates that generate automatically when a contract is created.
Example milestones for a "Standard Sale" Contract Type:
- Initial Setup (tasks: send welcome email, collect signed agreement, verify contact details)
- Processing (tasks: schedule kickoff call, confirm deliverables, assign team members)
- Quality Review (tasks: run quality check, gather client feedback, document revisions)
- Final Delivery (tasks: send completion notice, request testimonial, update records)
Each task template inside a milestone can include a name, description, priority level, and a due date offset (for example: "due 3 days after the milestone is created").
The key distinction: Milestones are not pipeline stages.
This is the most important concept to understand. Milestones and pipeline stages are completely independent systems.
- Pipeline stages answer: Where is this deal in the overall process? (broad categories, typically 4 to 7 stages)
- Milestones answer: What specific tasks need to get done within each phase? (granular checklists)
You might have 5 pipeline stages and 15 milestones across your entire workflow. That is normal. They do not need to match one-to-one, and they operate independently of each other.
Where to set it up: Click Settings in the left navigation, then select Contract Types. Choose a Contract Type and open the Milestones tab.
4. Contracts (Your Living Deal Records)
A Contract is an individual deal created from a Contract Type. It is the active record your team works in every day.
When you create a new contract, the system automatically applies the blueprint from the selected Contract Type, links to the associated pipeline, and generates all milestones and their tasks.
What you will find inside a contract:
| Tab | What Is Inside |
|---|---|
| Details | Deal value, key dates, address fields, custom fields |
| Activity | Timeline of changes and updates |
| Contacts | People associated with the deal, each with a defined role |
| Tasks | All tasks from milestones and any manually created tasks |
| Milestones | Workflow checkpoints with completion tracking |
| Notes | Internal notes about the deal |
| Documents | Files and documents attached to the deal |
| Change Log | Full history of every change made |
Contract Participant Roles
Every deal involves multiple people. Sure Send lets you define exactly who is involved and what their role is.
Default roles available out of the box: Buyer, Seller, Primary Contact.
You can add any custom roles your workflow requires: Account Manager, Project Lead, Partner Contact, Finance Rep, or anything else that fits.
Each participant on a contract can have a role label, a primary contact flag, and flags indicating which side of the deal they represent.
Where to set it up: Click Settings in the left navigation, then select Contract Contact Roles.
Good to know: Contract participant roles are completely separate from team roles and sub-team assignments. They exist only in the context of a specific contract.
Quick Reference
| I want to... | Use this |
|---|---|
| Define what a deal looks like | Contract Type |
| Track where a deal is in the process | Pipeline (Primary) |
| Track why a deal fell through | Pipeline (Secondary) |
| Define the checklist of work to do | Milestones (on the Contract Type) |
| Work on an active deal | Contract |
| Define who is involved in a deal | Contract Contact Roles |
Tips
- Start with your pipelines. Define your stages before creating Contract Types, since each type links to a pipeline.
- Keep pipeline stages broad. Think of them as major phases, not granular steps. Use milestones for the detailed work.
- Use milestones for repeatable checklists. If your team does the same set of tasks for every deal of a certain type, build those as milestone task templates so they generate automatically.
- Customize your roles. The default roles (Buyer, Seller, Primary Contact) are just a starting point. Add any roles that match how your team actually works.