How To Sign And Manage Your Contracts On The Ipad

Tired of lugging around folders of paper contracts while out of the office? Wouldn't you like a better way to edit your documents, get signatures and digitally organize your contracts?

More and more businesses are streamlining their processes and using smart devices such as the iPad to replace old paper systems. Often the key to closing the deal and getting the contract is the ability to quickly finalize all the details. By following the steps explained below, you could have a digital contract system set up within a couple of hours at a very affordable cost.

Step 1 - Setup your PC or Mac

The iPad does not stand alone in your contract management system. You still need an office computer where you will perform your primary editing and store your file archives.

First, you need to get your contract documents installed on your office Windows or Macintosh computer. There are countless contract suppliers available. Wherever you get your contracts from you need them in a format that can be readily imported into the iPad (such as plain text Word documents).

You might wonder, "Why don't you just use an iPad contract app?" We believe in using the best tools available, and the iPad now has some high quality word processing and signing applications that can be used with your existing documents. So let's get going to do just that.

Step 2 - Edit your contracts and get them ready for your iPad

Now that you have your contracts on your computer, it's time to edit them and get them polished up for your iPad. While the iPad has word processing abilities, it is still a very basic word processing system. So for your initial contract setup, it's optimal to do your major editing on your Windows or Mac computer. This also ensures all your original work is saved.

After you have finished your major edits, save your Word .DOC file and also save an Acrobat PDF version. It is easier to complete and sign your contracts as PDF files, but if you need to make text updates to your contracts away from the office, you will want to have your Word .DOC versions on your iPad as well.

If your contracts include financial data such as summing up line items for many products and services, calculating taxes, etc., you should also create a spreadsheet that you can sync to your iPad to crunch the figures you will enter into the contract. If your contract needs only a signature, your use of the iPad will be much simpler.

Step 3 - Install 3rd party iPad apps

We will look at three apps that complement each other. Depending on the intricacy of your contracts, you will need at least an app for signing documents, and perhaps a word processor app and a spreadsheet app as well.

iAnnotate - This app is a must-have for digitally signing your documents.

Pages - This app will handle the bulk of your in-the-field word processing needs.

Numbers - This app will handle the bulk of your calculating needs for estimates and invoices.

You will also want a stylus. Many different rubber-tipped iPad styluses are available; any of these will make signing the screen easier. A stylus is not required, but using a stylus is more precise than using your fingers, and won't mess up your display with smudges.

Step 4 - Move your files onto your iPad

One easy way is to just email the files to the email address you have configured on your iPad. Then all you have to do is open the attachment and you will have access to the document in your iPad word processor or contract signing application.

One of the best ways we've found to move documents is to use iTunes to sync files. The iTunes sync option is supported by the iPad apps we will use to edit and sign our documents, so that's the method we'll show you here.

Plug in your iPad and open iTunes. Click your iPad device and then click the Apps window. All three of our suggested apps (iAnnotate, Pages, and Numbers) work with iTunes file sharing, so you will see whichever apps you have installed in the File Sharing list here.

Now click the iAnnotate app. You will see some PDF documents and folders in the list. This is where you add your own .PDF and .DOC files from your hard drive. Click the Add button, browse to where you saved your edited contracts and add them to this list.

If you also installed the Pages and/or Numbers apps, repeat this process to add your .DOC and .XLS files to those apps. When you have added all your custom documents, you can sync your iPad. All your custom documents will now be on your iPad and available to your iPad apps.

Step 5 - Complete and sign your contracts on your iPad

The amount of custom editing and financial calculations you do for each customer contract will determine which apps you use and in which order.

The most complicatedsituation would be someone like a business owner who has to enter a lot of client data, such as dates, work orders, addresses, names, descriptions and line items with financial calculations for multiple products, service and taxes. If this is your situation, you may be using all three of the Pages, Numbers and iAnnotate apps.

A simple situation would be a photographer who needs minimal name/address information and signatures on model releases. In this case, you may be using only iAnnotate.

Let's consider our more complex situation: the complicated contracts with lots of data to input. To make life simpler, you could have your office staff create the contracts for your day's jobs with all the bids and calculations already done, then sync all those files your iPad before you leave the office. Then all you'd need to do is get the client's signature and save the signed PDF to sync back at the office later.

However, sometimes you might wind up needing to edit work orders and do calculations in the field with the Pages and Numbers apps. You would open Pages, browse to your .DOC version of your contract and perform the detailed word processing needed for that client (it is possible to fill out a detailed contract in iAnnotate, but it's a more involved process).

Not only can you use a stylus (or your finger) to sign on the dotted line, you can also type actual text over the top of your contract (this is helpful for adding titles, phone numbers, dates and addresses). You can add comments, highlight important sections and even add "rubber stamps" for a wide variety of common situations.

After you have filled in details and the parties have signed the document, that's it! Save the signed contract on your iPad.

Step 6 - Sync your signed documents securely back to your computer

When you return to your office, you can sync your iPad and then copy all your completed and annotated contracts to your computer. As you can see, the iPad can be a workable contract editing, signing and management tool for professionals in the field. By using a few low-cost iPad apps you can build a quick and cost-effective mobile contract management system for your business.