How To Sign And Deliver Your Contracts On The iPad - By: Ian Lauder

Tired of lugging around stacks of paper contracts while out of the office? Wouldn't you like a better way to edit your agreements, 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 immediately finalize all the details. By following the steps explained below, you could have a digital contract system built within a couple of hours at a very reasonable cost.

Step 1 - Setup your Laptop or Desktop Computer

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

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

You might wonder, "Why don't you just use an iPad contract app?" We believe in using the best tools for the job, 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 documents 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 limited word processing system. So for your initial contract setup, it's more efficient to do your major editing on your PC or Macintosh computer. This also ensures all your original work is archived.

After you have finished your major edits, save your Word .DOC file and also save a PDF version. It is easier to complete and sign your contracts in PDF format, but if you need to make text updates to your contracts in the field, you will want to have your Word .DOC copies on your iPad as well.

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

Step 3 - Install third-party iPad apps

We will look at three apps that complement each other. Depending on the complexity 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 contracts.

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 quotes 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 contracts onto your iPad

One easy way is to simply email the files to the email address you have set up on your iPad. Then all you have to do is open the attached file and you will have access to the contract in your iPad word processor or contract signing application.

One of the best ways we've found to move files 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 discuss 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 files and folders in the list. This is where you add your own .PDF and .DOC files from your computer. Click the Add button, browse to where you saved your edited documents 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 edited 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 volume of custom writing and financial calculations you do for each client contract will determine which apps you use and in which order.

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

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

Let's consider our more complex situation: the complicated contracts with lots of fields to input. To make life easier, you could have your office staff create the contracts for your day's jobs with all the estimates 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 having to to edit bids 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 customer (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 add a signature, you can also enter actual text over the top of your contract (this is helpful for adding titles, phone numbers, dates and addresses). You can add notes, highlight important sections and even add "rubber stamps" for a wide variety of common scenarios.

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

Step 6 - Move your signed contracts securely back to your PC or Mac

When you return to your office, you can sync your iPad and then copy all your newly signed and annotated contracts to your computer. As you can see, the iPad can be a very effective contract editing, signing and management tool for professionals in the field. By using a few low-cost iPad apps you can set up an efficient and cost-effective mobile contract management system for your business.

About the Author

Ian Lauder has been helping small businesses and freelancers write their proposals and contracts since 1999. => For more tips and best practices when writing your business proposals and legal contracts go to http://www.proposalkit.com

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Ian-Lauder/174750

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