> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rescueconsole.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Contract templates
> Writing the agreements people sign: the text, merge fields, what an adoption contract asks at signing, when each template is offered, and versions.
**Contract templates** holds the agreements people sign: the adoption contract, a foster agreement, a surrender form. A template is the text a contract is made from. The signed contracts themselves live on the records they were signed on.
Find it under **Settings → Operations & forms → Contract templates**, or type "Contract templates" in the search palette. Anyone whose role can **See** Animals can read the templates. Writing, editing and retiring them needs **Change** on Animals.
An adoption can only be recorded by signing an adoption contract on an approved application, so your organization needs at least one active adoption template. See [Recording the adoption](/animals/applications#recording-the-adoption).
## The list
Each template shows its name and version, what it is for, the conditions it is offered under ("Offered for: every animal", for one with none), and its text. A template that has been signed says how many times.
Tick **Show retired** to list retired templates too; they are marked **Retired**.
## New template
Press **New template**.
| Field | What it means |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Name** | What staff choose it by, such as "Adoption agreement". Required. |
| **Version** | However you refer to this version. Starts as v1. |
| **For** | **Adoption**, **Foster**, **Surrender** or **Other**. |
| **Body** | The text of the agreement. Required. |
Then set what it asks at signing (adoption templates only) and when it is offered, and press **Create**. Two templates cannot share both a name and a version.
### For
| Kind | Where it is signed |
| ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Adoption** | On an approved application, which records the adoption, and on an adoption's **Contract** tab. See [Adoptions](/animals/adoptions#the-contract). |
| **Foster**, **Surrender**, **Other** | Written and kept here. The app does not yet offer these for signing on any record. |
### Body
Write the agreement as you would a reply: bold, links, lists, headings, tables, pictures, a letterhead. Put merge fields where the details go, for example:
`I, {{signer_name}}, agree to adopt {{animal_name}} for {{fee}} on {{date}}.`
Your organization's name is not a merge field. Type it into the text.
## Merge fields
Under the body, **Merge fields: click to insert** lists every merge field. Click one to insert it where the cursor is, spelled exactly. Hover over one to see what it fills in.
| Merge field | What it fills in |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `{{animal_name}}` | The animal's name. |
| `{{animal_species}}` | Its species. |
| `{{animal_id}}` | Its ID. |
| `{{animal_names}}` | Every animal the contract names, for animals going home together. |
| `{{animal_ids}}` | Their IDs. |
| `{{microchip_number}}` | The animal's microchip. |
| `{{microchip_numbers}}` | Every animal's microchip. |
| `{{adopter_name}}` | The adopter's name, or the foster carer's on a foster agreement. |
| `{{adopter_email}}` | Their email. |
| `{{adopter_phone}}` | Their phone. |
| `{{co_applicant_name}}` | The co-applicant's name, from the application. |
| `{{co_applicant_email}}` | The co-applicant's email. |
| `{{fee}}` | The fee, after discounts. For animals going home together, all their fees added up. |
| `{{list_fee}}` | The fee before discounts. Adoptions only. |
| `{{discounts}}` | The discounts applied. Adoptions only. |
| `{{date}}` | The date. On an approved application, the adoption day; elsewhere, the day it is signed. |
| `{{signer_name}}` | The name typed to sign. |
| `{{media_release}}` | Yes or No: from the application, or asked when signing. |
| `{{payment_method}}` | How the fee is paid: asked when signing on an approved application; on an adoption's Contract tab, the method of its latest payment. |
| `{{payment_instructions}}` | How to complete the payment, asked when signing. |
| `{{approved_by}}` | The team member approving the contract, asked when signing. |
| `{{completed_at}}` | Where it was completed, asked when signing. |
A detail that is simply missing, such as a co-applicant on an application without one, fills in as nothing.
Anything in double braces that is not one of these stays in the contract exactly as typed, and **a contract with an unfilled placeholder cannot be signed**. A misspelled merge field shows up when somebody tries to sign it. Insert fields by clicking them rather than typing.
## Asked when it is signed
An adoption template can ask up to four things when it is signed on an approved application. Tick each one the template needs; the merge fields it fills are shown beside it, to put in your text.
| Ask | Fills |
| ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| **The media release choice** | `{{media_release}}` |
| **How they pay, and how to complete it** | `{{payment_method}}`, `{{payment_instructions}}` |
| **The team member approving it** | `{{approved_by}}` |
| **Where it was completed** | `{{completed_at}}` |
What the signing form offers for each is described under [What this contract asks](/animals/applications#what-this-contract-asks). The answers are kept with the signed contract, as they were given.
Only the approved application asks these questions. A template that uses `{{payment_instructions}}`, `{{approved_by}}` or `{{completed_at}}` cannot be signed from an adoption's own **Contract** tab, because nothing fills them there. The media release is asked on both.
Tick the ask for each of these merge fields your text uses. Left unticked, `{{payment_method}}` fills in as nothing, and the others stay unfilled, so the contract cannot be signed on the application until the template is fixed; the preview names the field. The media release is the exception when the application already answered it.
## Offered when
Which records a template is offered for. Leave everything blank to offer it for every record of its kind.
| Condition | What it means |
| ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| **Species** | One species, or **Any species**. |
| **Age** | Any of the age groups chosen, for that species. |
| **Carries any of these traits** | The animal has at least one of the traits chosen. |
| **In care at least (days)** | Days since the animal's intake. |
| **Going home together, at least** | How many animals are going home together. |
| **Has a bonded pair** | The animal has a bonded pair on its record. |
| **Fee at least ($)**, **Fee at most ($)** | The adoption's fee. |
**Add a condition on a field** adds a test on a field of **The animal's** or **The adopter's** record:
* the animal's status, species, breed, sex, size, altered, health status, intake source, name, medical flags, behavioral traits, microchip number or primary color;
* the adopter's email, phone, roles, preferred contact or status;
* or **a custom field…**, named by its field key.
Each test is **is**, **is not**, **contains**, **is filled in**, **is empty**, **is more than** or **is less than**, with a value where the test needs one.
Every condition must hold for the template to be offered.
* On an approved application, only the templates offered for the chosen animals can be picked.
* On an adoption's **Contract** tab, the offered templates come first, under **Offered for this record**, and the rest are still there under **Other agreements**.
When two adoption templates are both offered, the one with conditions is listed above the one without, so a template for a particular kind of animal comes before your standard one.
## Editing a template
Press **Edit** on a template to change its body, what it asks and when it is offered, then **Save**. The name, version and kind cannot be changed.
Editing does **not** change any contract already signed. Each signature keeps its own copy of the exact text that was agreed, with the template's name and version as they were. A template that has been signed says so on its card, with how many times. Contracts signed after you save use the new text.
## Versions
The version is a label you choose, shown beside the name wherever a template is picked ("Adoption agreement · v2") and kept on every contract signed from it.
Because a template's version cannot be changed, a new version of an agreement is a new template:
Press **New template** and give it the same name with a new version, such as v2.
Press **Retire** on the old version, so it is no longer offered.
Contracts signed on the old version keep its text and still say which version they were.
## Retiring a template
**Retire** stops a template being offered for signing. It is kept, so every contract signed from it still names it, and **Show retired** lists it.
Retiring happens at once, with no question first, and the app has no way to bring a retired template back. Make a new template instead.
Templates are never deleted.