1. 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?
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2. More and more businesses are optimizing 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 job is the ability to quickly
finalize all the details By following the steps outlined 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 perform your primary editing and save your file archives First,
you need to get your contract documents installed on your office
Windows or Mac 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 your iPad (such as plain text
Word documents) You might ask, "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 contracts So let's
get set up to do just that
3.
4. 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 capabilities, 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 Windows or Mac computer This also ensures all your
original work is archived After you have completed your bulk edits,
save your Word DOC file and also save an Acrobat PDF version It
is easier to fill out and sign your contracts as PDF files, but if you
need to make text edits to your contracts away from the office, you
will want to have your Word DOC versions on your iPad as well If
your contracts require financial data such as summing up line items
for multiple products and services, figuring 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
5. If your contract needs only a signature, your use of the iPad will be
easier Step 3 - Install 3rd party iPad apps We will look at three apps
that work well together Depending on the intricacy of your contracts,
you will need at least an app for signing documents, and perhaps a
word processing 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 estimates and invoices You will also want a stylus Many
different rubber-tipped iPad styluses are available; any of these will
make signing the touchscreen easier A stylus is not required, but
using one is more precise than using your fingers, and won't grease
up your display with smudges
6. Step 4 - Move your files onto your iPad One easy way is to just
email the contracts 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 easiest 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 manage and sign
our documents, so that's the method we'll talk about 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 all of the
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
7.
8. 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
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
9. Step 5 - Complete and sign your documents on your iPad The
amount of custom editing and number crunching you do for each
customer contract will determine which apps you use and in which
order The most detailedsituation would be someone like a event
planner who has to enter a lot of client data, such as dates,
reference 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 situation would be a media
professional 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 osx Edit PDF more complex
scenario: the detailed contracts with lots of information to input To
make life simpler, you could have your assistants create the
contracts for your day's jobs with all the quotes 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, on
occasion you may wind up needing to edit bids and do calculations in
the field with the Pages and Numbers apps
10. You would open Pages, browse to your DOC version of your
contract and perform the required word processing needed for that
client (it is possible to complete 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 enter 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 sentences and even add "rubber stamps" for a wide variety
of common scenarios 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 contracts securely back to your
PC or Mac When you return to the office, you can sync your iPad
and then copy all your completed and marked up 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 combining a few low-cost iPad apps you can set up a quick and
low-cost mobile contract management system for your business
