Introducing New Lease Templates and how to prepare for eSignature

Introducing New Lease Templates

We’re partnering with HelloSign to deliver a brand new eSignature tool. This new product will replace eLease with a modern, easy-to-use leasing workflow. Today, we’re excited to release the first part of this new feature: HelloSign templates!

What’s different about these templates? 

Support for PDFs

We heard your pain! That’s why we’re supporting PDF files, along with other standard file formats, with this new template feature. Creating templates will be easier than ever—simply upload all of your files as one template—you can always remove pages you don’t need when sending a lease. 

Brand new merge fields
We’ve added new merge fields to templates. This means you can auto populate leases with data, like the tenant’s name, the rent amount, the lease term, and more! 

Control over the signature order 

You can add multiple tenants, cosigners, staff, and rental owners to your lease template. Plus, you can set the order that everyone signs.

What does this mean for me? 

To prepare for this change, you’ll need to create new templates to replace your existing Adobe templates. You can create entirely new templates with any files you have or you can download and review your existing templates. Either way, we recommend planning out your lease packets before creating a new template. 

(Optional) Download your current templates

1. Go to Leasing > eLeases and draft leases. 
2. Click View lease templates.
3. On the Current tab, click Download existing templates.
4. Determine how you’d like to approach your new templates. Note: Your old templates are different from the new ones! Your new templates will be lease “packets” that should include everything you need when sending a lease, such as the lease agreement, pet addendum, lead paint addendum, etc. 
5. Remove merge fields from your old templates. Note: Merge fields begin with {{. Search for and delete every token that begins with {{. Make sure to leave space for new tokens. 

Creating a new template

1. Go to Leasing > eLeases and draft leases. 
2. Click View lease templates.
3. On the Current tab, click Add template.
4. Upload all files that need signature for a given property or leasing situation.
5. Click Next. 
6. Add signer roles. Note: Roles include staff member, tenant, cosigner, and rental owner. Include the maximum number of signers that your files support. You can add up to 10 signer fields per role.
7. If preferred, set a signer order. Drag and drop the roles in the order you’d like them to sign.
8. Click Next. 
9. In the template editor, add Signature fields to define where each signer needs to sign
10. Select Signer and choose Sender, then under Standard fields select textbox to view Buildium merge data. These fields are placeholders that will autofill with real data, like the tenant’s name or the property, when you send an actual lease for signature.
11. Drag and drop fields into your lease packet. 
12. Click Continue to save. 

For more details on creating a template in HelloSign, click here

Heads up! Your old eLease templates will be inaccessible starting on January 26, 2022. That’s when we’ll turn on eSignature in every account. Make sure to download or recreate your existing eLease templates before then! 

Have questions? Please reach out to our team at eLease@buildium.com.