Creating a Lease Template for eSignature

• Creating a lease packet
• Adding Signers
• Choose a signer order
• Placing signer fields
• Adding merge fields
• Adding other standard fields 

Managing your eSignature templates

• Editing an existing eSignature template 
  • Renaming a template
  • Manage the documents included in your lease packet
  • Edit who should sign the lease packet—and in which order

Step 1: Creating a lease packet

Your lease templates are considered a lease packet- it should include everything you need when drafting a lease. Lease packets can include all addenda and requirements like pet and insurance addenda by uploading multiple documents into one template.

1. Name your template. It’s helpful to name it by how and when you will most likely use this template. (e.g Lease agreement for 123 Main St.)
2. Upload your documents. Add lease, addenda, and other documents. You can remove pages when sending for signature. For example, you would have your lease agreement, lead based paint addenda, pet addenda, no smoking addenda, and so on.
3. Lastly, you’ll want to make sure that you set the order of your documents to match how you’ll want them viewed by your signers.

Note: You can use PDF documents!

Step 2: Adding signers

1. Set the types of individuals that would most commonly be signing when you use this template. By default, we’re adding a tenant and a staff member. You can also add a cosigner or a rental owner. 
2. Set the maximum number of people per type of individual that would most likely be signing when you use this template. Think of this as a car, your car can sit 5 individuals at the maximum. If you have 6 people, you cannot use your car, but if you have 5 or less, you can still use it. It’s the same thing with your template.

Note: You’ll want to make sure that your document has enough space in the event you have the maximum number of signers.

Step 3: Choosing a signer order (optional) 

Set the signer order. Whenever you use this template, we will follow the signing order you have set here, if you chose to have tenants sign first then cosigners next, then we will follow that order. If you choose to have no signer order, everyone will receive the eSignature request at the same time. So make sure it’s set the way you want.

1. Click  the " Add Signer" button to add signers to the lease template.
2. When you add signers, you will see what order they have been placed by the number to the left of the signer.
3. You can adjust the order by clicking on the signer box and dragging it up or down.  
4. When Signer 1 has signed the document, Signer 2 will be prompted via e-mail that it's his or her turn to sign, and so on.

Note: There is a maximum limit of 10 signers per role (tenants, cosigners, rental owners, staff member) and a limit of 20 total signers. 

Setting up your template

Once you have uploaded all of the necessary lease documents and added the required signers, you are ready to set up your lease template by adding signature or initial fields and merge fields that will pull in dynamic information like Tenant Names, lease dates and addresses. 

Step 4: Place signer fields for signatures 

Place fields where you want the signers to sign.

1. You have the option to include full signature fields and initial fields. 
2. To place any signer field on your lease template, click on any of the choices in the "Signature fields" list in the left sidebar, then click on the template where the signature should be placed. You can drag the field to adjust its position.
3. Note: you will need to make sure that document you uploaded has enough space for the necessary signature fields.

Step 5: place merge fields for dynamic data

Buildium Merge fields are different from the standard autofill fields and give you the option to pull in very specific data from your buildium account into the lease template. Merge field data includes everything from company and owner information to tenant information and lease specific values like rent amount and start dates. Adding in these merge fields allows you to use one lease template that is dynamic for every new tenant.

You can find a full list of Buildium merge fields here

1. To add a merge field to your lease template, first click on “signers” on the left toolbar and choose “sender” from the drop down menu. 
2. Then, under “standard fields” on the left toolbar, click on “textbox” and then click on the area where you would like this field to be located within the template. 
3. Once the textbox field has been placed, you will see a new menu on the right hand side of your screen.
4. You will find a list of all the available buildium merge fields under the section “what text goes here”. 
5. Click on the drop down menu and scroll through the list to find the data merge field you would like to pull into your template. 
6. Simply select the desired data and the title will appear in the text box you previously placed. 
7. Click and drag to adjust the placement and size of the merge field.
8. You also have the option to adjust the font and font size of the text. 
9. Repeat these steps for all of the merge field data you require in your lease template. 
   • Note: For names & email addresses, you can either use Buildium merge fields which will autofill all the data comma separated (John Doe, Jane Doe) or you can use the Auto-fill Fields which will only autofill the data for the signer you assigned it to (John Doe)

 

Step 6: Place standard fields to your liking (Textbox, Checkbox, Dropdown, Radio Group) and assign each to a signer as needed. 

1. To add standard fields, first select who it will be assigned to under the “signer” drop down.
2. Then click on the desired standard field (Text box, Check box, drop down, Radio button).
3. Click on the area on your template where you would like to field to be located.
4. Use the toolbar on the right hand side to customize the field .
5. Click and drag on the box to adjust the location and size.
6. Once you’re done, click on Continue to save your template. 

Note: Each signer on your template needs to have a field that is not a date. So before saving, make sure you’ve set fields for each signer

You’re all set and ready to use your template when drafting a lease agreement.

Note: You can only use one (1) template when drafting a lease agreement.

 

Managing your eSignature templates

Occasionally, you may need to make changes to your existing eSignature templates.

1. To manage your existing template library, navigate to Leasing, and select Draft leases.
   
   
2. On the Draft leases page, click the Manage templates button on the top-right side of the screen.
   
3. You should now see your eSignature templates. Find the template you need to manage and click the 'more options' button on the right side of the screen. 
   
   
   • In 'more options', you can either Edit, Copy, or Delete your template.
     • If you wish to Delete your template, select Delete and then confirm on the alert. Note that a deleted template can NOT be recovered. 
     • If you're looking to Copy your template, select Copy and choose a name for this copied version. 
     • To Edit your existing template, select Edit and you will be brought to the HelloSign template editor. Continue reading for some important notes on editing an eSignature template!

Editing an existing eSignature template 

In the HelloSign template editor, you can make a number of changes to your existing template.

• Rename the template.
• Add or remove any Signature Fields (Signature or Initials), Auto-fill Fields (Date Signed, Name, Email, Company, or Title), or Standard Fields (Textbox, Checkbox, Dropdown, or Radio Group).
• Manage the documents included in your lease packet.
• Edit who should sign the lease packet, and in which order. 

Renaming a template

1. To rename your template, click into the NAME text field on the top-left side of the Edit template screen and change the name to whatever you'd like the template to be called.
   
   
2. When finished, click the blue Continue button on the top-right of the screen to save.
   
   
   • NOTE: Our partner HelloSign allows for a one hour session to create and edit templates. If you will need longer than one hour to edit your template, make sure to click Continue to save your work.

Manage the documents included in your lease packet (adding, replacing, removing)

• In the Edit template screen, the right-side panel will show you the Documents included in your lease packet (template). They are shown in the order that will be delivered to your signers—first document up top, and last document at the bottom.
  
  
  • Each Document will show you a thumbnail preview of the pages contained within it, and clicking any of the previews will jump the editor to that page. 
    • You can collapse a Document by clicking the arrow to the left of the Document name, making it easier to view an outline of included documents.

If you'd like to add another Document to your lease template...

1. Click the + button at the top of the Documents panel.
   
   
2. Select the option to upload from your computer.
3. Find and select the file you'd like to add in your computer's file browser.
   • The newly added Document appears at the bottom of the Documents list, but can be moved before or after any other Document by clicking and dragging the file to where you'd like to drop it. 

If you have an updated copy of a document and need to replace one of the Documents in your lease template...

1. Find the Document in the Documents list and click the 'more options' menu button. 
2. Select Replace from the 'more options' menu.
3. You're now alerted that fields will stay in place, and if your replacement Document isn't positioned exactly the same, these fields may need to be moved or re-aligned. Click the option to upload from your computer.
4.  Find and select the file you'd like to add in your computer's file browser.
   • The newly added Document appears in place of the file you just replaced in the Documents list, but can be moved before or after any other Document by clicking and dragging the file to where you'd like to drop it.

If you need to remove one of the Documents in your lease template...

1. Find the Document in the Documents list and click the 'more options' menu button. 
2. Select Delete from the 'more options' menu.
3. You're now given a Warning to make sure you'd like to delete this file from the lease template. This action cannot be undone, and the file will need to be re-added without any of your previously saved fields. 
4. Click Yes, Delete Document to confirm deletion.

Edit who should sign the lease packet—and in which order

If you need to change who the signers on your lease template might be, you can do so while editing your template.

1. In the Edit template screen, click the Signers drop-down on the top-left.
2. From the drop-down list, select Edit Signers.
3. Here, you're presented with the list of potential Signers in order. You can have up to 20 total signer Roles in your template, and you can manage this list by adding, deleting, or re-order the signers.

To add another signer to your signing workflow, click Add Signer at the bottom of the list. There are a few very important notes for this process!

• NOTE: For each Role, you may have up to 10 individuals. For example: you may have 6 Tenants in your signing order. The signer order only considers as many Tenants as are on the lease, so if you only have 2 Tenants on the lease, eSignature will skip the remaining 4 Tenants and move on to the next Role. 
  • This is NOT true in the reverse! If you only include 2 Tenants in the signer order, and your lease includes 3 Tenants, the third will not be included in the eSignature lease signing process and you would need to make sure to add the 3rd Tenant as a signer to that particular lease send as a one-off. 
  • It is therefore best practice to include as many potential signers as possible in your lease template to avoid anyone being excluded from the lease signing process.
• NOTE: When adding a new signer Role to your signer list, the way you label the signer Role matters! Here are the types of signers you may include:
  • • Tenant
    • Cosigner
    • Rental owner
    • Staff member
  • After each signer Role, you would include a space and then the number.
    • Ex: Tenant 1, Cosigner 3, Rental owner 2
  • If you were to spell or format any of these signer Roles differently than Buildium expects, the system will NOT be able to connect merge fields properly. For example: if you added a signer Role of "Tenant2" (note no space), "Co-signer 1" (note the included hyphen), or "Rental onwer 2" (note the misspelling), Buildium would fail to connect to any of these individual's data and would not merge data into your lease. 

To remove a signer Role, click the trash can icon on the right next to the Role name.

To re-order your signers, click and drag any of your signers to the desired position.

• NOTE: To move a signer Role, you need to click on the number to the left of the signer Role.