Contracts: the forgotten artifact
The contract is the artifact missing from almost every CRM and billing tool. Drafted in Word, exported to PDF, sent via email, chased manually, archived on a NAS. Every step is a chance to lose a version or a signer.
We decided to treat contracts as a first-class product object.
Living templates
A contract almost always starts from a template: NDA, mandate, custom T&Cs, partnership agreement. In Espero-Soft, templates are first-class objects — reusable, versioned, multilingual. Update one, every future contract benefits.
Variables (client name, company number, amount, date) auto-inject from the client and estimate records.
The TipTap editor
We picked TipTap as our WYSIWYG editor. It outputs clean HTML, supports extensions (tables, nested lists, code, blockquotes), and is fast enough that a thirty-page contract stays snappy on screen. History is saved on every edit.
PDF rendering
When you click "Generate", the contract is rendered through an in-house engine that respects layout: header with logo, footer with pagination, legal mentions, signature block at the end. The PDF is stored immutably (hash) to guarantee integrity at signing.
Signature and reminders
The signer gets an email in their language (FR / NL / EN) with a unique link. As long as they haven't signed, automatic reminders go out at D+3 and D+7 — configurable per template. Once signed, the PDF is sent back to the issuer and the signer, and archived.
An endpoint also lets you manually resend a signed PDF to a client who may have lost it.
Permissions and roles
Contracts usually require internal sign-off:
- Reader — can view, can't edit.
- Editor — can edit and save.
- Approver — can mark "ready to send".
- Sender — can trigger sending to the signer.
Real-world use cases
- Prospect NDAs — standard template, one-click send at first call.
- Mandates — for freelancers who sign before starting a gig.
- Custom T&Cs — when a client wants specific clauses.
- Partnership agreements — in our own referral program.
What's next?
Next brick in the pipeline: eIDAS qualified signature (itsme in Belgium, qualified certificates across the EU). The current simple signature already covers most B2B uses, but we want to offer the top tier for regulated sectors.
