Contents
What is this module?
The Contracts module lets the club prepare document templates (membership contract, terms and conditions for a stay, direct debit authorization, etc.) and turn them into personalised contracts filled in with the customer's details, ready to print and sign.
It also integrates with the POS: you can require the customer to sign the ticket before completing a payment with certain payment methods, when charging by direct debit, or when leaving a sale as pending payment. The customer signs on a tablet (the Signature board) with their finger or, if the club prefers, by entering their PIN.
Every signed contract is stored with a digital signature: a unique code calculated from the text of the document and the signature, which proves the content has not changed since it was signed.
What problem does it solve?
Goodbye to paper: contracts are generated, signed and filed inside Golfmanager, on each customer's record.
Fewer drafting mistakes: the customer, membership or booking details are filled in automatically from the template.
Credit sales with proof: when a sale is left pending payment or charged by direct debit, the customer signs the ticket there and then, and that signature is linked to the lines charged.
Documents that cannot be altered: once signed, neither the contract nor the amounts of the signed sales can be changed.
Automatic invoicing: with the billing module, pending sales are invoiced at the moment of signing, in the name of the person who signs.
Prerequisites
The Contracts module installed in your Golfmanager.
To generate contracts from bookings: the Hotel module. From memberships: the Memberships module.
To sign at the POS: a tablet or touchscreen computer next to the till, logged in to Golfmanager, to use as the Signature board.
To sign with a PIN (optional): the Sign with customer PIN module.
For automatic invoicing on signing (optional): the billing module.
The right permissions: managing templates and contracts requires system administration permissions; the Signature board requires billing usage permission.
How to set it up (step by step)
Step 1 — Create the templates
Go to Tools > Contract templates.
Create a new template and give it a Name (this will also be the title of the contracts you generate with it).
Write the Body of the document. Wherever you want customer, membership or booking details to appear, type the corresponding variable (see Automatic data in templates).
Save.
📌 Note: this step is only needed for contracts generated from a membership or a booking. Ticket signing at the POS does not use templates: the document is the ticket itself.
Step 2 — Choose which POS payments require a signature
There are three points in the POS where you can ask for the customer's signature. Only enable the ones you need:
When paying with a specific payment method: open the payment method under Payment methods and tick Requires signing a contract.
When charging by direct debit: under Settings > Billing > Contract signature settings, turn on Sign at home.
When leaving a sale as "Pending payment": in the same section, turn on Sign pending payment.
Step 3 — Set up the Signature board
On the tablet the customer will use, log in and open Contracts > Signature board.
In the selector at the top, choose the POS the tablet sits next to (Select POS).
Leave it open on that screen. The selected POS is remembered in that browser for next time.
⚠️ Important: the Signature board only receives requests from the selected POS. If no POS is selected, or a different one is, the till will stay on "Waiting for digital signature...".
Step 4 — (Optional) PIN signing
With the Sign with customer PIN module installed, open the record of each customer who will sign with a PIN.
Fill in the Signature pin field and save.
From then on, on the Signature board the customer will sign by entering their PIN instead of drawing their signature.
🔒 Security: the PIN is stored encrypted and is not shown again when the record is opened.
Every setting explained
Template: Name
Field name: Name. Text.
Description: identifies the template when you choose it in "Generate contract".
Impact on the system: it is copied as the Title of every contract generated with it.
System behaviour: renaming the template later does not rename contracts already generated.
Example / what happens: you create "Membership contract 2027". Every contract you generate with it gets that title on the customer's record.
Template: Body
Field name: Body. Rich text editor.
Description: the full text of the document, with the variables that will be replaced by real data.
Impact on the system: when a contract is generated, the text is copied into the contract with the variables already filled in. If a variable is misspelt, the message "Error generating template" appears and the contract is not created.
System behaviour: changing the template only affects contracts generated afterwards; existing contracts keep their text.
Example / what happens: you write "Mr/Ms {{clientName}}, with tax ID {{taxNumber}}...". When generated for Ana López, the contract reads "Mr/Ms Ana López, with tax ID 12345678Z...".
Payment method: Requires signing a contract
Field name: Requires signing a contract. Checkbox (yes/no), on the payment method record.
Description: requires the customer to sign the ticket when paying with that payment method at the POS.
Impact on the system: when that payment method is pressed, the ticket is sent to the Signature board and the payment is not completed until the customer signs.
System behaviour: if the customer presses Cancel on the board, the till shows "Signature cancelled" and the payment is not made.
Example / what happens: you tick it on "Charge to account". Every time a waiter takes a payment with it, the customer signs the ticket on the tablet before the operation is closed.
Sign at home
Field name: Sign at home. Toggle, under Settings > Billing > Contract signature settings.
Description: asks for the customer's signature when Direct debit is pressed at the POS.
Impact on the system: before the lines are set to direct debit, the ticket is sent to the POS's Signature board.
System behaviour: the same as when paying: no signature, no direct debit.
Example / what happens: you turn it on. A member asks to have their spending charged to their bank account: they sign the ticket on the tablet and the sale is set to direct debit.
📌 Note: the help text for this setting mentions the "consumer profile", but the signature is done at the POS, on the Signature board, not from the customer area.
Sign pending payment
Field name: Sign pending payment. Toggle, in the same section.
Description: asks for the customer's signature when Pending payment is pressed at the POS.
Impact on the system: the lines are only put on credit for the selected customer once they have signed.
System behaviour: only that customer's lines (and those with no customer assigned) are signed; lines belonging to other diners at the same table are not included in their signature.
Example / what happens: you turn it on. In the restaurant, a member leaves their share of the table pending: they sign their ticket and their spending goes on credit and, if you have billing, is invoiced in their name.
Customer: Signature pin
Field name: Signature pin. Text field on the customer record (requires the Sign with customer PIN module).
Description: the code the customer will enter to sign.
Impact on the system: with the module installed, the Signature board asks "Enter your PIN to sign in" instead of a drawn signature.
System behaviour: if the PIN does not match the one of the customer on the ticket, "The PIN is incorrect" appears and nothing is signed.
Example / what happens: you give a member the PIN 4821. When they leave a bill pending, they type it on the tablet and the signature is recorded.
Automatic data in templates
Write each item between double curly braces, respecting upper and lower case: {{clientName}}.
Date and time at which the contract is generated
Write | Result |
| Long date |
| Short date |
| Time (HH:mm) |
Contracts generated from a membership
Variable | Data |
| Customer name |
| Tax ID / ID document |
| |
| Phone |
| Address, postcode, city, region and country |
| Date of birth |
| Member code |
| Membership name |
| Membership price |
| Membership start and end |
| Membership public comments |
| Last digits of the bank account (with the SEPA module) |
Contracts generated from a booking (Hotel module)
Variable | Data |
| Beneficiary name (or the customer's, if there is no beneficiary) |
| Tax ID / ID document |
| Date of birth |
| Country |
| Booking type |
| Resource (e.g. the room) and its type |
| Check-in and check-out |
| Number of nights |
| Total amount of the booking and its extras |
| ID document expiry date (with the guest registration module) |
⚠️ Recommendation: membership variables only work in contracts generated from a membership, and booking variables only in contracts generated from a booking. Always generate a test contract to check how the data looks (especially dates and amounts) before using a template with customers.
Day-to-day use
Generating a contract from a membership
Open the customer's membership (already saved).
On the Contracts card, click Generate contract.
Choose the Template and confirm.
The contract opens with the details already filled in. Review it: until it is signed, you can correct the Text by hand.
Generating a contract from a booking (Hotel module)
Open the booking.
On the Contracts card, click Generate contract.
Choose the Template and confirm. The contract is linked to the booking and to the customer.
Signing a contract from the admin
Open the contract and click Sign.
The customer draws their signature in the box (Clear to start again) and presses Sign.
"Document signed successfully" appears and the Digital signature field shows the signature code. The Sign button disappears.
To hand over a copy, click Print: the document opens with the signature and the digital signature code; from the browser's print window you can also save it as a PDF.
Signing the ticket at the POS
At the POS, the cashier takes payment with a payment method that requires a signature, presses Direct debit or presses Pending payment (depending on what you have enabled in the settings).
The till shows "Waiting for digital signature..." and the ticket appears on that POS's Signature board as a Signature request, with the lines, taxes and total.
The customer reviews the ticket and presses Sign (draws their signature or enters their PIN) or Cancel.
Once signed, the till shows "Document signed successfully", the operation is completed and the ticket shows the Signed label. The board goes back to waiting.
📌 Note: if the customer had already signed that same ticket and nothing has changed, they are not asked to sign again. If lines are added, removed or changed before signing, the document is regenerated and the previous signature is no longer valid.
What happens when a document is signed
The document is locked: the contract text can no longer be edited and it cannot be signed again.
Signed sales are protected: their customer, product, units, price, tax, discount, total and due date cannot be changed. If you try, "This sale cannot be edited because it is signed" appears.
The lines are assigned to the signer: all the lines on the signed ticket are assigned to the customer who signs.
Automatic invoicing (with the billing module): the pending-payment or zero-cost lines on the signed ticket are invoiced at that moment, in the signer's name.
Restaurant: a pending-payment line that has already been signed counts as settled when the table is closed automatically. If there are lines from other diners at the table that are neither paid nor signed, the table stays open.
Viewing contracts
All contracts: under Tools > Contracts, sorted from newest to oldest. Tickets signed at the POS appear as "Cart sale #number".
A customer's contracts: on their record, Contracts tab (Billing group).
From the membership or the booking: on its Contracts card.
The customer themselves: in the customer area, Profile > Documentation > Contracts, where they can see the date, the description and whether it is signed, and can print it.
Limitations to keep in mind
Standalone contracts cannot be created from the Contracts list: they are generated from a membership, from a booking (Hotel module) or automatically when a ticket is signed at the POS.
Signing is in person: in the admin or on the Signature board. Contracts cannot be emailed for remote signing, and cannot be signed from the customer area.
A single signer per contract.
A signature cannot be undone from the interface: a signed contract cannot be edited or signed again.
The Signature board depends on the selected POS and on the screen being open; otherwise, the till is left waiting for the signature.
PIN signing: the PIN checked is the one of the customer linked to the ticket. Also, with this module and Sign at home enabled, a "Pending payment" that includes lines from several customers is blocked with "You must choose a single customer".
Customer area and PIN: contracts signed with a PIN do not store a drawn signature, so in the customer area they may show as "Signed: No" even though they are signed (in the admin, the Digital signature field confirms it).
No direct PDF download: use Print and, if needed, the browser's "Save as PDF".
Automatic data is limited to the membership and hotel booking data listed above.
Frequently asked questions
What is the code shown in "Digital signature"?
It is a unique fingerprint calculated from the contract text and the signature. If anyone altered the text, the fingerprint would no longer match. It proves the document has not changed since it was signed.
Are the signatures legally valid?
Golfmanager records the signature, the signed text and its digital fingerprint. The legal validity of each type of document depends on the regulations that apply to your club, so we recommend reviewing your templates with your legal adviser.
I've changed the template. Are contracts already generated updated?
No. Each contract keeps its own text from the moment it was generated. Changes to the template only affect new contracts.
Can I correct a contract after generating it?
Yes, as long as it is not signed: open the contract and edit the Text field. Once signed, it can no longer be changed.
"Error generating template" appears when I generate the contract. What should I do?
It is almost always a misspelt variable in the template Body (unclosed braces or a name that does not exist). Check the variables against the table in Automatic data in templates.
The till is stuck on "Waiting for digital signature...". Why?
Check that the Signature board is open on the tablet and that it has the same POS selected as the one taking the payment. If the customer does not want to sign, they must press Cancel on the board to release the till.
What happens if the customer cancels the signature?
The till shows "Signature cancelled" and the operation (payment, direct debit or pending payment) is not carried out. The lines stay on the ticket so they can be paid another way.
Can I change a sale that has already been signed?
Not its financial details (customer, product, units, price, tax, discount, total, due date). That is what guarantees that what was charged matches what the customer signed.
At a table with several diners, what does each one sign?
Each customer only signs their own lines (and those with no customer assigned). Other diners' lines are not part of their signature.
Can the customer see their contracts?
Yes, in the customer area, under Profile > Documentation > Contracts, where they can print them.
How do I change a customer's signature PIN?
Open their record, type the new value in Signature pin and save. For security, the current PIN is never shown.
Recommended best practices
Generate a test contract with every new template and check how the data comes out before using it with customers.
Review your templates with your legal adviser, especially membership contracts and direct debit authorizations.
Only enable signing where it adds value (credit, direct debit, specific payment methods) so everyday payments are not slowed down.
Always leave the Signature board tablet open with the correct POS selected, and check its connection at the start of each shift.
Review the text before signing: once signed, there is no going back.
If you use PINs, assign them to members in advance so payments at the till are not held up.