Workshop_2026_09_15 Handout: Contract Foundations

Contract Foundations in Sure Send

Workshop handout · Contracts Part 1· September 15, 2026

Everything below is ready to copy into your own account. Set up the foundation first. Automations come in Part 2, and they are only as good as the roles, stages, and pipeline they run on.

Why this matters. Every role, stage, and field you set up becomes data on the contract. Later, that data flows into your email templates through merge fields, into tasks assigned to the right person, and into your reporting. Simple, not easy: it takes real thought the first time, and you only do it once.

The setup order

Do these in this order. Each one depends on the one before it.

  1. Contract Roles. Settings > Team Settings > Contract Roles

  2. Contract Stages. Settings > Stages > Contracts

  3. Contract Type and its Primary Pipeline. Settings > Contract Types

  4. Milestones and their tasks. Inside the Contract Type, Milestones tab

  5. Custom Fields. Inside the Contract Type, Custom Fields tab

  6. Your first contract. Contracts > New Contract

How a contract is built

A contract in Sure Send is its own record with its own contacts, tasks, documents, notes, and milestones. Four pieces build it:

  • Contract Type is the blueprint. It decides which fields show, which milestones apply, and which pipeline the deal moves through.

  • Pipeline is the ordered list of stages the deal moves through.

  • Milestones are checklists of tasks attached to the type.

  • The contract is one deal, created from a type.

Every contract locks to the version of its type at the moment it is created. Editing the type later does not change deals that already exist, so set the type up carefully before you start creating contracts.

Contract Roles: everyone gets one

A role tells Sure Send who a person is on a specific deal. The same contact can be a Buyer on one contract and a Seller on the next. Add every party you can think of. Copy the list below and add the ones your market needs.

Roles are for contacts (clients, the other agent, the lender, title, the inspector). Subteams are for your own Sure Send users (an internal transaction coordination team). Assigning a contract to a subteam gives every member access to it.

Role

Description

Buyer 1

Primary purchaser and main point of contact on the buy side

Buyer 2

Co-purchaser: spouse, partner, or co-borrower

Seller 1

Primary seller and owner of record

Seller 2

Co-owner or second seller

Buyer Agent

Agent representing the buyer side

Listing Agent

Agent representing the seller and the listing

Transaction Coordinator (Buyer Side)

Manages paperwork, deadlines, and communication for the buyer side

Transaction Coordinator (Seller Side)

Manages paperwork, deadlines, and communication for the listing side

Listing Coordinator

Prepares and manages the listing: photos, MLS entry, marketing

Loan Officer

Lender contact handling the buyer's financing

Loan Officer Assistant

Second lender-side contact handling conditions and documents

Escrow Officer

Title or escrow contact managing funds, closing documents, and the closing

Escrow Officer Assistant

Second escrow or title contact for status and document requests

Home Inspector

Performs the property inspection and drives the option period clock

Appraiser

Performs the lender-ordered appraisal

Add if your market uses them: Title Rep (if separate from escrow), Insurance Agent, HOA Manager, Attorney (attorney-closing states), Surveyor, Repair Contractor.

Stages and pipelines

Stages are created once at Settings > Stages > Contracts. Pipelines are built from those stages inside each Contract Type. A pipeline cannot invent a stage, so stages come first.

Three rules that save you pain later:

  1. Start with four to six stages. You can split a stage later. Merging two is harder.

  2. Contracts are for executed transactions. Consultations, showings, and nurturing belong in your people stages and smart lists, not in a contract pipeline.

  3. Your Closed stage should be the last stage in the Primary Pipeline and carry the Won flag. That is what tells Sure Send the deal closed and counts it toward your year-to-date numbers. Never let a Lost or Cancelled stage sit last.

Leave the Secondary Pipeline blank until you have a specific reason for a parallel tracker.

Example: Buyer pipeline

  1. Offer Accepted

  2. Option Period

  3. Financing and Appraisal

  4. Clear to Close

  5. Final Walkthrough

  6. Closed

Example: Listing pipeline

  1. Listing Agreement Signed

  2. Active on Market

  3. Under Contract

  4. Inspections and Repairs

  5. Clear to Close

  6. Closed

Contract details

Every contract already carries these universal fields: scheduled closing date, home inspection date, actual closing date, contract value, buyer commission, seller commission, total commission, property address, contract name, and referral source.

Commission tip: enter the Buyer and Seller commission and let Total Commission calculate. Each side can be a percentage or a dollar amount. Switching a side from percent to dollar does not convert the number (3% becomes $3), so re-enter the value after you switch.

Custom Fields: examples

Add custom fields inside the Contract Type on the Custom Fields tab. Start with the deadlines you actually track.

Date fields

  • Option Period Deadline

  • Financing Contingency Deadline

  • HOA Documents Deadline

  • Appraisal Deadline

Text or dropdown fields

  • Title Company

  • Lender Name

  • Financing Type (Conventional, FHA, VA, Cash)

Currency field

  • Earnest Money Amount

Milestones and sub-tasks

A milestone is a checkpoint with a checklist of tasks. Build them on the Contract Type under the Milestones tab.

Stages keep the deal moving in order. Milestones hold the tasks that need to happen along the way. Name your milestones the same as your stages and the two read as one system.

Two ways a milestone can behave. When you create one, you choose whether to attach it to a stage.

  • Not attached to a stage: the milestone and all its tasks are created the moment the contract is created. Every checklist shows up at once.

  • Attached to a stage: the milestone creates its tasks when the deal arrives at that stage, so tasks appear when they are relevant.

There is no right or wrong. It is a choice about how much you want on your plate at once.

Due dates. Each task carries a due-in-X-days setting, anchored to when the task is created: at contract creation for an unattached milestone, or at stage arrival for an attached one. For deadlines that change per deal (a 15-day financing contingency on one contract, 21 on another), set a sensible default on the template, then edit the task on the actual contract.

Example milestone: Offer Accepted

  • Send executed contract to title

  • Deliver earnest money receipt to client

  • Schedule home inspection

  • Send intro email to lender

Your first contract

Contracts > New Contract > choose your type.

  1. Name it by property address.

  2. Enter contract value and both commission sides.

  3. Fill in the property address.

  4. Assign it to a user, and to a subteam if a team needs access.

  5. Add Contact for each party and give each one a role.

  6. Create the contract, then move it through the pipeline as the deal progresses.

Questions

Reach the Sure Send support team at support@suresend.ai. Part 2 covers contract automations.