Waivers & Documents

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Configuring Your Waivers & Documents

Sometimes, depending on the nature of your business, it may be necessary to require your customers sign a liability waiver or medical release before participating in an activity. Checkfront offers the ability to create such documents within your account as a free add-on to Plus & Enterprise accounts. You can create multiple waiver documents and assign them to your items on an individual basis. You might require, for example, a damage waiver for a stay in your lodgings, but a separate release of liability for your horseback adventure tour. Waivers & documents can be created and managed at Booking > Waivers & Documents in your Checkfront dashboard main menu.  

 

 

 

 

From the documents homepage, you can search for and review your documents, create and manage your document templates, review the document activity log and manage your public document library.

 

 

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A popup window will appear, asking for the document title. Go ahead and input your title, then click Next to continue. Examples of the document title are Liability Waiver, Medical Release or Insurance Document.  

 

 

 

 

You’ll now be taken to a screen where you can configure the document to meet your needs and is fairly similar looking to the item inventory builder you may already be familiar with.

 

   

 

Title:

You have already entered a title for the document in the previous step, but if you’d like to edit that, you can do so here! (see label 1 below)

 

Document Editor:

The document editor window is where the magic happens. This is where you will input the main body of your document, including custom fields such as dates, email addresses, signature areas etc. (see label 2 below)

 

 

 

 

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As you make changes to the document, you may save your progress by clicking on the Save button, bottom right. After making a change, before the save button is clicked, you will see an Unsaved Changes message appear, with a Discard button next to it. Clicking the discard button will undo any changes you have made since the last save.  

 

 

 

 

 

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You will see a list of fields over on the right, each one represented by both an icon and a written title.

 

 

 

 

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Creating a new field for your document is easy.

1. Click on the field type you wish to use with your document.

2. The field editor will slide in from the right and you can now configure your new field credentials.  

 

 

 

 

3. These include the Label, or title, for the field. The ID will be generated automatically once you move to that field in the editor. If you wish to change this, go ahead and do so. The Tip is a brief instruction that will be displayed below the field. This might say something like Enter Your Date of Birth. Finally, if you would like to use a Default Value for the field, enter it in the box provided.This will pre-filled in the box when the customer views the form. They can change this to something else if they wish.

 

 

 

 

4. If the field must be filled out by the customer, check the box labelled This field is required.

5. When you are happy, click the Create button to complete the new field. Your new field will be added to the Field List, directly below the icons. From here, you can either edit the field or, add it to your document.  

 

 

   

 

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To add the field to your document, place your mouse cursor at the beginning of the line on which you would like the field to appear. For best results, the cursor should be on its own line.

 

 

 

 

Once the cursor is in place, click on the Add button by the field you wish to insert.  

 

 

 

 

The field will now be added to the document. At this point, you can save your document by clicking on the Save button, bottom right.  

 

 

 

 

Once saved, you can preview the document by clicking on the Preview button, also bottom right.

 

 

 

 

This will present you with the same view of the document your customers will have upon signing.  

 

 

 

 

 

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Editing a field is also very simple. All you have to do is click on the Edit button by the field.

 

 

 

 

This will bring you back to the original field editor from which you can make your changes. When complete, click Update to return to the field list.  

 

 

   

 

 

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The order of your fields is sorted by the order of appearance in the document. In past versions of the Checkfront Booking Manager,  field order was determined by manually dragging them into the required position. However, this is no longer the case.

 

 

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If you no longer require a field on your list, follow the steps above to edit the field and click on the red Delete button to erase it.  

 

 

   

 

 

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Some of the field types, specifically Radio, Gender & Selection, require the input of choices from which the customer can choose.  

 

 

 

 

When creating/editing these field types, you will see a box labelled Options. This is where you input the various options your customers will select. Each option should be entered into its own line. There are some pre-populated examples to get you started, but feel free to update these as necessary. When appearing in a live document, the customer will be able to choose from one of these options.

 

 

 

 

 

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The repeated section is useful if you need to collect multiple versions of the same information. For example, you may wish to collect the email addresses and names of several individuals who are part of the booking. To add a repeated section, place your cursor at the beginning of the line on which you would like to add the section.  

 

 

 

 

Then, click on the Repeated Section button, as highlighted below.  

 

 

 

 

The {REPEAT} shortcode will now be added to the document, as shown below:

 

 

 

 

Replace the line This content will be repeated, with the fields you wish to repeat.  

 

 

 

 

Save the document and then click on the Preview button. You will now see a series of numbered buttons in the document, from zero to six. If zero is selected (default), the repeated section will not be shown at all. Clicking on a number greater than zero will display the section that same number of times within the document.  

 

 

 

 

For example, let’s say you have a line of text in your document that says ‘Please select the number of participants in your party’. The customer might select ‘2’. Now, the repeated section, that might include full name and email address fields, will be displayed twice to the customer. Click on the Back to template link, bottom left, to return to the document edit screen. If you're happy with the content and layout, click Save, bottom right, to record your changes.  

 

 

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In this support document so far, we’ve already touched on the fact that you can preview your document to see what your updates will look like to the customer. Let’s look at the preview in a little more detail though.  

 

 

 

 

On the left side of the preview pane is the document you are working on. Any field shortcodes that you have added to the document, will now be replaced by the actual live field. You can even go ahead and enter some test information to fully try it out!  

 

 

 

 

On the right side of the preview pane is a list of steps which must be completed in order to submit the document. As each step is completed, a checkmark will appear next to it and the status bar at the top will advance.  

 

 

 

 

If you have added any repeated sections, as described above, additional steps will be added to the list, depending on how many times the customer chooses to repeat the section.  

 

 

   

 

 

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If you have a lot of items in your inventory, it's quite possible that you may wish to use a different waiver template for each one. These templates may be very similar to each other, but perhaps the wording is slightly different in one of the sections. In a situation like this, the waivers add-on has an option to duplicate a document template. To do so, open up the template you wish to duplicate and look for the More link in the grey bar at the bottom.  

 

 

 

 

Click on this link to display additional options. In this case, you will want to click on the Copy link.

 

 

 

 

This will create an exact copy of the template you were working on. All you need to do is click Save, bottom right, to keep it. You will notice the title of the template is the same as before, preceded by Copy of.  

 

 

   

 

 

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If you have an active template which you'd like to temporarily disable, you can do so via the More link in the grey bar at the bottom of the template edit screen.  

 

 

 

 

Click on the link and then choose Disable from the options provided.  

 

 

 

 

You will be asked to confirm the disabling. Once you've confirmed it, the template will be disabled and removed from service. You can easily spot a disabled template from the main Templates screen.

 

 

 

 

Should you decide to enable the template again, return to the edit screen and click on the Re-enable Disabled Template? button.  

 

 

   

 

 

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When it comes time for the customer to sign the document, all they have to do is click on the signature area to bring up the signature window.

 

 

   

 

Make sure your document contains the signature variable, otherwise the signing area will not be included in the live document. The signature variable is {$field id="signature"}

   

Once the signature window has opened, it’s simply a case of holding down the mouse button and dragging the cursor to sign the document.  

 

 

 

 

If the signature doesn’t look quite right, clicking the Retry button will clear the workspace, ready for another shot at it!  

 

 

 

 

Once happy, clicking the Add Signature button will insert the signature into the document.  

 

 

 

 

Once all sections have been filled in and the steps are complete, the green status bar at the top will be full and the customer can click on the Submit Document button.

 

   

 

If the Submit Document button is clicked on before the steps are complete, the missing information will be highlighted in the document and the customer must fill it in before proceeding.

 

   

 

If everything went according to plan, a Complete message will be displayed, underneath which is a Print button that can be clicked on to print out the completed document. You can also save the document as a PDF file for later viewing. Once you are ready to continue, you can either click on the Continue to Receipt button or, if there are more documents to sign, you can click on the Return to Required Documents button instead.  

 

 

   

 

 

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The Configuration section enables you to assign your template to the applicable items in your inventory as well as set up due dates and a reminders schedule. Access this section via the Configuration button, top right, on the document edit screen.  

 

 

 

 

 

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You will see a list of categories in the configuration section. To assign the document to all the items in a category, simply check the box next to that category.  

 

 

 

 

If the document should be applied to a specific item(s) only, click on the drop-down arrow next to the category and then select the appropriate item(s) by checking its box.  

 

 

 

 

When a category contains some items that are applicable to the waiver and some that are not, the category will be labelled with a minus sign, rather than a check mark.  

 

 

 

 

If the template is not attached to any items, it will not be included as part of the booking flow. Be sure to make the assignment, otherwise, your customers will not be able to sign the waiver during the booking process.  

 

 

 

 

 

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The summary section allows you to enter a brief description of the document and convey its purpose to the customer.  

 

 

 

 

This description will be visible to the customer on the live signing screen (see below):  

 

 

 

 

And, the Public Document Directory, which we'll look at later:  

 

 

 

 

 

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The waiver doesn't need to be signed by the customer at the time of booking, but if you like, you can put a due date on it in the configuration section.

 

 

 

 

If a due date is selected, the customer will be taken directly to their receipt after completing the booking. This receipt contains a link to the document that is waiting to be signed.  

 

 

 

 

The customer can click on this link to be taken to the document for signing at any time.  

 

 

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You can also schedule a reminder email to be sent to the customer x number of days before the due date.  

 

 

 

 

Select a number of days from the drop-down menu. You are able to choose more than one option. The reminder email will be sent out on each option chosen, in this case, 1 and 2 days before the due date. We will look at email notifications a bit later on.  

 

 

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This option allows you to create a waiver that can be used for multiple bookings. If your business offers memberships to your guests, for example, you can use this option to create a waiver that only needs to be signed once by the user, but can then be applied to multiple bookings in the future. If you are generating a one-time use waiver, simply select the Single Booking option, selected by default. If however, you would like the waiver to be signed once, but also applied to future bookings, go ahead and select the Multiple Bookings option instead.  

 

 

 

 

Additional time-based options will appear, enabling you to select how long the waiver can be reused for. You can select a number of days or a specific date, maybe the end of your season or the calendar year. Once the multiple-use waiver is ready and has been signed by the customer, you will find it by pulling up the customer invoice and clicking on the Documents tab.  

 

 

 

 

Since this waiver is configured as reusable and we would like to be able to use it again for this particular customer, click on the drop-down labelled View and select Allow Reuse. The status of the waiver will now be updated with a pin icon to show that it is reusable.

 

 

 

 

So, the next time this customer arrives at your business and books a tour, you will be able to attribute the document which they have already signed. To do that, create their booking and pull up the invoice. Click on Attribute Documents in the left sidebar of the Documents tab. From the pop-up window, select the document you wish to use by checking the box next to it. You should see the customer's name but can perform a search if need be.

 

 

 

 

And that's it! The signed waiver is now attached to the booking.  

 

 

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Checkfront has the ability to post your template to a Public Document Directory, which we will look at below. To do so, check the box provided.  

 

 

 

 

When you’re happy with your configuration, click Save, bottom right.

 

 

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If you offer a walk-in service for your business and require customers to fill out a waiver before proceeding, you can direct them to your Public Document Directory. From here, they can select the waiver that is applicable to their booking and fill it out/sign it. You could present this to them on a tablet or desktop computer, whatever you have available at your business. Access the directory by clicking on the Public Directory link in the left sidebar.  

 

 

 

 

The directory can also be found at: https://yourcompany.checkfront.com/reserve/documents/directory/ Of course, yourcompany should be replaced by your Checkfront account name.  

 

 

 

 

The customer simply needs to click on the blue Sign Document button in order to proceed. If you don't wish to include a template in this directory, you can hide it by clicking on the checkbox in the template Configuration section.

 

 

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Clicking on the Documents button in the left sidebar, will bring up a list of all documents that have been filled out and signed by your customers.  

 

 

 

 

Clicking on the Booking ID will take you directly to the booking to which the waiver is attached.  

 

 

 

 

You will arrive in the Documents tab for the booking and be presented with the details on the attached waiver. Click on the View drop-down menu to verify the signed waiver manually. From here, you can also detach the waiver from the booking or delete it altogether.

 

 

 

 

Click on the downward facing arrow on the right-hand side to view additional information regarding the waiver in question. This includes document signatures and the creation/updated dates.

 

 

 

 

Click on the document title to view the completed document in your browser window.  

 

 

 

 

You can click on the Print button on the right should you wish to make a hard copy.

 

 

 

 

 

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If a booking has been made by a customer, but they haven't yet signed the required waiver document when they arrive for their big adventure, you can ask them to fill it out in the Public Directory. Once they've done that, you can pull up the booking in your system and assign the waiver they just signed to the reservation. When you pull up the booking, you will see a Documents tab at the top. Click on this to get started.  

 

 

  Over in the left sidebar, you'll see a button labelled Attribute Documents    

 

Click on this to open the attribution window. The name of the primary booking holder will appear next to the name of the waiver and the date it was signed. Click on the checkbox to include the waiver in the booking. You can select more than one if this is necessary.  

 

 

 

 

Also, you can search for a specific waiver by customer name. This will filter out any other waivers in the list to make location easier.  

 

 

 

 

When you're ready, click the blue Attach button to assign the document(s) to the booking. The document will be attached to the booking and visible in the booking's Documents tab.  

 

 

 

 

Alternatively...

Rather than have the customer fill out the document from the public document library, you can also pull up the invoice in your system, click on the Documemts tab and then click on the Fill Out Document Button, as seen below.  

 

 

 

 

This will take them directly to the document, where they can fill it out and sign it as usual. If this method is used, the document will be automatically assigned to the booking, so no attribution is required.

 

 

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If you'd like to send the direct URL for the document to your customer, click on the Share button instead.  

 

 

 

 

 

This will open a small pop-up containing the URL. Click on the Copy button to copy the link to your clipboard. You can then paste that into an email to your customer if you like!  

 

 

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When viewing the Documents Home Page, there are various ways in which to sort and filter your documents.

 

Date

This drop-down field allows you to sort the documents by date created, date updated or date completed.  

 

 

 

 

You can take that further by showing results from a set period of time, such as the last 7 days.

 

 

 

 

If you're looking for a more specific date range, you can choose the Custom option and then select a beginning and end date from the calendars supplied.

 

 

 

 

Status

In addition to searching your documents by date, you can search by status too. There are various statuses to choose from and all you need to do is check the box next to the required status. You can choose more than one status if you wish.

 

 

 

 

Template

In the same way as searching by Status, you can also search by Template. Check the box next to the template you wish to search by. You can select more than one if you wish.

 

 

 

 

Search Field

Finally, you can search for a specific document(s) by typing your search term into the field provided. In this case, we are looking for documents relating to the customer Norris Cole.  

 

 

 

 

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If you wish to customize the information displayed on the documents home page, you can do so by adding, removing or re-arranging the data columns. Click on the Columns link to get started.

 

 

 

 

This will open the columns edit window. Check the box next to each data field you wish to view. If you don't wish to see it, make sure it is unchecked. Re-order the columns by clicking on the pattern of dots to the left of each label and moving it up or down.

 

 

 

 

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If you would like to export a copy of your report, you can do so by clicking on the Export link.

 

 

 

 

After clicking on the export button, you will be presented with a pop-up window.

 

 

 

 

You are able to enter a name for the report and choose the output format. Current formats include: • MS Excel • CSV • PDF • XML

The report can be saved to your computer, an email or Google Drive.

   

 

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The Document Activity Log details any changes and updates that are made to your documents.

 

   

 

Event: Displays the event pertaining to the log entry. This might be the attaching of a document to a booking, the verifying of a waiver, a completed document or an updated or revised document.

Source: Shows where the entry was created. Will display a staff member name or website, if the document was signed online by a customer. The IP address of the computer will also be displayed.

Message: Provides detail on the action that has been taken. For example, Verified waiver "Public Submission of Horse Tours Liability Waiver".

Document: The numerical identifier of the document in question. As each document is created, it is assigned a unique identifier. Click on this to see the document in full.

Date: Date and time the update ocurred. You can narrow down your activity log to a certain timeframe if required. Using the date field, highlighted in red below, you can select pre-set periods of time such as the last 7 days or the last month. In this case, a custom date-range has been selected.  

 

 

   

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General

There are a few general settings available in the documents feature.  

 

Required Documents Page

First of all, you can customise the advisory message that appears at the top of the required documents page.

 

 

 

 

Use this area to provide your customers with any helpful instructions you might have.  

 

Signing Page

There are two settings you can configure for the signing page.  

 

Sidebar Quick Navigation

Firstly, the Sidebar Quick Navigation.  

 

 

 

 

This refers to the right sidebar that is visible when a customer is filling out and signing a document.

 

 

 

 

If this setting is turned on, the customer will be able to jump to a step later than the current one by clicking on it in the list. If turned off, however, this functionality is removed and the customer must fill out the fields in order.  

 

 

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With this option turned on, the system will do a check of the participant's date of birth against the minimum age you have specified.  

 

 

 

 

If they are not of age, the submit button is disabled and the customer is advised that they are not old enough to complete the document without a guardian.

 

 

 

 

If you have added a minors section to your waiver, you will be able to collect their information in addition to the primary signature of the adult on the booking.  

 

 

 

 

The age of the minor will be recorded in your system and will not be rejected by the system if the child is under age.

 

 

 

 

Also, the minor will be shown separately from the adult in the document index view.  

 

 

   

 

Document Retention

There are two settings you can configure for the signing page.  

 

Allow Admins to Delete Documents

If you'd like to allow account admins to delete documents from the system, turn this option on.

 

 

 

 

Once activated, the document can be deleted via the drop-down menu in an invoice's Documents tab, as seen below.  

 

 

   

 

Upload New Documents to Google Drive

Use this setting to upload documents to Google Drive. If you have the Google Drive Add-on active in your account, this setting will become available to you.  

 

 

 

 

When a document is completed by a customer, it will be uploaded to your Google Drive account automatically.

 

Notifications

Notifications are the emails that go out to your customer when action is required regarding a document. There's an initial email, a reminder email (if you've configured that) and a completed email.  

 

 

 

 

You can edit these templates as you wish, but make sure you click Save at the bottom, before leaving the screen. Clicking the Preview button next to each notification will give you an idea of how the email will look to the customer.  

 

 

 

 

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The waivers add-on is available to Plus and Enterprise level accounts, but you can give it a try if you are currently working with our Soho, Pro or trial plans. If this is the case, navigate to Manage > Add-ons > Waivers & Documents. After clicking on the Setup link, you will be presented with the following configuration window:  

 

 

 

 

Click the Activate button to begin a 14-day free trial of the waivers add-on. Once your free trial has expired, the add-on configuration window will be updated as such.  

 

 

 

 

Once your free waivers trial has expired, any documents you created will remain intact in the system. Should you upgrade to a plan that includes waivers at a later date, those documents will once again become available to you.