How to Create a Contract Agreement Form with Digital Signatures in WordPress

Do you want to add a contract agreement form to your WordPress website that people can e-sign?

Typically to get contracts signed, you either have to manually print / scan the signature, or pay for an expensive third-party e-sign service.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get users to sign forms with a digital signature in WordPress without the high costs?

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create a contract agreement form with digital signatures in WordPress.

Why Create an Online Contract Agreement Form?

An online contract agreement form is easy to fill and submit. Normally, you’ll send the agreement as PDF, which the other party will have to print, fill-in, scan, and send back.

That’s a lot of work.

By creating an online contract agreement form on your website, users can fill it right away and sign it digitally with an e-signature.

It does not require any overly priced SaaS software and works very well for many different kinds of legal documents.

For instance, you can use it to create a code of conduct form, employment forms, non-profit or volunteer application forms, and more.

Are Digital Signatures Legal?

Yes, digital signatures and digitally signed documents are legally enforceable. If both parties agree to digital signatures, and the software used keeps a record of digital signatures, then they are legally binding.

However, they cannot be used for all kinds of legal documents. For example, legal documents or forms that require to be notarized, need court stamps, or witnesses.

With that said, this article is not legal advice, please consider a lawyer for practical legal advice and guidance.

Preparing Your Contract Agreement Form

If you don’t already have a contract drawn up, it’s a very good idea to consult a lawyer. You want to be sure that your contract is legal and that it won’t cause you any possible problems in the future.

Apart from the contract terms themselves, your contract form will probably need space for:

• The name of the person signing.
• The address of the person signing.
• The date the contract is signed.
• Space for your client (or new employee) to actually sign the contract.

That being said, let’s create a contract agreement form with a digital signature field.

How to Create a Digitally Signed Contract Form in WordPress

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

WPForms is a premium plugin, and you’ll need at least their Pro plan to access the Signatures addon.

Upon activation, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the WPForms website.

Next, you need to visit the WPForms » Addons page and install the Signature addon.

You are now ready to create your contract agreement form with the digital signature feature.

Simply go to the WPForms » Add New page to create your form. This will launch the WPForms form builder interface where you need to provide a title for your form and then choose a template.

We’re going to use the ‘Blank Form’ template for this example, but you can choose a different one if you prefer. Just click on the template to load it.

You’ll probably want to include the text of your contract itself on the page above the form. This could include your own signature as an image.

In the form itself, you just need to add the fields (form elements) that need to be filled in.

To add a new field, simply click on a field from the left column. You can rearrange fields by moving them up and down in the preview column.

If you want to send a copy of the signed form to the user as well, then don’t forget to add an email field where users can provide their email address.

Once you’re happy with the fields you’ve added, it’s time to add the most important form field: the signature field.

Scroll down to the ‘Fancy Fields’ section and click to add the Signature field to your form.

That’s it. You’ve created your form. Next, we need to make sure the settings are correct.

Configuring Your Contract Agreement Form’s Settings

Click on the ‘Settings’ tab to view your form’s settings. The default settings will work in most cases, but you may want to make some changes.

In particular, you’ll want to check that the ‘Notifications’ are correct.

By default, the signed contract agreement form will be sent to the administrator’s email address. This is normally the email address of whoever set up your WordPress site. If that’s not you, then enter your email address here instead.

You may also want to send a copy of the form to the user as well. To do that, go to Settings » Notifications tab and click on the Add New Notification button.

In the ‘Send to Email Address’ section, click on the Smart Tags link and select the Email field.

Review all other settings and adjust them to your requirements. WPForms will now send the form confirmation email to the user as well.

Next, switch to the ‘Confirmation’ tab, you can edit the confirmation message that the client (or employee or volunteer) signing the form will see.

Once you’re happy with the settings, click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen. You can now close and exit the form builder.

Add Your Contract Agreement Form to Your Site

Finally, you need to put your contract agreement form onto your website.

Create a new page or edit an existing one. First, you’ll need to add the text of your contract terms here before including the form itself.

After that, simply add the WPForms block to your content area.

Select your contract agreement form from the drop-down box, and WPForms will automatically load a preview of the form in the editor.

You can now save or publish your page to make your form publicly available.

After that, visit the page to see your contract agreement form in action. Don’t forget to test out the contract agreement form. You should be able to enter your signature by using your mouse, trackpad, or a touchscreen.

Make sure you see the confirmation message and receive an email after submitting the form.

If you don’t get an email, don’t worry. It’s quite a common problem and we’ve got instructions on how to fix WordPress not sending emails.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a contract agreement form with digital signatures in WordPress. You may also be interested in our articles on the best WordPress plugins and the best business phone services for small businesses.

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