Statements of Work and Contracts
Turn an accepted quote into a formal document, route it for internal approval, and send it for signature.
Statements of Work and Contracts
A Statement of Work (SOW) and a Contract are the formal documents generated from a quote's line items. Both follow the same internal-approval and e-signature process.
Navigation
Open a quote and go to its SOW tab or Contract tab.
What a Statement of Work or Contract Contains
- Document number, auto-generated (
SOW-000001,CTR-000001). - Document type — original, amendment, or (Contracts only) renewal.
- Line items, shared with the quote's line-item editor.
- Status.
- Signed date and executed document.
- A generated PDF, previewable and downloadable at any stage; once executed, the signed PDF is available separately.
A Statement of Work also carries a structured content form — scope summary, deliverables, assumptions, exclusions, responsibilities by party, timeline, and acceptance criteria — plus planned milestones and an internal reviewers' note.
A Contract also carries term length, auto-renewal, renewal notice period, payment terms, governing law, liability cap, special terms, billing address, an owner, effective and expiration dates, obligations by party, and notes. A Contract can optionally be linked to a related SOW.
Either document's structured content form can be replaced by uploading a rendered document instead — clearing that upload restores the form.
Status
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Being edited. Line items and fields can still be changed. |
| Internal Review | Submitted for internal approval; content is locked while pending. |
| Approved | Approved internally. Ready to be sent for signature. |
| Sent | Sent to the client for signature. |
| Signed / Active | Fully executed. Statements of work show Signed; contracts show Active. |
| Expired / Superseded / Cancelled / Terminated | Defined end states for the document's lifecycle. None of these are set automatically by any current workflow. |
Only a document in Draft status can have its line items or fields edited directly.
Common Workflows
Create a Statement of Work or Contract
Only available once the parent quote's status is Accepted — creating an original SOW or Contract from a draft, sent, or rejected quote is rejected.
- Open an accepted quote.
- Go to its SOW tab or Contract tab.
- Create a new Statement of Work or Contract. Its line items are copied from the quote.
An amendment, or for contracts a renewal — a later document that scopes a change against an already-signed original — doesn't need its own accepted quote; it references the original document directly instead.
Submit for Internal Approval
- Open the SOW or Contract.
- Submit it for approval, optionally selecting a specific approver and adding a note.
- If your organization has a configured list of authorized approvers (Settings > SOW & Contracts), you must pick one from that list, unless only one is configured, which is picked automatically.
- The document moves to Internal Review and appears in Approvals for the assigned approver.
See Submit and Approve a Statement of Work or Contract for the full step-by-step.
Send for E-Signature
Only available once the document is Approved — a draft or pending document cannot be sent for signature.
- Open the SOW or Contract and select the customer signatory.
- Place the signature field on the document — and on a linked SOW/Contract too, if sending both together.
- Compose the email that goes out with the signing link.
- Send. The status moves to Sent.
- Once the client signs, check the document's signature status to record it as executed — this isn't automatic, so someone needs to check.
- Alternatively, record execution manually if the document was signed outside the system.
See Send a Document for E-Signature for the full step-by-step.
Link to a Project
Once signed or active, and once the quote itself has reached Approved status, a Statement of Work or Contract can be linked to a delivery project — either by generating one or more new projects automatically, grouped by billing type with budgets pre-filled from the line items, or by linking to an existing active or planning project for the account.
Permissions
Submitting a document for approval, approving it, and sending it for signature each require their own permission. If an action isn't available to you, ask an administrator to review your role.