Agreements and waivers

Sidebar: Business Settings → Agreement Templates.

Clients sign electronically, the signed copy is stored against their record, and you can require an agreement before a client is allowed to book.

Building a template

A template has a name and its body text, and three settings that matter more than the wording:

• Required for booking. Clients cannot complete an online booking until this is signed. Use it for your core liability waiver and little else — every required agreement is another obstacle between a client and a booking.
• Per pet. Signed once for each animal rather than once for the client. Correct for anything about a specific pet's health, temperament or handling; wrong for your general terms, which the person signs once.
• Validity period. How long a signature lasts before it needs renewing. Leave it open-ended for general terms; set a period for anything asserting a pet's current condition — an annual health declaration means nothing if it was signed four years ago.

Write the text yourself or take it from your existing paper form. Have anything with legal weight checked by someone qualified in your jurisdiction. Alaga stores and presents your agreement; it does not supply legal wording, and nothing here is legal advice.

Getting them signed

• At booking, for anything marked required for booking.
• By request, sent to a client to sign in their own time.
• In person, signed on your device at drop-off.

Once signed, Alaga records who signed, when, and the exact text they agreed to. That last part matters: the signed copy keeps a snapshot of the wording at the time, so editing a template later does not rewrite what somebody already agreed to.

Expiry

Agreements with a validity period expire. Alaga checks daily and flags those coming up, so renewals are visible before a client arrives with lapsed paperwork rather than after.

Where signed copies live

On the client's record, and on the pet's record for per-pet agreements. A signed agreement is available as a PDF, which is what you send if a client, an insurer or a solicitor ever asks.

Practical advice

• Start with one required agreement. Your liability waiver. Add others only when you have a reason.
• Keep it readable. An agreement clients scroll past unread protects you less than a short one they actually take in.
• Deactivate rather than delete. Deactivating stops a template being sent while keeping every signature already collected under it.
• Expect a bump when you first turn on a required agreement. Existing clients hit it at their next booking. Warn them by email first, or you will spend a week explaining it on the phone.