Customer onboarding documents and digital acceptance

Summary

Upload PDF templates (terms and conditions, account-customer agreements, GDPR statements, etc.) and have Torqueflow send them automatically to customers when they are created or upgraded to Account status. Customers click a link, view the PDF, tick a box, and accept. Acceptances are versioned and tracked. The customer list can be filtered by who is missing documents so you can chase them down.

Prerequisites

• You have the settings.access permission to manage document templates. Owner has this by default.
• For each customer to receive documents, they must have an email address (or a phone number for SMS fallback). Customers with neither stay pending until you send manually.

Steps

Add a document template

1. Go to Settings → Customers → Documents.
2. Click Add Template.
3. Fill in:
   • Name — short title (e.g. “General Terms and Conditions”).
   • Description — optional context.
   • Applies to — pick which account statuses trigger this template:
     • Standard customers.
     • Account customers.
     • Both.
   • PDF — upload the document.
4. Save.

The template is now active and will be sent to new customers (or customers being upgraded to Account, where applicable).

Manage existing templates

• Edit — rename, change description, change which statuses it applies to.
• Upload new version — bumps the file version. Existing acceptance links continue to work; the new version applies to future sends.
• Deactivate — pauses sends. Cannot be deleted (audit trail is preserved).

See customer compliance

The customer list now has a compliance badge per row:

• Green tick — fully compliant (all applicable templates accepted at current version).
• Amber clock — pending acceptance (a request was sent, no answer yet).
• Red alert — missing documents (templates apply but no request has been sent or all have expired).

Above the list, a count summarises “{N} customers with outstanding documents”. Filter by All / Pending Documents / Fully Compliant / Missing Documents.

If your organisation has no active templates, every customer is shown as compliant.

Track acceptance on a single customer

The customer detail page has a Documents section listing each template that applies to them, with:

• The current acceptance status (Pending / Accepted on date / Expired / Outdated version).
• A Send button if the template has never been sent.
• A Resend button if it was sent but expired or has a new version.
• An “Accepted on date” line for completed acceptances.
• A “New version available” notice if the customer accepted v1 of a template and the template is now v2 — staff click Resend manually to request re-acceptance (the system never auto-resends on version bumps).

What customers receive

• By email (preferred) — subject “Please review and accept: {template name}”, body explains and includes the acceptance link, with the PDF attached.
• By SMS (fallback if no email) — short link.
• Neither — the document stays pending until you send manually later.

The acceptance link is a tokenised URL valid for 30 days. The customer does not need a portal account; the token is the auth.

What customers see when they click the link

A branded acceptance page with:

• Your garage’s logo and primary colour.
• The document name.
• A View PDF / Download PDF link.
• A “I have read and accept these terms” checkbox.
• An Accept button.

On accept:

• The system records the timestamp, the customer’s IP address, and the template version they accepted.
• The customer sees a confirmation page and receives a confirmation email with the accepted PDF attached as their receipt.

Revisiting the link later shows “Already accepted on {date}”.

Expired links show a friendly message with your garage’s contact details — staff can resend.

Expected Outcome

Newly created customers automatically receive emails (or SMS) for each applicable template. Approved Account customers automatically receive any account-only templates not already accepted. The customer list shows compliance at a glance. Each customer’s detail page shows the full per-template status.

Notes

• Sending is non-blocking. Creating a customer and approving an Account upgrade both return immediately; the email and SMS dispatch happens in the background with retries.
• A customer with neither email nor phone is left at “pending” — staff can add contact details and resend later.
• Old PDF versions are kept in storage so existing acceptance links continue to work even after you upload a new version.
• Customers cannot accept on someone else’s behalf — the token is single-use and binds to the customer who was sent it.
• The acceptance token expires after 30 days. Staff can resend at any time.

Troubleshooting

Problem: Customer says they did not receive the email. Cause: Email is in spam, the customer’s email is wrong, or they have no email and the system fell back to SMS. Fix: Open the customer detail page → Documents → check the Sent via value. Update the customer’s email if needed and click Resend to fire a new request.

Problem: Customer says the link expired. Cause: The 30-day token has expired. Fix: From the customer detail page, click Resend for that template. A fresh token is issued.

Problem: Customer is shown as “Missing Documents” but I have not configured anything. Cause: A template applies to their account status. Check Settings → Customers → Documents. Fix: Either accept that the template still needs sending (click Send), or change which statuses the template applies to.

Problem: Customer accepted but is now showing “Outdated version”. Cause: You uploaded a new version of the template since they accepted. Fix: Click Resend on their detail page. A fresh request is sent against the new version.

Permissions

• settings.access to manage document templates and view the compliance dashboard fields. Owner has this by default.