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’s record has a Documents tab 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• The current acceptance status (Pending / Accepted on date / Expired / Outdated version).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’s record, click the Documents tab and 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: On the customer’s Documents tab, 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 Documents tab. 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.