Not sure what to include in your employment contracts? Or concerned that you may miss important clauses?
You can get your employment contracts created, reviewed, or updated with our industrial relations experts.
Use templates to create contracts for common workplace scenarios, like new hires or promotions, and customise dynamic fields based on the recipient.
What's covered in this guide?
Access Contract Templates
To access existing contract templates or create a new template, navigate to the Contracts & Documents hub under the Workforce tab.
Create a New Contract Template
In the Contracts & Documents hub, click + New Contract Template in the top right. There are two ways to create a template:
Build in Tanda: write the contract in Tanda's built-in editor.
Upload a Word document (.docx): upload a contract you've already written.
Choose the format when you create the template. A template's format can't be changed afterwards.
Build a template in Tanda
Select Build in Tanda (rich text), enter a Template name, configure any additional template settings, then click Create to begin populating the template.
These additional settings can be updated at any time by navigating to the Setup tab. This is also where you can upload an HTML version of an existing contract to import it into Tanda.
Use the Save button at the bottom of the page once you've finished editing the template. To personalise the contract for each recipient, add dynamic fields.
Contract images
Images can be used in contracts to represent things such as company logos or manager signatures. Additionally, you could insert static tables or information via an image file.
There are two ways to insert an image into a contract template:
Upload - This will allow you to upload an image file into the contract template. To upload a file, scroll across and select the paperclip icon in the text editor panel.
Copy > Paste - This will paste the image directly into the contract.
Note: If you have a company logo configured for payslips under Payroll > Settings > Company Setup, this logo will be automatically included at the top of sent contracts.
Dynamic Fields
Dynamic fields act as placeholders in your contracts, and automatically populate based on the information entered in employee profiles and account settings.
These placeholders allow you to use the same template for multiple employees, and automatically update the contents of the contract that are likely to change between staff, like name, hourly rate, or employment type.
For example:
Learn more in the Dynamic Fields guide.
Text options
Text in your contract template can be formatted with:
Bolding
Italics
Strikethrough
URL links
Headings
Quote blocks
Code blocks
Bullet points
Numbered lists
Tables
If dynamic fields are formatted with any of the above, the formatting will also apply to the information that populates.
For example, the {{name}} field is bolded in the contract template, and is populated as below:
Template | Contract |
 |  |
Upload a Word (.docx) document
You can upload a contract you've already written in Word and use it as your template. Contracts created from Word documents can only be used when changing employment conditions or during onboarding—they cannot be sent directly from the Contracts tab in an employee's profile.
Click + New Contract Template and enter a Template name.
Select Upload a Word document (.docx).
Upload your file. The file must be a .docx/word file and be no larger than 15 MB.
Click Create.
The document doesn't necessarily have to come from Microsoft Word, but the default file format from Word is .docx, ensuring the formatting is not impacted. Other text documents can be manually converted to a Word/.docx file so they can be uploaded.
Tanda shows a PDF preview of your document after creating the template. While a version is still a draft, you can upload a new document to replace it if you need to make adjustments.
Dynamic fields in Word
Write dynamic fields in your document as {{field_name}}, using lowercase letters and underscores.
Tanda fills in the fields it recognises from the employee's profile and pay conditions. Any other field is filled in by the manager when they send the contract.
After you upload the file, you can see every field found and whether Tanda fills it or the Manager fills it, so you can check them before publishing. This is located beneath the preview:
If you are unsure which dynamic fields can be prefilled, open the What dynamic fields can I use? dropdown. A dynamic field can be anything; however, ones that are not recognised by Tanda must be manually filled by the manager when the contract is sent.
Go to the Preview fields tab to see what the contract would look like when sent to the employee. You may need to enter placeholder values to generate the preview.
Signature fields
Mark where the contract should be signed with signature fields entered in the .docx file:
{{signature_employee}}: where the employee signs.
{{signature_manager}}: where the issuing manager countersigns.
Add _date or _name to show the signing date or name, for example {{signature_employee_date}}. People sign in the order the fields appear in the document.
If there's no employee signature field already in the file, Tanda will add one at the end of the document for you and show a warning.
Set up Countersigning
Word contracts are signed electronically inside Tanda. You can have both the employee and manager sign the same contract—this is called countersigning. The order of the signature fields in your document decides who signs and when:
Employee only: the document only has {{signature_employee}}. The contract is complete once the employee signs.
Employee, then manager: place {{signature_manager}} after the employee field. The manager countersigns after the employee, and the contract is then complete. See how this works below.
For example:
Manager first: place {{signature_manager}} before the employee field. The manager’s saved signature is applied automatically when the contract is sent, and the employee signs last. See how this works below.
For example:
The manager who signs is whoever sends (issues) the contract. Signature fields can’t be placed inside optional clauses.
Manager signatures
Managers sign using a saved signature, which they can add or change in:
The template workspace (only shown if the template has a manager signature field)
The contract’s issuance page
If the manager field comes first, the manager needs a saved signature before they can send the contract. If they don’t have one saved when countersigning, they can draw it on the spot and tick Save this as my signature.
A No contract signature saved warning with a Set up signature button is shown when sending and in the template workspace.
Optional Clauses
You can configure your .docx contracts so that certain clauses or sections can be toggled on or off when sending the contract. This is useful for customising a single contract for slightly different cases, without the need to create a whole new contract each time.
Optional clauses are toggleable via a checkbox when reviewing/sending the contract to the employee.
To create an optional clause, enter the following in your document:
{{#clause:clause_name}}
Optional content here
{{/clause:clause_name}}
The clause_name can be replaced with the name of the clause. This is what is shown to whoever is sending the contract. Underscores (_) are replaced with spaces when reviewing the contract.
Anything can be entered in the Optional content here section. If the clause is disabled, this section will not be visible in the contract sent to the employee.
For example, the following 11.2 section of this contract will be able to be toggled on or off when sending it to an employee, as it is wrapped in a clause:
You can test the optional clauses in the Preview fields tab of the contract template.
Toggled on:
Toggled off:
Publish a template
When you're happy with the template, go to the Versions tab and click Publish. Templates can only be used after being published.
A template can't be published if it has no document, or if the document has errors in its dynamic fields, clauses or signature fields.
Only one draft version can exist at a time. Published versions are kept in the version history, and the latest published version is used for new contracts.
Learn more about sending contracts in this help article.
Countersigning & Delegating Contracts
Employees open the contract from onboarding or My Contracts in the mobile app. They tap View contract to read the PDF.
What the employee sees
Employee signs first (countersigning is configured as employee, then manager)
The employee draws their signature under Manage signature > Draw your signature. They can tick Save this as my signature to reuse it next time.
They tap Sign.
The page shows You’ve signed this contract with a View contract link to their signed copy. The status reads Awaiting countersignature until the manager has signed.
The contract is complete once the manager countersigns.
Manager signs first (manager, then employee)
The manager’s signature was applied automatically when the contract was sent, and appears on the PDF when the employee first opens it.
The employee reviews the contract, draws their signature and taps Sign.
The contract is complete as soon as the employee signs. No further action is needed from the manager.
What the manager sees
Contracts waiting on a manager’s signature appear in:
The Contracts to sign task in the HR > HR Hub
The Tasks & Actions dashboard widget
The contracts list, where the status shows as Awaiting signature.
Managers need permission to update the contract to sign it.
Open the contract to see its timeline, which shows whose turn it is.
When it’s the manager’s turn, they click Sign to apply their saved signature, or draw one if they don’t have one saved. The timeline records each step, including IP address, device and consent details, with a View PDF button on signed steps.
Delegating a signature
If the manager who sent a contract can’t countersign, for example because they’re on leave, their signature can be handed to someone else. This only applies when the manager signs after the employee. When the manager signs first, their signature is applied automatically when the contract is sent, so there’s nothing left to delegate.
Delegation can be done by the person whose signature is outstanding, or by an org admin. It can be done at any time before the signature has been made, including before the employee has signed.
To delegate a signature:
Open the contract’s issuance page from the Unsigned contracts task in Hub, or from the contracts list.
Click Delegate signing. If the manager’s turn hasn’t arrived yet, this is available from the card that reads [name] signs later.
Choose who to hand the signature to under Delegate to.
You can delegate to anyone who has permission to update the contract and is one of the following:
One of the employee’s managers
An org admin
A payroll officer
A general manager who doesn’t manage anyone
The employee’s signature can’t be delegated, and a signature can’t be delegated once it has been made.
After delegating, the new signer signs in place of the original manager, and the contract timeline records who delegated to whom.
Notifications
If it’s currently the new signer’s turn, they’re emailed and receive an in-app notification, Contract waiting for your signature, and the contract appears on their task list.
If you delegate a signature that isn’t due yet, such as before the employee has signed, the new signer isn’t notified, and nobody is notified when their turn arrives. In that case, let them know yourself so they can sign when the employee is done.
Note: Countersigning and delegations are limited to the Word/.docx contracts. HTML templates built within Tanda do not use this countersigning logic.