Send a customer approval link

Customer approval links replace email-back-and-forth signatures. The customer opens a clean page, signs with their name, and approves in one click. This is the single most important workflow change most contractors make when adopting Construction Scope — it cuts the approval cycle from days to hours.

Send it

From an estimate, change order, or invoice, click Send for approval. Enter the customer's email (or override the default if they have a different signing email), optionally add a personal note that appears above the document, set how long the link should stay valid (default 14 days), and we generate the URL.

If you'd rather text the link than email it, copy the URL from the next screen and paste it into whatever messaging tool the customer prefers. Same link, same signature flow, no email required.

What the customer sees

A single full-screen page with your branding, the document, a Pay/Approve button (depending on document type), and a Questions/Reply link. No login. Mobile-friendly — most customers sign from a phone. They can also reply with questions if anything's unclear before they commit.

The page is intentionally minimal. No platform branding distracts from the document. Customers report it feels like a contract from their lawyer, not a software tool.

After they approve

You get an email the moment they sign. The status flips from Pending to Approved on your end. The signature, IP, timestamp, and User-Agent string are recorded on the audit trail — these hold up in small-claims and most civil court contexts when disputes arise. Customers who claim they didn't sign are usually quiet once you forward them their own signed copy.

Setting the expiration

Default is 14 days. Most contractors stick with this — long enough for the customer to think about it, short enough to force a decision. For high-value or complex jobs (over $50k), 21-30 days is reasonable. For change orders during active work, 3-5 days is appropriate; the work is happening now and the decision shouldn't drag.

When a link expires, the customer sees an 'expired' page with instructions to contact you for a new link. You can regenerate from the document — same content, fresh expiration. Old links are not reactivatable for audit reasons.

When approval links don't work for you

Some commercial customers require wet-ink signatures or formal AIA contract documents. In those cases, use the approval link for the in-app record (so your internal workflow stays clean), and run the parallel paper process for the customer's requirements. The signed paper version can be uploaded to the job record as a PDF attachment.