A Contract has to reach Live before your freelancer can invoice against it, and in most setups its Tasks are created only then. If a Contract is sitting in Draft, Under review or Scheduled, it's almost always waiting on one person or one missing field. This article shows your team how to find what it's waiting on and get it live.

Who can do this: The Contract's creator, admins, and stage managers on the Contract workflow.

Availability: Available in accounts that use Contracts. Your workspace may use a different name for Contracts, Tasks or Partners.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What you'll see

StatusWhat it means
DraftSaved but not sent. Only its creator and admins see it, and the freelancer gets nothing until someone clicks Make live.
Under reviewThe Contract workflow is running. One of its stages is waiting on someone.
Signing or AcceptingThe agreement is out for signature, or the Contract is waiting to be accepted.
RejectedA signer rejected the agreement.
ScheduledEveryone has signed or accepted. The Contract is waiting for its start date.
LiveThe Contract is active. Your freelancer can invoice against it.

Find what the Contract is waiting on

  1. Open the Contract.
  2. Go to Details and find the Contract workflow section. It lists the stages and shows which one the Contract is on.
  3. (Optional) Select Activity log to see edits, manual moves and emails sent.

Use the type of the current stage to work out who has to act:

  • A stage the freelancer completes. They need to log in and finish it. Remind them to check their email.
  • An input stage for your team. It needs details only your team has. Open the stage, fill it in and save.
  • An internal review stage. It waits for its stage manager. An internal stage with no stage manager stalls until an admin adds one. See How to Manage Workflows: Stages, Stage Managers and Moving Talent.
  • Signing or acceptance. Approvers accept in the order set on the Contract template, so a later approver can't act first.
  • A worker classification stage. See the classification review section below.

The Contract is still in Draft

Click Make live on the Contract. If you see an error instead:

  • A required field is empty. Check every section for required fields, such as a PO number. A required Entity field in the parties section can block Make live without being highlighted, so check it first.
  • The parties section doesn't load. Refresh the page or reopen the draft, then fill it in. Don't recreate the Contract. If you already made copies, remove the extra drafts with Actions → Remove Contract.
  • The freelancer isn't fully onboarded. Some accounts require this before a Contract can go live. When you pick the freelancer, you'll see "This partner hasn't finished the required onboarding yet. Until this happens, you won't be able to make the Contract live." Add them to the right onboarding workflow from their profile with Manage workflows, and wait until they finish. See How to Check a Freelancer's Onboarding Status and What's Outstanding.

The freelancer finished onboarding but the Contract is still Under review

Onboarding and the Contract workflow are separate. Finishing onboarding doesn't move any Contract stages forward. Open the Contract and check the Contract workflow section to see which stage is next.

The freelancer hasn't received the agreement

The agreement goes out only when the Contract reaches its signing stage. Until then, signers get nothing.

If the Contract template uses Enable preview before signing, someone on your team must approve the agreement before it goes out. Until then, the signers show Not reached. To send it:

  1. Open the Contract.
  2. Click Preview on the agreement and review it.
  3. Click Approve and send for signing.

Once it's out, use Send a reminder next to the signer if the freelancer can't find it.

The Contract is still Scheduled after its start date

A Contract normally goes live on its start date. If it doesn't, check these:

  • The freelancer isn't fully onboarded. In accounts that require it, the Contract waits until they finish. Check their onboarding and add them with Manage workflows if they're not in a workflow.
  • A required field is empty. A required field on the Contract or its Tasks, such as a PO number, stops it from going live.
  • A worker who is paid directly is missing their payout method or tax information. The Contract shows "Activation blocked" in Workers and payment routing. Ask the agency to complete them. See Set Up Agencies and Agency-Managed Talent.
Important: Editing a Contract that has left Draft sends it back to the start of its Contract workflow, and signatures or acceptances start again. If a Scheduled Contract needs a field filled, contact Worksuite Support before you edit it.

Worker classification review

If the Contract workflow includes a worker classification stage, the Contract stays Under review until the classification review is complete. The reviewer may email the freelancer with follow-up questions, or post questions for your team on the Contract's Team Board tab.

To keep it moving, ask the freelancer to check their email, including spam, and answer any questions on the Team Board. If the freelancer is disqualified in the Contract workflow, the Contract is cancelled. For the status of a review, contact Worksuite Support.

The end date is close or has passed

A Contract that is still stuck when its end date passes is either cancelled automatically, or it expires and goes back to the start of its review and acceptance steps, depending on your account. An expired Contract shows the tooltip "This contract expired before it could start."

To avoid this, give the Contract a later end date, and later Task end dates, before it lapses. Changing dates counts as an edit, so the Contract workflow restarts from its first stage. For what to do after the end date has passed, see What to Do When a Contract Ends, Expires or Is Cancelled.

The Contract is Live but the freelancer can't invoice

Some Contract templates require all onboarding to be complete before anyone submits invoices. The Contract then shows a message such as "Onboarding [workflow name] must be completed." Ask the freelancer to finish that workflow.

Still stuck?

Contact Worksuite Support with:

  • the link to the Contract
  • the freelancer's name
  • the status and the stage the Contract is in
  • a screenshot of any error message

Support/Resources

Still have questions about Contracts that won't go live? Click Support in the bottom-left corner of Worksuite to contact our Support team, or email support@worksuite.com. Including a link to the page you're on and a screenshot helps us answer faster.