# Manage agreement templates

> PositiveForm guide · Agreements and waivers · AGR-001
> Canonical page: https://positiveform.com/guides/agreements/manage-agreement-templates/
> This Markdown: https://positiveform.com/guides/agreements/manage-agreement-templates.md

**Summary:** Create, preview, publish, unpublish, or archive member agreement templates. Template lifecycle and signing order are explicit and published content remains…  
**Who can do this:** Organization owners, Managers, Staff  
**Required access:** `members.change`  
**Where in PositiveForm:** `/settings/agreements/templates`  
**Status:** Verified on 2026-07-29 against PositiveForm build `2ac7ef8`.

## Who this is for

This guide is for whoever owns the studio's paperwork: an **owner**, a
**manager**, or **staff** with the `members.change` permission.

An agreement template is the document families sign. It has a lifecycle you can
see on the page: **Draft** while you write it, **Published** once families can
sign it, and **Archived** when you retire it.

The property that matters is that published content is **versioned**. Editing a
published agreement produces a new version rather than rewriting the one people
already signed, so what somebody agreed to stays what they agreed to.

## Before you begin

- Have the wording ready, or be prepared to draft it here.
- Know that only a **published** agreement can be sent or signed. A draft cannot
  be requested from a family.
- Know that archiving does not invalidate signatures already collected.

## Steps

1. Click **Settings** in the left navigation, then **Member agreements**, then
   the **Agreement templates** tab. With none set up it reads **No agreement
   templates** and invites you to create one.
2. Click **New agreement**.
3. Give it a title families will recognise, and write the content.
4. Save it. It stays a **Draft** until you publish it, and each template shows
   its version number and when it last changed.
5. Publish it when the wording is right. It moves under **Published**, and only
   then can it be sent or signed.
6. To change a published agreement, edit it and publish again. That creates a new
   version; signatures already collected stay attached to the version that was
   signed.
7. To retire one, archive it. It moves under **Archived** and stops being offered
   for new signatures.

## Expected outcome

The templates page groups agreements by where they are in their lifecycle:
drafts you are still writing, **Published** ones families can sign, and
**Archived** ones you have retired. Each shows a version number and the date it
last changed.

A published agreement becomes available everywhere signatures are collected,
including the **Request signatures** and **Sign here** actions on a household;
see [Manage member agreement completion](https://positiveform.com/guides/households/manage-member-agreements/).

Publishing a new version does not alter what anyone has already signed. That is
the reason it versions rather than editing in place.

## Screenshots

![Agreement templates with none created, reading No agreement templates](https://positiveform.com/guides/media/AGR-001/20260729T033000Z/001-agreement-templates.webp)

## Recovery

If an agreement does not appear when you try to send one, check it is published
rather than still a draft. A draft is invisible to the sending flow on purpose.

If you archived one families still need, unarchive or republish it. Signatures
collected before archiving are unaffected either way.

If you published wording with a mistake, fix it and publish again rather than
trying to undo. The corrected version applies to future signatures, and the
earlier one stays attached to the people who signed it, which is what you want if
anyone ever asks what they agreed to.

If saving or publishing fails, PositiveForm shows the reason and the template is
unchanged.

## Related guides

- [Manage member agreement completion](https://positiveform.com/guides/households/manage-member-agreements/) — send a published
  agreement to a family, or record one they signed on paper.
- [Sign a public agreement](https://positiveform.com/guides/agreements/public-agreement-signing/) — what the signer sees when they open
  the link.

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Source: PositiveForm customer guides, https://positiveform.com/guides/. 
Every guide as one file for AI assistants: https://positiveform.com/llms-full.txt. 
Guide index: https://positiveform.com/llms.txt.