Run a Season Sign-Up

Every spring a lot of companies mail last year's customers a packet: this year's program and prices, a form to sign and send back by a date, a late fee after it, and, for lake work, the regulator's permit application. Season sign-up is that packet as a quote campaign. At the end of this playbook you will have one batch sent by email and by post, packets printed for the customers who need paper, reminders running up to the deadline, and a board that shows who has signed up, who is still deciding, and which paper forms are back.

The mechanics under it are the ordinary quote campaign, so read Run a Quote Campaign first if you have never built one. What the customer sees on their end is in Season Sign-Up: What Customers See.

Before you start

• The work type's season dates. The suggested respond-by date and each quote's expiry both come from them. Set them on the work type before you build.
• A rate card with tiers, under Sales and BillingPricing. A sign-up prices every line at each site's tier, so a Tier 2 lake gets Tier 2 prices. A lake with no tier set anywhere prices at the rate card's default tier, and the pre-send checks will tell you.
• A default quote template for the work type, under SettingsQuote Templates, with the add-ons customers can choose as optional, customer-editable lines. The template decides which lines appear; the rate card decides their price.
• Quote sent switched on for email under SettingsCustomer Notifications.
• For lake work with Permit Applications: the work type's permit template must be published, or the pre-send checks block the send. Permit Applications is an Enterprise feature, and Solvara support manages the templates - ask them to publish yours.
• Customers who want paper even though they have an email. Open the customer from DirectoriesCustomers, click Edit contacts, and tick Prefers paper. They get a printed packet on every sign-up; everything else still goes by email.

1. Set the company defaults once

Under SettingsQuote Templates, the Season Sign-Up Packet card holds the starting point for every sign-up campaign. The builder pours these in; each campaign can still change any of them.

Click Save Sign-Up Defaults. Campaigns already built keep what they have.

2. Build the campaign

Open Sales and BillingCampaigns, stay on Quotes, and click New Season Sign-Up. The builder opens with the Season Sign-Up Packet purpose already picked, and adds a sixth step, Deadline & Packet, after Quote & Message.

1. 1

   What & When

   Pick the work type and the season you are selling. The name fills in as Work type, season, sign-ups.

2. 2

   Who Gets A Quote

   For an aquatic work type the site type is already decided: a Pond Treatment batch shows Site Type as Pond customers, and the count above the filters covers customers with a pond and nothing else. A lake work type gets Which Lakes: leave Lakes on Every lake to send every lake in one batch, or pick one or more (each reads Fish Lake (Scott) — Tier 2 · 41 customers) for a batch with its own letter and deadline. The note under the count says that with printed packets on, customers with no email get a packet instead of being skipped. Skip Customers Already Under Contract For Season YYYY is on by default.

3. 3

   How To Price It

   Rate Card At Each Site's Tier is preselected: every line priced from your rate card at the tier each site is on this year. Last Season's Price Per Site carries last year's number plus your increase instead, the way a renewal campaign does.

4. 4

   Quote & Message

   The email that carries the link. The default copy already names the deadline with {{respondBy}} and, when you charge one, the fee with {{lateFee}}.

5. 5

   Deadline & Packet

   Everything that makes this a sign-up. See the next section.

6. 6

   Review & Build

   The Deadline & Packet card reads Sign up by March 21 · $25 after that. Click Build Quote Roster.

The Deadline & Packet step

Sign Up By. Respond By is the date on the letter, the email, and the reminders. The line under it reads how many days before the season it lands and how many days customers get from today; Use the suggested date applies the company default. Customers can still sign up after it, with the late fee if you charge one, until the quote expires - and each quote stays open until the season starts unless you set Accept Quote By on the Message step. Tick Charge A Late Fee After The Deadline and fill Amount and Shown As to charge one.

How Customers Get It. Three tiles. Email sends the quote email with the link to everyone who has an address. Text Message adds a short text with the link to customers with a mobile number, alongside their email or packet; it never replaces either. Printed Packets turns customers with no email, and customers who prefer paper, into print rows: a letter, the program with prices, a sign-up form, and any permit application, one packet per customer, for you to print and mail. Turn printing off and those customers are skipped, as on any other campaign.

The Letter. Letter Title and Letter are page one of the packet and the top of the online page. Program Note (Optional) prints under the program table; Form Instructions (Optional) prints at the top of the paper form, which is where to say where to mail it back. Front Page With Sample Values previews the result.

Permit Application. Shown when Permit Applications is on for the work type. Each quote carries the application for every eligible site, the customer answers only what OpsVara does not already know, and one signature signs the agreement and the permit together. If the template is not published the step says so; ask Solvara support to publish it before you approve.

Remind Customers Who Have Not Signed Up. On by default with Days Before The Deadline 14, 7, 2 and Days After (Late Notice) 1. Reminders go by email, and by text when Text Message is on, and stop the moment the customer signs up or declines. Customers with a printed packet and no email are listed for a call instead. Nothing sends until the automation in section 6 is on.

Offer To Save A Card After Signing. One optional step after the signature. Needs online card or bank payments switched on.

3. Review the roster

The roster works as on any quote campaign, with three additions for a sign-up:

• A Delivery filter: Email and print, Email, Print packets.
• Chips on each row: Tier 2 (the lake pricing tier the prices came from) and Print packet (no email on file or prefers paper).
• Row actions: Preview packet renders that customer's packet before the send; Email instead / Print instead moves a row between the two channels.

Prices on a sign-up row are this year's rate-card prices at the site's tier, with the add-ons the site had last year pre-ticked for the customer. Review & Approve runs the usual pre-send checks plus these:

Approve N Quotes sends the email rows and marks the print rows sent with a live link.

4. Print and mail the packets

After the send, click Packets on the roster or the board. Print Packets makes one PDF with one packet per customer: the letter and this year's prices, a sign-up form with their property filled in, and any permit application, each with a QR code to their online page. Under Who To Print choose Print rows, Selected rows, or Everyone in the batch; only rows that have been sent are included, because the QR code needs the customer's live link. A whole lake can take a minute. Open PDF opens it in a new tab for printing. Printing marks the rows printed; once the envelopes go in the post, select the rows on the board and click Mark Mailed.

5. Track it on the Sign-Up Board

A completed sign-up campaign's page shows Sign-Ups Are Open with Open The Sign-Up Board; the campaigns list links Season Sign-Up Board for every campaign of the season together.

The four tiles read the whole campaign, whatever the filters: Signed Up (with the money signed and still open), Still Open (viewed, no response, past the deadline), Printed Packets (printed, mailed, back), and Needs The Office (permits waiting, drawings to review, declined). The line under them counts down: Sign up by March 21 · 9 days to go · $25 Late processing fee after.

Where It Stands on each row is one of:

Row actions: Packet, Mark mailed / Undo mailed, Resend (email rows), Remind by email, Text a reminder, Record signed form, Record permit, and Review drawing. Call List downloads the open rows with no email or no response, phone first; Export CSV exports the filtered board. Filter by State, Delivery, Paper (Waiting for paper / Paper form back), and Search.

6. Remind the customers who have not answered

Under SettingsAutomationsCustomer Comms, turn on Season Sign-Up Deadline Reminders. Days before the deadline and Days after (late notice) are the company defaults, used when a campaign does not set its own. Once a day the sweep looks at every open sign-up quote and sends the reminder that is due: the nearest "before" day it has not sent yet while the deadline is ahead, then the "after" days once it has passed, never more than one a day per customer. It stops the moment the customer signs up or declines, and skips quotes that expired, were put on hold, or were edited since they were sent.

• Email goes to every open row with an address, worded with the late fee once the deadline has passed.
• A text goes only when the campaign has Text Message on, the SMS switch is on for Season sign-up reminder under SettingsCustomer Notifications, and the customer has a mobile with text consent. Quiet hours and the daily limit apply.
• A print row with no email and no phone gets nothing; it is counted for the board's Call List instead.

The wording comes from Season sign-up reminder under Customer Notifications, where you can change the subject, intro, and text. To send one now, use Remind by email or Text a reminder on the board row.

7. Key a paper form that came back

On the roster or the board, click Record signed form on the row. Record Signed Sign-Up Form keys the whole page in one save:

1. 1

   Program — Tick What They Marked

   The add-ons the customer ticked on paper.

2. 2

   Property

   Shoreline feet owned, feet along shore to treat, feet out from shore, lake water for irrigation, the neighbours, and the property description, exactly as written. They are written to the site first, so the permit fills from the new numbers.

3. 3

   Permit — what they wrote

   Only the answers the site cannot supply.

4. 4

   Signature On The Form

   Signed As (the name as written), Date On The Form, How it arrived (Came back by mail, Handed in on paper, or Signed in person), an optional scan reference and internal note, and the attestation that the customer signed the form and ticked the policy statement. If the form came back after the deadline the dialog says the fee is added and offers Waive the late fee with a reason.

Record Sign-Up accepts the quote, signs the permit on the customer's behalf with the office user recorded, and marks the row Paper form back. If the quote was already accepted online and only a permit is waiting, the same dialog offers Record Permit Signature.

8. Permits and the season

A sign-up quote's permit is created when the customer signs, stamped with the season it is for, and listed under DirectoriesPermit Approvals with a Season column and filter. Two rules keep the automatic permit renewal out of the way: the renewal sweep skips a customer who holds an open sign-up quote for that season, and skips any site that already has a live application for next season, however it was created.

Verify it worked

• The campaign page shows Sent on the timeline and the Sign-Up Deadline card reads the date, the fee, the channels, how many packets were printed, and the reminder days.
• Open an email row's quote link in a private window: the page opens on Your 2027 program for Fish Lake with the deadline banner.
• Packets → Open PDF: the letter, the program table, the form with the property filled in, and the permit application with blanks for what the customer must write.
• The board's tiles match the roster counts, and a row you sign up in the private window turns Signed up on refresh.
• Turn the automation on, wait for the next sweep, and open a customer: the reminder appears in their communication history with the date and channel.

Troubleshooting