From signed contract to a staffed project
Published
Short answer
The contract already holds what a project plan needs: client, scope, dates, value and who will do the work. If that information flows straight into your resource plan when the contract is sent, and becomes a project when it is signed, nobody has to type it in twice and the team is booked before the work starts.
The gap nobody owns
In most small agencies, the contract and the plan live in different tools. Someone sends the contract from an e-signing tool. Someone else, later, creates the project in the time tracker and books people in the planning tool. Between those two moments, three things go wrong:
- The plan doesn't know what is coming. A big contract is out for signature, but the plan shows the team as free, so someone says yes to another job.
- Details get retyped. Dates, budget and team are copied by hand from the contract to the project, with the mistakes that come with it.
- Time is lost at the start. The client signs on Friday, and on Monday the team is still asking which project to log time on.
What the contract already knows
A good contract answers most of the questions a project plan asks:
| The contract says | The plan needs |
|---|---|
| Client and contact | Who the project is for |
| Scope | What the tasks are |
| Start and end date | When to book people |
| Value, fixed or hourly | The budget to track against |
| Team | Who to book |
So the contract should be where the project starts, not a document filed away once it's signed.
How it works in Pledge
- Write the contract and pick the team. While you write it, choose who will do the work. The team is internal and never shown in the document.
- Send it. The team is booked tentatively in Plan, at their share of capacity across the contract's dates. Tentative bookings are drawn hatched, so everyone can see what is likely but not yet won.
- The client signs. The contract becomes a project with the client, dates, budget and team. The bookings are confirmed.
- The team logs time. The project is already there, so time goes to the right place from the first day, and you can follow hours and budget against the plan.
If the client declines or you void the contract, its tentative bookings are removed and the capacity is free again.
Let the plan follow the contract
- Prepare
Pick the team
Add dates and the internal team to the contract.
- Sent
Tentative booking
Reserve capacity while the signature is pending.
- Signed
Confirmed project
Carry over the client, dates, budget and team.
- Delivery
Log the time
Track work against the project from day one.
Declined or voided contracts release their tentative bookings.
Why it matters for margin
Most agencies don't lose money on the work they plan. They lose it on the work nobody planned: the second project that started the same week, the hours logged to "Internal" because the project didn't exist, the budget nobody watched until the invoice. Connecting the contract to the plan doesn't add a process. It removes one.
Questions
- Does the client see the team on the contract?
- No. In Pledge the project team is internal. It is used for planning and isn't part of the document the client signs.
- What happens to tentative bookings if the contract isn't signed?
- While the contract waits for a signature, the bookings stay tentative. If the client declines or you void the contract, Pledge removes them.
- Does this work for hourly contracts too?
- Yes. A fixed-price contract becomes the project's budget, and an hourly contract is billed by the hours logged at each person's rate.
Try Pledge
Contracts, time, plans and leads for small agencies, with an MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT. Pledge is in private beta: leave your email and we will send an invite.