Documents Hub

What it is

Documents Hub lets you upload a PDF you already use — a contract, proposal, work order, or NDA — drop signature and text boxes onto it, and save it as a reusable template. From that template you create a document for a specific customer and send it out to be signed. The customer signs in their browser, and everyone gets an emailed copy of the finished, signed PDF.

There are two places you work with documents, and they do different jobs:

When to use it

• You need a signature on paperwork — service agreements, contracts, change orders, waivers.
• You send the same document over and over — build it once as a template, then reuse it for every customer.
• You want the customer's details filled in automatically — name, address, today's date, and company info can be pre-filled so nobody retypes them.
• Your technician is standing at the door — open the signing page on your own phone or tablet and have the customer sign right there.
• You need proof of what was agreed — the finished PDF is stored on the document and emailed to everyone who signed.

Use Estimates instead when you are quoting a price with line items — estimates have their own customer portal, approval, and payment collection. Documents Hub is for paperwork that needs a signature on a fixed PDF.

Before you start

• Your plan includes it. Documents Hub is a Pro feature. Pro, Growth, Enterprise, and accounts still on trial can use it. Free and Starter accounts see an Upgrade to Pro prompt instead of the page.
• You have the Documents permission. If Documents is missing from your sidebar, ask an admin to turn on the Documents permission for your role.
• You have the PDF ready. It must be a real PDF file (not a Word file, photo, or scan saved as an image). Everything else — where the signature goes, who signs — you set up inside Joby.
• The customer exists as a client. Every document is attached to a client record, and the client needs an email address for the signing link to be sent.
• Your company name and details are filled in under Settings›Business›Company Settings, so the signing page and the emails show your business name.

Step-by-step

1. Build a PDF template

1. Go to Settings›Quotes & Docs›Documents Hub.
2. On the Templates tab, click New PDF template.
3. Click Upload a PDF and choose your file. Every page appears on screen. (Later, Replace PDF swaps the file out — note that this clears any boxes you already placed.)
4. On the right, fill in Template name (for example, "Service Agreement"), pick a Category — Proposal, Contract, Agreement, NDA, Work Order, or Other — and add an optional Description.
5. Check the Signers card. It starts with one signer called Customer, marked "Client · gets the link" — that is the person who receives the email and signs online. Click Add to add a Company Rep from your own team if somebody at your business also has to sign. Added signers start with the Signs toggle off, so turn it on if they really must sign. You can rename any signer by typing over its name.
6. Under Add fields, click the type of box you want — Signature, Initials, Date, Text, or Checkbox — then click the spot on the PDF where it belongs. Drag a placed box to move it. Text boxes can be made wider by dragging the small handle on their right edge. Click the × on a selected box to remove it.
7. Click any placed box to open its settings: Assigned to (which signer fills it in) and Required. For Text and Date boxes you also get Auto-fill from data — pick a value from the Lead, Client, Company, or System lists and Joby fills the box in for you when the document is created. Leave it empty and the signer types it themselves.
8. Click Save template.

Joby saves a new version every time you save a template (the card shows v1, v2, and so on). Documents you already sent keep the version they were created from, so editing a template never changes paperwork that is already out with a customer.

2. Create a document and send it for signature

1. Click Documents in the sidebar.
2. Click New Document (on a phone, the New button at the top).
3. Pick a Template.
4. Under Client, click Search for a client… and find the customer by name, company, email, or phone.
5. Check the Signers boxes. The customer's name and email are filled in from their client record; anyone from your team is marked (your team) and filled in with your own name and email. Correct anything that is wrong — the email address is what the signing link is sent to.
6. Click Create & send to email the signing link straight away, or Create draft to save it and send later.

Joby emails the link to the first person who still has to sign. If two people sign, the second person is emailed automatically once the first one is done.

3. Send a document from a job

1. Open the lead.
2. Click the Documents tab.
3. Scroll to Send for signature and click New document.
4. Pick a template, check the signer name and email, then click Create & send or Create draft.

Documents created this way stay attached to that job, so they are listed right there on the lead as well as on the main Documents page.

4. Have someone sign in person

1. Open the document from the Documents list.
2. Click Sign now to open the signing page on your own screen, or Copy link to paste it somewhere else.
3. Hand the device to the customer. They tap each highlighted box — the page shows Start and Next buttons that jump them to the next box, with tags like "Sign here" and "Type here".
4. For a signature box they draw with a finger or mouse and click Apply.
5. When the footer shows every box completed, they click Finish & sign.

How to check it worked

1. Open Documents in the sidebar. Your document should be in the list with a status badge.
2. Read across the row. Signers shows how many people have signed out of the total (for example 1/2). Viewed shows the day the customer opened it. Signed shows the day it was finished.
3. Click the row to open the document. Boxes that are still empty appear as dashed amber outlines, and a badge at the top counts how many fields to fill are left. Hover an empty box to see who it is waiting on.
4. Check the signer chips under the title — each one shows that person's name and whether they are pending, sent, or signed.
5. When the status reaches Completed, a Signed PDF button appears at the top of the document. Click it to open the finished file. Everyone who signed also receives it by email with the subject "Signed copy".

If the customer says they never got the email, open the document's ⋮ menu and use Copy link to send them the link yourself, or Resend for signature to email it again.

Common mistakes

"No templates yet" when creating a document

You have to build a template before you can create a document. Go to Settings›Quotes & Docs›Documents Hub›Templates and click New PDF template. On a brand-new account the Documents page shows a Create your first template button that takes you straight there.

A signature box is assigned to somebody who is not signing

The template will not save, and Joby tells you which box is the problem. Either turn on that person's Signs toggle, change the box's Assigned to setting, or — for a text or date box — set it to Auto-fill from data so nobody has to fill it in.

Nothing sends because there is no email address

The signing link is emailed, so the customer's email must be filled in before you click Create & send. If you got as far as a draft, open the ⋮ menu, choose Edit, add the address, and then send.

Trying to edit a document after someone signed

Once the first signature is in, Edit disappears from the ⋮ menu — the paperwork is locked so it cannot be changed underneath the person who signed it. Create a new document instead.

Replacing the PDF wipes the boxes

Replace PDF in the template builder loads a fresh file and clears every box you placed, because the old positions would no longer line up. Expect to place them again.

Deleting instead of archiving

Delete is permanent — Joby makes you type the word "delete" to confirm, and the document and its signing record are gone. For paperwork that is already signed, use Archive instead: it hides the document from the list but keeps the record. Both actions are admin-only.

The Documents tab is missing from the sidebar

Either your account is on Free or Starter (Documents Hub is a Pro feature), your role does not have the Documents permission, or you hid the tab yourself under Settings›My Account›Account Settings›Sidebar tabs. Check all three.