Set up your rental contract template

What this is

Every rental agreement your customers sign comes from one template you control. You write the wording once — the rules, fees, and legal terms for your shop — and FleetLoop automatically fills in the details of each real rental (the renter’s name, the vehicle, the dates, the price) when it’s time to sign. This guide covers finding the template, editing it, and what those auto-filled placeholders are.

Before you start

• Only a shop owner can edit the contract template.
• Have your rental agreement wording ready (or use FleetLoop’s starting template and adjust it), and know whether your state or insurer requires specific language — check with your own advisor if you’re not sure.

Steps

1. Go to Settings, then in the Compliance section find the Rental contract template card and click Edit template.

📸 Screenshot: Settings → Compliance section, showing the Rental contract template card and its Edit template button.

2. If you haven’t set up a template yet, click Load default to start from FleetLoop’s research-backed default wording. You can edit anything after loading it.

📸 Screenshot: The empty template editor, showing the Load default button.

3. Edit the wording using the toolbar (headings, bold, italic, bullet and numbered lists, and more) just like a word processor.
4. To insert a detail that should fill in automatically — like the renter’s name or the vehicle’s VIN — click a chip in the Variables panel below the editor, or type / inside the editor to open a menu of choices. The chips are grouped by what they describe: Shop, Renter, Vehicle, Rental, Payment & rates, and Signature & legal.

📸 Screenshot: The template editor with the Variables panel open, showing grouped chips like {{renter_name}} and {{vehicle_vin}}.

5. Click Preview to see the template with placeholder text filled in, or Preview with sample data to see it filled in with realistic example values (like “Jordan Renter”) so you can proofread the full wording before it goes in front of a real customer.

📸 Screenshot: The “Preview with sample data” panel, showing the rendered agreement with sample values filled in.

6. When you’re happy with the wording, click Save new version. Saving doesn’t touch contracts that customers already signed — those keep the exact wording they signed. Only new signature requests use the version you just saved.
7. Before customers can sign this template, click Approve template wording. FleetLoop won’t send signature requests to renters until an owner approves the current wording — this is a deliberate checkpoint so nothing goes out for signature that hasn’t been reviewed.

📸 Screenshot: The amber “Approve your contract template” card with the Approve template wording button.

8. If FleetLoop shows a banner suggesting you add wording about handling photos of IDs and insurance cards, click Add clause to my template to insert it, or I’ve got this covered if your existing wording already addresses it.

How to know it worked

The Template body card shows “Currently active version” with the version number you just saved. Once approved, the approval card turns green and reads “Template approved. Approved by [name] on [date].” — signature requests can now be sent to renters.

If something goes wrong

“Owners only.” Only shop owners can edit or approve the contract template. Ask an owner on your team to make the change, or have your account upgraded to owner if that’s expected to be you.

A placeholder shows up as plain text like {{something}} instead of filling in. This usually means it was typed by hand instead of inserted from the Variables panel or the / menu — delete it and insert the real chip instead, so it’s spelled exactly right.

Signature requests aren’t going out. Check the approval card — if it’s amber and says “Re-approval required” or “Approve your contract template,” the wording needs an owner’s approval first. Editing the template after approving it always requires re-approving before it can be used again.