Consent Forms and Signatures

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A consent form is a short text your customer reads and signs before a treatment, for example to confirm they've had a patch test before a colour service. You write your forms in the back office, once for the whole business. Customers sign them on screen in SimplePOS, on their appointment, and the signed copy is saved to the customer as a PDF.

How to open it: Customers › Consent forms, Customers › Signed consents or Customers › Consent missing.

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Before you start

Customers can only sign at stores that are set up for it:

1. The store needs a SimplePOS version that supports consent forms. Your SimplePOS update notes say when yours does.
2. Turn consent forms on for each store that should use them: open Settings › SimplePOS Billing Counter › POS Settings, pick the store, find the setting whose Description says SimplePOS downloads the business's consent forms and shows consent pending on appointments (type consent in the filter box under Description to find it quickly), tick Is Enabled and click Save changes. See POS Settings.
3. Restart the billing counter software at that store so the change takes effect.

After that, SimplePOS counters pick up new and changed forms the next time they download forms.

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Consent forms

Write the forms your customers sign, and choose the services that need each one.

Add a consent form

1. Click Add consent form.
2. Give it a Title, such as Chemical and colour treatment consent. It shows at the top of the form and in your list of forms. It can be up to 200 characters, and two forms that are switched on can't share a title.
3. Write the Text the customer reads and signs. Leave a blank line to start a new paragraph. It can be up to 8,000 characters; the count under the form shows how much you've used.
4. Check the Preview under the text. It shows roughly how the paragraphs will look to the customer (SimplePOS uses its own fonts).
5. Under Services that need this form, tick the services, for example Global colour or Smoothening. Type in the search box to find one quickly, or click Clear all to untick them all. Leave them all unticked to offer the form for any service.
6. Leave Active switched on so SimplePOS shows the form.
7. Click Save consent form. Click Cancel to go back without saving.

If something is missing, the field turns red and tells you what to fix. Everything else you typed stays in place.

Edit a form

Click the form's title, or Edit on its row. Change what you need and click Save consent form.

Copies customers have already signed keep the text they signed. Your changes apply to new signatures.

Switch a form off or on

Click Switch off on the form's row and confirm. SimplePOS counters remove the form on their next download, and appointments stop asking for it. The form stays in your list, and copies customers already signed are kept. Click Switch on to bring it back at any time.

You can't delete a form; switch it off instead.

What you'll see in the list

Column	What it shows
Title	The form's title. Click it to edit the form.
Services	The services that need the form. Any service means none are ticked, so SimplePOS offers the form on every appointment. Use that for a general form, like a health and allergy declaration.
Status	Active: the form is on and SimplePOS shows it. Switched off: the form is kept here, but SimplePOS no longer shows it.
Changed	When the form was last saved, or switched on or off.
Actions	Edit, and Switch off or Switch on.

How signing works in SimplePOS

1. When an appointment has a service that needs a form, SimplePOS shows consent pending on it.
2. Staff open the appointment, and the customer reads the form and signs on screen.
3. SimplePOS saves the signed copy as a PDF to the customer's documents. You'll find it in Signed consents.

💡 Tips for writing a good form

• Keep paragraphs short. Customers read it on a counter screen.
• Say what the treatment involves, the possible risks, and what the customer agrees to.
• Use plain words, not legal wording.
• SimplePOS doesn't show my form? Check that the form is Active, that consent forms are turned on for the store (see Before you start), that the store's SimplePOS supports consent forms, and that the counter has downloaded forms since you saved.
• A service is missing from the list? Only services that are switched on are listed. Switch it on, or add it, in Master › Item Master. A service that was ticked before it was switched off still shows, marked "(switched off)".
• "You already have an active form with this title"? Use a different title, or switch the other form off first.

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Signed consents

See every consent form your customers signed in SimplePOS, and open the signed copy.

To find signings:

1. Choose Date From and Date To. These are the dates the customer signed, in the store's own time. The page opens on the 1st of this month and today, and shows up to 366 days at a time.
2. To see one form only, pick it in Form. Leave it on All forms to see them all. Switched-off forms are listed too, so you can still find older signings.
3. Click Show signings.
4. To see one store, pick it in the box under Store Location. To find a customer, type their name or phone number in the box under Customer or Phone.

Each row is one form a customer signed on an appointment, newest first.

Column	What it shows
Signed at	The date and time the customer signed, in the store's time.
Customer, Phone	The customer on the appointment, and their phone number as saved on the customer.
Form	The consent form that was signed.
Appointment	The appointment number, with the date and time it was booked for.
Store Location	The store the appointment was at.
PDF	Open PDF to see the signed copy, or PDF not found.

Not in your consent forms

A form marked ⚠ Not in your consent forms was signed under a title that none of your forms has now, for example because the form was renamed after it was signed. The title shows as it was signed. The signing still counts; you just can't pick it in the Form box.

Opening the signed PDF

Click Open PDF and the signed copy opens in a new browser tab, on a computer or a phone. The page finds it by looking in the customer's documents for a PDF that arrived around the time of the signing (from an hour before to a day after). If there are several, it picks the one named after the form, then the one closest in time. If a customer signed two forms close together, check that the PDF you opened is the right one.

PDF not found means no signed copy arrived within a day of the signing. The counter may have been offline, the upload may have failed, or the document was removed. Ask the store to check the customer's documents in SimplePOS and upload the signed copy again.

If you click Open PDF and see PDF not available, the copy was removed from the customer's documents, belongs to a store you don't have access to, or is no longer saved. Go back, click Show signings to refresh the list, and if it still won't open, ask the store to upload the signed copy again.

💡 Tips

• Before a chemical or colour service, check here that the customer has signed the right form.
• Follow up with stores that show many PDF not found rows; their counters may not be uploading.
• Use the export button above the list to keep a record of who signed what and when.
• A signing shows only once SimplePOS has uploaded the appointment. Signings on appointments that were later deleted don't show.
• You can't sign a form on this page. Customers sign in SimplePOS.

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Consent missing

Find services on your bills that needed a signed consent form when the customer never signed it, so you can ask them to sign on their next visit.

What counts as consent missing

A service on a bill shows here when:

• a consent form that is switched on lists that service, and
• the customer didn't sign that form.

The form counts as signed when either:

• the customer on the bill signed it in SimplePOS on the same day as the bill, at any of your stores. For example, a Hair Colour billed on 12 November is covered by a signing on 12 November, but not by one on 5 November; or
• it was signed on the appointment the bill was made from, on any day.

A few more things to know:

• Forms set for Any service are offered in SimplePOS but never counted as needed here. Switched-off forms aren't checked either.
• If two forms list the same service, the service shows once for each form that wasn't signed. If a bill has the same service twice, it shows once.
• Cancelled and returned bills aren't checked.
• A bill without a customer can only be covered by a signing on its own appointment.
• If you rename a form, signings made on an older SimplePOS before the rename may not count.

If none of your forms lists any services, the page tells you so, and nothing can be missing.

To find missing consent:

1. Choose Date From and Date To. These are bill dates, in the store's own time, up to 366 days at a time.
2. If you want, pick a Form to check only that one. Leave it on All forms to check every form that lists services.
3. Click Show missing consent.
4. To see one store, pick it in the box under Store Location. To find a customer, type their name or phone number in the box under Customer or Phone.

Each row is one service on a bill that needed a form, newest first. The footer counts the rows you see.

Column	What it shows
Date	When the bill was made, in the store's time.
Bill	The bill number from the receipt. Click it to open the bill.
Customer, Phone	The customer on the bill. Empty for a walk-in without a customer.
Service	The service on the bill that needed the form.
Form required	The consent form that service needed and nobody signed.
Store Location	The store that made the bill.

💡 Tips

• Ask the customer to sign the form on their next visit, before the service starts.
• If one store or one service shows often, remind the staff there to open the form on the appointment before they start.
• A service shows but the customer did sign? Check the date: a signing on another day counts only when it was on the appointment the bill was made from. Also check that they signed the form shown, in Signed consents.
• You can't mark a form as signed here. Customers sign in SimplePOS.
• Use the export button above the list to share it with your store managers.