Enable and customize Work Acknowledgments
Work Acknowledgments settings turns on-site signoff on or off for your business. When enabled, technicians can collect a signature on a visit and email a generated PDF acknowledgment to the customer.
Where to find it: Settings -> Work Acknowledgments
Turn on Enable Work Acknowledgments and confirm. The first time you enable it, Essential sets up the standard acknowledgment form, PDF template, and email template. Turning it off hides Work Acknowledgments across the app and prevents technicians from collecting new ones, but already-collected records and your saved templates are kept so you can turn it back on later.
When Work Acknowledgments are enabled, configure Photos, Deficiencies, customer signature fields, Terms & Conditions, and custom fields above the Templates section. The PDF and email cards then show live previews, plus an Edit button that opens the full editor. If you've customized the PDF template and want to start over, a Use default button on the card restores Essential's standard layout; your email, terms, and custom fields are left untouched. Hover over the Custom badge for a reminder about settings that may need corresponding Liquid variables. Save applies the template for acknowledgments generated after the change.
Use Completed, Unsigned, and Minimal above the PDF preview to check a fully completed acknowledgment, one waiting for signatures, and one without optional captured details. Use Portal access and No portal access above the email preview to check both customer-link conditions. The same tabs remain available inside the full editor. Switching a preview tab only changes the sample shown; it does not edit or save the template.
The PDF template controls the document attached to the submitted acknowledgment. The Email template controls the subject and body of the message sent when the acknowledgment is delivered to the customer.
Edit the PDF or email template
Select Edit on the PDF template or Email card. The editor (Edit acknowledgment PDF template or Edit acknowledgment email) opens in Visual: the rendered PDF or email on sample data, with the email's Subject row above its body.
Click any text and type to change it. Variables show sample values; hover one to see its name, and press Backspace or Delete next to it to remove it. Enter adds a line break (the subject stays on one line), and pasted or typed text stays plain text.
To add a variable, click in the text where it should go, then select Insert variable and pick one — or pick it first, then click where it should go (see Add a variable). Images such as the logo and signatures aren't listed; add those in Edit code.
Select Save at the top.
For layout, styling, logic, images, or text that doesn't highlight when you point at it, select Edit code in the Visual / Edit code switch at the top. Edit code shows the Liquid source (and the email's Subject field) with a clickable variable list and a live preview. Switching between Visual and Edit code never loses or rewrites anything. Reset to default is in both modes. If the template has an error, a red notice under the top bar says what's wrong and on which line, and Save stays unavailable until you fix it (see Errors and warnings).
In Edit code, the email Subject editor starts at one line and grows automatically as text wraps or line breaks are added.
Photos
Use Include photos to control whether technicians can attach multiple photos while completing a Work Acknowledgment. Change the switch, then select Save. The standard PDF template shows captured images in a Photos & Files section. Technicians can also record or attach videos in the same fields — in the PDF, a video appears as a thumbnail with a play button and a watch link that opens it in a browser.
If you enable photos while using a customized PDF template, Essential asks before replacing it with the standard template so captured photos are guaranteed to appear.
Turning this setting off removes photo capture from new acknowledgments. Photos already saved on a submitted acknowledgment remain part of that record and continue to appear if its PDF is regenerated.
Deficiencies
Use Include deficiencies to add an optional Deficiencies section to the acknowledgment form. Change the switch, then select Save. With it on, a technician filling out a Work Acknowledgment can record one or more deficiencies found on the visit. For each one they pick the asset group (or an asset group type that isn't set up on the property yet — Essential creates the group when they submit), optionally the specific asset, a required customer-facing description of what's wrong, optional internal notes for the office, and photos.
Submitting the acknowledgment creates a Deficiencies task on the Tasks page for each asset group the recorded deficiencies belong to, the same task the office gets from Create a deficiency task. Each deficiency is tracked, so it also appears on the Deficiencies tabs of the job, the property, and the asset group. The standard PDF template lists each customer-facing description, with its photos, in a Deficiencies Found section above the signatures — so the customer signs off on the findings as well as the work. Internal notes are saved for the office but are never included in that customer-facing document.
If you enable deficiencies while using a customized PDF template, Essential asks before replacing it with the standard template so the findings are guaranteed to appear.
Turning this setting off removes the section from new acknowledgments. Deficiencies already recorded stay on their tasks and continue to appear if an existing acknowledgment's PDF is regenerated.
Customer signature fields
Use Include customer full name and Include customer title to choose which details the signer must enter. Enabled fields are required and appear directly below Customer Signature on the form. On the standard PDF, the enabled details appear together on one line below the signature, such as Dana Cole, Property Manager. Change either switch, then select Save.
If you enable either field while using a customized PDF template, Essential warns that the customization must be replaced for the new signer details to appear. Select Save & use default to save the fields and switch to the standard PDF template, or cancel to keep editing without changing the template.
Turning a field off removes it from new acknowledgments. Details already saved on a submitted acknowledgment remain part of that record and continue to appear if its PDF is regenerated.
Terms & Conditions
Add optional terms that appear at the bottom of the acknowledgment document, below the signatures. Leave it blank to hide the section. Terms & Conditions has its own Save.
Saving visible terms while using a customized PDF template offers to switch to the standard template so the terms appear in the document. Clearing terms does not replace a customized template.
Custom fields
Add your own fields for technicians to fill in on the visit — a Work Order number, for example. For each field, set a Label, a Type (short or long text, number, date, time, a dropdown of choices, or yes/no), a Placement that controls where it appears on the document, and whether it's required. Custom fields has its own Save.
Adding or changing a custom field while using a customized PDF template offers to switch to the standard template. Removing fields alone keeps the customized template.
Placement options follow the document from top to bottom:
on the Serviced By row
on the Date / Time row, after Time Finished
before Description on a new line
after Description
after Parts, Labor, and Items
after Photos
after Signatures
Photos, deficiencies, customer signature fields, Terms & Conditions, and custom fields appear in the standard document and its live preview. When an additive setting could be missing from a customized PDF, Essential asks before saving and replacing the customized PDF with the standard template.
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