Contracts and agreements — overview

When you start an inspection by sending a quote to your client, two documents go out together in the same email but play different roles: the service agreement and the quote. This chapter clarifies what they are, how they are signed, and how you manage them on the inspection page.

Two documents, two roles

The service agreement

This is the legal contract that frames your service. It defines the scope of the mandate, each party’s obligations, liability limits, standard exclusions, payment terms, and remedies. Depending on your affiliation, the format changes:

AIBQ — official form of the Quebec Building Inspectors Association.
APCHQ — official form of the Quebec Association of Construction and Housing Professionals.
BNQ — Lumos default template, compatible with the BNQ 3009-500 standard, usable by all inspectors.
Custom — templates you create yourself in Business Configuration > Service Agreements.

See 10.2 Available templates.

The quote

This is the price proposal. It lists items (main inspection, options, extras), applies taxes (GST, QST), shows the total, and acts as a commercial offer. The quote is generated dynamically by Lumos with your branding (logo, contact details, GST/QST/NEQ numbers).

See 10.5 The quote and its online signature.

An important distinction: the signature

Document	Where it gets signed	How
Quote	In Lumos, online	The client clicks, signs with mouse or finger, and the quote moves to Signed status
Service agreement	Outside Lumos	The client signs it with Adobe Acrobat (or equivalent), or by printing; they return it by email or in person

Online signing of the agreement is on the Lumos roadmap. Today, only the quote can be signed and approved directly in Lumos. For the agreement, you handle the signature with your client outside the application.

How both travel together

When you prepare a quote (chapter 5.4), Lumos prepares a single email that contains:

The quote PDF, with your branding and the item details.
The service agreement PDF from your association, pre-filled with the client’s name, address, date, and conditions.
Optionally: the BNQ Practice Standard, project documents, performance attestation.

Once the email is sent, the inspection is created and both documents appear on the inspection page — each with its own actions.

On the inspection page

Inspection page with Agreement and Quote documents listed

Once sent, the two documents are managed independently:

The agreement is Attached on DD/MM/YYYY. You can view it, resend it by email, or remove it.
The quote is Pending signature then Signed on DD/MM/YYYY. You can view it at any time.

See 10.6 Managing an attached agreement.

One agreement per inspection

Lumos attaches only one agreement per inspection. If you need to modify it (for example because the price changes after a renegotiation, or the client wants to add the Divided Co-ownership annex), the procedure is:

Remove the current agreement from the inspection page.
Send a new one with the right options.

Removal is final on the Lumos side. See 10.6 Managing an attached agreement.

Annexes and options

The agreement can be enriched at send time with:

Annex B — Divided co-ownership (condo), automatically added if you check the corresponding option.
The performance attestation, signed on inspection day on site.
The Practice Standard as an email attachment (informational PDF, not part of the agreement).

See 10.3 Annexes and options.

Archiving

All contractual documentation stays accessible in the project and the relevant inspection. Lumos does not offer a consolidated multi-project page to browse all your active contracts: access is always via the project and the inspection. See 10.7 Archive and historical access.