Contracts and agreements — overview

When you start an inspection with a quote, two documents travel together to your client’s portal 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 in the project’s Document Center.

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	Online, in the client portal	The client signs with mouse or finger, and the quote moves to Signed status
Association agreement (APCHQ, AIBQ)	Online, in the client portal	The client reads it, types their initials and signs; Lumos seals the PDF and adds a certificate page
Custom agreement	Outside Lumos	You send it as an attachment with the paper plane icon; the client signs it with Adobe Acrobat (or equivalent) or by printing, then returns it to you

An association agreement can also be signed offline. If a client prefers Acrobat or paper, send them the PDF with the paper plane icon, then upload the signed copy you receive to the Document Center. See 10.4 Signing the agreement.

How both travel together

When you prepare a quote (chapter 5.4), the Generate documents window creates drafts in the project’s Document Center:

The quote, with your branding and the item details.
Your association’s service agreement, pre-filled with the client’s name, address, date, and conditions.
Depending on your checkboxes: the inspection prerequisites (AIBQ, APCHQ) and your association’s Practice Standard.

The inspection is created at this step, but nothing is sent yet. In the Document Center, Send for signature then sends a single email, with no attachment: the client opens their portal, reads everything there and signs the quote and the agreement, in any order.

In the Document Center

On the inspection card (Inspections tab), each document appears as a pill with its state — Quote · signed, Agreement · sent… Clicking a pill opens the Document Center on that inspection, where the two documents are managed independently:

The agreement goes through Draft, Sent (or Viewed once opened in the portal), then Signed on …. You can view it, remind the client, send them the PDF with the paper plane icon, or remove it as long as it is not signed.
The quote goes through Draft, Sent, then Signed on …. 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 in the Document Center (possible as long as it is not signed).
Generate a new one with the right options, then send it for signature.

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

Annexes and options

The agreement can be enriched when you generate it with:

Annex B — Divided co-ownership (condo), automatically added if you check the corresponding option.
The performance attestation, signed on inspection day on site.
Your association’s Practice Standard, a separate document (informational PDF, not part of the agreement) that the client reads in their portal.

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.