Activity Messenger Help Center

Waivers: collect consent and electronic signatures with a form

A waiver in Activity Messenger is a regular form that contains consent and electronic signature blocks. You build it in the same form editor as any other form: add your terms, an acceptance checkbox and a signature box, then share the link. Every signed response is kept as a timestamped PDF, and you can find it again by name, email or mobile number.

This guide covers waivers for adults and for children, signing on behalf of a minor, sharing and embedding the form, sending it in a message, tracking who has not signed, and keeping the PDF records.

When to use a waiver form

Use a waiver form when people must agree to terms and sign before an activity: a liability waiver, a parental consent, a media release or a code of conduct. Choose where the waiver lives:

• On its own form, shared by link, QR code, email or text message. This guide covers that case.
• Inside a registration or payment form. Add the Acceptance and Electronic signature blocks to that form so the signature is part of the registration.
• On the client account, when each client signs once and sees the waiver in My Account. See Client waivers.

Create the waiver form

1. Open Forms › Create.
2. To start from an example, stay on the Create from a sample tab and select a waiver or consent sample. Samples are grouped by category. Select Full screen to preview one, then click Create.
3. To start empty, open the Create from scratch tab, choose Form as the Type, enter a Name and click Create.

A blank form contains only the Account owner block, shown as Respondent. The form opens on the Respondents tab. Depending on your permissions you also see Form, Confirmation page, Options, Analytics, Messages, Not filled and Log. Open the Form tab to build the waiver.

Add the blocks that make a waiver

In the Form tab, click + between two blocks, or open a block's three-dot menu and choose Add a question › Before or Add a question › After. The Add a new block window opens with one tab per block family. Select a block, set its options and click Create. Every option of every block is listed in the Form question reference.

A waiver usually combines these blocks.

Terms and acceptance

Add an Acceptance block. Write or paste your terms in Terms: the rich-text editor keeps the formatting of text pasted from Word. The respondent ticks the Checkbox, which reads "I have read and accept" until you change it. Required is on by default, so the form cannot be submitted without it. Switch on Limit length to show long terms in a scrolling box: the respondent sees "Please read and scroll to the bottom to accept." Hidden for logged-in members hides the block from members who are logged in. The Terms editor also has a merge field button, {P}, to insert placeholders.

The terms of an Acceptance block are printed in the PDF with the answer. A Text block is shown on the form but is printed in the PDF only if you switch on Include in confirmation PDF.

Electronic signature

Add an Electronic signature block. The respondent draws the signature with a mouse or a finger, or types their name. Description is the instruction shown above the box ("Please sign your name inside the box or type your name below." by default). Required is off by default: switch it on for a waiver. Activity Messenger stores the date, time and IP address of the respondent with the signature.

An Administrator signature block holds a signature that an administrator draws or types once in the editor. It is printed with every response, for example to countersign for your organization.

People blocks: adult and youth waivers

For an adult waiver, the Account owner block is the signer. Turn on only the fields you need and set each one to Optional or Required. Keep Email required: it identifies the signer and receives the PDF copy.

For a youth waiver, the parent or guardian is the Account owner and signs. Add a Participant/member/student block (turn on Multiple for several children) or a Children block to collect each child's name, gender and date of birth. Add Other parent or Contacts when you need a second guardian or emergency contacts. Field details are in Form questions: People blocks.

Required fields and optional extras

• Each person field has an Optional or Required setting, and each block has a Required switch. The respondent cannot submit until every required answer is given.
• To ask for a photo or a document, add an Upload block such as Upload an image or PDF or Upload a video. See Form questions: Upload and Electronic signature blocks.
• To ask your own questions, add standard blocks such as Yes/No, Dropdown or Checkboxes. See Form questions: Standard blocks.

Sign on behalf of a minor

The person who fills the form is the signer. For a child, build the form so that the parent or guardian is the Account owner and collect the child in a Participant/member/student or Children block. Write the terms in the first person ("I am the parent or legal guardian of the participant and I accept...") so the signature clearly covers the child.

To have a second person sign, such as a teenager co-signing or the other parent, add a second Electronic signature block. You can add a Relay block as well: the form is saved and sent by email to the second person, and a signature block with Only show to the relayed person switched on appears only once the form has been relayed.

Expiry and signing again each season

The Acceptance and Electronic signature blocks have no expiry setting, so a signed waiver does not expire on its own. To collect waivers again each season:

• In the Not filled tab, set Filter by date to the new season. People who have not signed within those dates are listed, and you can message them.
• When you attach the form to a message, switch on Only send to people who have NEVER filled this form, or start from the Not filled tab with its date range, so only people who still need to sign receive the message.
• Optionally add an Expiration date block (Date/Time tab) that calculates a date, for example one year after Today, and shows it as "Expires on". In Respondents › Advanced filters you can then filter responses by that date to find the waivers that have lapsed. See Form questions: Content and Date/Time blocks.

Confirmation, PDF records and where signed forms are stored

Open the Confirmation page tab to edit the message shown after the form is submitted. Open the Options tab for the records and the confirmation email:

• PDF: Generate a PDF document with form answers. It is attached to the confirmation email and saved for your records. It is on in a blank form. Include respondent and signature page adds a first page with the respondent, the submission time, the IP address and the electronic signature.
• Confirmation: Send a confirmation message to the respondent uses a template that Activity Messenger creates for you. Edit it, or leave it blank to send no confirmation. Send by chooses email, SMS or both. Do not include PDF in the confirmation email keeps the PDF out of the message.
• Notify admins after a form is filled: the colleagues who receive a message for each response, with Send by to choose email, SMS or both.

You find the signed records in two places:

• Respondents tab: a PDF icon sits next to each name. Select a row to open the response, then download the PDF or email it again. Select several rows and choose Download to get the PDFs: one file for a single response, a ZIP file for several.
• Forms › Forms filled: every response from every form. Search by name, email or mobile number, or filter by date, then select a row.

If your organization is still pending approval, PDF generation and confirmation messages are not active; the Options tab says so and gives the support link.

Test the form

Click Visit or fill at the top right of the form. It opens in another tab. Fill it in as a respondent and sign. Go to the Respondents tab, click Refresh, and open your response to check the answers and the PDF. A test submission is a real response and sends the configured messages. Open the form on a phone as well as a computer, especially to check long terms and the signature box.

Bilingual waivers

When bilingual forms are enabled for your organization, translate the questions and the confirmation in the same form: see Translate a form. In Options, Language sets the language of the form. If you keep one form per language, add the second form under Include another form in the Not filled tab so that a person who signed either one counts as signed.

Share and embed the form

Click Share at the top right of the form. The Share the form window offers:

• Shareable link, to copy for an email, text message, your website or social media. Enter a Custom URL slug for a friendlier link (letters, numbers and hyphens only).
• Send the form, to send it by email or SMS.
• Share on social media.
• QR code, to copy, download, print or send, for example to post on a wall for people to fill in on site.
• Embed on your website, either Directly in the page or as a Button with popup. Copy the code into your site. Set your organization's website address first; it must start with https. Some website builders do not allow the popup button because it needs JavaScript: use Directly in the page there.

To limit who can fill the form, see Saving, pre-filling, gating and closing a form.

Attach a waiver to a message

When you write a message, open Attachment and choose Attach a form (waiver). Under Choose a form, pick the waiver. The message includes a link to it, or a button if you fill in Button text. Switch on Only send to people who have NEVER filled this form to skip the people who already signed. The filter is applied when the message is sent, including a message scheduled for later.

To send reminders, click Schedule, then Add schedule to add more send times, or + 1 Day and + 1 Week. With the filter on, a reminder goes only to people who still have not filled the form.

Track who has not signed

Open the Not filled tab.

1. Select the list of recipients who need to fill the form, for example a class roster.
2. Optionally set Filter by date to look only at responses within a date range.
3. Optionally use Include another form to check two forms at once, which is useful for a waiver that exists in two languages.

Activity Messenger compares the email addresses of the list with those of the respondents, including the other parent's email, and shows how many people have not filled the form. From there you can:

• Click Send to people who have not filled the form to message them.
• Click Send the list to a colleague, for example to give a coach the names before an event.
• Click Download to Excel.
• Select people and use Message, or click the envelope icon on a row to message one person.

Client waivers

A client waiver is a waiver that belongs to the client account instead of one registration. It is a form of the Client waiver type, built with the same Acceptance and Electronic signature blocks described above. Use it when:

• each client should sign once, not at every registration;
• the client should see the waiver in My Account and, if you allow it, sign it again from there;
• you want to track who has signed from the client list, or require the waiver before a client can submit another form.

Create one with Forms › Create › Create from scratch and choose Client waiver as the Type. You can also convert an existing form: in Forms › Manage forms, open the three-dot menu of a form and choose Convert to client waiver. The option is not available when the form contains blocks a client waiver cannot hold. See Manage client waivers for the settings, the client list filter and the required-waiver rule.

Waivers created with the former waiver feature

Forms created earlier with the former waiver feature appear in your forms list as Adult waiver or Youth waiver and keep working. They open with a Configuration tab and a Not signed tab instead of the Form and Not filled tabs. To use the blocks described in this guide, create a new form.

Settings reference

Common questions

Is a waiver a separate kind of form? No. A waiver is a regular form with an Acceptance block and an Electronic signature block. Only the client waiver is a form type of its own; see Client waivers.

Can I make the electronic signature optional? Yes. Required is off by default on the Electronic signature block. For a waiver, switch it on so the form cannot be submitted without a signature; see Electronic signature.

Can I make people read the terms before accepting? Switch on Limit length in the Acceptance block. The terms scroll in a box and the respondent is asked to read and scroll to the bottom; see Terms and acceptance.

Does a waiver expire? Not on its own. To collect it again each season, use Filter by date in the Not filled tab, or an Expiration date block that you filter on; see Expiry and signing again each season.

How do I see who has not signed yet? Open the Not filled tab, select the list of people who should sign and read the count. You can message them or download the list; see Track who has not signed.

Can a parent sign for a child? Yes. The parent is the Account owner and signs; the child goes in a Participant/member/student or Children block. See Sign on behalf of a minor.

Where is the signed copy? In the Respondents tab, where a PDF icon sits next to the name, and in Forms › Forms filled. The respondent also receives the PDF when the confirmation message is on; see Confirmation, PDF records and where signed forms are stored.

Why did the respondent not receive a PDF? Check Options: Generate a PDF document and Send a confirmation message to the respondent must be on, and Do not include PDF in the confirmation email must be off. An organization that is pending approval cannot send PDFs or confirmations yet.

Can I require a waiver before someone registers or pays? Yes, in two ways. Add the Acceptance and Electronic signature blocks to the registration form itself, or create a client waiver and select it under Requires client waiver on the other form. See Manage client waivers.

Continue your workflow

• Manage client waivers

• Form question reference

• Manage forms and submitted responses

• Attendance tracking