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Send an Engagement and Collect Payment

This is the moment a qualified intake becomes a paying matter. Blawby treats the engagement as a structured object — four sections you edit, not a free-text PDF you re-create from scratch every time. After the client signs, payment collection is built into the same flow.

For the deeper engagement model (the four sections, the lifecycle, conflict and jurisdiction status, immutability, amendments), see Engagements Overview. This page is the operational version: how you send one, what the client experiences, and how payment lands.

What you'll edit before sending

When you click Create engagement from a matter, Blawby pre-fills the four sections from the intake answers, the matter context, and your firm defaults. You review and edit:

  • Representation — scope summary, included/excluded services, parties, jurisdiction notes.
  • Fees — billing type (flat / hourly / retainer / contingency), rates, retainer amount, payment frequency, fee notes.
  • Risk review — conflict status, jurisdiction status, risk notes, open questions.
  • Acknowledgments — your firm's standard legal language (configured once in practice settings).

Pay particular attention to:

  • The scope's excluded services — most scope-creep disputes start with something the engagement didn't explicitly call out as excluded.
  • The fees section — the billing type set here flows automatically to the matter once the engagement is accepted.
  • Risk review — if conflict or jurisdiction status is unclear, hold the engagement in Draft until it is.

Send

When the four sections look right, click Send.

What happens:

  • The engagement status moves from Draft to Sent.
  • The client receives an email and (if subscribed) a push notification with a link to the review page.
  • The notification points at a clean, branded review surface — no Blawby login required.

What the client experiences

The client opens the engagement on ClientEngagementReviewPage:

  1. They read the client summary at the top — matter, location, goals, parties.
  2. They scroll through representation, fees, risk acknowledgments, and the legal language.
  3. If they have questions, they reply in the chat thread (their messages route back to the matter).
  4. They sign with a typed signature; the signature, IP address, and timestamp are recorded.
  5. On acceptance, they're redirected to pay any retainer or initial fee defined in the Fees section.

Payment after acceptance

Whatever you put in the Fees section — retainer amount, flat fee, contingency cost-deposit — becomes the immediate payment ask after the client signs.

The Stripe-hosted payment surface accepts:

  • Card — instant.
  • ACH — settles in a few business days; the matter activates on settlement.

Routing follows your practice's trust-routing configuration:

  • Trust-routed engagements (most retainers): the gross amount lands in your trust account; Blawby never deducts fees from those dollars. Processing fees are charged separately to your operating-account card.
  • Operating-routed engagements (flat fees that aren't trust-eligible, contingency cost deposits where local rules permit): the amount lands in your operating account net of Stripe's standard processing.

Read the IOLTA Compliance Guide for more on how this fee model keeps trust dollars whole.

What changes once payment clears

  • The matter status moves to active.
  • The billing type set on the engagement is applied to the matter automatically.
  • The retainer balance (for retainer matters) shows on the matter's Billing tab.
  • Time logged from this point can roll into invoices that draw from the retainer balance.
  • Notifications fire to your team via in-app, email, and push.

If the client declines

The engagement status moves to Declined. The matter doesn't activate. Your options:

  • Edit and resend — adjust scope or fees, send a new version. The original Declined record is preserved in the matter's audit trail.
  • Close the matter — if the decline is final.

Common scenarios

Scope expansion mid-matter. Don't edit the existing engagement (it's immutable once accepted). Create a new engagement that references the prior one. The client signs the amendment the same way.

Retainer paid by ACH and settlement is pending. The matter waits to activate until Stripe confirms settlement (a few business days). Status during that window: engagement Accepted, payment Pending, matter Pending Activation.

Contingency engagement with no upfront payment. Skip the retainer field. The engagement still gets signed; payment collection happens at settlement.

Joint engagement with co-clients. Each co-client signs separately. The engagement activates only when all required signatures are in.

Next: manage the active matter

Once the engagement is accepted and any initial payment clears, the matter is active. All billable work, files, and communication live there.

Continue to Matters Overview