When it comes to creating and completing a signing, the templates within SmartMLS Sign are game changers. They come pre-configured with the participants (sellers, buyers, etc.) and their respective tasks (signature, initial, dates, etc.), which saves you a lot of time and effort during the signing creation process.
Many of the fields on the templates also include special tools and formulas that streamline the process even further. When you click within a field, several icons appear above the field that provide access to these tools. The icons that display depend upon the nature of the field you're working with. For instance, text boxes don't have the same options as currency fields (although they do share some of the same tools).
Here are the tools/formulas you'll see most often (in no specific order):
Configure- adjust the settings of the field (font, text size & color, alignment, etc.).
Edit- modify the data within the field. This can also be achieved by double clicking within a field.
Delete- click to delete the field and anything within it.
Duplicate- create a copy of the field (including any text within it). You can duplicate empty or completed fields.
Mirror- copy the data from one field to one or more other fields. This is a two-way relationship- making changes to any of the fields updates all of the mirrored fields.
Link- copy the data from one field (parent) to one or more other fields (children). This is a parent-child relationship- making changes to the parent field updates all the linked (child) fields. However, changing one of the child fields does not update any of the other child fields or the parent field.
Unlink- remove the connection on a linked or mirrored field. Once unlinked, the field will be completely independent of all other fields.
More options- click to access a menu of other tools/formulas.
Join (concat)- combine (concatenate) multiple fields into a single string. This is commonly used to combine the individual address fields (street number, street name, street type, city, zip code) into a single address string.
Add Clause- insert one of your saved clauses into a field.
Save Clause- convert the text you've entered in a field into a new saved clause.
While most of the tools are fairly straighforward, a few of them are a bit more complex and worthy of additional explanation. The remainder of this article covers several of the more powerful tools/formulas available in SmartMLS Sign.
Mirrored fields
When you enter text in a mirrored field, the text is automatically copied to all other fields that are mirroring it (mirroring happens as soon as you move your mouse cursor to any other field). This is a huge time-saver that prevents you from having to enter the same information repeatedly.
The Street address, municipality, zip code field on the Residential Property Condition Report is a great example of a mirrored field:
When we created the Residential Property Condition Disclosure Report template, we mirrored the Street address, municipality, zip code field to the Property Address field that appears on the bottom of pages 2-9:
After your seller enters the address information in the Street address, municipality, zip code field, all of the Property Address fields are automatically populated with that same text. This saves the seller from having to manually enter the same address information 8 more times.
Mirrored fields have a two-way relationship with one another. If you enter or modify the text in one of them, those changes are reflected in all other fields that are mirrored to it. It doesn't matter which mirrored field you edit. Making a change in any mirrored field automatically updates all the other fields it's mirrored with.
Using the same example as above, you could scroll down to the bottom of page 7 and change the text in the Property Address field and it automatically changes the information in all mirrored fields, including the Street address, municipality, zip code field at the top of the report as soon as you move to a different field.
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When you're creating a signing from a template, you can tell you're in a mirrored field if you see a icon in the upper left corner of the field:
If you would like to remove the mirroring from the field, click within the field and you'll get a menu of several different icons:
Click the Unlink icon to disable mirroring on that field. Note: this does not also disable mirroring on all the other fields that were linked to that field. Those fields remain mirrors of one another unless you repeat this process for each of them individually.
Linked fields
Linked fields are very similar to mirrored fields in the respect that you can enter/edit text in one field and it propagates to other fields. The major difference with linked fields is that there is a parent-child relationship rather than a two-way relationship between the fields.
Only one field (the parent) is in control of all the others (child fields). The only way for an entry/edit to propagate to all the linked fields is if it is done in the parent field (which would generally be the first instance of that field that appears on the form). Editing the parent field distributes the information to all of the child fields. However, editing one of the child fields only changes that one field. It has no effect on the parent field or any of the other child fields.
- Using the Unlink icon
- Using the Unlink icon
Using the link tool increases the possibility that there are inconsistencies in the fields you are trying to link together. Let's say you've used the link feature (rather than mirror) to tie the Property Address fields to the Street address, municipality, zip code field on the Residential Property Condition Report (where the Property Address fields are children and Street address, municipality, zip code is the parent field). Your seller is towards the end of completing the form and realizes that the zip code in the Property Address field at the bottom of page 9 is incorrect, so they correct it. That change will only appear in that one field on page 9- all other Property Address fields (on pages 2-8), as well as the Street address, municipality, zip code field on page 1, will still show the incorrect zip code because there is not a two-way relationship between the fields. The seller would either have to make the change on the parent field (the Street address, municipality, zip code field on page 1) so the correct data propragates to all linked fields, or they would have to manually update each of the address fields on pages 1-8.
If you want to eliminate the possibility of mis-matched information appearing in two (or more) fields that should be displaying the same information, you're better off using mirrored fields than linked fields.
Sum fields
There are some templates that have built-in mathematical formulas that save you from having to add the figures from several currency fields to get a sum/grand total amount. For instance, in the Purchase Price section of the Standard Form Real Estate Contract, four fields are added together to arrive at the total purchase price:
When taking a closer look at the bottom field (TOTAL PURCHASE PRICE), you can see a sum icon in front of the field:
There is also text beneath the field that shows it is the sum of the four fields above it (a, b, c and d).
You may notice that, when you click in any of these fields (either during the process of entering the dollar amounts or afterwards), some weird characters appear on the screen:
These are simply the behind-the-scenes formulas for this sum field. The blue and orange icons show the fields that are added together and the bottom field =[IC1]+[IC2}]+[IC3]+[IC4] is another iteration of the complete sum formula.
The template is setup to automatically add the amounts from each of these fields for you and come to a mathematically accurate purchase price. This eliminates the possibility of an adding error that could derail the signing of the contract and possibly jeopardize the transaction.
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