Follow this guide to add and format custom variables in contracts using Humanforce HR. This gives you more flexibility to include relevant details—like a meeting location or onboarding buddy—without displaying them on the employee’s profile.
For background on issuing contracts in Humanforce HR, see Issue a contract. To learn more about contract variables that will autopopulate from the subject employee's profile, visit Contract Template Variables.
Part 1: Add a custom variable to a contract template
Go to Organisation > Contracts Templates.
Select an existing contract template or click Create Template to start a new one.
In the template body, place your cursor where you want to insert the custom variable.
Type your custom variable using curly brackets
{}.
For example:{BuddyName}or{First-Day-Meeting-Spot}.Continue editing or saving your template as needed.
When a contract is issued using this template, the custom variable fields will appear as fillable fields for the contract issuer.
Part 2: Format your variable correctly
-
Only include letters, numbers, full stops (
.), dashes (-), or underscores (_) within the curly brackets.✅ Valid examples:
{BuddyName},{BUDDY_NAME},{Buddy-Start.Location}❌ Invalid example:
{Add buddy name here}(contains spaces)
Avoid using spaces or special characters other than
.,-, and_.
The contract template will treat any value wrapped in {} and correctly formatted as a variable field.
When you issue a contract, you’ll be prompted to enter a value for each variable. This value will populate the contract PDF but will not be saved or shown on the employee’s profile.
Additional information
Custom variables are ideal for information relevant to the contract but not needed for reporting or profile visibility.
Each custom variable must be manually resolved when issuing a contract.
If a valid contract variable that pulls information from the subject employee's profile is misspelt or formatted incorrectly, it will not autopopulate with the expected content.