Deal memos: e-signed rates per shoot

A deal memo is a per-shoot booking confirmation: the rate, dates, and location for one job, which the crew member reviews and e-signs. It layers on top of the standing subcontractor agreement they signed once at onboarding, that agreement covers the working relationship, the deal memo covers this specific booking.

Plan availability

Deal memos are a Pro and Studio feature. On every plan, including Free, a crew member's confirm page can already show their rate for a shoot. What is gated is the authorable, e-signed memo itself, with its audit trail and signed PDF. See Plans and limits.

The template

Settings → Deal Memos. Write the memo text the same way as a crew agreement: plain text with merge fields like {{CREW_NAME}}, {{PROJECT_NAME}}, {{SHOOT_DATES}}, {{LOCATION}}, {{DAY_RATE}}, and {{RATE_TYPE}} that fill in automatically. If you have not created one, FirstSlate falls back to a starter template automatically, sending is never blocked on a missing template the way onboarding is.

Two ways to send one

Standalone, from a project

Open a project's Project Hub and find the Call Sheet stage card. Its Deal memos block lists any memos already sent for that project and a Send deal memo button. Choose a crew member from your roster, confirm or adjust the full or half day rate, add shoot dates and a location, and send. This works with no call sheet at all, useful for booking someone before the logistics are finalized, or for a last-minute hire.

Attached to a call sheet

While sending a call sheet, the send screen lists each crew member who has an email on file with a Require memo checkbox next to their name (it reads Resend memo if one is already out). Check anyone whose booking you want locked down with a signature: when they confirm attendance, they review and e-sign the memo as one combined action instead of a plain one-tap confirm. Leave someone unchecked and they keep the simple, no-signature confirm. You can also send or resend a single person's memo from the ⋯ menu on their row in the crew list, without sending the whole sheet.

What the crew member sees

Someone with a standalone memo gets an email linking to /crew-booking/[token], their own page showing the project, dates, location, and their rate, with a Your booking terms panel where they read the memo, type their name to sign, and click Accept booking.

Someone whose call sheet booking requires a memo sees the same panel on their confirmation page: typing their name and clicking Accept booking & confirm attendance signs the memo and confirms attendance in one step. Someone whose memo is optional (unchecked) still gets a one-tap Confirm Attendance button, with the memo panel shown underneath as something they can review and sign but are not required to.

The frozen record

The moment you send a deal memo, FirstSlate snapshots the merged text, rate, and dates into a permanent record, editing the call sheet or roster afterward never changes what the crew member is being asked to sign. Once they sign, the record locks entirely: signature name, timestamp, and IP are captured, and the row can no longer be modified. You can see each memo's status (Sent or Signed) on the project's Call Sheet card and in the call sheet builder's crew list.

Common questions

Does a deal memo replace the subcontractor agreement?

No. The deal memo references the crew member's standing agreement rather than restating it. If they have not signed the agreement yet, the deal memo still sends and captures their rate acknowledgment, you will see a note that the master agreement is not yet signed.

Will other crew on the same call sheet see this person's rate?

No. The rate only ever appears on that individual's own token-scoped confirm page, never on the shared public call sheet.

Can I require a signature for some crew and not others on the same shoot?

Yes. The Require memo checkbox is per person in the send screen, so you can require it for a specific hire and leave everyone else on the simple one-tap confirm.