Contract Management for Shopware 6: Create, Manage and Digitally Accept Contracts Directly in the Shop

Contracts are part of everyday e-commerce – managing them often isn't. Terms and conditions, data processing agreements, maintenance agreements or leasing conditions: In most Shopware shops, contracts are sent by email, stored in folder structures and tracked manually. This takes time, is prone to errors and is barely audit-proof in the event of a dispute.

With our new plugin Contract Management for Shopware 6, you bring the entire contract process directly into your Shopware administration – from creation through customer assignment to digital acceptance in the customer account. Without external tools, without media disruption.

In this article, you will learn what the plugin can do, who it is suitable for and how to use it in practice.

In brief: The Contract Management plugin enables you to create contracts directly in the Shopware Admin, provide them as PDFs and have customers accept them digitally in their customer account – including revision management, individual customer assignment and internal employee contracts.

The Problem: Contract Management Without a System

Anyone who runs an online shop works with contracts regularly. In the B2B sector, data processing agreements (DPA), technical and organizational measures (TOM), service and maintenance contracts or leasing agreements are part of daily business. In the B2C sector, updated terms and conditions, special terms of use or membership contracts are relevant.

In practice, the same problems keep arising:

These problems do not only affect large B2B shops. Even smaller shops that regularly update their terms and conditions or need to communicate special terms of use quickly reach the limits of manual processes.

The Solution: Contract Management Directly in Shopware 6

The Contract Management plugin from SYNERGY NETWORKS extends the Shopware administration with a complete contract management module. Via the new menu item Content → Contract Management, you create, manage and publish contracts – directly in the familiar Shopware Admin.

Your customers see the contracts assigned to them transparently in their customer account. There they can view the contract text, download the document as a PDF and – if configured by the shop operator – accept the contract digitally. The plugin automatically logs the acceptance time, the contract version and the associated customer information.

Features at a Glance

Freely Definable Contract Types

The contract types are defined in the plugin configuration and are fully customizable. Typical use cases:

Multiple contract types are simply created in the configuration, separated by semicolons. The available types are then provided as a selection when creating a contract.

Digital Acceptance in the Customer Account

Customers see their assigned contracts in a dedicated menu item "Contracts" in their customer account. There, the contract title, current revision, status (accepted / not accepted) and the time of the last viewing are displayed. Depending on the configuration, the customer must actively confirm the contract – with a click on "Accept".

For each acceptance, the plugin documents: the time, the contract version, the customer number and the associated customer data. In the Shopware administration, a complete overview of all accepted contracts is displayed under Content → Accepted Contracts.

Revision Management

Contract changes are unavoidable in everyday business. The plugin maps this process through revisions:

1. The administrator makes changes to the contract text and describes the changes in bullet points.
2. Via "Create new revision now", the updated version is published.
3. After publishing, a revision can no longer be changed or deleted – this guarantees audit-proof documentation.
4. Customers are automatically notified of the changed version in their customer account and must accept it again.

Important: The revision function must be activated when creating a contract. This setting cannot be changed afterwards – this is intentional in order to ensure the consistency and legal certainty of the contract process.

Individual Customer Assignment

By default, all shop customers receive a created contract. Via the "Special Customer Assignment" function, contracts can be assigned specifically to individual customers. This is particularly relevant for B2B shops, where not all customers receive the same contract conditions.

Customer selection is done via a convenient overview with filter functions (customer number, name, company). The assignment takes effect immediately after saving.

PDF Generation with Branding

Each contract can be output as a professional PDF document. The PDF configuration includes:

• Layout: Page orientation (portrait), format (A4), optional header/footer, page numbering
• Branding: Business logo, company name, address, phone, email, website
• Business data: Tax number, tax office, VAT ID, bank details (IBAN/BIC), managing director
• File name: Optional prefix and suffix for the file name of the generated PDF

In addition, the plugin offers two placeholder functions: SYN_Date automatically inserts the current date in the format dd.mm.yyyy. SYN_User automatically inserts the customer data (name, company, billing address) into the contract text.

Note on PDF preview: Placeholders such as SYN_User are not resolved in the admin preview, as no specific recipient is assigned at this point. The resolution only takes place in the customer account, once the contract is assigned to a person.

Internal Contracts for Employees

In addition to customer contracts, the plugin also supports contracts with system users. Employee contracts, internal guidelines or agreements can be managed directly in the Shopware Admin and assigned specifically to individual employees. These contracts do not appear in the shop's customer account, but in the Admin Dashboard of the assigned employees.

Administrators control permissions via a role concept:

The plugin additionally extends the user management with address fields (street, postal code, city), which are automatically transferred into employee contracts via the SYN_User placeholder.

Who Is the Plugin Suitable For?

B2B Shops

The main target group: B2B shop operators who regularly conclude contracts with business customers. DPA, TOM, maintenance contracts and individual agreements can be managed centrally and assigned specifically to individual corporate customers. The audit-proof documentation creates legal certainty in the case of contract changes.

B2C Shops

B2C shops also benefit from the plugin – for example, in the digital provision of updated terms and conditions. When terms and conditions change, shop operators can create the new terms as a contract and have them digitally confirmed by their customers. Acceptance is documented, and the changes from the previous version are transparently displayed.

Shops with Internal Contract Needs

Companies that also want to centrally manage employee contracts, data protection guidelines or internal agreements can use the function for system user contracts – all within the existing Shopware infrastructure.

Practical example: Terms & Conditions update for a B2C shop
An online shop updates its terms and conditions due to changed cancellation conditions. Instead of sending a mass email and hoping that customers notice the change, the shop operator creates the new terms as a contract in the plugin, creates a revision with the description "Cancellation policy updated" and publishes it. All customers see the notice about the changed terms the next time they log in to their customer account and can confirm them digitally. The shop operator has complete, timestamped documentation of all acceptances.

Installation and Setup: Step by Step

Step 1: Install the Plugin

1. Open Extensions → My Extensions in the Shopware administration.
2. Install or update the Contract Management plugin.
3. Activate the plugin.
4. Clear the cache completely and reload the administration page.

Step 2: Configure Basic Settings

Under Extensions → My Extensions → Contract Management you configure:

• Sales channel: For which sales channel the configuration should apply
• Contract types: Your types separated by semicolons (e.g. Terms & Conditions;DPA;Maintenance Contract;Leasing)
• Default sales channel for PDF: The channel used for PDF creation
• Logging: Optional – creates internal log entries for contract actions

Step 3: Create the First Contract

Via Content → Contract Management → Create new contract you create a contract. In doing so, you select:

• Title and type of the contract
• Contract with shop customers: Whether the contract is displayed in the customer account
• Acceptance required: Whether customers must actively confirm the contract
• Enable revisions: Whether contract changes are documented via revisions
• Special customer assignment: Whether only certain customers see the contract

Important: The admin settings (contract with shop customers, acceptance required, revisions, customer assignment) cannot be changed after the contract has been created. This deliberate restriction ensures that contract processes remain consistent and legally secure. If a different configuration is required, a new contract must be created.

Step 4: Configure Contract Text and PDF

Enter the contract text using the integrated editor and configure the PDF settings with logo, layout and business data. For multilingual shops, the contract text must be saved separately once for each language.

Step 5: Publish

With revisions enabled, the contract becomes visible in the customer account by clicking on "Create new revision now". Without revisions, the contract is available immediately after activation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Contract Management plugin for Shopware 6?

The Contract Management plugin is an extension for Shopware 6 that allows shop operators to create and manage contracts directly in the Shopware administration and provide them to their customers digitally in the customer account. Customers can view contracts there, download them as PDFs and accept them digitally. The plugin documents acceptance times, versions and customer information in an audit-proof manner.

Which contract types is the plugin suitable for?

The plugin supports freely definable contract types. Typical use cases are terms and conditions, DPA (data processing agreement), TOM (technical and organizational measures), maintenance contracts, leasing contracts, membership contracts and internal employee agreements. The contract types are created in the plugin configuration, separated by semicolons.

Is the plugin also suitable for B2C shops?

Yes. Although the plugin was developed especially for B2B shops, B2C shops also benefit from it – for example, in the digital provision and confirmation of updated terms and conditions or special terms of use. Acceptance is documented in an audit-proof manner.

Can contracts be assigned only to certain customers?

Yes. Via the "Special Customer Assignment" function, contracts can be assigned specifically to individual customers. Without this option, all shop customers receive the contract by default. The selection is made via a filterable customer overview in the administration.

What happens with contract changes?

Changes are mapped via revision management. The administrator creates a new revision with a description of the changes. Customers are automatically notified of the changed version in their customer account and must accept it again. Published revisions cannot be changed afterwards, which ensures audit-proof documentation.

Can internal employee contracts also be managed?

Yes. The plugin supports contracts with system users. These do not appear in the shop's customer account, but in the Admin Dashboard of the assigned employees. Permissions are controlled via a role system (SynCmViewer for read-only and SynCmEditor for editing).

How is the contract output as a PDF?

The plugin generates PDFs with individual settings for logo, layout, business data and page numbering. Placeholders such as SYN_Date (current date) and SYN_User (customer data such as name, company, billing address) are inserted automatically. The PDF configuration is done per contract in the Shopware administration.

Is the plugin multilingual?

Yes. Contract texts can be saved separately for each language active in the shop. If no text is stored for a language, the text of the source language (e.g. German) is automatically displayed. The contract text must nevertheless be saved once per language so that Shopware recognizes the translation as complete.

Why can certain settings not be changed afterwards?

Settings such as "Contract with shop customers", "Acceptance required", "Enable revisions" and "Special customer assignment" are defined during creation and cannot be changed afterwards. This ensures that contract processes remain consistent, traceable and legally secure. If a different configuration is required, a new contract must be created.

Documentation and Support

You can find complete step-by-step documentation with screenshots and detailed FAQs in our knowledge base:

→ Open Contract Management documentation

For individual customization requests or technical questions, we are happy to help as a Shopware Extension Partner since 2014:

• Email: sales@synergy-networks.de
• Phone: 0345 96 39 78 0
• Website: www.synergy-networks.de