# Contracts that expire unsigned

> The template's deadline, what happens when it passes, and the switch that decides whether the enrolment falls with it.

## What you will get

An understanding of what happens to an enrolment when the student simply does
not sign — and a decision on whether the school wants it to fall on its own.

## Where the deadline comes from

From the **contract template**. Its signing-deadline field counts calendar days
from the enrolment. Blank means no deadline, and the contract waits forever.

The deadline shows on the templates list, in brackets, and on the new enrolment's
panel.

![Contract block showing the signing deadline as a date](/Apps/edupay/ajuda/matricula-contrato.png)
*On the enrolment, the deadline appears as a date — the day the contract expires. On the template, the same field is a number of days.*

## What the daily routine does

Once a day, the system looks for contracts still pending whose deadline has
passed. Each one is marked **Expired**.

From there, **what happens to the enrolment depends on a switch** under
**Settings › Contracts**:

| The automatic cancellation switch | What happens |
|---|---|
| **Off** | Only the contract becomes **Expired**. The enrolment carries on waiting, and the instalments carry on existing |
| **On** | The enrolment is **cancelled**, every open and overdue instalment is cancelled, and the student gets the cancellation email |

Note one important difference: **on cancellation by expiry, every instalment is
cancelled** — including the overdue ones. That is not the same as cancelling by
hand, where overdue ones can become outstanding debt.

## Which to choose

**Leave it off** if the school tends to chase the student by phone. The enrolment
sits waiting and you handle it case by case.

**Turn it on** if the volume is high and the school prefers a clean queue. An
enrolment nobody signed within N days gets out of the way by itself.

**There is no automatic middle ground.** If you want to warn before cancelling,
the warning is manual work, watching the pending-signatures queue.

## Watching before it expires

**Contracts › Pending Signatures** is the screen for that. It gathers whoever has
not signed, and it is the place for the phone call before the deadline runs out.

Worth a weekly routine, all the more with automatic cancellation on.

## How you know it worked

> [certo]
> With the switch off, the contract reads **Expired** and the enrolment stays on
> the list, waiting. With it on, the enrolment reads **Cancelled** and the student
> got the email.

## If something goes wrong

> [erro]
> **The contract expired and you wanted to give more time.** The deadline belongs
> to the template and runs from the enrolment. A specific contract cannot be
> extended — the way out is to cancel and redo the enrolment.
>
> **An enrolment was cancelled automatically and you did not expect it.** The
> switch is on under **Settings › Contracts**. It applies to every enrolment.
>
> **You want no deadline at all.** Leave the template's signing-deadline field
> blank. With no deadline, nothing expires.


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https://edupay.estudiosite.com/en/ajuda/day-to-day/contracts-that-expire
2026-08-05