Generating a Draft Petition in the Schedule Builder

Generate an up-to-date draft of your petition at any time — without submitting it or moving your case forward. Choose between the standard watermarked draft and an unwatermarked version ready for client signatures.

Overview

When preparing a petition in the Schedule Builder, you often want to see a current draft PDF while you're still working — to review your progress, share it internally, or double-check how the schedules look on the final forms.

Previously, the only way to generate a draft was to click Submit petition, which also marked the current task complete, moved the case to the next step, and could notify your client. The Generate draft action solves this: it creates a fresh draft PDF and nothing else. Your task, your workflow, and your client are all unaffected.

Generate draft now offers two versions of the petition:

• Generate draft petition (with watermark) — the standard Petition (Draft).pdf, with a DRAFT watermark along the edge of every page. Use this for internal review, so a work-in-progress petition can never be mistaken for a filed document.
• Generate petition for signatures — a new Petition for Signatures (Draft).pdf that is identical to the draft but without the watermark. Use this when your client needs to review or wet-sign a clean copy at the signing appointment.

How It Works

1. Open the Schedule Builder for the case you're working on. At the top, you'll see three actions in order: Check petition, Generate draft, and Submit petition.
2. Click Generate draft and pick an option from the dropdown: Generate draft petition (with watermark) or Generate petition for signatures. The button shows a loading spinner, and a status panel appears explaining that your forms are being prepared and the PDF is being compiled. This usually takes a moment — you can't start a second generation while one is already running.
3. Open your draft. When generation finishes, the status panel updates to Draft petition generated with an Open draft link. Click it to open the PDF you just generated — whichever version you picked — in a new tab.
4. Repeat as needed. Keep working on your schedules and generate a new draft whenever you want an updated PDF. There's no limit.

Key Details

• Generate draft never advances your case. Neither option marks the current task complete, moves the workflow to the next step, or sends any notification to your client.
• Each draft reflects your latest data. The generated PDF is compiled from the current state of your schedules at the moment you click the button.
• Both files live in Forms & Schedules. Petition for Signatures (Draft).pdf is saved in the same folder as Petition (Draft).pdf, in your case's documents.
• The signatures version never goes stale. Once you've generated a Petition for Signatures (Draft).pdf, Glade automatically refreshes it every time the draft petition regenerates — the two files always match, so you can't accidentally hand your client an outdated copy.
• Submit petition works exactly as before. When you're ready to formally submit, use Submit petition — it still generates a fresh draft for review as part of submission, so you don't need to click Generate draft first.
• If generation fails, you'll see a clear error message and can simply try again from the Generate draft dropdown.

FAQ

Q: What's the difference between the two Generate draft options?
A: The PDFs are identical except for the watermark. Generate draft petition (with watermark) produces Petition (Draft).pdf with a DRAFT mark on every page; Generate petition for signatures produces Petition for Signatures (Draft).pdf with no watermark, ready for your client to review and wet-sign.

Q: When should I use Generate petition for signatures?
A: When you need a clean copy for a signing appointment or client review. Because the DRAFT watermark is removed, your client can sign the pages directly and the signed pages can be merged back into the petition.

Q: Does Petition for Signatures (Draft).pdf stay up to date?
A: Yes. After you generate it once, Glade refreshes it automatically whenever the draft petition regenerates — including when you generate a new watermarked draft or submit the petition — so it always matches the current Petition (Draft).pdf.

Q: Will my client be notified when I generate a draft?
A: No. Generating a draft — either version — is completely silent; your client sees nothing. Only the existing submission flow can trigger client-facing updates.

Q: How many drafts can I generate?
A: As many as you need. Each click produces a new draft PDF reflecting your latest changes.

Q: Do I still need to click Generate draft before submitting?
A: No. Submit petition automatically generates a fresh draft as part of the submission process. Generate draft is for when you want a PDF without submitting.

Q: Where does the draft open?
A: The Open draft link opens the generated PDF in a new tab, in your workflow's document preview.

Q: What's the difference between Check petition and Generate draft?
A: Check petition reviews your petition for potential issues; Generate draft compiles the actual PDF document. Use them together to verify your work before submitting.