Signature feels like the ending; legally it’s the beginning of performance: the agreement is now a set of promises with dates attached, most kept without incident — and the signed copy in your folder is the enforcement mechanism for the minority that aren’t.
The Collection Checklist
The payments, diaried: the agreement specifies what is paid and when — typically within a stated period after signing or termination — and the amounts should be checked against the agreement’s itemisation when they land: the right figures, through the right mechanism, with deductions matching what the document said. The paperwork: final payslip and the employment’s closing documents, retained with your signed agreement in one place — permanently, because questions surface years later and the folder answers them. The reference machinery, tested if needed: the agreed wording is now contractual — requests directed to the named function, the schedule’s text what issues; a divergent reference isn’t a misunderstanding, it’s a breach. Announcement day: the agreed lines are what should appear, internally and externally, and your own LinkedIn choreography honours the same script you negotiated. Your obligations too: property returned, confidentiality kept, non-disparagement honoured — the agreement binds both directions, and your clean performance is what makes theirs enforceable with clean hands. And your filings: the tax dimension of what you received belongs with your accountant and Revenue’s guidance — the final act of the sequencing that should have started before signature.
If Performance Fails
The minority case, handled in escalating steps: the professional chase first — most failures are administrative (payroll cycles, someone unaware of the agreement), and a precise note referencing the clause and the date resolves them; the solicitor’s letter second — the settlement is a binding contract, its promises enforceable like any other, and a letter identifying the breach and the remedy sought moves most of what the chase didn’t; enforcement third — unpaid sums are debts, the divergent reference and the breached non-disparagement are breaches with remedies, and the agreement you took proper advice on was drafted to be enforced if it ever needed to be. What keeps every step easy: the folder — the signed agreement, the payment records, the diverging document or statement — because enforcement runs on exactly the paper trail the checklist above builds. The practice that reviewed your agreement stands behind it afterwards; that’s part of what the review was for.
The closing thought this site opened with: the deal signed knowingly is a different thing from the same deal signed blind — and it stays different afterwards: you know what was promised, when it’s due, and what to do about gaps. That knowledge is what the whole process was purchasing.
A promise from your agreement not performing? 01 5827148 — the folder does the talking.