Contracts FAQ
Answers to common questions about Contracts, for the people who file, approve and run contracts.
For what the app is and how to set it up from scratch, see the
Contracts Overview.
Setup
Do I need to configure anything before my team can start filing contracts?
Turn the app on from the Apps Marketplace, then check three things in Contracts → Settings. Decide Who can create contracts? on the General tab (the default is managers and admins). Confirm who approves on the Approvals tab. For signing, turn on the E-Signature app or connect DocuSign or HelloSign at Admin → Organization → Integrations — until one of those exists, there is no provider to send with.
Who can see a contract once it is filed?
Admins and Contracts app admins see every contract, and so do contract coordinators. Everyone else sees contracts at the locations they can access, plus contracts they own or uploaded, contracts waiting for their approval, and contracts they owe an open obligation under. A contract with no location is visible to anyone with access to a location, unless Restrict contracts with no location to administrators is on.
Does each person need a Contracts licence?
No, not by default. Contracts is licensed and turned on for the whole organization by an admin. Once it is on, people reach it the same way as other apps in your workspace, unless your admin limits it to certain groups.
Permissions and access
Why can’t I see the New Contract button?
You see New Contract if you are allowed to create contracts, or if your admin has published at least one drafting form. People who can only use a drafting form get I need one drafted: you answer the questions and a first draft is made for the contract’s owner to finish. To upload a contract yourself, ask an admin to add you under Who can create contracts?
What can a contract coordinator do that an ordinary manager can’t?
A coordinator can see and edit every contract, file contracts for any location, and approve or reject contracts routed by value tier. A coordinator cannot open Settings, terminate a contract, transfer ownership or build approval workflows. A contract on an approval workflow is still decided by that workflow’s approvers. Admins grant the role under Settings → General → Who can manage every contract?
How do I change who approves contracts?
Open Settings → Approvals. Default approver roles (Admin and Super Admin by default) decide contracts that no workflow matches. To route by amount, choose Manage workflows and build up to 10 levels; a workflow is picked by the contract’s value, and each level can take approvers from a role, named people, a department or a location. The person who submitted a contract is never routed to approve it.
I’m going on leave — how do I hand off my contract approvals?
Open Approvals and choose Delegate my approvals, or ask Ask AI to do it. Pick a colleague and a start and end date. Contracts submitted in that window go to your colleague, who can also decide anything already waiting on you, and the record shows they decided on your behalf. Delegation needs Allow approval delegation on (it is on by default). It is open to approvers who can decide the approval queue, and your colleague must be able to approve contracts too.
Day-to-day
Why doesn’t my contract have an AI summary or risk score?
Automatic analysis runs for contracts filed from New Contract and for bulk imports committed with Summarize and risk-score each contract as it is filed on. A new version, an emailed file, or a contract started from a standard is not analyzed automatically — a contract manager can choose Analyze with AI. The contract page says why there is no score: still analyzing, allowance reached, AI off, AI unavailable, or needs attention (the run did not finish within about 20 minutes; retry it).
What do the risk levels mean, and when is a contract flagged?
The AI scores risk from 0 to 100: Low is 0–30, Medium 31–60, High 61–80 and Critical 81–100. Flagging is off by default. With Flag high-risk contracts on, a contract that scores at or above Alert when risk reaches (default High) shows a review banner. A flag sends no notification. With Score contract risk with AI off, no score is produced or shown.
How many AI runs does a contract get?
Each contract gets 3 AI runs per rolling 12 months by default; admins can set 1 to 100 under AI runs allowed per contract per year. A full analysis, a playbook scan, a smart-field extraction, a text read (OCR), a version comparison (a new version uploaded on the web or saved from Word) and an AI answer about one contract each use one run. A playbook scan with no rules for that contract type uses none. Admins and Contracts app admins are not limited.
Does anything renew automatically?
No. Ticking auto-renew on a contract describes the paper: it sets the notice deadline and projects lifetime value. The renewal is always someone clicking Renew, which creates the next term as a new contract. Renew is available when the contract is Active, Expiring or Expired and ends within 6 months. The file, obligations and links are not copied to the new term.
When are renewal and expiry reminders sent?
The owner gets a Renewal decision needed reminder every 14 days from the renewal-reminder window (default 90 days) before the notice deadline, until a decision is recorded. A contract with no notice date or notice period counts the window back from its end date instead, until the expiring-soon warnings take over. Expiring soon warnings go every 7 days inside the expiration-warning window (default 30 days) before the end date, and Expired goes once. The contracts team also gets a weekly in-app summary of contracts ending within 30 and 60 days.
I got a task for a contract obligation — what do I do?
Do the work, then complete the task in Tasks or on the contract’s Obligations tab; completing either side completes both. If the obligation repeats, the next one appears with its new due date. You get reminders 7 days and 1 day before, on the due date, and once the day after if it is still open. Only the obligation’s owner or a contract manager can complete it.
How do I send a draft to the other side for their redline?
On the draft, use Download to send and Write the email on the negotiation card. The email carries the contract’s reply address and asks them to reply with their redline. They can also use the no-login counterparty link to view, download, upload a revised draft and comment. When their draft arrives and AI is on, the AI compares it with your version, and you accept, counter or reject each change on the Redlines tab or on the phone.
Why did the counterparty’s link stop working?
A counterparty link lasts 30 days by default (you can choose 1–90), and Extend keeps the same link working longer. The link also changes every time the counterparty uploads a file through it, so older copies stop working — send the new one. Uploads and comments stop once the contract has expired or been terminated, and a revoked link never works again.
How does delivered versus contracted work on a services contract?
The Service delivery card appears on service, maintenance, support, SOW and consulting contracts, on vendor and customer agreements, and on any contract with a confirmed target, a service term the AI read, or a linked Field Service agreement. A contract manager confirms each target — hours on site and visits per month, resolution time per ticket — typed in or accepted from the AI’s reading of the contract.
For a vendor, Safety Hub work permits give the most time the contractor could have been on site: a month is Under target only when even that falls short, and otherwise reads Can’t confirm from permits. A vendor with no issued permits in the months shown reads Not measured, and a month with none, beside months that have some, reads No permits issued this month — not every visit needs a permit, so it shows no shortfall. Resolution time comes from Service Desk tickets about the vendor, opened to resolved. Response time can’t be set as a target, because Service Desk records when your desk replies, not when the vendor does. For a customer, hours and visits come from the linked Field Service agreement’s work orders. Counts cover only the contract’s term and, when it names any, its sites. Mark reviewed records that a month was checked, with an optional note; it claims no credit, and a month with nothing measured cannot be marked.
Why can’t I issue a work permit for a contractor?
A certificate the contractor needs for site work — such as their certificate of insurance — has lapsed, runs out before the work ends, was denied, or was never provided. Certificates of insurance count by default; tick Required for site work on any other certificate that should. To issue anyway, tick Proceed anyway and give a reason; the reason is kept on the permit. The day before the work starts, Safety Hub also sends an Inbox ask about the same gap. A current insurance expiry on the contractor’s Safety Hub pre-qualification also counts as insurance on file. When a vendor renews a certificate, link the renewal with Replaces (on the certificate form, or Renews when you review a vendor upload) so the old one stops counting; a renewal with the same title is matched on its own, and cover that runs back to back counts as continuous. Update the certificate under Contracts → Settings → Rules & Libraries → Vendor Certifications, or ask the vendor to upload a new one.
Does my purchase request show whether a contract covers it?
Yes, once you choose a vendor. The requisition and the purchase order show which contract covers it and how much ceiling remains, Not under a contract, or Exceeds contract ceiling by the amount over. If you cannot open that contract or see contract spend, you see only Covered by a contract or Not under a contract, without amounts. It never blocks the purchase.
Can our ERP or finance team hear when a contract is signed?
Yes. Contracts sends events — contract.signed, contract.activated, contract.renewed, contract.terminated, contract.expired, contract.renewal_due, contract.obligation_due and contract.approval_reversed (an automatic approval by a learned pattern was reversed). An admin points a webhook at them under Admin → Webhooks, or builds an Automation Hub rule; the Contract Signed → Tell Finance template sends a person you choose an Inbox note with the contract’s summary. Each event carries the contract’s number, title, type, counterparty, owner, location, status, value, currency and dates, never its text or notes. contract.activated also says what put the contract into force — approval, the auto-approve limit, a learned pattern, a signature or a reactivation. contract.renewal_due is sent once per term, when the notice deadline (or the end date, when there is none) comes inside the renewal-reminder window. Extending the same contract into a new term — a later end date or an approved amendment whose deadline’s reminder window starts after the previous deadline — sends it again for the new deadline, as a renewal does, and runs the renewal-due workflow triggers again; corrections to dates inside the current term, including a changed notice date or notice period, don’t. Webhooks receive every contract in the organization, including ones limited to certain locations, so filter by community_id in a rule if a location’s contracts should stay out. Filing contracts by an import or a bulk upload sends nothing, but each contract’s later events are sent like any other’s; sample data never sends events.
When something looks wrong
Why can’t I see a contract I know exists?
Contracts are shown by location. If the contract’s locations are not ones you can access, you will not see it unless you own it, uploaded it, must approve it, or owe an obligation under it. Ask an admin to add the right location to the contract or transfer ownership to you.
I submitted a contract and nothing happened — why?
Check the approval setup. If Require approval for new contracts is off, or the value is below Auto-approve below, the contract goes active without an approval. Otherwise someone must hold one of the Default approver roles, or the matching workflow’s levels must resolve to at least one person — a level with nobody in it stalls. Approvers get an email and an in-app notice.
Why was this contract approved automatically?
Either its value is below Auto-approve below (Settings → Approvals, in USD — a value in another currency is converted first, and one with no exchange rate always goes to an approver), or it matched a learned approval a Contracts admin accepted. Muscle Memory proposes one when people here have approved at least three contracts of the same type from the same vendor, in the same currency, with none rejected in three years — a contract counts once its approval was completed, at the value it was approved at; it appears under Settings → Approvals → Learned approvals, and nothing is automatic until an admin accepts it (the record is checked again when they do). A matching contract up to the highest value in that record is then approved without asking anyone, and the owner and the usual approvers are told in the app and by email. Any of them can choose Reverse on the contract within 30 days, unless it has been e-signed: it goes back to awaiting approval (through your approval workflow if one now covers it), the pattern pauses, and you are told anything that already ran when it was activated, since reversing does not undo it. A pattern is never used on a contract an approval workflow covers, at or above the legal-review threshold, on one rated high risk, flagged for attention, already e-signed or rejected by a person before, while its AI analysis is still running or after it failed, or while automation or Muscle Memory is paused. It pauses itself when a person rejects a contract it would have approved, and can only be resumed while the record still holds. It expires after 12 months; if Muscle Memory still proposes it then, an admin can accept it for another 12 months.
Why is Bulk Upload missing or refused?
Bulk upload reads every file with AI, so it needs AI contract analysis on under Settings → AI & Agent, and you must be allowed to create contracts. A batch holds at most 500 contracts; a larger one is refused whole, and nothing is filed. Files that are not PDF, DOC or DOCX, or are over 50 MB, are listed and skipped.
Why does it ask me to verify my identity before I can download a contract file?
Your admin has turned on Re-verify identity before contract file downloads. Re-enter your password or PIN when asked; the verification lasts 15 minutes.
Licensing and limits
What are the file, import and AI limits?
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Contract file types | PDF, DOC, DOCX |
| Contract file size | 50 MB |
| Bulk upload | 500 contracts per batch (a ZIP or folder counts by the contracts in it) |
| Attachments on one email-in message | 10 |
| AI runs per contract | 3 per rolling 12 months by default (1–100) |
| Smart fields the AI reads | 55 |
| Signature batch | 500 recipients |
| Due-diligence bundle | 500 contracts |
| Approval workflow | 10 levels |
| Approval email link | 7 days |
What ranges can the approval and reminder settings take?
| Setting | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Renewal reminder | 1–365 days | 90 |
| Expiration warning | 1–365 days | 30 |
| Escalate after | 1–90 days | 7 |
| Remind before escalating | 0–720 hours (0 sends no reminder) | 24 |
| Chase unsigned contracts every | 1–30 days | 7 |
| Re-approve when value changes by | 0–100% | 10 |
| Require legal review above (USD) | 0–10,000,000 | 100,000 |
| Auto-approve below (USD) | 0–10,000,000 | 0 (off) |
Which e-signature providers can I use?
Native (Built-in) signing through the E-Signature app, which is billed per envelope, or a connected DocuSign or HelloSign (Dropbox Sign) account. Choose the default under Settings → Integrations → Default provider. For a paper signature, use Mark as Signed on the contract. Signing records the signature. A signed draft that needs approval is submitted for approval straight away, and a contract that still needs approval goes live only when its approvals complete.
More help
- Contracts Overview
- Ask AI — the assistant answers Contracts questions from these articles.