Contracts App Overview

Contracts

1. What it is

Contracts manages the full lifecycle of your organization’s agreements — from intake and drafting through approval, signature, and renewal. It handles vendor agreements, NDAs, master service agreements, statements of work, leases, and other document types your team works with.

• Enablement: Contracts requires a license. An admin enables it from Admin → Apps Marketplace, then configures it at Contracts → Settings.
• What it is not: Contracts is not a document editor. You upload existing files (PDF, DOC, or DOCX) or generate a first draft from an intake questionnaire; authoring happens in your word processor or via the counterparty portal.

2. Standing it up

1. Enable the app from Admin → Apps Marketplace and grant it a license.
2. Go to Contracts → Settings → General Settings and choose your default counterparty type — Vendors we buy from, Customers we sell to, or An even mix — ask every time. This controls which side new contract forms open on.
3. Under Who can create contracts?, pick who may upload contracts: Managers and admins (the default), App admins, Specific people, or Everyone. Admins and app admins can always create contracts regardless of this setting.
4. If you want contracts reviewed before they go active, confirm Require Approval for New Contracts is on (it is by default). Choose which roles may approve — the default is Admin and Super Admin.
5. Under E-Signature Integration, enable e-signature and select a provider if you have one connected at Admin → Integrations. The built-in native provider works without an external integration.
6. Optionally, create Playbook Rules under Settings → Configuration → Playbook Rules. These are the required-clause rules the AI checks each contract against. Without at least one rule carrying a position ladder, signability verdicts are unavailable.
7. To let non-managers request contracts, create a Drafting Form under Settings → Configuration → Drafting Forms. Once an active questionnaire exists for a contract type, any employee can start a contract request — the AI generates a first draft from their answers.
8. Confirm it worked: managers and admins should see the New Contract button on the dashboard. Employees see it too if a drafting form is active.

Silent-until-configured pairings:

• Playbook rules with no position ladder produce no signability verdict — the AI scans but cannot recommend accept/reject.
• E-signature requires either the built-in native provider or an external integration (DocuSign, HelloSign, Adobe Sign, PandaDoc, SignRequest, or SignNow) configured at Admin → Integrations.
• Location scoping only gates visibility once an admin sets a location on each contract. Contracts with no location remain visible to everyone. Turning on Enforce community scoping hides those unassigned contracts from non-admins.

3. How it fits together

Contract and counterparty. Every contract belongs to either a vendor (someone you buy from) or a customer (someone you sell to). The admin’s default counterparty setting pre-selects this on new contract forms. The Customers tab appears only when the default is set to Customers or An even mix, or when at least one customer contract exists.

Status lifecycle. A contract moves through seven statuses: Draft → Pending Approval → Active → Expiring → Expired. Two terminal states exist outside that sequence: Terminated (manually ended early) and Renewed (replaced by a child contract). The daily expiration job moves active contracts to Expiring and then Expired based on their end date.

Owner vs. uploader. The uploader is whoever created the record — it never changes. The owner is the person responsible going forward. By default the owner is the uploader, but admins can transfer ownership (useful when someone leaves). The owner and the uploader both count as the contract’s manager and can edit, send for signature, amend, and renew it.

Obligations. An obligation is a post-signature commitment tracked against a contract — “deliver quarterly compliance report”, “renew insurance by March”. Each obligation has a cadence: One-time, Recurring, or Milestone. When a recurring obligation is completed, the next occurrence is automatically created. Obligations have their own statuses (Open, In Progress, Completed, Overdue, Waived) and fire reminder notifications at 7, 1, and 0 days before the due date.

Playbook rules and signability. A playbook rule defines a required clause for a contract type — for example, “every MSA must include an indemnification clause.” Each rule carries a severity (Blocker, Material, or Minor) and optionally a position ladder: the ideal clause, fallback positions, and a walk-away condition. When the AI assistant is enabled, it checks uploaded contracts against applicable rules and produces a signability verdict.

Amendments and versions. Each file upload to an existing contract creates a new version. An amendment is a structured change record — value change, term extension, scope change, vendor change, payment terms change, or other. When amendments require approval, they follow the same workflow as the original contract.

Workflow triggers. A workflow trigger fires an action in another app when a contract event occurs. Five events are available: Contract Signed, Contract Terminated, Contract Renewed, Renewal Due, and Certification Expiring. Three actions can fire: create a purchase order (Procurement), create an OKR (OKR Hub), or deactivate a vendor (Vendors). Each trigger can filter by contract type and minimum value.

Redlines. When a new version of a contract is uploaded, the system materializes a row-by-row comparison. Each detected change is a redline, classified by impact (Favorable, Neutral, or Unfavorable) and severity, with a recommendation of Accept, Counter, or Reject. Redlines feed into the signability verdict alongside playbook results.

Location scoping. A contract can be assigned to one or more locations. Non-admin users see only contracts matching their accessible locations, plus contracts they own or uploaded. Corporate roles (Admin, Super Admin) see the full portfolio.

Example: A facilities contractor uploads a 3-year vendor agreement (MSA) worth $120,000 annually. Auto-numbering assigns it CTR-00042. Because the contract value exceeds the $100,000 legal review threshold, it is flagged for legal review. The AI scans the text, assigns a risk score of 35, and checks it against three playbook rules — finding the liability cap clause present but the data-processing clause missing (a Material finding). The contract owner addresses the gap, uploads a revised version (which generates redlines), and submits for approval. An admin approves it, and a workflow trigger automatically creates a purchase order in Procurement. Two months before the end date, the renewal reminder fires.

4. Running it

Reviewing and approving contracts

1. Go to Contracts → Needs My Approval (visible to approvers; the badge shows the pending count).
2. Open a contract, review the AI summary and risk score if available, and choose Approve or Reject. Rejection requires a comment.
3. Approvers can also approve or reject directly from the email notification — each email includes one-click approve and reject links.

Sending a contract for e-signature

1. Open an active or approved contract and choose Place E-Signature Fields.
2. Position signature fields on the document, then choose Send for E-Signature.
3. Track signature status on the contract detail page. The status moves from Pending through Sent to Signed or Declined.

Managing renewals

The daily expiration job checks every contract’s end date and sends renewal reminders at the configured interval (default 90 days). The renewal risk service categorizes contracts into four tiers: Critical (30 days), High (60 days), Medium (90 days), and Low (180 days). Contracts with auto-renew enabled renew automatically; others surface a renewal-decision notification to the owner.

Tracking obligations

Go to Contracts → Obligations to see all obligations across the portfolio. The badge shows the overdue count. Each contract also has its own Obligations tab. Mark obligations complete individually; recurring ones spawn their next occurrence automatically.

Sharing with a counterparty

Generate a counterparty portal link from a contract’s detail page. The link gives the other party read-only access plus the ability to upload revised documents and leave comments — no login required. Links expire after 30 days by default and rotate after each upload.

5. Settings

All settings are at Contracts → Settings.

Setting	Section	Default	What it changes
Auto-generate Contract Numbers	General	On	Assigns sequential numbers with the configured prefix
Contract Number Prefix	General	CTR	The prefix for auto-generated numbers (e.g. CTR-00001)
Most of our contracts are with	General	Vendors we buy from	Pre-selects vendor or customer on new contract forms; controls Customers tab visibility
Who can create contracts?	General	Managers and admins	Which roles may upload new contracts
Require Approval for New Contracts	Approval Workflow	On	New contracts must be approved before activation
Roles Allowed to Approve Contracts	Approval Workflow	Admin, Super Admin	Which roles see the approval queue
Require Legal Review Above (USD)	Approval Workflow	100,000	Contracts above this value are automatically flagged for legal review
Enable E-Signature Integration	E-Signature	On	Enables signature workflows; requires a connected provider or the built-in native option
Default E-Signature Provider	E-Signature	DocuSign	Which provider to use when sending for signature
Renewal Reminder (Days Before)	Renewals & Expiration	90	How far ahead the renewal reminder fires
Expiration Warning (Days Before)	Renewals & Expiration	30	How far ahead the expiration warning fires
Enable AI Contract Assistant	AI Features	On	Enables AI analysis, metadata extraction, and playbook checks
Enable AI Risk Scoring	AI Features	On	Assigns a 0–100 risk score to each analyzed contract
Enable Clause Library	Templates & Content	On	Enables the reusable clause library
Auto-Approve Below (USD)	Contract Value Thresholds	—	Contracts below this amount skip approval (0 or blank to disable)
Allow Approval Delegation	Approval Delegation & Escalation	Off	Lets approvers delegate to another user for a date range
Enable Approval Escalation	Approval Delegation & Escalation	Off	Escalates overdue approvals to the next level
Approval Timeout (Days)	Approval Delegation & Escalation	—	Days before an approval escalates
Require All Approvers	Approval Delegation & Escalation	Off	Whether all configured approvers must approve, or just one
Require Compliance Review	Compliance & Risk	Off	Requires an explicit compliance sign-off
Auto-Flag High Risk Contracts	Compliance & Risk	Off	Automatically flags contracts whose AI risk score exceeds the alert threshold
Risk Score Alert Threshold	Compliance & Risk	—	Alert level: Low, Medium, High, or Critical
Enable Contract Amendments	Amendments	On	Allows structured amendments to active contracts
Require Approval for Amendments	Amendments	On	Amendments follow the same approval workflow as the original
Enable Contract Spend Tracking	Financial	On	Enables the Spend view (contracted vs. invoiced vs. paid)
Require Payment Terms	Financial	Off	Payment terms must be specified on every contract
Prevent Deletion of Active Contracts	Retention	Off	Blocks deletion of contracts that are active or unexpired
Require identity re-verification before contract file downloads	Retention	Off	Users must re-verify (password or PIN) before downloading; verification lasts 15 minutes
Enable Contracts Agent	AI Agent	On	Lets users find contracts, check status, and request signatures through Ask AI

Configuration surfaces reached from Settings → Configuration:

• Playbook Rules — required-clause rules the AI checks each contract against
• Workflow Triggers — automate actions on contract events: create a purchase order, create an OKR, or deactivate a vendor when a contract is signed, terminated, renewed, due for renewal, or when a certification is expiring
• Custom Fields — additional fields captured per contract type
• Drafting Forms — the intake questionnaire per contract type that generates a first draft
• Vendor Certifications — track vendor SOC 2, COI, W-9, and insurance documents and their expiry
• Contract Types — custom types beyond the built-in list
• Form Templates — map fillable form templates to contract types for auto-generated drafts

6. More help

• Contracts FAQ — specific setup, operating, and troubleshooting questions
• Ask AI — the assistant answers questions about Contracts from these articles