Contract management · legal, procurement and finance
The signed copy, every redline, and the renewal date. In one place.
Content Central keeps each agreement as one file with its whole history: drafted, redlined, approved by legal and finance, signed by both sides, and remembered before the notice date. In the cloud or on your own servers.
Three questions
Every contract owner gets asked these. How long do they take you?
Which copy did we actually sign?
TodayFour files called Final in three inboxes, and a scan of the signature page on someone’s desktop.
In Content CentralOne agreement with its versions in order. The signed one is a flattened PDF, saved as its own version, with who signed and when.
When do we have to give notice?
TodayThe renewal date is on page 14, and nobody reads page 14 until the invoice for year two arrives.
In Content CentralThe notice date is a field on the contract. A rule emails the owner a set number of days before it, every time.
Which of our agreements cap liability below the fee?
TodaySomebody opens every vendor agreement, one PDF at a time, for a week.
In Content CentralSearch the words inside every contract, narrowed by party, type or end date, and export the list.
The life of a contract
Six stages, from request to renewal.
Every contract passes through the same stages, whatever its type. Contracts rarely go wrong inside a stage. They go wrong between them, when the draft, the approval and the date live in different places.
One agreement, start to finish
A vendor services agreement, from first draft to the renewal email.
- 1
The draft starts from your template.
The contracts manager creates the agreement from the approved template and files it with its fields: the other party, type, value, start and end dates, notice date and owner.
- 2
Their redline arrives by email.
File it from Outlook with the add-in, or upload it as a revision of the same agreement. Nobody starts a second copy, and every earlier version stays in the history.
- 3
Your edits happen in Word, one person at a time.
Check the agreement out, edit it in Word and save. It comes back in as a new version, and the check-out stops anyone else editing an old copy meanwhile.
- 4
Legal and finance approve at the same time.
Two approval chains start together. Over a value you set, a third approver is added. Each decision can require a note, and a rejection can go back to whoever should fix it.
- 5
Both sides sign, in order.
Send a signature request to your signer and to the other side’s signer by email; they need no account. The second person is asked only after the first signs. Each signer must fill every spot marked for them.
- 6
The signed PDF files itself as the final version.
Signatures are flattened into the PDF and saved as a new version. You are told when everyone has signed, and the signed copy can go to all signers automatically.
- 7
The renewal reminds you, not the other way round.
A rule watches the notice date and emails the owner a set number of days before it. A second rule can copy their manager closer to the date.
The renewal rule, written out
- WHEN
- A contract's notice date is 60 days away
- IF
- Its status is still Active
- THEN
- Email the owner with a link to the contract
Built in Content Central's workflow rules from a date field, with no code. The same pattern works for end dates, insurance certificates and price reviews.
What to record
Six fields answer most questions.
Start small. These go on every contract; add more later only if people search by them.
| Field | Example | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Other party | Kestrel Facilities Services | Every question starts with who. |
| Contract type | Master services agreement | Approvals and retention differ by type. |
| Value | Annual or total | Decides who approves. |
| Start and end date | Effective and expiry | Drives retention and reporting. |
| Notice date | Last day to cancel or renegotiate | The date that costs money when missed. |
| Owner | One named person | Someone has to get the reminder. |
Party names and vendor numbers can be looked up from your ERP or accounting database as the contract is filed, so they match everywhere else.
What to watch, by type
Customer agreements
Billing terms, service commitments, auto-renewal.
Vendor agreements
Payment and delivery terms, indemnity, price changes at renewal.
Employment and contractor agreements
Compensation, restrictive covenants, termination. Keep them where only HR can open them.
NDAs
Scope of information, term, permitted use. Often signed in bulk and forgotten.
Clause and party search
Search inside every page, then narrow by the fields.
Full-text search reads every word of every contract, scanned ones included, and highlights the hits on the page. Combine it with the fields: party, type, value, dates. Save the searches you run every quarter, and export the results to Excel.
People only find what they are allowed to open. Employment agreements can stay with HR while procurement sees vendor contracts.
words: “limitation of liability”
Type: Vendor agreement
words: “auto-renew”
End date: next 6 months
words: “Kestrel”
Every contract, amendment and NDA with them
Example searches, written out.
The paper ones
Signed originals in a cabinet? Scan them in once.
CapturePoint 6 splits a stack into separate agreements and reads them on your own PC. Set up on our fictional legal samples, it reads master services agreements (company, provider, governing law state), mutual NDAs (both parties) and engagement letters, and it learns your own contract types as you go. Each one goes to Content Central as a searchable PDF with those fields filled in.
Roll it out one contract type at a time
- Gather. Pull contracts out of inboxes, drives and cabinets. Scan the paper ones.
- Decide the fields. The six above, and the folders contracts belong in.
- Write down who approves what. Then turn it into an approval process.
- Start with one type. Vendor agreements are a good first one. Add the rest once it runs.
We commit to having Content Central live in 30 days.
After it ends
Keep it as long as a claim could come. Hold it if one does.
A common rule is the life of the contract plus your state's limitation period for contract claims. Confirm the period with counsel, then set it once per contract type. Content Central shows the time left on every contract and removes them on the schedule you set.
When a dispute starts, put the agreement on legal hold: it is kept indefinitely, overriding its schedule, and the override records who set it. Every view, download and change is in the audit trail.
How does your contract process measure up?
Count how many are true today.
- Every signed contract is in one searchable place
- Each contract has a named owner
- Approval rules are written down, and the system enforces them
- Only one current version exists at a time
- Notice windows and renewal dates send reminders
- Closed contracts have a retention period and a legal hold process
Bring one agreement that is stuck in review. We will show it approved, signed and on the calendar.
A free live demo on your own contract, with the people who build Content Central.
- Approval workflows
- Electronic signatures
- Records retention and legal holds
- Document management for legal
- Content Central
- How to choose document management software
A small team that mostly needs contracts signed and found? Nucleus One has documents, approvals and e-signatures in signing order, in one simple app. About Nucleus One