Licences and subscriptions
Under the supplier, with the renewal date and the notice period, so the owner decides before the next term begins.
Contract management software
Know about the renewal before it happens
A supplier contract renewed itself because the notice date sat in one person's calendar. We set up a register where each contract has its dates and an owner, who gets a task before the notice date. Drafts and the signed copy stay with the contract.
The basics
What contract management software does
Contract management software, also called contract lifecycle management (CLM), keeps every contract in one register with its counterparty, its owner and the dates that matter. It runs approval and signature as a workflow and reminds the right person before a notice date. Supplier and customer contracts, NDAs, leases, licences, framework agreements and data processing agreements all belong in it.
Drafted from a template
A new contract starts from your approved template in Word, and the template fills in the counterparty and the dates from the details on the contract.
Approved in a workflow
Review and approval are tasks with deadlines. Each handover is recorded with the time and the user, and the workflow moves on when all approvers have responded.
Signed electronically
With the DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign integration and your own subscription to that service, the signed contract comes back to the register by itself.
Filed under the counterparty
One copy of the contract appears under the customer or supplier, under its owner and in the register, because those are its metadata rather than folders.
Reminded before the notice date
A task goes to the contract owner a set time before the notice date. Reminders are configured, so other dates on the contract can carry a task of their own.
Archived or deleted by rule
When a contract has ended, a retention rule archives or deletes it after the period you set, and someone can be told before that happens.
From draft to renewal
Someone owns the contract at every stage
When one stage is done, the next person is told it is their turn. The stages are a workflow, set up around the way you approve contracts today.
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Draft and negotiation
Contract owner and the other party
The contract is written in Word from an approved template. With CtrlShare, from our development partner CtrlDocs, the other party is invited by email to work on the same draft.
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Review and approval
Reviewers and approvers
Reviewers and approvers each get a task with a deadline and a reminder before it, and every step is logged with who and when.
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Signed
Contract owner
The contract goes out for signature with DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign, using your own subscription to that service, and the signed copy returns to the contract by itself. The drafts stay in its version history.
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Active
Everyone with access
The contract is found under the counterparty and in the register, sorted by end date or notice date. Other obligations in it can reach the person responsible as tasks.
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Renew or end
Before the notice date, the contract owner gets a task to decide. A contract that has ended is archived or deleted by a retention rule after the time you set.
Day to day
The contract register updates itself
- A contract register you can filter — See the active contracts by counterparty, owner or end date, with no spreadsheet to keep up to date.
- Renewal reminders go to a role — Tasks and notifications go to a role such as contract owner, so the reminder is still there after someone leaves.
- Obligations with an owner and a date — A price adjustment, a delivery or a supplier's certificate can each be a task for the person responsible, with its own deadline.
- Upcoming notice dates on a calendar — CtrlPortals, from our development partner CtrlDocs, shows the register as a calendar of notice dates, or as a list that totals the contract values.
Integrations
Drafted in Word, negotiated by email
Contracts are written in Word, negotiated by email and belong to customers and suppliers your other systems already know. Our contract management runs on M‑Files, which connects to each of them.
Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Open, edit and save contracts from Office and fill in the metadata as you save. Details from M‑Files, such as the counterparty, can be inserted into the document itself and kept up to date.
Outlook
The emails around a negotiation are filed from Outlook with their metadata, and M‑Files can pick up the counterparty or the contact from the email.
CtrlShare
Share a draft with the other party in one step. They are invited by email and edit in the browser, and the result comes back to the contract as a new version. From our development partner CtrlDocs.
CRM and ERP
Lists such as customers and suppliers are kept in sync with your business system, so a contract is filed under the same counterparty your ERP knows, spelled one way.
Teams
Open contracts and search the vault from Teams.
Scanned contracts
Signed paper contracts are scanned, and M‑Files OCR makes them searchable PDFs, so an old agreement is found by the words in it.
In the same vault
Contracts belong to someone
A contract is always with someone: a supplier, a customer, an employee or a landlord. The same vault keeps each contract with that party, next to the rest of its documents.
Supplier agreements
Under the supplier, next to its certificates and the list of what expires next.
Learn moreCustomer contracts
Under the customer, with the proposal, the emails and the opportunity they came from.
Learn moreEmployment contracts
In the employee file, open to HR and the manager only, and deleted by rule after the leaving date.
Learn moreLeases
Under the landlord, with one task before the notice date and another before each rent review.
Confidentiality agreements
Under the party they were signed with, and open only to the people involved in the talks.
AI on every contract
Ask a contract and see the source
M‑Files Aino, the AI assistant built into M‑Files, answers questions about a contract and shows the document each answer came from. It sums up a long agreement, translates the summary for a colleague, and only uses content the person asking may see.
Spreadsheet or register
When the spreadsheet is no longer enough
A contract list in Excel works while one person keeps it up to date and the contracts are few. This is what changes when they move into a register.
| Feature | In a spreadsheet | In the contract register |
|---|---|---|
| Renewals | A date in a cell, seen when someone opens the file | A task to the owner before the notice date |
| Approvals | An email thread | Tasks with deadlines, and each step logged with who and when |
| The signed copy | Wherever the person who signed it saved it | On the contract, with the drafts in its version history |
| The counterparty | Typed by hand, sometimes spelled several ways | One customer or supplier, with the contract filed under it |
| Access | Everyone who opens the file sees every contract | Follows the kind of contract |
| When someone leaves | The reminders in their calendar go with them | Tasks go to the role, and the history stays in the log |
| Questions about the content | Open each contract and read it | Ask Aino and see the source |
Before you choose
Five questions before you choose a contract system
1. Where does the contract data come from?
Your customers and suppliers are probably in a CRM or an ERP already. A contract system that uses the same list saves typing each counterparty again and spelling it a second way.
2. Which kinds of contract do you have, and who may see them?
Employment contracts, NDAs and supplier agreements seldom have the same readers. List the kinds, and decide who may open each, before you look at any screens.
3. Do you need the whole life of a contract, or a register?
Some companies want drafting, negotiation and approval in one flow. Others mainly need a reliable list and a reminder before each notice date. Knowing which tells you how big the first step should be.
4. Where do people work today?
Contracts are drafted in Word, sent back and forth in Outlook and discussed in Teams. Ask to see the system from inside those programs, because that is where people will use it.
5. A separate tool, or your document system?
A separate tool is one more place to look. In the document system you already run, contracts sit next to the proposal, the emails and the supplier's certificates. If that system is SharePoint, our comparison of M‑Files and SharePoint shows how the two differ.
On each contract
The details that drive each contract
Take a framework agreement that ends on 31 December, with three months' notice. The end date is 31 December, but the date that counts is 30 September, the last day to give notice. The register keeps both, and the owner's task arrives before the earlier one.
| Detail | What it does |
|---|---|
| Kind of contract | NDA, lease, licence, framework agreement, data processing agreement and so on. It decides who may open the contract. |
| Counterparty | Files the contract under the customer or supplier. The list of counterparties can be kept in step with your CRM or ERP. |
| Owner | Receives the tasks. The owner is named on the contract, so a new owner takes over the next task. |
| Start and end date | Order the register and show which contracts are running. |
| Notice date | Sets off a task to the owner a set time before it. |
| Renewal terms | Whether the contract renews by itself, and for how long, written where the owner sees it. |
| Other dates | Price adjustments, deliveries and certificates due from the supplier, each with a task and a deadline of its own. |
| Value | Added up across contracts in a CtrlPortals list, from our development partner CtrlDocs. |
| Status | Where the contract is in its workflow, from draft to ended. Every change is logged with time and user. |
Getting there
From the spreadsheet to a register
We scope and deliver the set-up on M‑Files, and contracts make a good pilot: start with the ones that have a notice date. The price depends on the M‑Files edition, the licence types, cloud or your own servers and the scope of the set-up. Pricing and editions sets out what a quote contains.
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Scope
Together
We go through the kinds of contract you hold, who owns them, which dates matter and who may see what.
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Set up
Our consultants
The contract type, its metadata, the register, the workflow and the reminders are set up, your templates are brought in, and counterparties are connected to your CRM or ERP where you want them.
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Bring the contracts in
Together
Existing contracts are scanned or moved in with their counterparty and dates. With the M‑Files Metadata Agent, metadata can be suggested for existing documents in bulk.
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Live, with support
After go-live you have fast access to specialist knowledge, an agreed SLA, technical advice and support, and enquiries are answered the same working day.
Questions
Questions about contract management
What is contract management software?
Software that keeps every contract in one register with its counterparty, its owner and the dates that matter, runs approval and signature as a workflow, and reminds the owner before a notice date. We set it up on M‑Files, so contracts sit in the same system as the documents around them.
Is contract management the same as CLM?
Near enough. CLM, short for contract lifecycle management, stresses the whole life of a contract, from the first draft to renewal or end. Contract management covers the same ground, and sometimes means only the register and the reminders. What we set up covers the whole life, and the register with its reminders is a good place to start.
What does a contract management system cost?
Five things decide it: which of the two M‑Files editions you choose, Essentials or Enterprise; the licence types your users need; cloud or your own servers; your own DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign subscription if you sign electronically; and the scope of the set-up. We quote it all together, and Pricing and editions shows what a quote contains.
How do the reminders work?
They are part of the contract's workflow in M‑Files. Each state in the workflow can notify a role, create an assignment with a deadline, change who has access or update the metadata. The reminder before the notice date is an assignment to the contract owner, and you decide how long before the date it arrives.
Can a contract carry more than one deadline?
Yes. Besides the notice date, the end date, a price adjustment, a delivery or a certificate due from the supplier can each have a task and a deadline of its own. Each task goes to a role taken from the contract, such as contract owner, so it still arrives after staff changes. We set the reminders up in the contract's workflow.
Who should own a contract?
The person who knows the deal and can decide on a renewal, usually whoever deals with the supplier or the customer day to day. Legal and finance review contracts but seldom own them. The owner is named on the contract, so when someone leaves you name a new owner and the next task goes to them.
How do we negotiate a draft with the other party?
With CtrlShare, an add-on from our development partner CtrlDocs. It opens the draft for real-time co-authoring in OneDrive for Business, the other party is invited by email and confirms with a code, and the finished draft returns to M‑Files as a new version. It runs on every M‑Files edition, in the cloud or on your own servers.
Can we use our own contract templates?
Yes. Your templates are stored in M‑Files as templates, and when a contract is created from one, M‑Files fills in the fields you have marked, such as the counterparty's name, from the contract's details. The fields are updated when the document is opened in Office, or at check-in.
Can we sign with DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign?
Yes. With M‑Files' DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign integration and your own subscription to that service, the signed document returns to M‑Files automatically. Otherwise the contract owner adds the signed copy to the contract.
How is access to a contract decided?
Permissions follow the contract's class and metadata, and the workflow can change them as the contract moves on. A draft can be limited to the people working on it, and the signed contract opened to a wider group.
How do our existing contracts get in?
Your contract list in Excel is a good place to start, because it already names the counterparties and the dates that matter. Paper contracts are scanned, and M‑Files OCR turns them into searchable PDFs. Files on a share or in SharePoint Online can be shown through connectors first and moved in later, and with the M‑Files Metadata Agent, M‑Files can suggest the details for existing documents in bulk. Document management on M‑Files describes the move from a file share.
Why not keep contracts in SharePoint?
SharePoint can hold contracts: permissions are inherited from the site, library or folder unless they are changed for an item, and libraries add metadata columns alongside folders. In M‑Files a contract is filed by its details, so it appears under the counterparty, under its owner and in the register at once, and access follows the kind of contract. Our comparison of M‑Files and SharePoint goes through the differences.
Can we ask questions across all our contracts?
Aino answers questions about the contract in front of you. M‑Files also offers a configuration for questions across the whole vault, which we include in a quote where you need it, and CtrlScout from our development partner CtrlDocs asks across the vault on every M‑Files edition. AI with M‑Files Aino covers both.
Does it run in the cloud or on our own servers?
Either, or a hybrid of the two. M‑Files Cloud runs on Microsoft Azure, where your data is encrypted both in storage and on its way over the internet, and M‑Files holds an ISO/IEC 27001 certification that covers M‑Files Cloud, Hubshare and Aino.