Contract Management Software for Small Business: A Guide to Success

• Document logic:  When trying to find the best contract management software for small business, you should consider products with document logic capabilities that can systematically translate users’ entries into the appropriately configured contract document. Document logic is separate from the rules and logic described in the configurator functionality above. An example of document logic is the ability to automatically include a specific paragraph in the contract whenever users choose the state of California. The best contract automation products will provide the option to do nested document logic. An example of nested document logic is having the functionality to adjust a given sentence in the California-specific paragraph depending on other attributes such as the dollar amount of the specific contract. By combining configurator functionality and document logic, the bottleneck of requiring subject-matter expert involvement for each contract generated is removed.
   
• Workflow:  Contract automation software should have robust capabilities to establish multistep workflows made up of both reminders and tasks. The software should allow for the option to initiate the workflow immediately or on a specific date in the future. For busy small businesses, it is important that these workflow steps are delivered to the assigned people via email so that employees are not required to monitor yet another queue. Reminder workflow steps are notifications that do not require deliberate action, such as receiving an email reminding you that your customer’s contract is due for renewal in 60 days. Task steps require an emailed recipients to act and then select a ‘Complete’ button included in the email body. The most desired contract workflows will have the ability to manage steps before and after contracts are signed. Pre-signature workflow steps are typically used to do the steps required to prepare for, create, and approve a contract. An example of the use of post-signature workflow steps is for sales to follow up every 90 days on whether the customer is hitting the purchasing milestones established in their contract.
   
• Workflow templates:  For most businesses, setting up contract workflow steps from scratch for each individual contract is inefficient. Workflow templates allow businesses to pre-establish and call up a series of contract workflow steps. Different workflow templates may be necessary for various contract types such as one workflow template for NDA’s and another workflow template used for customer agreements. Similarly, multiple workflow templates for the same contract type may be required if, for example, the customer’s region results in different employees being involved in the contract workflow.
   
• Easy e-sign:  Small businesses work hard to earn the business of a new partner or customer. Having an easy, frictionless electronic signature process starts the relationship off right and gives the best chance of quick contract execution. An easy e-sign process includes the ability to let your customers and your internal countersigners securely sign contracts from any device without requiring them to login or download an application.
   
• Contract Statuses:  Contract management software for small business should have customizable yet integrated contract status functionality. As individual contracts go through their lifecycle, the assigned status of the document should change. For example, a contract may begin with ‘Initiated’ status, advance to ‘In Progress’ once the contract workflow has begun, be at ‘Requested Signature’ once the customer e-sign email has been sent, progress to ‘Customer Signed’ when the contract is awaiting countersignature, and finally move to ‘Fully Signed’ status once the contract is signed by all parties.  Contract statuses should also be tied to user permissions to control things such as whether a given user of the software can edit a contract that has already been emailed to a customer for the customer’s signature.
   
• PDF and Word:  Every contract document should ideally be created by the contract automation software in both Word and PDF formats, with access to each document being restricted by security and permissions. Typically, the PDF is the only format needed but the Word version can be useful to have when contract modifications are required that go beyond what is included in the captured rules and logic.
   
• Freeform edits:  Large companies with significant legal departments need to routinely author contracts from scratch and are constantly negotiating contract language as part of their normal course of business. These larger companies require their contract automation software to have robust authoring and freeform editing capabilities. Small companies normally do not need their contract automation software to help with authoring new contract templates, but they do require at least the basic ability to manage freeform edits to contracts when requested by their customers.
   
• Upload files:  It is useful for contract management software for small business to allow files to be uploaded and associated with specific contracts. This is a benefit when there needs to be historical records of redlines or when the company wants to associate corresponding documents like proposals with contracts.
   
• Search and filters:  Small businesses can leverage the benefits of having their contracts stored in a modern cloud-based architecture. Advanced filter functionality allows users to see all contracts that are at a certain status or that have been updated within a certain time frame. It can also be extremely helpful to include search capability that enables searching of freeform notes and standard contract fields. Permission settings that regulate which users can see the contracts of the other users can be useful.
   

Contract management software for small business is increasingly becoming more popular to save labor, improve quality, increase revenue, and gain control of contracts. AI Docs is an excellent product to accomplish all aspects of contract automation that small and midsized businesses most commonly require.