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Contract management

Updated

Legal stores and tracks standalone contracts separate from matter documents. A contract moves through a draft, sent, and signed workflow, and you can set expiry dates and rely on Legal's deadline and compliance systems to track expiry before anything lapses.

Creating a Contract

  1. Go to Legal > Contracts.
  2. Click New Contract.
  3. Fill in the title, select a template if applicable, and add the parties involved.
  4. The contract starts in Draft status.
  5. Add the contract content — either typed directly or rendered from a template (see Document Templates).
  6. Save.

Moving a Contract Through Its Lifecycle

Status Meaning
Draft Being prepared; not yet shared
Sent Shared with the counterparty or sent for signature
Signed Execution confirmed; signed_at date recorded

To advance a contract:

  • Draft → Sent: Edit the contract and update its status, or send it for signature through a linked matter document.
  • Sent → Signed: Record the signed_at date when execution is confirmed.

Setting an Expiry Date

When creating or editing a contract, set the expires_at date. Legal records it on the contract and counts it in the dashboard's expiring-contracts stat. It does not queue a reminder on its own — a reminder needs a deadline linked to a matter, or the contract recorded as a compliance document (see Deadlines for Contracts below).

  1. Open the contract and click Edit.
  2. Set the Expiry Date field.
  3. Save.

Renewal Tracking and Expiry Deadlines

Legal counts expiring contracts on the dashboard and monitors compliance documents for upcoming expiry. Two mechanisms queue a deadline reminder:

  • Deadlines: Create a deadline linked to the matter the contract belongs to — the matter is required, because it is where the reminder's recipient comes from. The New Deadline form has no field for linking a deadline to a contract and none for a reminder window, so a deadline created there keeps the default window of 14 days before its due date. Legal's deadline reminder sweep runs daily at 08:00 UTC and, once the deadline enters the reminder window, queues a reminder and emails the matter's owner through Hub. See Deadlines for Contracts below.
  • Compliance documents: If the contract is tracked as a compliance document (MSA, BAA, etc.), the compliance renewal sweep runs daily at 08:15 UTC. For anything expiring within 30 days that does not already have one, the sweep also creates a deadline for the expiry. The renewal alert is emailed through Hub to the document's matter owner — the matter's assigned attorney, or the matter's creator where none is assigned — or to whoever recorded the document when it isn't tied to a matter, 30 days before expiry and again once the document has expired. A row that resolves to no platform user is not alerted. That auto-created deadline row tracks the date in Legal — the notice you receive for a compliance document's expiry comes from the compliance renewal sweep, not from the deadline reminder sweep.

Deadlines for Contracts

  1. Go to Legal > Deadlines and click New.
  2. Set the title, the deadline type, and the due date (typically the expiry or renewal date).
  3. Pick the matter the deadline belongs to. It is required: the reminder's recipient is resolved from it — the matter's assigned attorney, or the matter's creator when the attorney has no Hub user linked. A deadline with no matter has nobody to remind, so Legal will not create one. There is no "Related" field on the form; record the contract under the matter, or name it in the deadline's title.
  4. Save.

When the deadline enters its reminder window, Legal queues a reminder and emails the matter's owner through Hub. Each row shows who its reminder will reach; a row that says it reaches nobody can be fixed by linking a matter to it, and the reminder becomes deliverable again on the next daily sweep. A deadline with no linked matter has no owner to address, and no reminder is emailed for it. Snoozing a deadline holds the reminder until the snooze window passes; editing the due date clears the reminder-queued stamp so a later window queues a fresh reminder on the new schedule.

Tracking Signed Contracts

All signed contracts are stored in Legal and remain accessible indefinitely (soft-delete only — the contract row is flagged as deleted and kept). To find a signed contract:

  1. Go to Legal > Contracts.
  2. Filter or search by status signed, client, or title.
  3. Open the contract to view parties, signed date, expiry, and linked documents.

FAQ

What is the difference between a contract and a compliance document? Contracts are the general-purpose agreement store for any executed agreement. Compliance documents are a specialized per-client record for documents with regulatory or policy significance (MSAs, BAAs, SOC reports). Compliance documents have dedicated gap detection and renewal deadlines built in. Many teams record the same document in both places for different tracking purposes.

Can I attach the signed PDF to the contract record? Signed documents live on matters as matter documents with an esign_status of signed. For the standalone contract record, link it to the relevant matter or note the document reference in the contract's content field.

Are expired contracts deleted? No. Expiry does not delete or archive anything: it is recorded on the contract and counted in the dashboard's expiring-contracts stat. The contract record is retained and remains searchable.

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