Start with a spreadsheet and just do it. 1. Here are five best practices to make it a reality. On average, we have to send four reminders to an individual for each contract to be reviewed or completed. Editor’s Note: To learn more, download our whitepaper on the top 10 contract management best practices. It provides contract details of the tracking and by using a template will look more organize and kept in one file. Below is a sample memo used when we send out drafts of agreements for approval. Second, a contract management system can indicate when language deviates from a pre-approved range. They’re firm in their belief that they’re professionals, they know what they’re doing, the nature of their work is hard to predict and the C-suite will just have to live with it. Turnaround time has several sub-categories: One of the most common complaints legal faces is that it’s a black hole into which business colleagues have no visibility. Works under direct supervision; typically reports to a manager. If you have other questions, feel free to email me! Manual processes that must be replicated on a rolling basis are prone to human error. We send a pre-paid envelope out with our request for feedback. Getting a contract through the process and returned signed and completed takes constant reminders to the individual responsible for that particular contract. Emphasize the LIABILITY issue to the company if the proper people aren’t signing as they need to! —————This way, they are given a specific date to respond. Smart legal teams also measure the readability differences between their different lawyers. Keep Contract Language Within Acceptable Range. At first, they were a little baffled as to why I was “touching their calendar”; however, they now rely on me managing their calendar for these items. To learn more, view our, prepping a lawsuit against Bank of America, Why Excel is Not Enough for Contract Management, contract management benefits from automation. Did they even receive it? “Awareness of the fully loaded contract cost is a fantastic tool to help you make a business case for additional headcount, or for using an ALSP for future similar transactions”. Even if they don’t, there is a high likelihood that the business sees it differently. Lowell, MA 01851, sales@contractlogix.com Without an efficient process, an organization can burn through available hours for any project. By incorrectly inputting that the remaining available tickets for an event were 20,000 instead of the actual 10,000, a clerk created a loss and PR nightmare. A “Request Form” is available for all employees’ in the company’s public folder. If someone sends a document to legal for review, did legal do anything with it? Do you have one person who over sees this task? Why you should integrate contracts with the business' systems of record, Innovator interview: Lieke Beelen, Visual Contracts, eBook: Contract automation - start small, win big, How healthy is your contract process? All rights reserved. 1. I have not used this in recent years, but it used to be very effective. Generally, there are Contract Administrators who do just what you describe. If you’re outsourcing, then an awareness of the fully loaded cost is a fantastic tool to help you make a business case for additional headcount, or for using an ALSP for future similar transactions. It’s no longer acceptable for the answer to this question to be anecdotal, or imprecise, or ‘it depends’. Making sure the business stays on top of expirations and terminations could be hugely valuable, but the question is whether manually looking up dates is a good use of lawyer time or not. In the middle group are the legal professionals who find themselves in that frustrating place where they know they need to do something, but they’re not sure where to start. I’m sure MS Outlook and Lotus Notes have this functionality – but it does require some equipment/software. *May* require the Outlook option I described above to work. When? If you’re working in Word, you can use the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level to monitor your team’s improvements in simplifying contracts. Add a further rule that says if it’s 30 or lower then highlight in red. Contracts are changing. Contract magic. First, the process could have been automated. Cost per transaction could be based on internal costs: calculating the fully burdened time of the legal team’s members who were involved in the process, for example. Juro is a browser-based contract automation platform that enables your team to create, execute and monitor routine contracts at scale. If no response received, it means approval. Pick wisely. In a high-growth SaaS environment, for example, tracking those deviations can be crucial - if reps are deviating from SLAs, or standard terms around breach notifications, then that’s critical information to track. Hundreds of brands have partnered with Contract Logix to automate their contracting process for the purpose of mitigating legal and financial risk, while maximizing corporate and regulatory compliance. The executive assistant to the CEO has been undertaking much of the responsibility, and I have been pitching in when I have spare time, which is hardly ever. In reality, we mostly still live in a world of manual process. 2) If it’s generally the same group of individuals who need to review/sign, is it possible to block a time in each of their calendars daily/weekly for reviewing of contracts? Requires a bachelor’s degree and 0-2 years of experience in the field or in a related area. Of course, value is only one consideration of risk assessment, and there are many other factors that go into prioritizing legal resources, but it does serve as a very helpful objective standard for certain types of transactions. Click the button below. with the manager or exec who is paid to make these decisions/-approvals…
Knowing how quickly work progresses from the very first iteration to final draft is management information you can’t ignore. Not only will this give you more visibility into where contracts and associated tasks stand, it will help improve your workflows by identifying problem areas. It’s essential to have the right context when revising the latest draft of a contract, but it’s equally important to be able to protect confidential information. I am the legal secretary (admin). I’m assuming these are all internal signatures you’re trying to gather. By continuing, you consent to the use of cookies.