Contracts

A contract manager starts with the legal entity, the contract type and the person responsible for the agreement. The contract record holds its number, title, template, value, billing cadence, governing law, effective date, expiration date and renewal date. Those details let the team identify the agreement that is under review and the agreement that is already active without relying on a file name or an inbox thread.

For an MSA with a later SOW, use the parent contract reference to show the relationship. The parent link tells reviewers which agreement a new record follows. It does not replace the new record’s own owner, counterparty, dates or approval decisions. Keep the terms of each agreement visible before asking Legal Counsel or a commercial approver to act.

• One working record. The contract number and title identify the agreement while its status shows the next handoff.
• Connected decisions. Clause changes, redlines, approval steps and signature envelopes refer back to the same agreement.
• Term dates. Effective, expiration and renewal dates give the owner a way to plan work after execution.

A draft can move into internal review, legal review and pending approval. After the assigned approvers decide, the record can show that it is approved. The envelope tracks signature progress. The Contract Manager should check the related evidence before recording the active state. A status change by itself does not establish that signatures were collected or that the executed document is available.

Choose who assigns contract numbers, who owns agreements for each team and which templates apply to the contract types used most often. Agree how contract value and billing cadence are entered, and who checks the effective and expiration dates. Set a rule for attaching an approval chain before asking approvers to decide. Explain how a related agreement uses the parent contract reference so amendments and follow-on agreements remain findable.

Take an MSA for a new counterparty. The Contract Manager creates the draft with its owner, value, template and dates. Legal Counsel checks the instantiated clauses and resolves open redlines. An assigned approver records a decision in the approval step. When the envelope shows completion, the Contract Manager checks the executed document link, date and note before moving the contract to active. The next owner can then see the obligation and renewal records linked to that same agreement.

• Contracts in review — Find agreements awaiting internal, legal or approval work.
• My contracts — Follow agreements assigned to the current owner.
• Active agreements — Check dates and ownership after execution.

Start with draft and clause review, continue through approval and execution, and use term management after the contract becomes active.