Every agreement, from the request to the day it ends
Prime contracts and orders, subcontracts, NDAs, teaming agreements, master agreements and statements of work, purchase orders, vendor, consulting and license agreements, leases and memoranda of understanding. Each one is asked for, drafted from your own clause library, read against your playbook, approved by the people your rules name, signed, and watched until it renews or ends. A contracts department at a large prime sets its own stages and rules. A small bidder with nobody in contracts uses the same screens, as they ship.
A tool for the work of a contracts department. It is not legal advice, and the words of each agreement decide.
The lifecycle, stage by stage
Nine stages, each a part of Agreements. Each one links to the page that goes deeper.
- 1
Request
Anyone on the account presses Ask for an agreement and answers the intake form for its kind: what it is for, with whom, the value and when it is needed. The request goes into the Legal queue, routed by your rules, with a time target for the first response.
- 2
Draft
A template is filled in from the answers, the facts of the agreement and your clause library, whose standard language is the preferred position of your playbook. Anything not given stays in square brackets, so nobody signs a blank.
- 3
Negotiate
Their paper, or their redline as a Word file, comes in as a new version. Each clause is read against your playbook as red, amber or green, with the redline that brings it back to a position you accept, and comments sit on the words they are about.
- 4
Approve
Approval rules put the right people in each stage, by kind, value, risk, entity, counterparty or a departure from your clause library. A new version withdraws the round, so the version approved is the version signed.
- 5
Sign
The approved version goes out in a signature packet with its signers in order, through your own DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign account, or by hand. The signed copy comes back into your library and the agreement is in effect.
- 6
Share with the other side
One version can be shared with named people at the counterparty on a private page of its own. Their comments and their redline come back to the agreement, and you withdraw their access at any time.
- 7
Perform
What each side owes is read from the text, given an owner and a date, and met with evidence that a reviewer accepts. What the other side owes you, from a price cap to an audit right, is kept with the day it runs out.
- 8
Renew or end
An agreement past its end expires, or renews by itself when it says so, and its history says which. The last day to give notice is a task for the owner of the agreement, so letting it renew is a decision.
- 9
Keep and report
Every agreement is kept by legal entity, currency and your own fields, found by any word in it, put on a legal hold when it must be, and kept as long as your retention says. Analytics show where agreements wait and which clauses depart from yours.
What a contracts department asks for, and where it is
| Asked for | In Agreements |
|---|---|
| Intake | An intake form for each kind of agreement, and the Legal queue with a time target for each stage. |
| Authoring | Templates and a clause library of your own, each clause with a standard position, a fallback and guidance. |
| Negotiation playbooks | Positions in order for every clause, who must approve each one, and the words you never accept. |
| Versions and redlines | Every version kept, any two compared word by word, and Word files out and back with tracked changes. |
| Working with the other side | One version shared on a private page, with their comments and their redline coming back. |
| Approvals | Rules in stages asked one after another, the approvers of a stage asked together, time away with a delegate, reminders and escalation. |
| Signature | DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign through your own account, or by hand, with the signed copy kept. |
| Obligations and rights | Each date an obligation falls due, met with evidence a reviewer accepts, and the rights the other side owes you, with the day each runs out. |
| The repository | Legal entities and business units, currencies, your own fields, search through every word, saved views and bulk changes. |
| Governance | Restricted agreements, legal holds, retention by kind, and every change of every field kept. |
| Reporting | Cycle time, where agreements wait, clause deviations, risk, renewals and value, each figure linked to the agreements behind it. |
| AI | Summaries, questions and redlines that are your own playbook positions, off until you turn it on. |
Every row is part of Agreements on every paid plan. The last row is off for every account until we offer it and the account owner or a manager turns it on.
A command center for every agreement
Agreements opens on its home. The figures come first, each with twelve months behind it: in effect, open, waiting on you, owed in the next thirty days, and the median days to a signature. Under them a stage flow shows where every agreement is, with its count and value and the slowest stage marked. Then the charts: value in effect by kind, the risk of what is open, the median days in each stage, what ends or renews in the next twelve months with its notice dates, and obligations due by day for three months.
One ranked list says what needs attention, and What the portfolio says lists what is found by rule, each finding opening the agreements behind it. Each person arranges the home for themselves: which panels it shows and in what order.
- The Board: a column for each status and a card for each agreement, moved by dragging or by Move to, only along the moves the rules allow
- The Calendar: every date an agreement carries, by month or as an agenda: takes effect, ends, renews by itself, the last day to give notice, an obligation due, needed by and to be signed by
- Read by rule, and held to who may read each agreement
Each agreement opens as a workspace
At the head of an agreement is where it is in its life: a stepper from the request through the draft, review, negotiation, approval and signature to in effect and its end, with the time in the step and who has it. Under it are its key facts in one strip and the one thing to do next. On a wide screen a rail beside every tab keeps the summary, the key dates, the parties and signers, the approval, the signature, what is owed next and its family.
The Document tab has an outline and the text with each clause coloured by how it reads against your library. Open a clause and the inspector shows where it stands, your playbook's positions and where it sits among them, the suggested redline, its comments and what changed since the version before. Any two versions sit side by side, with the words added and struck. The Approval tab draws the round as a chain, each step with when it was asked and how long it took, and History is a timeline you filter by kind.
Counterparties, families and your own agreement types
Counterparties lists every company the account has agreements with: the organizations in Relationships and the names typed on agreements, a name matched to an organization when the two read the same once case, punctuation and endings such as LLC and Inc. are set aside. Each has a page of its own, with its agreements by where they are, the value in effect, what each side owes, the average risk, the next end or notice date and the last change.
Families shows each master agreement, teaming agreement or prime subcontract as a tree, with the orders, statements of work, amendments and renewals under it and its totals rolled up.
Agreement types are each company's own. The account owner or a manager renames a kind, hides one the company never uses, and adds up to thirty of its own, each with the side it is usually on, a default template, the fields it requires, a numbering prefix, a default approval rule, the kind whose clauses and playbook it is read against, and the obligations each new one starts with when it is signed. Other accounts keep the kinds as they ship.
Four ready-made federal setups
| Setup | For |
|---|---|
| Subcontract management for a prime | A company that holds prime contracts and passes work down: the federal subcontract, the clauses that must flow down, the subcontracting plan's reports and approval by value. |
| Teaming and nondisclosure for capture | A capture team that signs NDAs and teaming agreements every week: both templates, both intake forms, one fast approval, and a reminder before each one ends. |
| Supplier and purchase agreements | A company that buys parts and materials for its contracts: purchase order terms, the counterfeit parts and specialty metals flow-downs, and what a rated order asks of the supplier. |
| Consulting and professional services | A company that engages consultants and professional services firms: the consulting agreement, a check for organizational conflicts of interest, and one for the limitations on subcontracting. |
Each setup turns on templates, clauses, intake forms, approval rules, playbook positions and obligations the app already has. It shows what it will change before it is applied, is applied in one press and is taken back in one press. Each is a starting point for your company's counsel to review, and nothing here is legal advice.
Their paper, read against yours
Bring in the other side's agreement and each clause is matched to your library: your standard, your fallback, changed, in other words, or missing where an agreement of its kind needs it. Beside each is your language and how to negotiate it. One press puts your standard or your fallback in place of theirs as a new version, so the redline shows exactly what you changed.
The review reads for what a contracts manager reads for first: unlimited liability, an indemnity that runs one way, payment that waits on the other side being paid, payment more than sixty days out, a renewal that happens unless notice is given, liquidated damages, a restriction on whom you may work with, an assignment of everything you make, and a governing law that is not your own.
- Words that deny a risk are not read as saying it
- The dates, renewal, notice, law and payment terms read from the words, for you to confirm
- A risk score out of 100 with a reason for every point taken off: below 60 reads as high risk and below 80 as medium
- Read by rule. No model reads an agreement unless your account has turned on AI in Agreements
a score with no reasons is a horoscope
Your clause library
The library starts with twenty-three clauses and six templates written for federal contractors. The clauses cover confidentiality, indemnification, limitation of liability, termination, intellectual property, payment, warranty, flow-down clauses, export control, business ethics, records and audit, changes, the data a subcontractor handles, and more. The templates are a mutual nondisclosure agreement, a teaming agreement, a federal subcontract, a consulting agreement, purchase order terms and conditions, and an amendment to an agreement. Each clause has a standard position, a fallback and guidance. They were written as a starting point, and your own counsel should review them before you rely on them.
The account owner or a manager changes any clause or template, adds the company's own, or turns one off. The library also shows how your agreements keep each clause: how often it is signed as written, as your fallback, changed or missing. The clauses the other side changes most are where your standard language is worth another look.
A subcontract under your prime contract
Join a subcontract, a purchase order, a statement of work, or a master services, vendor or consulting agreement to a contract in your ledger. Its draft names the prime contract and lists the clauses it says to flow down, and its Overview tab shows Flow-down from the prime contract: each clause of the prime whose own text says to put it in subcontracts, whether this agreement carries it, and which it is missing. A dollar threshold the clause states is read against the value of the agreement, and a condition that cannot be read mechanically says check the clause.
Add the missing clauses makes a new version with them listed at its end, by number, title and date. The page of the prime contract shows every subcontract against every clause, in the contract ledger.
Renewals and what is owed
An agreement past its end expires, or renews by itself when it says so, and its history says which. The last day to give notice is a task on the calendar for the owner of the agreement, so letting it renew is a decision rather than an accident. An obligation that recurs, such as a monthly report, falls due again each period, and each date is met, met late, missed or waived on its own.
The Overview shows what waits on you: the requests, the approvals asked of you, what ends within ninety days, what renews by itself with its notice date inside sixty days, what is owed within thirty days and what reads as high risk. It also shows the median number of days from the start of an agreement to its signature, over the last year.
What you signed before
Agreements signed before you kept them here come in from your library with Bring in signed agreements, up to fifty documents at a time. Each becomes an agreement with its text as the first version and its dates, renewal, notice, law and payment terms read from the words, so what ends and what renews is on the calendar from the first day. Each says that its terms were read and are to be confirmed.
AI in Agreements is off until you turn it on
Everything above works by rule, with no AI. AI in Agreements is off for every account until we offer it, and then until the account owner or a manager turns it on, on the AI tab of an agreement, after reading what is sent and to whom. When it is on it can summarize an agreement, answer a question about one or across many, review one against your playbook, read its key terms, obligations and entitlements, and write a first draft from a template. Each press sends the text of the agreement, or for a question across agreements only the passages that match it, with the question and your company name. Every answer is checked against the agreement before anybody sees it, and nothing goes into an agreement until a person confirms it.
Yours
Agreements belong to your account and are never shown to another. One marked restricted is read only by its owner, whoever asked for it, the account owner and managers, and its title does not appear on anybody else's calendar. A role or a person can be limited to some legal entities, and then reads only the agreements of those entities, in every list, search, count and export. A viewer reads the rest and changes nothing. An API key reads the federal record and never an account's agreements.
Where it is in the app
Agreements, under Contract in the menu. Its views are Overview, Agreements, Board, Calendar, Counterparties, Families, Legal queue, Obligations, Clause library, Approval rules, Signing, Analytics, Shared outside and Repository setup, and each agreement opens on its tabs: Overview, Document, Review, AI, Approval, Signature, Obligations, Related, Sharing and History. Contract is the part of LastAwarded that runs the award, one of the eight parts.
Where it stops
Agreements comes with every paid plan. One Code does not include it. It is a tool for the work of a contracts department, not legal advice. The clause library, the templates and the playbook that ship are starting points for your counsel to review. The review reads words by rule and shows what it found so a person can check it, and the words each agreement uses decide.
Related
- Agreement playbooks NewYour positions on every clause, the review against them, redlines, comments and Word.
- Agreement intake and approvals NewIntake forms, the Legal queue, approval rules, obligations with evidence and renewals.
- Agreement repository NewEntities, currencies, your own fields, search, holds, retention and analytics.
- E-signature NewSignature packets through your own DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign account, and sharing with the other side.
- Contract lifecycleEach pursuit and contract as one record, with its agreements on it.
- RelationshipsThe counterparties, and every agreement with each.
- Readiness and complianceWhat the company is eligible for, and what blocks it.
- The contracts handbook NewHow each term is read and negotiated.
See who was last awarded in your NAICS
Every code, every buying office, every vendor and every recompete, organized from the federal record and read nightly. Open it with a plan.