What is legal design?

You said: How to build a business case for contract lifecycle management How To May 24, 2022 You’ve decided that you want to invest in contract lifecycle management software for your business. Great. But what happens now? Well, wanting CLM software and buying CLM software are two different things, and there are a few barriers you’ll need to overcome first. The biggest one? Buy-in. In this deep dive we'll show you how to get it. If you're not at the business case stage yet, and your'e looking to evaluate vendors, hit the button below to find out more about Juro's all-in-one contract automation platform. Otherwise, read on. Intelligent contracting is here. Juro embeds contracting in the tools business teams use every day, so they can agree and manage contracts end-to-end - while legal stays in control. Book your demo You’ve decided that you want to invest in contract lifecycle management software for your business. Great. But what happens now? Well, wanting CLM software and buying CLM software are two different things, and there are a few barriers you’ll need to overcome first. The biggest one? Buy-in. In this deep dive we'll show you how to get it. If you're not at the business case stage yet, and your'e looking to evaluate vendors, hit the button below to find out more about Juro's all-in-one contact automation platform. Otherwise, read on. 1. Know who you’re addressing (and why) Before you begin to build your business case for contract lifecycle management software, you first need to establish who you’re trying to persuade. It’s critical to establish this early on, as who you’re seeking to get buy-in from will usually shape your case. Avoid wasting stakeholders’ time talking about matters that don’t affect them and create a personalized case for each. For example, if you’re a legal counsel trying to convince the GC to pay for something, then freeing up your own time might be persuasive. If it’s operations that need to sign off, then control over approvals and data they can trust to be accurate will be crucial. If HR is the main use case, and they’ll provide the budget, then the signing experience might be a factor. If it’s the CFO then you know your ROI calculations need to be overwhelmingly persuasive. Keep each stakeholder’s interests in mind when pitching your case for CLM software and ensure that you’re feeding them the information they care most about. It’s often also effective to bring them into discussions with vendors, as they’ll hear first-hand how the software can transform their daily work and ability to meet targets. 2. Start with the problem, not the solution It’s no secret that starting a discussion about adopting contract lifecycle management software with ‘I want’ is unlikely to get you buy-in. While you might be all too familiar with the growing pains you’re experiencing with a manual contract workflow, external stakeholders won’t be. Before you dive straight in with a solution, it’s important to introduce them to the problem first. To illustrate the problem, you want to narrate it. Explain clearly why the current situation is bad, and what its tangible downsides are. You should also draw upon real examples and figures when describing the problem, as this helps stakeholders understand the severity of your problem and how urgently it needs their attention. One of the best methods of persuasion is to build trust and credibility, and numbers help you do that. 4. Dig deeper into the problem If you really want to go into detail about the problems posed by a manual contract workflow, you could even take a more granular approach. This can help to illustrate exactly how not implementing contract lifecycle management software can affect growth in all areas, including critical company-wide objectives. Try describing the problem at different levels within the company: 🔝 Top-level: how will inaction affect the company strategy? Is increasing contract risk damaging the chances of you merging with another company or raising funding? Are slow contract turnaround times blocking sales teams and making it difficult, if not impossible, to meet aggressive revenue targets? Will ineffective contract processes hinder HR teams in their pursuit of top talent and rapid headcount growth? 💰 Mid-level: what are the financial consequences of inaction? How much are the costs of managing legal documents inflated at present? When will this exceed the budget? How much are you already overpaying for multiple licenses on existing tools that haven’t been adopted properly or don’t solve the fundamental problem? Are you experiencing contract value leakage as a result of slow turnaround and contract review times? How much? 🏃 On the ground: what does the current process look like in practice? What does the existing process for contract lifecycle management look like? Does it create unnecessary risk? How much time does it waste? Are existing contract processes resulting in poor job satisfaction or high turnover rates? How much time is being spent responding to repetitive queries from other departments about contracts? 5. Look beyond legal - who else is suffering? For the best chance of convincing your stakeholders to buy contract lifecycle management software, relate it back to them. Who else is suffering, aside from the legal team? Are sales teams waiting too long for legal review, causing contracts to lose momentum? Are finance departments having to foot the bill for missed contract renewals? Are HR teams falling behind the hiring curve due to inefficient contract processes for HR contracts and employment offer letters? Bring whoever is affected by inefficient contract workflows into the discussion and get their buy-in. An investment for the business is often far more compelling than an investment for a department working in silos, so focus on who else is losing out. 6. Explain why now and not later One of the most common reasons for pushback when proposing new business software is a lack of urgency. Contract lifecycle management software proposals are no exception. Convincing stakeholders that you need to adopt CLM software is half the battle. The other half is convincing them that you need it now. The best way to establish this sense of urgency is to make it clear what will happen if you don’t implement something within the desired timeframe. For some businesses, this might be that they’re fast approaching their next funding round and without a robust system of record in place for contracts, passing due diligence is unlikely. Perhaps it’s because you have recently suffered from a huge compliance issue as a result of ineffective contracting processes, and this has proven costly for the company. Maybe you’re in a critical stage in your growth where inefficiencies that slow down sales cycles put aggressive revenue targets at risk. Whatever your why is, use compelling events to demonstrate the need and the risks of not implementing contract lifecycle management software soon. 7. Sell them on the potential Don’t stop at sharing the problems the legal function is encountering. You also want to sell stakeholders a dream of what the function could be like, and achieving, if CLM software is introduced. How would implementing contract lifecycle management software transform your existing contract workflow? How can it enable other teams to perform more efficiently? What would it allow you to do that you can’t currently? Why is that important? Let the stakeholders know what you could achieve from adopting CLM software and set out metrics that make these aspirations measurable. For instance, you could say that: We’ll cut contract creation from 2 hours to 10 minutes We’ll reduce the need to hire an additional lawyer to manage contracts We’ll cut the number of systems of record for our legal documents from 5 to 1 We’ll cut approval time for a sales-generated document from 2 weeks to 3 days We’ll cut the proportion of time our core legal team spends managing contracts from 40% to 10% Juro business case lightbulb 8. Tie adoption back to revenue and cost-savings You’ve set out a proposal that means a serious investment. Now it’s time to show your stakeholders the return they’ll get on that investment. The best way to do this is through ROI calculations, largely because the average cost of employing a legally trained employee is so high. But also because contracts have a direct impact on revenue, and contract leakage creates a financial risk that’s felt throughout the business. When calculating the ROI for adopting contract lifecycle management software you’ll want to consider factors such as: Cost savings (from saving time) Increased revenue (from closing faster) Financial risk reduction (from ensuring better contract compliance) To calculate this, you’ll want to carefully consider various, more specific factors. These include: The number of contracts created per month The amount that your employees are paid per hour How much of legal’s time is spent on manual contracts How many legal team members there are How many contracts typically require approval The current contract turnaround time The signing rate The average value of the contracts How many sales happen per month How many salespeople are currently hired How much money has been lost previously due to missed renewals 9. Explain how you’ll combat risk on your end The first reaction of any decision-maker will be to greet your numbers with a healthy pinch of suspicion. And they’re right to do so; software implementations fall down for any number of reasons, and a failure to deliver on the ROI that you promised will only hurt your reputation internally, making it harder to push through a successful business case next time. It’s important to call out the key risks that could threaten these financial benefits, and explain how you’ll meet them. It’s worth putting these concerns to your proposed vendor on any demonstrations or calls you have with them. Examples might be: Low adoption: will people actually use the tool? If only two of your proposed ten users actually migrate to the new solution, the cost savings and boosts to revenue will be smaller in scale and harder to justify. Look for a solution like Juro that prioritizes ease of use and has a strong evidence base in terms of adoption. Long, tricky implementation: how easy is it to set up and get to value with the new tool? If it takes your IT team six months to configure, this cuts your year one ROI in half. Look for a solution with fast onboarding and demonstrably quick time-to-value. Hard to integrate: does your proposed solution talk to, and work with, all the other tools you use? For example, if the entire sales team uses Salesforce every day, it’s unrealistic to expect them to use a tool that doesn’t integrate well with their CRM. Avoid this risk with a solution that fits easily into your current tech stack. By addressing these concerns proactively, you’ll be able to build trust faster and put these nagging concerns to rest. Juro business case working 10. Propose your plan of action To recap: by now, you’ve identified the precise problem that’s causing pain to the business. You’ve made clear that it’s not just you who suffers – individuals in teams in various functions feel the pain too, and it’s affecting the business in measurable ways right from the bottom to the top. You’ve painted a picture of a world without this problem; and finally you’ve identified the allies you need to pull the trigger on this decision. Now it’s time to state your plan clearly. Set out what you intend to buy, when, on what basis, for which teams, and the length of any trial periods. At this point you’ll want to compare different contract lifecycle management platforms and assess these against your core business requirements. This can be a lengthy process. But if you truly want to nail adoption and reap the rewards of implementing a CLM system, it’s well worth the time invested. Looking for an all-in-one contract platform? Looking to find a contract tool that’s right for your team? Juro is the all-in-one contract automation platform that helps visionary legal counsel and the teams they enable to agree and manage contracts in one unified workspace. Complete the form below to find out more. Please redraft this and make it even more modern, actionable and reflective of Juro's other content, along with using the instructions we've used together. ChatGPT said: Below is a refreshed, modernised, SEO-ready version of the article — rewritten end-to-end to follow your project rules: TL;DR up top, crisp declarative writing, intent-aligned H2s, deeper insight, more actionable detail, and a narrative that matches the 2025–2026 Juro tone and audience expectations. How to build a business case for contract lifecycle management TL;DR Building a business case for CLM in 2026 is about proving three things fast: that manual contracting is already costing the business more than a platform would; that multiple teams—not just legal—are feeling the pain; and that the change can be delivered with predictable ROI and low implementation risk. Here are the three takeaways: Start with the friction, not the features — quantify delays, leakage and operational drag. Link outcomes to revenue, cost and risk, not just efficiency. Show you can deliver the change through strong adoption, simple onboarding and a tool that plugs straight into your existing systems. Introduction: Why building a CLM business case is harder in 2026 — and why it matters In most companies, the biggest obstacle to CLM adoption isn’t the software. It’s the story behind the investment. Legal, sales, finance, HR, and operations all rely on contracts to hit targets — but ownership is fragmented, data sits in PDFs, and the cost of slow processes is often fuzzy until you put numbers behind it. A winning business case cuts through this uncertainty. It connects contract inefficiency directly to missed revenue, uncontrolled spend, audit risk, and people-hours you can no longer afford to waste. It shows why the business can’t wait, and why a single source of structured contract data is now a strategic advantage — not a nice-to-have. 1. Know exactly who you need to convince (and what they care about) The first step in any CLM business case is stakeholder mapping. The person feeling the pain isn't always the person funding the solution, and each function has different incentives. Stakeholder cheat-sheet GC / Head of Legal: reduced review load, less firefighting, clearer risk posture. CFO / Finance: revenue acceleration, spend control, better forecasting and renewal hygiene. Sales leadership: faster deal cycles, fewer blockers in approvals, consistency across reps. Revenue Operations: cleaner data flowing into CRM, predictable workflows, audit-ready records. HR: faster offers, consistent templates, less admin during periods of high headcount growth. Operations / IT: tools that don’t sprawl, integrate well, and scale without complexity. Map these early. Then tailor the business case so each stakeholder hears their story reflected back. 2. Start with the problem — quantify it and narrate the impact Stakeholders rarely buy software because someone “wants a CLM”. They buy when the cost of not acting becomes undeniable. Lead with a clear, declarative definition of the problem: Manual contracting is costing us time, revenue, accuracy and credibility — and this drag compounds with scale. Then narrate the evidence: Deals stall because approvals take too long. Contract values shrink because negotiation cycles lose momentum. Teams waste hours chasing signatures, searching folders and rewriting the same terms. Renewal dates slip, leading to unplanned spend or business disruption. Compliance gaps emerge because no one has a single, reliable view of contract data. Use specific examples and data wherever possible. A stakeholder will trust numbers more than anecdotes. 3. Go deeper: show the impact at every level of the business To make your case airtight, unpack the problem through three lenses. Top-level impact (strategy, growth, audit-readiness) Slow contracting constrains revenue targets you’ve already committed to. Missing contract data makes fundraising, due diligence or ISO/SOC audits painful. Poor contracting hygiene increases merger/integration risk. Financial impact (cost, leakage, uncontrolled spend) Time spent triaging contracts is time not spent on higher-value work. Auto-renewals slip through the cracks when dates aren’t tracked. Discounts creep into deals when workflows are unclear. Inconsistent terms create financial exposure across jurisdictions. Operational impact (daily friction) Reps chase legal for routine edits. HR waits days for employment contracts. Finance can’t report accurately because data is locked in PDFs. Legal answers the same questions repeatedly because the business can’t self-serve. These layers make the consequences unavoidable — and help you link to metrics later. 4. Show who else is affected — and build a coalition Legal pain alone rarely closes the deal. Broaden the problem. Cross-functional signals of contracting pain Sales: Slower cycles, delayed invoicing, dropped deals. Finance: Budget overspend from missed renewals or variant terms. HR: Lost candidates because offers aren’t issued quickly enough. Procurement: No visibility into vendor risk or contractual commitments. Operations: No single source of truth, tech sprawl, lack of governance. When multiple teams benefit, the business case becomes a business investment, not a legal expense. 5. Explain why you need CLM now — not “at some point” A stalled business case is almost always missing urgency. Anchor your proposal to a compelling event. Examples: A funding round or audit is approaching and contract data needs to be reliable. Your sales motion is scaling and manual processes won’t keep up. You’ve recently experienced financial loss due to a missed renewal or contract error. You’re consolidating tools and need a unified system of record for contracts. Compliance requirements have tightened and PDF-based processes fail the standard. Make the cost of waiting larger than the cost of acting. 6. Sell the potential: show what the business could look like with CLM Paint the “after” picture clearly. Use simple, measurable statements: Contract creation drops from 2 hours to 10 minutes. Approvals shrink from two weeks to three days. 40% of legal’s workload is automated down to 10%. Sales closes deals 10–30% faster. Renewal leakage drops to zero with automated reminders. Compliance risk decreases because contracts live in one structured system. The more concrete, the more persuasive. 7. Tie everything to revenue, cost and risk — your ROI narrative Your business case succeeds or fails on its ROI. Make it explicit and defensible. Build your ROI model using: Time saved × cost per hour Faster deal cycles × average contract value Renewal success × retention uplift Risk reduction from standardisation and audit-ready data Tool consolidation savings from retiring multiple systems Stakeholders must see that the business is already paying for inefficiency — just in hidden places. 8. Address perceived risks upfront Every business case exposes doubts. Neutralise them early. Adoption risk Will teams use it? Choose a CLM with proven usability, high adoption rates and a simple interface that works where teams already operate (e.g. Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack). Implementation risk How long until value? Prioritise platforms with guided onboarding, self-serve configuration, and rapid time-to-value—not six-month IT projects. Integration risk Will it work within your stack? Confirm CRM, HRIS, SSO and workflow integrations upfront. Show that the CLM reduces complexity rather than adding it. By tackling these concerns proactively, you build trust before it’s questioned. 9. Propose a clear plan of action Your business case should end with a decisive, structured plan. Your plan should include: What you’re buying: the CLM platform and core modules. Who it’s for: initial departments and user groups. When and how it rolls out: timelines, milestones, training. How success will be measured: KPIs tied to revenue, cost and risk. Which vendors you considered: and why your recommended platform wins. Budget and contract term: including consolidation savings. At this point, the only reasonable conclusion is approval. Looking for an all-in-one CLM to anchor your business case? Juro is the all-in-one contract automation platform that enables legal and the teams they support to agree and manage contracts in a single unified workspace — with structured data, powerful AI, native integrations and workflows that actually get adopted. If you’re building your CLM business case now, Juro’s team can help you quantify ROI, map stakeholders and shape the business narrative. Book a demo to get started. If you’d like, I can also: ✅ produce a downloadable one-page “CLM business case template” ✅ create a table of stakeholder goals vs outcomes ✅ add internal links to Juro.com/learn pages Just say the word. You said: More detailed please - make more resourceable ChatGPT said: Absolutely — here is a deeper, more comprehensive, more “bookmarkable” version that reads like a 2026-grade evergreen resource and matches the Writing project rules. It’s longer, more specific, more actionable, and includes frameworks, templates, examples, metrics, and industry context. It also aligns tightly with Juro’s product narrative, internal linking opportunities, and modern CLM buyer journeys. How to build a business case for contract lifecycle management (CLM) A practical, 2026-ready guide for legal, finance and revenue leaders TL;DR A successful CLM business case demonstrates three things: that manual contracting is already costing the business more than software would; that the benefits span multiple teams, not just legal; and that change can be delivered with predictable ROI and low risk. Three key takeaways: Quantify your friction: show revenue loss, value leakage, cost overruns and time wasted. Anchor upside in business KPIs, not generic efficiency claims. De-risk adoption: prove that you can implement and scale the solution without disruption. Introduction: Why CLM business cases must evolve in 2026 Contracting workflows have transformed radically over the past three years. Legal teams are no longer simply “requesting a tool”; they’re responding to broader organisational demands: Revenue teams expect contracts to move at the speed of their deals. Finance expects accurate, real-time contract data for forecasting and spend control. HR expects offer letters and onboarding docs to turn around in minutes, not days. Security and compliance expect audit-ready, structured data—not PDFs scattered across systems. But CLM is still a cross-functional investment, and most organisations struggle to tell a story that resonates with executives. This guide brings together modern CLM buying patterns, clear frameworks, revenue-aligned metrics, and actionable templates to help you build a business case that wins. 1. Identify the stakeholders you need — and tailor your narrative to each Why stakeholder mapping matters CLM affects every team that touches contract data. But stakeholders vary in what they value. A GC cares about risk; a CFO cares about ROI; a CRO cares about cycle time; HR cares about candidate experience. When your narrative speaks directly to each stakeholder’s goals, you reduce friction and accelerate approval. Stakeholder-by-stakeholder priorities Use this table to tailor your pitch: Stakeholder What they care about Narrative to use Evidence to show GC / Head of Legal Risk posture, workload, contract governance “CLM reduces legal’s operational burden while improving consistency and visibility.” Review volume, error rates, time spent fielding repetitive queries CFO Forecasting accuracy, spend control, productivity “CLM reduces controllable spend and prevents value leakage.” Cost per contract, missed renewals, deal slippage CRO / VP Sales Deal velocity, predictability, CRM alignment “CLM reduces cycle times, standardises terms and removes bottlenecks.” Current cycle time, approval delays, discounting patterns Revenue Operations Workflow consistency, integration quality “CLM delivers structured data that flows into CRM.” Data accuracy issues, manual reconciliation time HR Hiring speed, compliance, process consistency “CLM accelerates offers and reduces admin overhead.” Time-to-offer, error rates in employment contracts IT / Security Governance, integrations, system consolidation “CLM reduces tool sprawl and creates a single source of truth.” Number of contract repositories, shadow IT risks Action Create a one-page stakeholder map summarising what each function values, the metrics that resonate with them, and the objections you need to pre-empt. 2. Start with the problem — quantify the drag your business is already carrying Executives buy outcomes. They do not buy software “because legal wants it”. Your first task is to define the business problem clearly and with evidence. The four universal symptoms of manual contracting Friction: Deals slow down. Hiring slows down. Vendor onboarding slows down. Invisibility: No one knows what’s signed, where it is, or what the obligations are. Leakage: Discounts creep up; renewals slip; outdated terms keep being reused. Risk: Compliance gaps expand; data gets siloed; access isn’t controlled. Quantify the problem with hard numbers Executives respond to numbers that map back to cost, revenue or risk. Consider measuring: Average cycle time from draft to signature Number of manual edits per contract Time legal spends on low-value work Contracts stored across X systems Percentage of contracts without complete data Contract value leakage due to slow cycles Revenue at risk from missed renewals Example problem statement “Our sales cycle currently averages 21 days, and 8–10 of those are contract-related. Each day of delay risks £20–40k of revenue in quarter-end cycles. Contracting is now the single largest operational bottleneck in our quote-to-cash flow.” Frame the problem in language the business cannot ignore. 3. Expand the problem: show the impact across the organisation Your goal is to show that inefficient contracting is not “a legal problem”; it is an operational and financial risk. Top-level impact: strategy, growth and audit posture Incomplete contract data makes fundraising and M&A due diligence slow and painful. Leadership cannot track obligations, liabilities or renewals across the portfolio. Regulatory expectations (privacy, security, procurement) have increased. Financial impact: revenue and cost Deals are lost or discounted due to long legal cycles. Lack of renewal visibility creates unbudgeted spend. Legal hiring grows reactively because workflows can’t scale. Poor data means inaccurate forecasts, hurting FP&A planning. Operational impact: people and process Teams work from outdated templates. Reps send contract versions over email, creating risk. Internal teams ask legal the same questions repeatedly. No system of record means zero trust in the process. This is the level of detail that gives an executive no choice but to act. 4. Bring other teams into the narrative — and get their buy-in early How to demonstrate cross-functional pain Interview each affected function. Capture: The manual steps they perform Time wasted Errors they commonly encounter Risks they’ve logged Metrics they’re accountable for Then convert these insights into statements like: “HR misses offer turnaround SLAs 38% of the time due to slow contracting.” “Procurement can’t track vendor renewal dates, leading to surprise spend.” “Sales works from five different templates, creating inconsistency and risk.” Cross-functional impact is your strongest persuasion lever. 5. Create urgency: explain why the business cannot wait Executives deprioritise anything that doesn’t feel time-sensitive. Your job: create a compelling event. Common urgency triggers Upcoming funding round, audit or certification A growing sales team, with cycles already slowing Increasing vendor risk, with spend visibility declining A compliance issue or near-miss A tool consolidation initiative A shift to AI-driven workflows where structured data becomes essential Frame this as a risk of inaction, not a feature wishlist. 6. Sell the future: describe the “after” state with clarity and metrics The best business cases are concrete. Not “We’ll be more efficient,” but: “Cycle time reduced from 21 days to 7 days.” “Offer letters generated in under 60 seconds via HRIS workflows.” “Template variance reduced by 90%.” “Renewal leakage eliminated through automated alerts.” “Sales self-serve 80% of contracts without legal involvement.” Paint a picture of intelligent contracting In 2026, the best CLMs provide: Structured data at the moment of creation, not after signature AI-powered extraction, comparison, summarisation and classification Deep integrations with CRM, HRIS, procurement and finance tools Automated workflows for approvals, negotiations and renewals Real-time dashboards across the entire contract portfolio This is not hypothetical. It’s the market direction. 7. Build a robust ROI model tied to revenue, cost and risk Stakeholders expect an investment-grade analysis. Deliver it. Three pillars of CLM ROI Time + headcount savings Hours saved per contract × hourly rate Reduction in legal review volume Prevention of additional legal hires Revenue acceleration Faster signature = faster cash Higher conversion by eliminating friction Reduced discounting due to delays Risk and compliance control Avoided renewal leakage Avoided regulatory fines Improved audit posture Reduced vendor risk through consistent terms Data inputs you’ll need Monthly contract volume Contract types Team size and salaries Current cycle time Renewal value at risk Cost of existing tools you can retire Present this as an annualised model with conservative, realistic assumptions. 8. De-risk the decision — address objections before they arise Executives worry about four things: adoption, implementation, integration, and loss of control. Resolve each one before they ask. Adoption Demonstrate that the platform is intuitive, built for the business (not just legal), and has high adoption rates across similar companies. Implementation Show an implementation roadmap: typical onboarding time, key milestones, and which phases require internal time. Integrations Show that the CLM connects natively with your CRM, HRIS, SSO and other business-critical systems. Governance & control Prove that legal maintains template control, clause control and audit visibility — even if business teams self-serve. The more you derisk the investment, the faster stakeholders say yes. 9. Present a clear, confident plan of action Your plan should include What: the specific CLM platform and modules Who: phased rollout by department When: implementation timeline + success criteria How: workflow design, integrations, training plan Cost: subscription, onboarding, consolidation savings Success metrics: e.g. cycle time reduction, adoption rate, renewal capture, time saved End your business case with a crisp call to action: “This investment removes operational friction across the business, strengthens revenue and audit posture, and delivers ROI within the first year. I recommend we proceed.” 10. Vendor selection: how to compare CLM platforms effectively To avoid platform mismatch, evaluate vendors on criteria that matter to your business. Vendor comparison criteria Depth of integrations (especially CRM / HRIS / SSO) Template governance and version control Quality of structured data model AI capabilities (extraction, comparison, summarisation, classification) Reporting and dashboards Renewal workflows Ease of use for business teams Implementation time and support model Total cost of ownership Customer testimonials in your industry This helps you avoid buying a system that is powerful but too complex — or simple but too limited. Looking for a CLM that supports this business case end-to-end? Juro is the all-in-one contract automation platform that enables legal and business teams to collaboratively create, agree, and manage contracts in one unified workspace. Juro offers: A structured data model that powers accurate reporting and advanced automation AI tools for extraction, summarisation, clause comparison, and classification Deep CRM and HRIS integrations Intuitive UX that drives adoption across sales, people, finance and operations Fast implementation and immediate time-to-value A single source of truth for your entire contract portfolio Book a demo to build a compelling business case backed by real numbers and tailored workflows. If you'd like, I can now produce: 📄 A downloadable “CLM Business Case Template” 📊 A stakeholder mapping table as a standalone asset 📐 A calculator framework for ROI modelling 🔗 Suggested internal links for Juro.com/learn Just tell me which assets you want. You said: A successful CLM business case demonstrates three things: that manual contracting is already costing the business more than software would; that the benefits span multiple teams, not just legal; and that change can be delivered with predictable ROI and low risk. Three key takeaways: Quantify your friction: show revenue loss, value leakage, cost overruns and time wasted. Anchor upside in business KPIs, not generic efficiency claims. De-risk adoption: prove that you can implement and scale the solution without disruption. Put into three bullet points intead please ChatGPT said: Sure — here are the three takeaways in three clean bullet points: Manual contracting already costs more than CLM — quantify the friction by showing revenue loss, value leakage, cost overruns and wasted time. CLM benefits the whole business, not just legal — anchor upside in revenue, cost and risk KPIs that matter to leadership. Adoption and ROI are predictable — demonstrate that the solution can be implemented, adopted and scaled without operational disruption. You said: What is contract simplification?Contract simplification is the process of making legal documents clearer and more user-friendly for contracting parties. It is typically achieved by delivering plain language and better legal design, but more broadly, a simple contract aims to provide the information parties need to know in a way that is accessible to non-lawyers, rather than just leading legal counsel. But what does a ‘simple contract’ look like and when should we simplify our contracts? Let’s find out. Simple contract examples1. Vendor / supplier agreementsSupplier and vendor agreements regulate the terms on which companies buy and sell goods and services. Whether your company is a food marketplace buying produce, or a technology business buying new software, these contracts play an important role in business transactions, so positive user experience is key to increasing the chances of repeat business and capturing more revenue.If the content and process for these contracts are too burdensome, counterparties are likely to look elsewhere for these deals. Contract simplification prevents this. Not only that, but when a business is building a marketplace, like Deliveroo, speed is everything. You will naturally want to get counterparties signed up as quickly as possible to build out the options and value you can offer customers. With simple contracts and a strong contract management system in place, scaling businesses like Deliveroo can close all-important deals, like those with restaurants, without wasting time. 2. SaaS agreementsA SaaS agreement is a commercial contract that sets out the formal relationship between the SaaS company and its customer. These types of business contracts facilitate the provision of services to the customer in exchange for recurring revenue to the business, and they are a key touchpoint between company and customer. By making your SaaS agreements needlessly complicated and difficult to read, it will set a bad tone for the relationship that follows and at worst, deter potential users from signing the agreement altogether. More on that in this guide to SaaS contract management. 3. MSAs A Master Services Agreement (MSA) is where a business and its customer agree most of the terms that will govern their commercial relationship. An MSA can be used to define any number of business-critical factors, like data privacy obligations, reporting obligations, indemnity caps, breaches and, of course, headline commercials like renewal dates and financials. (The MSA is one specific flavour of service agreement template - others are available too).As you can imagine, they are long, detailed and valuable documents. However, they are worthless if they never get over the line. At the risk of stating the obvious, a contract that’s off-putting will put people off. On the other hand, an MSA that’s simple, clear and accessible will lead to faster signing and more deals closed.4. Option agreementsAn option agreement outlines the terms and conditions that give a party a right (not an obligation) to buy an asset. For the business, option agreements give employees a stake in the company’s success and allow the business to distribute equity in a controlled way.However, many employees may not have a financial background, and the options might be intimidating if they are accompanied by lots of jargon. By simplifying an option agreement, you can make the contract more accessible to everyone within the company, and invite more employees to take this stake in a way they understand.If you're looking for a fast way to create option agreements, check out our free option agreement template.5. Software license agreements Software license agreements offer an individual or business the right to use software that legally belongs to someone else. Businesses distribute software license agreements to control use of the software, protect legal ownership and strengthen commercial relationships. Again, these contracts are an important touchpoint during the sales process, and can bring a lot of value to a company. By simplifying a software license agreement, you can minimize the time it takes to close a deal and improve the counterparty’s signing experience, which increases your chances of capturing this value. 6. Channel partner agreementsIn a channel partner agreement, two businesses set out and agree the terms of their commercial partnership. An example of a channel partnership agreement is the contract between two SaaS companies, whereby one party agrees to include the other in its marketplace or to provide referral traffic in exchange for a percentage of any revenue that this generates.Agreeing a mutually beneficial channel partnership can be a hugely effective growth tactic. However, as these contracts grow in value, they grow in complexity too, which causes friction. This friction and complexity slows down deal cycles and makes legal a blocker, rather than an enabler. To ensure this isn’t the case, you should do everything in your power to simplify channel partner agreements, and ensure that they run smoothly.7. Employment offer lettersEmployment offer letters are delivered to a candidate who has been offered a role within a business, and they outline what each party could expect from the other if the candidate chooses to accept. It will typically include basic information about the role, as well as detailing the salary, terms and conditions, start date, and more. The offer letter provides an outlet for negotiations between the candidate and the employer, but they also give a feel about what a company is like. If an employment offer letter is riddled with complex language and poor design, it’s possible that the candidate will feel put off, or have reservations about the company. A simplified employment letter will communicate the most important information to a candidate and make the candidate’s signing experience a more memorable one - for all of the right reasons.Who benefits from simple contracts?As you have heard, a wide range of different contracts could, and do, benefit from being simplified in the business world. Simplified contracts will not only enhance the experience of the counterparty to a contract, though. By simplifying a contract, you are also reducing the strain on the various stakeholders in the contract lifecycle. These parties typically include: Legal counsel, who will be involved in overseeing virtually every contract that runs through the business in some way. Most often, the legal team will own the contract templates. Sales teams, who deal with contracts like MSAs, SaaS agreements and software license agreements on a regular basis. Simple contracts will empower the sales teams to self-serve on these contracts and improve the pace at which they get deals signed.‍Finance teams, who typically authorize spend on various agreements. For companies without an established finance team, these interactions will be handled at an executive level. ‍Approvers, who will vary depending on the contract being signed and the business itself. These approvers can range from members of the sales team to the leadership team and even legal counsel, depending on the value of the contract.The people team, who will also be involved in the contracting process for simplified contracts such as option agreements and employment offer letters, for example.Marketing teams, who may have some involvement in contracts such as marketing service agreements, will want sight of their responsibilities when it comes to promotion and revenue sharing, for example.Why simplify a contract?Just because contracts establish a formal relationship, with all the legal rights and responsibilities that involves, that doesn’t mean they have to be intimidating and unpleasant. Business contracts form a key touchpoint between the two parties. Making a legal agreement needlessly complex and difficult to read will set a bad tone for the relationship that follows. And given that relationship may continue for years to come, you need to make sure it’s built on solid foundations. All of this begins with having a simple contract. There are also a few, more specific benefits of contract simplification that make simplifying your legal agreements well worthwhile.The benefits of simplified agreements1. Reduce risks and improve relationshipsBy making contracts that both parties can understand, you will inevitably reduce the risks associated with legal agreements, particularly where these stem from misunderstandings and miscommunication. Clear and concise contracts will allow for a smoother negotiation process and increased trust between parties, which will hopefully result in positive and long lasting relationships in the long term.2. Maintain version control Business contracts are usually negotiated in Word, which results in multiple versions of the same document doing the rounds. This increases the risk that wrong or out-of-date documents will be shared through human error, which will make the business seem unprofessional and can lead to a messy signing experience. You may lose the counterparty altogether and lose revenue in the process. By using a contract collaboration platform as your single source of truth, you can create dynamic, digital contracts made up of searchable and structured data, helping you simplify the way you send and store your contracts and avoid costly mistakes.3. Speed up the contract processMany businesses still rely on Word and hard copy contracts. With no automated alternative and an unnecessarily complicated workflow, the end-to-end process is time-consuming and can cause friction. In turn, this slows down time-to-sign and can lead to a backlog of contracts to manage. A contract collaboration platform that does the heavy-lifting can make a huge difference – especially as the company continues to grow and contracts need to be managed at scale.5. Total workflow visibility Creating and negotiating contracts using emailed Word and PDF documents is neither simple nor transparent. Documents may be stored on a shared drive, as a hard copy in a filing cabinet, or, even worse, on someone’s desktop. With such limited visibility, maintaining an open channel of communication with the contract parties can be a challenge. To reduce the risk of misunderstandings and poor engagement, you should try to simplify the way you manage your contract workflow. Juro gives users full visibility of the contract process. Teams can see when parties have viewed the document, allowing them to follow up when things stall and to reduce bottlenecks. Plus, integrations with platforms such as Slack mean teams can receive regular or real-time notifications of contract updates, meaning those all-important moves are made quicker.6. Capture contract dataIf your contracts aren’t simple enough, they will be cluttered and chaotic - even post-signature.The unstructured nature of these contracts, the data within them and how they’re stored means these agreements aren’t searchable. As a result, legal teams may struggle to keep sight of important contract data like renewal dates and often get the blame when, for example, a contract auto-renews and the business incurs unwanted costs.This can make it extremely challenging to ensure contract compliance and conduct contract audits. Unlike smart contracts which pose a real challenge when it comes to extracting and auditing data due to their complexity, simple contracts can provide business and legal teams with a wealth of data, often on demand.Ready to simplify your contracts with Juro? Get a demo.How to simplify the contract processFind a unified workspace that does it all The manual contract lifecycle usually means finding the right version of a Word document (or worse, a scanned version of something printed), wrestling it into shape over email, negotiating in tracked changes, converting to PDF, getting it into DocuSign, saving it somewhere sensible, and sending it to all parties. This means endless back-and-forth between systems. It’s hard to overestimate how much time you could save by departing from this model and handling all stages of the contract lifecycle with one system, instead.Find one platform that can handle the end-to-end contract process, instead of using three or four; it will be faster and easier both for you and the customer – and will likely save you money too.Create your contracts as structured dataLots of tools mean lots of files. This means lots of room for error and data loss, and a messy experience for your counterparty. AI contract review tools help you read old Word and PDF contracts but nothing beats dynamic, machine-readable documents that you can create, manage and track in a single platform. That’s why, in order to simplify your contract process, you should choose a contract collaboration platform that works with contracts as dynamic, digital data models, so your data is structured and searchable from day one, and version control isn’t ever a problem again. Accessing old agreements has never been so easy.How to simplify the content in your agreementsFor the reasons just discussed, you’re probably wondering what you can do to simplify your business contracts. We recommend the following: 1. Bring key clauses to the surfaceTo create a simple contract, you need to ensure that the most important information is in plain sight for all parties to read. To decide what this key information is, look at your negotiation data and determine which clauses need to be front and centre to move the deal forward and get closer to signature. Within SaaS agreements, for example, this might include commercials, auto-renewals and liability caps. There’s no point hiding contentious terms in subclauses laden with dense legal jargon – people will find them. If anything, it will slow the entire contract process down. We’re big fans of Verity White’s reverse sandwich approach to contract design, whereby critical information is pulled to the front of a document, not left to fill out the middle. 2. Use layering and linking Contracts like the use cases discussed tend to carry an overwhelming amount of information. Including every relevant policy and document in your software licence agreement, for example, will probably overwhelm your counterparty. Instead, find a contract collaboration platform that lets you bundle documents, attach them to your main contract and link text. This way, you can include all the necessary information without overloading your customer, and all other details remain accessible to parties as and when they need them.3. Incorporate your branding Any other company document – whether it’s a sales brochure or a customer email – would be branded consistently, so why do the same for simple contracts? To simplify your contracts and make them more digestible, you may want to include the logos of both companies at the top of your contract, or visual elements like infographics and animations. It’s a really simple way to make documents more engaging and shows that you care about your prospective clients, partners and employees. This way of adding character is particularly beneficial in simple contracts like employment offer letters, since offer letters reflect the company’s public identity, and for candidates joining the business it’s one of their first insights into the business’s branding and tone of voice.4. Cut the jargon Contracts are notoriously difficult to read and understand. In fact, a survey by Deloitte revealed that over 90% of consumers agree to legal terms and conditions without reading them - and that is largely down to how hard they can be to comprehend. However, unlike consumers, businesses are far less likely to sign a contract without first reading it. Instead, if a contract is too complex, wordy or cram-packed with jargon, a business is likely to delay signing it, or grow sceptical about its contents and not sign it at all. To make your contracts simple, cut out any excessive contract jargon where you can and strip your contract back to basics. Many stakeholders without a legal background are still involved in the contract process, so it is important to design and draft contracts with non-lawyers in mind. Let your language choices reflect that. Useful features for contract simplificationIf you want to simplify your legal agreements with ease without losing track of the small details, then these features will come in handy:A browser native contract editor. To add features like logos using JPEGs or even GIFs, you’ll need a rich text editor that can handle visual content in your contracts. A dynamic editor will help you build and automate beautifully designed contracts that people want to sign. Internal and external commenting. A must-have for contract negotiations. Engage externally with the counterparty and collaborate internally with your colleagues, without ever having to leave the contract.eSignature for all devices. This really speeds up time-to-sign. When employees don’t have to waste time printing, signing and scanning an agreement, you can get to ‘yes’ faster with electronic signatures.Searchable repository. Keep all your agreements in one place with a contract repository. A contract collaboration platform that uses structured data allows you to filter quickly and easily.Mass actions. If you've managed to get a simple contract through the collaboration and negotiation process quickly, the last thing you want is for it to sit in someone's unruly inbox, waiting for an authorized signatory to work through hundreds of signatures. Find a platform that lets you carry out mass actions to keep things moving.Conditional logic. This will allow you to codify common fallback positions in your contracts, making it easier to change the content according to the demands of the deal.Bundling and attachments. For contracts like SaaS agreements which can comprise several documents, you will benefit from a contract platform that lets you attach or bundle them, so counterparties don’t lose control as the process goes on.Custom dashboards. Table views in contract collaboration platforms like Juro can help you filter agreements by different things – like the number of options, signing status, vesting date, etc.Simplify your contracts with Juro Is simplifying contracts a pain point for your business and legal teams? Is your business scaling so fast that your contract process is out of control, with multiple systems involved pre-signature and a lack of visibility post-signature? Juro can supercharge your contract workflow to help you to create beautifully designed contracts that make sense, remove friction and reduce the time you spend on complex contracts by up to 96%. Hit the below to get in touch and find out more. Give three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Contract simplification makes agreements easier to understand, faster to negotiate, and less risky to manage — by combining plain language, better structure, and modern contract workflows. Simpler contracts close faster and build trust by reducing confusion, cutting negotiation friction, and improving the signing experience for non-lawyers. Simplification reduces operational risk through stronger version control, clearer obligations, and better workflow visibility across teams. Simple contracts unlock usable contract data by making terms easier to surface, track, search and audit (e.g., renewals, liability caps, key commercials). You said: Contracts should be a meeting of the minds. One party makes an offer and the other party accepts that offer. Sounds obvious, right? This is called the mirror image rule. But it isn’t as simple as you might first think. Read this Juro explainer to find out what the mirror image rule is, how it works and when it applies. What is the mirror image rule?The mirror image rule is a concept in contract law. It means that when you say “yes” to an offer, that becomes the basis for a contract, so you’re accepting that offer exactly as it is – with no changes or modifications. Therefore, the acceptance must be a mirror image of the offer. If it isn’t, there’s no contract.Also called the “unequivocal and absolute acceptance requirement” (which is a mouthful), the mirror rule is a common law concept (i.e. a set of accepted rules based on past legal cases) that must apply for a legally binding contract to be formed. Since the term “mirror image rule” is rarely (if ever) used in the UK, you might also recognize the concept as a“mutual agreement”, “mutual assent”, “meeting of the minds”, or “consensus ad item”. Regardless of the label used, the concept itself is the same.But what does the mirror image rule look like in practice? Let’s run through an example together now. Mirror image rule exampleImagine you’re negotiating a contract for some building work. You offer to pay the builder a certain amount for your new extension. They say they’ll build the extra room as you ask, but they want a payment of 25% up front before they’ll start work. At this point, the mirror image rule hasn’t been met. Because even though they’ve accepted some of the terms of your offer, their acceptance isn’t a mirror image of it, and they’re asking for a change. In fact, they’re making a counteroffer. You make another counteroffer of a 15% upfront payment, which they agree to. Boom. The offer mirrors the acceptance – you’ve got a legal contract, and you better start making the tea. But if the builder doesn’t accept the 15% then no contract is formed, because the offer and acceptance aren’t the same. That means that the mirror image rule hasn’t been satisfied. This might all seem a bit obvious – if you’ve read any of our previous posts, you’ll know that two of the essential elements of a valid contract are offer and acceptance. So why is it important? Well, it’s important because no party to the contract is liable if the terms as they were originally offered have changed. That means if your builders suddenly start demanding the original 25% payment before they’ll pick up their tools, you can walk away with no fear of having breached the contract.Does a counteroffer destroy the original offer under the mirror image rule?As we said above, acceptance must be a mirror image of the offer. If it isn’t, it becomes a counteroffer. What we didn’t mention is that, if this happens, the original offer is destroyed. The UK case Hyde v. Wrench is a good (if old) example of this. The defendant said they’d sell a farm to the claimant for £1,000. The claimant offered £950 which the defendant refused. The claimant then tried to accept the original offer of £1,000, but the defendant refused to sell. As a result of this, the claimant took them to court for breaching their contract. But the court held that there was no contract because the counteroffer of £950 destroyed the original offer – so the claimant couldn’t accept to buy the farm for £1,000.How is this relevant to the mirror image rule, though? Well, if the claimant canceled the original offer of £1,000 by proposing a counteroffer, it’s impossible for his acceptance to later mirror the original offer, as it no longer existed. Therefore, the mirror image rule couldn’t be satisfied and no contract had been created. No contract means no breach. To ensure we fully understand the principle, let’s explore a few more cases that discussed the rule. We’ll cover one from the UK and one from the US. Mirror image rule cases Example of the mirror image rule in the UKIn Gibson v. Manchester City Council, Mr Gibson filled in a form from Manchester City Council to find out the value of his council house and get mortgage terms, with a view to buying it. The council sent him the details in a letter, along with an application form to fill in if he wanted to go ahead. He returned the completed form. But shortly after that a new government came to power and stopped sales of council houses. So Mr Gibson was told he couldn’t carry on with his purchase. He sued the council, arguing that a binding contract was already in force, and that he should be able to complete the sale.The court held that the council’s letter wasn’t an offer because it said “The Corporation may be prepared to sell the house to you” and “If you would like to make formal application to buy your Council house, please complete the enclosed application form and return it to me as soon as possible.” As there was never an offer to be accepted, no contract was formed for the council to breach. This is because there was no offer for Mr Gibson to mirror with his acceptance. Subsequently, poor old Mr Gibson couldn’t buy his house.Example of the mirror image rule in the US Minneapolis & S. L. Ry. v. Columbus Rolling Mill is yet another piece of case law that ruled on the mirror image rule. It involved an action by a railroad corporation against a manufacturing company. The Minneapolis & St Louis Railway Co asked Columbus Rolling Mill Co. for a quote to deliver iron rails in March 1880. They replied with an offer to sell 2,000 to 5,000 tons of 50lb rails, which the railroad company had to accept by 20 December 1879 in order for the acceptance to be valid. On 16 December the railroad company wrote ordering 1,200 tons of rails at the same price. Columbus said that they couldn’t fulfill the smaller order at the original price, and the railway company attempted to sue for breach of contract. The court found that the mirror image rule hadn’t been satisfied in this case. That’s because Minneapolis & St Louis Railway Co. had tried to change the terms of the original offer, and Columbus Rolling Mill hadn’t accepted these. Therefore, the contract wasn’t valid as the acceptance hadn’t mirrored the offer. To recap: we’ve discussed what the mirror image rule is, and explored situations that the mirror image rule applies to. But when doesn’t it apply? Let’s discuss that next.When doesn’t the mirror image rule apply?We know that, under common law contract rules, counteroffers don’t constitute acceptance. However, this doctrine doesn’t necessarily apply to all contracts. In fact, under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), contracts for the sale of goods are exempt from the rule. Here’s how.The UCC mirror image rule Transactions involving the sale of goods are governed by Article 2 of the UCC (in states where this law applies). Importantly, the UCC says that if a deal is between merchants, then it’s possible to add any new terms after an offer has been made and use these in the acceptance of that offer. This rule does away with the well-established common law rule that a contract won’t be formed unless the terms of acceptance match the original offer exactly. This is because adding new or additional terms doesn’t automatically cancel the original offer, unlike in common law (remember Hyde v Wrench). Of course, there are a couple of exceptions to the UCC mirror image rule, such as when:The offer explicitly limits acceptance to the original terms The counterparty rejects the new terms in a reasonable timeframe The changes to the terms materially alter the original terms of the offerIt’s also important to remember that this exception only applies to contracts that are governed by the UCC. This means that the common law version of the mirror image rule still applies to other types of contract, as well as for sales of goods with people who aren’t merchants.Need help managing contracts?If managing contracts is a pain point for your business, or you just want to find out more about how you can improve the process, fill in the form below. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: The mirror image rule explains when a legally binding contract is formed — and, just as importantly, when it isn’t — by focusing on whether an offer is accepted exactly as made. Acceptance must match the offer exactly: any change to the terms turns acceptance into a counteroffer, meaning no contract is formed under common law. A counteroffer cancels the original offer: once new terms are proposed, the original offer no longer exists and can’t later be accepted. The rule has limits: contracts for the sale of goods under the UCC allow additional terms in some cases, but the mirror image rule still applies to most other contracts. You said: If you’re finding contract drafting painful, contract drafting software could be the solution. This post covers what contract drafting software is, how it works, and the benefits of adopting it for your business. What is contract drafting software?Contract drafting software is technology that businesses or individuals can use to create contracts more efficiently. Contract drafting software offers the features legal and business teams need to draft contracts quickly and at scale without losing control of contracts and their contents. But before we explore how contract drafting software works, let’s run through why it’s useful for fast-growing businesses.Why is contract drafting software useful?Contract drafting software is useful because it transforms an otherwise time-consuming and manual process. Without contract drafting software, legal and business teams are consumed by contract admin work, and the process to draft a contract looks a bit like this: A contract is requested by commercial teams via email or using a contract request form. Legal teams pick up this request and begin drafting the contract using an existing template which they copy and paste sections from. This usually happens in a document editor like Word. Lawyers will then add and remove certain terms and clauses to adapt the contract for a particular transaction or hire. Next, they populate it with all of the relevant information (e.g counterparty information and transaction details). This is done manually with the data usually retrieved from other business systems, including CRMs like Salesforce and Hubspot, for example.Once the contract is drafted in full it can be shared internally for contract review, usually via email. If there are any changes requested, legal will have to move back into Word and action these before sending the contract out for approval and negotiation.Now imagine this drafting process for a business with contract volumes that are growing month on month, while the legal team stays lean. Drafting routine contracts can quickly become a huge distraction for in-house legal teams as your business grows. This takes them away from higher-value tasks. In other businesses, commercial teams take on the task of drafting contracts themselves. While this prevents legal from becoming a blocker in sales and hiring cycles, it can be legal’s worst nightmare without the right safeguards in place. It means legal have no control, or limited visibility, over which terms are included in a contract. This can result in higher contract risk and an increased chance of contractual disputes - both of which can be costly. Most businesses don’t have high legal risk appetite and need to keep closer control of contracts.Fortunately, contract drafting software solves the two main problems that legal and business teams are encountering. Let’s find out how. How does contract drafting software work?Contract drafting software enables commercial teams to self-serve on contracts confidently on contracts. It does this by hosting automated contract templates that have been pre-approved by in-house legal teams. When using a tool like Juro, legal teams can create robust contract templates in an editor designed for contracts. Unlike contract templates stored as static files in Microsoft Word, these templates are dynamic, allowing legal teams to build certain rules within them. For example, legal teams can set rules within a template so that fallback clauses are automatically added to a contract when certain conditions are met. This is achieved using a contract drafting software feature called conditional logic. Common use cases include adding an extra clause if contracts are used across certain jurisdictions, or if they meet a certain contract value threshold.Contract drafting software also enables legal teams to also lock their templates and restrict which sections commercial teams can edit. This is an effective way to eliminate errors and create consistency across commercial contracts. Instead of commercial teams writing contracts, a contract drafting tool like Juro invites them to answer a few simple questions to populate a contract. This Q&A workflow uses the answers to the questions to populate any variable fields within a template and capture any important information about the parties and the transaction.But that’s not all. Contract drafting software also enables teams to mass-create contracts rather than drafting them individually. This cuts out repetitive admin and enables teams to draft contracts at scale using bulk actions. Benefits of contract drafting software1. Significant time-savings The most obvious benefit of adopting contract drafting software is that it saves your legal and business teams time. Contracts that previously took hours to draft can now be generated in seconds. This makes contract drafting software perfect for scaling businesses with lean legal teams as it frees up their time to focus on other, higher-value work. {{quote1}}2. Contracts on demand Another benefit of using contract drafting software is that it empowers commercial teams to self-serve confidently on contracts by putting the right safeguards in place. Contract drafting solutions like Juro make it quick and easy for commercial teams to generate contracts, and this means they can reduce friction by removing legal from the drafting process. This enables them to get contracts sent out and signed faster. {{quote2}}3. Standardized contracts Contract drafting software is also a great tool for ensuring consistency and compliance when it comes to contract creation. Standardized contracts aren’t just easier to create, they’re also easier to track because the data within contracts can be captured in a consistent way. Standardized contracts give legal and business teams confidence in their agreements because the terms used are already pre-approved and have been used time and time again. {{quote3}}4. Reduced contract riskContract drafting software like Juro gives legal complete control over what is included in contracts and how they are drafted. This is important because legal teams are equipped with the expertise to draft contracts confidently, while commercial teams are not. Contract drafting tools offer safeguards like structured Q&A workflows, template locking, and permission controls - all of which help to reduce contract risk. The best part is that contract drafting software gives legal teams this control over contracts without needing them to sit in the tool and oversee contracts all day. {{quote4}}5. Scalable processesLastly, contract drafting software is a great solution for businesses that need to scale their contract volumes without scaling their headcount. Contract tools like Juro enable teams to mass-create and manage contracts in just a few clicks. This is especially useful for businesses creating onboarding documents, offer letters, employment contracts and contract amendments. Looking to streamline the entire contract lifecycle?Contract drafting software is an effective way to streamline contract creation. But what if you want to streamline the rest of the contract lifecycle too? Juro is an all-in-one contract automation platform that offers advanced contract drafting functionality and more. Not only do Juro users have access to contract drafting features, but they also have access to the features needed to streamline contract review, approvals, negotiation, signing, and storage too. Fill in the form below to find out more about how Juro enables all teams to streamline the creation, execution and management of routine contracts at scale. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Contract drafting software replaces manual, error-prone contract creation with automated, legally approved workflows that scale as your business grows. Draft contracts faster without losing legal control by using pre-approved templates, conditional logic and locked clauses that eliminate manual copy-and-paste work. Empower business teams to self-serve safely through guided Q&A workflows that generate compliant contracts on demand, without legal becoming a bottleneck. Scale contract volumes without scaling headcount by standardising agreements, reducing risk, and enabling mass contract creation as the business grows. You said: Small errors can quickly amount to a costly crisis for government institutions, meaning there are high stakes involved when managing government contracts.Yet, most government organizations are trapped in the past, with decaying contract processes that rely on a combination of physical filing cabinets and wet ink signatures. This process simply isn't fit for the digital age, or 2026. In this guide, we'll tell you what you can do to transform your contract management process, and why it should be high on your list of priorities for the year ahead. What is government contract management?Government contract management refers to the process governmental organizations like councils, agencies, and public bodies use to manage their agreements. These agreements cover everything from contracts between vendors and local councils to the employment contracts used to make new hires.Maintaining visibility into these contracts is crucial for these organizations, especially as they are under constant scrutiny and pressure to maintain transparency when it comes to public spending. In fact, in 2022 alone, the US federal government committed about $694 billion to external contracts, making contracts a significant portion of public spending. Government contracts were used to provide a huge range of products and services, from aircraft and software to food service and health care. The level of contractual risk involved in each of these services is varies wildly, just like the time and monetary costs incurred. But one thing these government contracts share is that they need to be easy to find, query and review. This means governmental organizations must to take extra steps to ensuring contractual terms are transparent to the right stakeholders. In particular, they need to find ways to surface and analyze contract data more predictably, particularly when this data relates to public spending. To achieve this, they need to begin by building a single source of truth for contracts. In other words, they need all of their contracts secured in one place. Why is efficient contract management key for governmental organizations? Increased transparency and accountabilitySince governmental departments and agencies are at the center of the public sector, it’s essential to make contract data visible.Not only will this help the organization hold the right people accountable, but it’ll also ensure that decision-making processes are fair. Metrics such as renewals, performance, and contract value can all be tracked by using a contract lifecycle management system. Better relationship managementGovernment contracts are wide-ranging, covering partnerships with private companies, such as software and catering contracts, and public contracts with other government entities, for example. Managing these contracts and relationships well ensures that you’re getting the most out of them, whether that's the highest level of service or more favourable renewal terms. Whatever it is, these contracts need to be managed effectively for government bodies to function properly. Everything tracked in one placeEvery government organization will have a huge number of contracts associated with it, each with different terms and deadlines. Due to the sheer number of organizations that fit under this umbrella, there are thousands of government contracts on the go at any given time. Creating and getting them signed is only one tickbox to get checked. The more contracts you manage the harder it becomes to track renewals. In instances such as these, a strong contract management process is essential, as renewals can be tracked and measured faster, and more conveniently.{{quote1}}All of these things explain why government contract management should be a focal point for these organizations in 2026. Let's dig into how these bodies can regain control of their contracts by adopting government contract management software. How can government contract management software help? 1. Increased visibility into contracts and their data Juro’s robust contract repository provides a single source of truth for your contracts, making it easy to find, track, and search for agreements at scale.Contracts initiated in Juro are built as structured data, meaning that they’re fully searchable from the moment of creation. Users can build custom contract dashboards in Juro, meaning that key contracts are captured in one place and easy to track progress on. This feature makes that all-important contract reporting process much easier. Avoid rummaging through filing cabinets to access the information you need by digitizing the process. 2. Faster contract approval processesIt's typical for government contracts to progress through lots of approval layers, particularly when they have a high contract value.Contract management software like Juro can streamline these approvals with automated approval workflows. Teams can even customize the order they want contracts signed and approved in, giving them full control over the approval process. Best of all, these approvals happen where contracts already live. Approvals aren't buried in email threads or Slack messages, it's immediately obvious whether a contract has been approved, or is waiting for approval. 3. Streamlined negotiations As we’ve mentioned, there’s no set type of government contract, nor a set way of agreeing those contracts. This can cause friction, especially when it comes to negotiating a contract. Using Juro’s contract negotiation workflow, counterparties can make suggestions and comments in the contract that are instantly visible to their internal teams. Both parties can make suggestions directly within the contract and each of these suggestions can be approved or rejected by the contract owner. This means no more switching between email chains and Microsoft Word files to agree simple contracts, track changes and discuss amendments. Centralizing these negotiations with features like audit trails, browser-based redlining, and contract versioning can remove friction entirely. If you're looking for ways to speed up negotiations, Juro’s AI review feature can speed up this process by up to 90 per cent. You can find out more about AI assistant here.4. Controlled contract renewals ‍Managing contract renewals can become complicated, especially when you manage large contract volumes across multiple departments. Government contract management software can bring together all of these contracts and capture key data points, like upcoming renewals, which makes it a great candidate for managing contract continuity. Juro's automated contract reminders even notify the relevant stakeholders ahead of these dates, giving them peace of mind that contract renewals are firmly under control.This makes it easier to prevent automated renewals you didn’t budget for and retain suppliers once the termination dates have passed. Every contract signed will end at some point, contract management tools just prepare you for these eventualities. Which government contract management software is best?Juro's robust security measures and rich feature set make it a popular government contract management software, with these institutions among the 6000+ companies already using Juro to manage contracts faster and more efficiently. Here's why Juro is the tool of choice for organizations across the world:Juro brings the whole contract process together in one collaborative, browser-based platform, replacing up to five tools with oneJuro is designed with security in mind, protecting even the most sensitive documentsJuro is a global Leader in contract lifecycle management, with the highest user adoption and best support of any platform, according to G2{{quote2}}How government institutions use Juro todayGovernment institutions are already using Juro to streamline contract proceses and modernize contract storage and search. One example is The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC), a state government body that traded 'clunky' and 'painful' processes for Juro's faster, more efficient way to agree and manage contracts. As John Marks, General Counsel for Arkansas Game & Fish Commission explains:{{quote3}}The benefit? Speed and efficiency. As John puts it: “Juro has helped get contracts through faster, and it allows people to see where their contract is and exactly what’s going on with it, so we get fewer questions - that frees up time and makes life easier for us.”And AGFC aren't the only ones. To find out more about how Juro supports government bodies and institutions to regain control of contracts, fill in the form below. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Government contract management is no longer just an administrative function — it’s a critical control point for transparency, compliance, and public trust in 2026. Legacy contract processes create risk and opacity — paper-based workflows and fragmented systems make it harder to track spend, renewals and accountability across government contracts. Modern CLM software creates a single source of truth — giving public bodies real-time visibility into contract data, approvals, negotiations and renewals. Digitising contract management improves outcomes at scale — enabling faster approvals, controlled renewals, stronger compliance, and better supplier relationships without increasing administrative burden. You said: What Is Configure Price Quote (CPQ)?Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solutions enable companies to generate accurate and well-structured quotes for their customers. CPQ software creates quotes based on criteria like specifications, quantities, discounts, and product features. This allows sales reps to generate custom quotes in seconds. Benefits of CPQ softwareSpeed. CPQ solutions make the quote generation process much faster by automating manual tasks and reducing admin work.Accuracy. CPQ tools can eliminate human error from quoting, resulting in more accurate quotes.Efficiency. CPQ software allows teams to set automated rules and workflows, ensuring that the sales team always provides quotes that comply with company policies.Customer experience. CPQ software allows sales teams to respond to customer inquiries faster, which improves customer experience.What is Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM)?Contract lifecycle management software enables legal and business teams to streamline and automate their contract workflow, from contract creation to contract monitoring and reporting. It brings together all of the functionality needed to agree on contracts from start to finish, meaning fewer tools and less friction. In fact, Juro’s all-in-one AI contract tool empowers teams to create, execute and manage contracts up to ten times faster than traditional tools and workflows. Benefits of CLM softwareReduced admin. CLM solutions enable sales teams to automate the routine contract admin work that distracts them from closing more deals.Faster sales cycles. Some CLM solutions enable sales reps to self-serve on contracts, rather than waiting for legal to draft them from scratch. This means no more delays waiting on legal to fulfil a contract request.Fewer tools. CLM software offers end-to-end functionality, meaning businesses no longer need to rely on up to five different tools to get a sales contract over the line.Streamlined negotiations. Collaborative CLM tools like Juro empower contract owners to collaborate on and negotiate contracts without leaving their browser.Juro is a CLM that enables sales teams to close deals and capture revenue faster. To find out more about Juro’s end-to-end contracting capabilities, hit the button below. Otherwise, read on. What are the differences between CPQ vs CLM?1. They're used at different stages of the sales cycle and for different purposesThe main difference between CPQ and CLM solutions is that CPQ software is used to generate pricing and quotes, while CLM software is used to generate and manage contracts. In other words, the solutions automate admin work for different stages of the sales cycle. CPQ software is used to determine how much a potential customer will pay for a product or service. CLM software is used after the quote has been provided to capture the other terms of the agreement, like the deliverables, contract duration and renewal terms, for example.2. CPQ outputs aren't legally binding, but CLM outputs areAnother important distinction is that the quotes provided by CPQ tend won't be legally binding and can be negotiated before a contract is drafted and agreed. That's why it's important to use both a quote and a contract when agreeing terms with a new customer. If you use a quote alone, it's possible that the terms of your agreement won't be legally enforceable. 3. CPQ software doesn't offer full document management capabilitiesIt's also important to remember while CPQ software can be used to generate and negotiate quotes, it isn't designed to turn these quotes into documents and manage them. This is something you'd use CLM software for instead. For example, CPQ solutions rarely offer native eSignature functionality, or advanced approval workflows. CLM software offers this and much more. CPQ vs CLM: which do you need?Sales reps will benefit from both CPQ and CLM software. In fact, there are plenty of benefits of using both. You can even integrate your CPQ and CLM solutions for faster, more seamless sales cycles. Doing this enables you to use the information captured in your quote to auto-populate the contract in your CLM. This is especially useful for documents that are likely to change or be negotiated. Let's run through what this workflow might look if you integrated Juro with a CPQ like Salesforce. How does an integration between CPQ and CLM work?1. A sales rep creates or fills out a quote in Salesforce CPQ, adding line items and any important values.2. The sales rep clicks a button in Salesforce CPQ that says 'create contract'. This pushes all of the data and package data through to Juro, automatically populating the relevant contract template. 3. The contract can then be negotiated and edited in Juro's collaborative workspace. You can also send it to the counterparty for signing via Juro. 4. Once signed, the final copy of the contract will be uploaded to Salesforce and stored securely in Juro's data-rich contract repository where you can track it and set automated reminders for key deadlines. CPQ and CLM integration: the results SaaS media company, Telmar, implemented Juro's contract management software in 2021 with the goal of streamlining the sales process. They integrated Juro with Salesforce CPQ, allowing sales reps to generate contracts in seconds.Now, Telmar's sales reps can enter a quote in Salesforce CPQ and automate a contract in Juro based on this in just one click. The result? Telmar's sales reps spend far less time on routine contract admin for MSAs and other sales documents. The contracts created are also standardized using automated contract templates. This means that legal only need to review certain contracts, and sales reps can self-serve confidently on contracts with no real blockers. {{quote1}}To discover how your sales team can benefit from Juro, fill in the form below to book your personalized demo. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: CPQ and CLM solve different but connected problems in the sales cycle — and understanding where each fits is key to building faster, more reliable revenue workflows. CPQ and CLM operate at different stages of the deal — CPQ generates fast, accurate quotes, while CLM turns those quotes into legally binding contracts and manages them end to end. Quotes aren’t contracts — CPQ outputs are typically non-binding, whereas CLM ensures agreements are negotiated, approved, signed and enforceable. The biggest gains come from using both together — integrating CPQ with CLM allows quote data to auto-populate contracts, reducing admin, errors and sales cycle time. You said: One of the primary purposes of contract is that it keeps a record of the rights, responsibilities and promises made by each party. But what if we need to change the promises we've made? Can you amend a contract?In this article we'll look at when you might need to make a change to a contract, and how to do that – both before and after it’s signed. What's a contract amendment?A contract amendment is exactly what it sounds like – a change to an existing contract that both (or all) sides agree to. Amendments can be changes to anything in the original contract’s terms, clauses, sections, or definitions.What is the purpose of a contract amendment?The purpose of a contract amendment is to allow parties to make any mutually agreed changes to an existing contract, whilst also ensuring that the unaffected terms in the original contract remain effective. There are lots of reasons why two or more parties might want to amend a contract in this way. It might be because you forgot to include something in the original version. Or it might be because you or someone else’s situation has changed since you signed it. Perhaps you changed your mind about signing the contract.For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, people have had to amend contracts to cover things like supply shortages, empty offices, or new government guidelines changing the way they do business.Common types of contract amendmentsBut what does a contract amendment look like, and how might parties decide to change their contract? Some common examples of when you might choose to amend a contract include: To extend or shorten its length (the “term”)To change prices or fees for a product or serviceTo change parties’ liabilitiesTo extend or shorten time periods e.g. delivery or shipping timesHow to amend a contract The process by which contracts are amended depends on the stage in the contract lifecycle at which you're looking to make the change. It also depends whether you're looking to make a contract amendment via a manual process in Word and email, or by using a contract automation platform.The contract amendment process in WordTo make a simple, small contract amendment, you could highlight the term you wish to delete or amend and add a comment to the document, before sending it back to the other parties to review and agree to.However, if you want to make multiple, substantial amendments to a contract, then you may find it more helpful to create a new Word document that lists all the changes to the contract. It’ll need to:Show the date, the title and date of the original contract (e.g. “2 March 2021, Amendments to Service Contract dated 18 January 2021”), and the party names and rolesDescribe which sections you’re modifying or deleting and how – reference the paragraph, section, or subsection. You can use strikethrough and italics for deletions or additionsList any definitions you’re changingDescribe any clauses you’re addingYou should also include some text making it clear that the amendments only apply to the sections referred to in the new document, and that everything else is still the same.Finally, you’ll need to make sure everyone who signed the original contract signs and dates this amendment document and gets a copy of it. In Word, this means sending the document via email, to be amended through tracked changes, with versions being created and exchanged until you reach agreement.The document will then be converted to PDF for signature, after which the new terms agreed will come into effect. As many lawyers know all too well, this is a slow and extremely manual process, and one that requires switching between different tools to make even the simplest of amendments. Fortunately, contract automation tools like Juro make amending a contract far easier, reducing the low-value admin work and removing bottlenecks in your contract workflow. Here's how:How to amend contracts in JuroAmendment process in Juro: pre-signature If you want to make changes to a contract before it has been signed by either of the parties, it's really easy to do this in-browser with Juro. For example, you can:Make comments in the sidebar, for example if you need to let people know why you’ve edited somethingTag people – helpful for negotiating, and to make sure someone specific realizes they’re affected by a change Use the timeline to compare different versions when amendments are madeAnd when you make an edit the other side will get an email telling them what you’ve changed, so everyone will know what’s going on.After this, once any party has already signed the contract, that party's signature must first be revoked before any additional edits can be made. If you are at this stage in the contract workflow, then you're in luck. Signatories can revoke their signatures by going to the Parties tab (top grey icon on the right hand side of the contract) and pressing the three dots next to 'Signatories', followed by 'Unsign & edit'.Also, If a contract has only been approved, and not yet signed by all parties, you can make changes and this will re-send the contract for approval. Amendment process in Juro: post-signatureBut what if a document has been signed by all parties? Well, unfortunately, it will not be possible to Unsign & edit this contract, since contracts signed electronically through Juro are legally binding - as they should be. Luckily, if you use Juro as your contract automation platform, then a much faster way to suggest contract amendments, even post-signature. All you need to do is simply duplicate the original document from your dashboard and create a new contract with the amendments you’d like to see.You can use Juro’s editor features to highlight or tag these sections, before sharing them with counterparties. This is far more efficient than re-drafting a contract manually on Word with your desired changes, and then saving and emailing them back and forth where you risk losing version control. When the amended contract has been agreed, just send it for signing as you would normally. Ta-da. Looking for a way to amend contracts quickly and easily using just one tool? Hit the button below to find out more. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Contract amendments allow businesses to adapt agreements as circumstances change — without rewriting the entire contract or putting enforceability at risk. A contract amendment updates specific terms while keeping the rest intact — making it the safest way to reflect pricing, timing, scope or liability changes. Manual amendment processes are slow and error-prone — relying on Word, email and PDFs creates version control issues and unnecessary friction. Contract automation tools simplify amendments before and after signature — enabling faster edits, clearer collaboration, and legally binding updates in a single workspace. You said: Bilateral contracts are the most common type of contract, and businesses enter into these forms of contract almost daily. But what actually is a bilateral contract, and when are they used? This Juro explainer covers definitions, examples, and more. Bilateral contract definition Bilateral contracts are binding agreements between at least two people or groups, with one party promising to do something for the other, as long as they also complete another action. They create binding obligations on both sides with consequences for both in case of non-performance.Any sales contract is bilateral – in fact, most business contracts are. Let’s take a contract for the sale of a house as an example. When you sell your home you’re promising to hand over the title to the other party. And in exchange, they’ll pay you the price of the house. This means that consideration has been provided by both contracting parties. How do you know if a contract is bilateral?You can identify a bilateral contract easily by checking how many parties have made promises within it. If two or more parties are agreeing to fulfil obligations under the contract, it will likely be a bilateral contract, rather than a unilateral one. Example of a bilateral contractTo better understand what a bilateral contract looks like in practice, let’s discuss some common examples of a bilateral contract. One example is where a vendor has promised to provide a business with certain goods in exchange for a set fee. There are two promises that have been made in this scenario, one on the part of the vendor who is offering to provide and deliver these goods, and another on the part of the purchaser, who is promising to pay the agreed fee either before or after these goods have been received.If either the vendor fails to deliver the goods, or the purchaser fails to pay for them, the bilateral contract will have been breached. This is because, within a bilateral contract, both parties are legally obligated to fulfil their promises to one another. An employment contract is another example of a bilateral contract. This is because the employer promises to pay an employee a certain amount of money for the completion of certain tasks. In this example, there are two promises made within the relationship: the first is to complete the allocated work or tasks, and the second is to compensate the employee for this work. If either party fails to deliver on these promises, there will likely be a breach of contract. As a result, contracts with freelancers and contractors typically fall within the scope of a bilateral contract, too. What most people don’t realize is that we enter into bilateral contracts almost every day, whether we’re ordering food in a restaurant or purchasing clothes from a retail store. If a transaction involves multiple parties making a promise to one another, it’s probably a bilateral contract. Why are bilateral contracts useful?Bilateral contracts are advantageous since they typically safeguard the individual interests of both parties to a contract. This is because both the offeror and offeree have made promises to one another, so both parties will receive some form of benefit in exchange for fulfilling their own obligation. Not only does this incentivize the fulfillment of these obligations, but it also makes the contract fairer as there’s been a mutual exchange of promises. How is a bilateral contract different from a unilateral contract?The main difference between a bilateral contract and a unilateral contract is that, within a bilateral contract, at least two of the parties are making a promise under the agreement. This is distinct from unilateral contracts where only one party makes this promise. Still confused? Don’t worry. We’ve created a more detailed explanation of the specific differences between unilateral vs bilateral contracts. Are bilateral contracts enforceable?Bilateral contracts will be enforceable so long as the agreement has met the basic contract requirements. These include that there has been an offer made and accepted, that there’s satisfactory consideration and that the parties to the contract all have contractual capacity. If all of these elements are present, a bilateral contract is legally enforceable and can usually be relied on in court. Need some help with your contracts?If contract processes are proving painful for your business, use the form below to get in touch to find out more about all-in-one contract automation. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Bilateral contracts underpin most everyday business relationships, from sales and employment to supplier and service agreements. Bilateral contracts involve mutual promises — each party agrees to perform an obligation in exchange for the other’s performance. They are the most common type of business contract — covering sales, employment, vendor, freelance and service arrangements. Bilateral contracts are legally enforceable when standard contract requirements are met, giving both parties protection and recourse if obligations aren’t fulfilled. You said: Everyone that hasn't already ditched paper is looking to go paperless in 2025. But how can your business create a paperless office? Let's find out. What is a paperless office?A paperless office is a working environment that seeks to reduce or eliminate the number of physical documents that people store and use on the premises. Paperless offices make a conscious effort to cut down the amount of paper they’re using, typically by digitizing their documents and processes and implementing rules that prohibit the unnecessary use of paper. A paperless office is also commonly referred to as a ‘paper-light’ office, as it’s often impossible to eliminate the use of paper altogether within a business. Legal departments are a prime example of this. The legal industry isn’t famed for early adoption of innovative technology, so it’s unsurprising that a survey of law firms found that each lawyer uses a staggering 100,000 sheets of paper per year - that means 50 per hour!Fortunately, digital transformation has allowed many of these paper-based processes to be replaced by ones that are more economically, environmentally, and physically efficient. This is true of almost all business processes - like the contracts that businesses sign in order to recognize revenue.Today, even complex processes like contract creation, signing and management can be simplified and digitized using a contract automation platform like Juro. If you're looking to bring your contracts online and digitize your contract workflow, hit the button below. To find out more about how to become a paperless business, read on. Benefits of becoming a paperless office1. Improved document security and confidentialityOne of the biggest benefits of digitizing documents is that important documents like business contracts are less susceptible to manipulation or destruction. Unlike physical documents which can be misfiled, destroyed, or manipulated, digital documents are often accompanied by an audit trail or locked behind security mechanisms. For instance, contracts built and stored in Juro are stored in a secure contract repository with user permissions to ensure only authorized parties can access confidential documents. Juro users can also sign contracts securely, with a native eSignature functionality that’s fully compliant with eiDAS. The same is true for other key documents like invoices and order forms too. 2. A single source of truthAnother danger of physical paperwork is that it's often hard to know which physical document is the right version, as there are often multiple copies lying around in different places. But if you digitize your business documents, you have a better insight into which versions are the most recent and accurate. This is particularly useful for documents that get edited heavily, like contracts which are redlined and negotiated and edited before being finalised.Sharing her own experience of the transition from paper to digital contracts, Jane Clemetson, explained the challenges of not modernizing the way agreements are created and stored: "One of the main issues I faced on my arrival was that a contract archive didn't exist: contracts were stored across multiple systems, often attached to emails, or printed off and left in drawers - vulnerable to being binned when the contract owner left the business," she says. When paperless offices digitize their processes and embrace software like Juro, they're able to store and share documents more intuitively. Unlike paper-based processes which rely on multiple paper copies of the same file, Juro allows users to make edits and collaborate on contracts in real-time, which eliminates the need to email, save, print, scan and file these legal documents in different places.This creates a single source of truth that can be relied on by everyone in the business. 3. Data becomes more accessibleSince documents are stored electronically, they also become more searchable. According to research by McKinsey, employees spend roughly 20% of the average working week searching for and gathering information. This problem is only exacerbated by paper files whereby individuals have to skim read entire documents and contracts to find the details they need. When contracts and other files are stored and created electronically, this tiresome process disappears. For instance, contracts created in Juro are built as structured data, making them machine-readable and searchable. This means users can query contract data in seconds to identify clauses or terms of interest. This aids business and legal users to do everything from checking contract values to instantly forecast revenue, identify all of their indemnity clauses on demand, redeem valuable time that would otherwise be wasted on low-value admin work. 4. Reduced carbon footprint Another benefit of a paperless office is that it’s better for the planet.Reducing the amount of paper used in businesses can significantly reduce the number of trees we cut down and conserve energy that would otherwise be used to transform those trees into paper and transport the physical products. Even the process of manufacturing paper is detrimental to the environment as it creates substances that contribute to greenhouse gases and pollution. These gases are also given off when the paper has been disposed of, as rotting paper produces methane gas, which can be toxic to the environment.Implementing a paperless office strategy would minimize this footprint and contribute to making the environment a healthier place to live. Not only that, but setting up this sustainability initiative is also a great way to exercise corporate social responsibility and begin your journey to going green. This is something that research reveals will become increasingly important to employees - past and present. 5. Increased productivity and collaborationWe’ve already discussed the benefits of making documents more accessible and searchable in terms of time savings. But paperless offices can improve productivity even beyond this. Paperless offices improve the ways in which we share, store and use information as a team, as well as individuals. With the right software in place, legal and business teams that no longer rely on physical documents can share knowledge seamlessly across teams, departments, offices, cities and borders - something that was previously unachievable. Teams no longer need to crowd around a single table to discuss a document or negotiate a contract. By moving towards a paperless office strategy and implementing the right software, teams can collaborate on a single document in real-time, no matter where they are in the world. 6. More cost-effective It’s estimated that US businesses waste approximately $8 billion annually by managing documents on physical paper. Not only do businesses incur costs for purchasing paper and printing documents, but they also incur hefty fees to store these physical documents too. Moving towards a paperless office can reduce these costs considerably. Paperless businesses won’t need to make costly investments for large office spaces that are consumed by filing cabinets. They also won’t have to fit the bill for ink and office stationery. 7. Greater control over compliance and deadlinesAnother significant benefit of digitizing documents and becoming a paperless business is that it provides businesses with greater control over their obligations and impending deadlines, particularly when it comes to contracts. Paper-based processes will often require contract renewal dates to be tracked on a sheet or a calendar somewhere, if at all. This makes it challenging to stay on top of upcoming deadlines, which can result in extended subscriptions, unexpected surcharges and increased costs. By contrast, when you implement a digitized system that automatically tracks important dates, values, and obligations, you can rest assured that the relevant party will be notified ahead of time. This allows for more informed decisions about future relationships and deals and far less stress. Disadvantages of a paperless office 1. Initial time commitment Like changing any major process within your organization, committing to a paperless business takes time. Firstly, you’ll need to invest time into identifying the areas that require the most improvement. Then you’ll need to find the most suitable and affordable solution for your business, usually by selecting particular software to replace each manual process (or perhaps one solution to replace several manual processes). After that, you’ll need to implement the software, which can be time-consuming. Fortunately, there is a way to minimize the time you commit to going paperless. You can choose a piece of software that’s easy to implement. Juro, for example, is recognised by independent review sites as the #1-rated contract platform for ease of setup and has a typical implementation time of just 21 days. This means that legal and business teams can start getting value from the software in as little as three weeks after buying. The initial time commitment is off-putting to many businesses, but when you consider how much more productive you’ll be with these systems in place, there’s certainly a return on investment in terms of your time. 2. Difficulties digitizing existing paperworkAnother drawback of moving towards a paperless system is that it can be difficult to digitize existing paperwork, often due to the sheer volume of material you need to digitize.There are a few solutions to consider here. Firstly, you could outsource this work to ensure it gets done without eating into your employees’ time. Secondly, you could maintain a secure physical storage system for your old documents but begin creating and storing new documents and contracts digitally from a certain point in time. This can minimize the inefficiencies already created by your old paper-based processes. 5 ways to create a paperless business There’s clearly a lot of value in moving towards a paperless office. But how can you get the ball rolling and start digitizing the way you manage and store documents? Here are five tips:1. Find better ways to communicateUnfortunately, the bigger your business gets, the harder effective communication becomes. Teams grow and the number of documents your business needs to manage grow simultaneously, making the paper-based processes you once used to discuss and allocate work inefficient.In a legal setting, for example, colleagues would traditionally put redlined contracts and other legal documents on the desks of their peers for review. But this paper-based process can't accommodate the growth businesses are striving for today. Instead, fast-growth businesses need to depart from the manual processes they previously used to communicate and move towards paper-free internal communications. This often means implementing a company-wide communication software like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or some kind of Kanban board where tasks can be viewed and assigned quickly and efficiently. Once you’ve selected a specific communication platform, it’s beneficial to find software that integrates with this tool. This can help to improve visibility into projects and foster an environment where teams can collaborate more efficiently on tasks like contract management. For example, Juro enables legal and business teams at fast-growth companies that rely on Slack to integrate their contracts with the software. This integration then notifies parties about the status of specific contracts and ensures parties can track contracts without needing to leave the platforms they know and love. 2. Set up central repositories for documents Another effective way to go paperless as a business is to store your documents digitally rather than in old filing cabinets and folders. This is something many businesses have started to implement already, and they typically do so by setting up shared drives to store documents across the business. This enables business teams to access important documents like contracts and playbooks with ease, as well as ensuring that these documents are readily available and can be accessed by multiple people at any one time - perfect for collaboration. 3. Incentivize your paperless office strategyOne of the biggest barriers to implementing a paperless office strategy is adoption. After relying on physical documents for a long time, teams can be reluctant to switch up their existing processes. To make the transition less daunting, it’s important to incentivize your new strategy and communicate the value behind it. Whilst you could simply discuss the benefits of a paperless office that we discussed earlier, it’s far more effective to highlight exactly where a paperless strategy would add value to specific functions. How will it improve the company KPIs, for example? Can it transform the value of individuals’ work? Let’s take replacing a paper-based contract workflow as an example.Digitizing the management of contracts will automate certain low-value administrative tasks typically undertaken by lawyers, which allows them to return to high-value work instead. Having a better system for tracking renewal dates can help businesses to meet their legal department KPIs more efficiently. 4. Implement an electronic signature solution Certain documents have traditionally been kept in paper form, and contracts are a prime example of this. Contracts once required a wet signature in order to be valid, meaning they had to exist on paper and parties had to be present in order to get them over the line. Fortunately, technology has evolved a lot since then. Now, businesses and individuals can sign contracts electronically using almost any device, from anywhere in the world. Introducing an electronic signature solution for your business enables your teams to manage contracts online, both before and after they’ve been signed. This eliminates the need to print contracts out, sign them in wet ink, scan them, and email them back to the counterparty. Platforms like Juro that offer electronic signature functionality enable teams to sign contracts in the same platform they created, edited, reviewed, and negotiated them, which reduces the need to rely on manual processes and empowers them to become paperless. 5. Establish new processes for when you do use paperAs we said previously, it’s not always possible to cut paper usage out of your business entirely. However, if a situation arises and you do end up using paper, it’s useful to have set processes in place to ensure it’s being used as efficiently as possible. This could mean anything from establishing a rule where paper is reused or recycled as often as possible. Alternatively, you might want to reduce the printing credits within each team, or encourage teams to share copies of certain physical documents to reduce unnecessary printing and paper use. The best paperless office softwareAs has been mentioned throughout, finding the right software is essential to a successful paperless office system. What this software is will depend on the work you do and the business you’re in. From digital payrolls, expense reporting and billing systems to password storage systems and note-taking tools, businesses can digitize almost every element of their business. The most popular paperless office software solutions include: Legal software: there are plenty of legal software solutions on the market that help to improve the otherwise manual workload of a lawyer. These solutions include contract automation, contract management software, AI contract review, legal spend and matter management tools, and more. Find out more in our guide to legal software. Electronic signature solutions: eSignatures are an effective way to sign contracts and other documents without needing to print and sign them in wet ink. Instead, business teams can sign contracts online. The leading solutions in this field include DocuSign, Adobe Sign and Right Signature. However, some contract automation tools like Juro also offer eSignature functionality. Secure password systems: lots of businesses will also benefit from storing log-in details such as passwords more securely. It’s well known that writing passwords on paper to remember them is a bad idea, so implementing a secure password storage solution is a great way to help your business go paperless. Scanning and OCR software: rather than printing multiple copies of a document and spending hours searching through them for information, lots of businesses would benefit from implementing a scanning and OCR solution which enables them to store and locate information more efficiently. Ready to move your contracts online? If you're looking to ditch the paperwork and move your contracts and legal documents online, try Juro. Juro's an all-in-one contract automation platform that helps visionary legal counsel and the teams they enable to agree and manage contracts in one unified workspace. To find out more, hit the button below. GIVE ME THREE KEY TAKEAWAYS AND A SHORT SENTENCE ChatGPT said: A paperless office replaces manual, paper-based workflows with digital systems that are faster, safer, and better suited to how modern businesses operate. Digitising documents improves security, visibility and control — reducing version chaos, strengthening audit trails, and protecting sensitive information. Paperless workflows increase productivity and reduce costs — by making documents searchable, enabling real-time collaboration, and cutting printing, storage and admin spend. The biggest gains come from digitising contracts end to end — using tools like eSignature and contract automation to track obligations, deadlines and renewals without paper. You said: SharePoint is an effective and trusted tool for team collaboration and document storage. But can it handle contracts, too? Let's find out. What is SharePoint?SharePoint is a Microsoft-owned system that facilitates collaboration between business teams and empowers them to store, share, organize and manage content quickly and easily. This is also known as a document management system. Businesses that use SharePoint can create an intranet (a private communication network) where knowledge, documents, and processes can exist in one centralized workspace. This streamlines document-sharing processes, enhances security, and encourages collaboration within large teams. It also makes managing files that are created within other Microsoft platforms frictionless. But how does SharePoint work for managing legal documents, like contracts?Can SharePoint be used for contract management?It’s possible and common for businesses that rely on SharePoint for information sharing and filing to also store contracts there. Based on our experience, a typical workflow that includes SharePoint looks like this: Contracts are drafted in Microsoft Word, using a template that’s been found in SharePoint or a separate storage system.The contract is then sent back and forth between parties (internal and external) over email, where it’s reviewed, negotiated and approved. To negotiate contracts, parties will typically pull the draft from email into Word, and this back and forth between platforms continues until all parties are happy with the final version. Once approved, contracts are signed electronically using a separate electronic signature tool, like DocuSign, or another DocuSign alternative. Post-signature, contracts are sent back to each party via email, where they’re saved locally and uploaded to SharePoint for greater visibility. At this point, contracts stored in SharePoint can be identified using the document’s name and searching for a specific contract within a certain file. Although this process is a fairly standard one, it’s certainly not the most efficient way to manage business contracts in fast-growth companies. Let’s talk about why that is. Why is this workflow inefficient?1. Requires multiple different tools One of the biggest inefficiencies of using SharePoint as described above is that it means moving between four or more different tools just to get a contract over the line. Since SharePoint isn’t an all-in-one solution for managing contracts, it doesn’t offer the functionality required at every stage of the contract lifecycle. This means contract owners are forced to move between platforms in order to manage legal agreements. Not only is this process time-consuming, but it can also be risky. Switching between tools makes it difficult to track changes and retain version control. This is because there’s no single source of truth for contracts, with different versions sent to and stored in different places. 2. Contracts aren’t fully searchable It’s also worth noting that SharePoint has significant limitations for contract storage. Although SharePoint allows teams to upload, file, and view contracts, it doesn’t enable users to search for contracts based on the values within them. This is distinct from Juro’s contract repository which uses OCR technology to make contracts fully searchable. While SharePoint users would need to open up individual contracts and search through them manually to identify certain terms and clauses, Juro’s contract repository enables users to search for specific terms and clauses across all contracts simultaneously, without needing to read through them one by one. 3. No automated reportingAnother drawback of using SharePoint as a standalone contract repository is that it doesn't capture and report on important contract data. If legal and business teams want to generate insights from their contracts, they’ll need to analyze them individually to extract the data. Juro, by comparison, captures this data automatically and depicts it in custom views.However, even with these limitations, there are still some benefits of storing your contracts in SharePoint. For businesses that use the system to centralize their information, uploading contracts to SharePoint is an effective way to make them more accessible and improve visibility across the organization. Fortunately, there’s a way to combine the benefits of an all-in-one contract automation platform like Juro with the benefits of SharePoint. This can be achieved through an API integration. How to manage contracts in SharePoint and JuroBy setting up an API integration with SharePoint, Juro users can push signed contracts into SharePoint automatically to create a contract repository within the system. With this integration, legal and business teams no longer need to save contracts as PDFs and upload them manually into SharePoint. Instead, the integration uploads them from Juro into SharePoint automatically, which saves precious time and resources for lean legal teams in fast-growing companies.The integration between the two platforms also removes the need to use multiple different tools for authoring, reviewing, negotiating, and signing contracts. This is because Juro can manage these processes from start to finish, all in one browser-based workspace. Instead, teams can manage contracts from end to end using Juro, and then have their contracts automatically uploaded into SharePoint once signed for greater visibility.This means that users can benefit from Juro’s customizable contract dashboards, powerful search functionality, and reporting capabilities, all while keeping a separate record of contracts in SharePoint for the rest of the business to view. Can Juro replace SharePoint?Since Juro’s smart storage is designed specifically for contracts, it offers more advanced contract storage features than those available in SharePoint. These features include OCR, advanced search, contract reporting, granular access controls, and consolidated document records. Juro users can even view a detailed audit trail for contracts, which tells them when counterparties have viewed, edited, and approved contracts. This makes Juro a common replacement for SharePoint and other shared drives like Google Drive and DropBox, as Juro can enable teams to work within one centralized workspace, rather than switching between tools which creates friction. What’s the best way to manage and store contracts?Juro is an effective contract automation solution for businesses seeking to store and manage contracts efficiently. Juro is the only platform that truly enables you to process contracts end-to-end with one solution, with a wide range of integrations and smart storage. To find out more about how Juro can help your business and integrate with SharePoint, fill in the form below. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: SharePoint is a strong collaboration and document storage tool, but it wasn’t built to manage contracts across their full lifecycle. SharePoint can store contracts, but it can’t manage them end to end — teams still need separate tools for drafting, negotiation, approvals, signing and reporting. Contract visibility and insight are limited in SharePoint — contracts aren’t fully searchable by clause or value, and there’s no automated reporting on contract data. The most effective approach is combining CLM with SharePoint — using a contract automation platform like Juro to manage contracts end to end, while automatically syncing signed agreements into SharePoint for wider visibility. You said: Looking to improve visibility into contracts and progress contracts faster? This guide to Microsoft Teams contract management has you covered.What is Microsoft Teams?Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive collaboration platform within the Microsoft 365 suite. It integrates people, content, and tools to enhance team collaboration through features such as chat, video conferencing, file sharing, and integration with various applications. This central hub for teamwork helps organizations streamline their workflows and boost productivity.But how does it fare for other collaborative processes, like contract management? Let’s find out.Can you manage contracts in Microsoft Teams?Microsoft Teams offers robust collaboration and communication features but lacks specialized contract management features offered by a platform like Juro. Fortunately, by integrating Microsoft Teams with Juro via Zapier, you can combine both platforms' strengths to streamline and automate the contract management process.Juro’s integration with Microsoft Teams enables automated workflows and real-time updates, empowering your team to manage contracts more collaboratively and effectively.Let’s explore this workflow, and what’s possible, now.How to manage contracts in Microsoft TeamsJuro’s integration with Microsoft Teams enables contract owners to keep other stakeholders in the loop when it comes to the creation and status of contracts.For example, when a new contract is created in Juro, a notification is sent to a specific Teams channel (or chat), ensuring all relevant team members are aware of a contract’s creation, and any input that’s required on their part. This is made possible by setting up the following Zaps:You can use the same trigger and actions to set up workflows whereby a channel message is sent in Teams when a contract’s status is updated in Juro. This is a great way to keep the team updated on contract progress in real time. You can also set up the Micrsoft Teams <> Juro integration so that a channel message is sent when a contract has been commented on, is viewed, needs approval, or gets signed. This gives Microsoft Teams users instant access to real-time contract updates which, in turn, enables deals, partnerships, or new hires to progress faster. Benefits of integrating Microsoft Teams and Juro for contractingEnhanced collaboration: Teams can discuss and collaborate on contracts directly within Microsoft Teams, reducing the need to switch between multiple apps.Automated workflows: Automations reduce manual effort, increase efficiency, and minimize the risk of errors.Real-time updates: Instant notifications and updates keep everyone informed about the status of contracts, improving transparency and accountability.Single source of truth: Store and access all contract-related information in one place, simplifying document management and retrieval.By integrating Juro with Microsoft Teams, you can leverage the collaborative features of Teams and the specialized contract management capabilities of Juro to create a powerful, efficient, and streamlined contract management process.Your teams will unlock greater visibility into contracts, and you’ll be able to detect blockers before it’s too late, improving your performance against key metrics like time-to-sign. What are some best practices for managing contracts in Microsoft Teams?Use dedicated channels: Create specific channels for different contracts, workflows, or projects. This will make sure you're routing the contract updates and notifications to the right place and reducing noise for others in the business.Automate workflows: Set up automated workflows for approvals and reminders, which is possible via Juro's Microsoft Teams integration. The more triggers and actions you set up, the more visibility you'll have over contracts as they progress.Maintain a central repository: Store all contracts in a centralized, searchable location pre- and post-signature. Juro's data rich contract repository is a strong solution since all contracts are searchable and can be reported on with ease.Train users: Ensure all team members are proficient in using the tools and understanding workflows. Effective contract management is as much about behaviour and adoption as it is about the tools you use.Does Juro integrate with other Microsoft platforms?Microsoft Teams isn't the only platform that Juro integrates seamlessly with. The contract management solution can also be connected with Microsoft Dynamics, OneDrive, Sharepoint, and more.To find out more about Juro's capabilities and how it can enable you to agree contracts 10x faster, fill in the form below. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Microsoft Teams is a powerful collaboration hub, but it becomes far more effective for contracting when paired with purpose-built contract management software. Microsoft Teams supports collaboration, not full contract management — it lacks native features for drafting, approvals, signing, storage and reporting. Integrating Teams with a CLM like Juro unlocks real-time visibility — automated notifications keep stakeholders informed as contracts are created, reviewed, approved and signed. The best results come from combining tools — use Teams for communication and alignment, and Juro as the single source of truth for managing contracts end to end. You said: Sell-side and buy-side contracts are some of the most common contracts out there, but what are they and how do you manage them?The difference between these two types of contracts is fairly self-explanatory, as ‘Buy-side’ contracts involve things you buy, while ‘sell-side’ contracts handle sales between you and your customers. But of course, it isn’t as simple as that. Each side differs in purpose but they are comparable in other ways and both can benefit from contract management software (CMS) - read on to find out how. What is a sell-side contract?A sell-side contract is used to manage the sales and delivery of goods. This is the most common type of contract used by a sales team in a business, due to this they are often produced at scale, particularly in the case of SaaS contract management. Sell-side contracts are one of the main components in generating revenue, and as such they require close monitoring and management. This can be a difficult ask for smaller businesses with limited resources, as they need to review every contract. This can include reviewing and amending:Contract templates for sales teamsContract wording for upsellingContract renewal terms Approving language for terms and conditionsSell-side contracts are essential to any business that relies on subscriptions or sales - which is most businesses! Poor contract management can lead to delays and compliance issues, this is where a good CMS comes into play. Using contract management software to manage sell-side contracts?The main advantage of using a contract management platform for sell-side contracts is time-saving. Sales teams can self-serve on sell-side contracts to speed up the process and improve your sell-side contract turnaround times. A platform like Juro enables users to:Create from contract templates pre-approved by legalAllow legal teams to oversee contract negotiation with easeKeep up to date with contract versioningCreate a single contract repositoryAccurately manage contracts from within your CRMTrack contracts and their obligations post-signatureWhat is a buy-side contract?A buy-side contract, as the name suggests is an arrangement made to purchase goods or services from a seller in exchange for something, usually money. The most common department to use this in a business is procurement. Procurement teams can be involved in:Strategy managementContract management Vendor selectionSourcing and order management Strategic complianceBuy-side contracts can be fairly simplistic, especially if they are for lower-value products or a low recurring cost. This means teams can standardize these contracts using a template, like this supplier agreement template, making it easier for procurement teams to self-serve and also simplifying contract negotiation with counterparties. However, there are also examples of more complex buy-side contracts which could require additional supporting documents - this can be using Juro. Automating this process makes it simpler to keep track of these agreements and also means you can adapt an existing template, as opposed to starting again from square one. Complex buy-side contracts should be sent complete with all relevant attachments, such as a request for a proposal. Using contract management software to manage buy-side contracts?This is where a CLM tool can come in handy, as there are numerous benefits to using a CLM to help manage buy-side contracts. Most notably, using a CLM can help to align your procurement team with legal and finance by: Confidently tracking purchase and buy-side agreements Moving approvals of purchases into one systemCreating a unified space to negotiate deals with vendors and counter-partiesEnsuring that all deals are paid for following the contract termsTracking and managing discounts in existing contractsProcurement teams must be able to easily track spending especially when buy-side contracts differ by supplier or source. Creating and storing these in one unified CRM streamlines this process. Managing each with a CLM tool Both buy-side and sell-side contracts can be managed more effectively in a CLM tool like Juro. Despite their similarities and differences, there are key elements of these contracts that can be simplified by automation, from contract creation, negotiation and signing to relationship management between suppliers and vendors. The right CRM tool can automate elements of this process and pull it all together, handling both sell and buy-side contracts in one place. This can lead to improved cross-functionality between departments when you manage your contracts in this way. The advantages of managing sell-side and buy-side contracts in one placeThere are so many advantages to managing these contracts in a CLM, for example, users can: Pay for one system. Your whole business benefits from a unified contract management system, from legal and sales to HR and procurement. Buying one system for the whole company makes sense on both a practical and financial level.Streamline processes. Everybody has the same process and system for managing buy-side and sell-side agreements, meaning work is not doubled and ensures efficiency.Access better relationship management. Better management of relationships with third parties, especially those who act both as a supplier and a customer of your business.Align teams. All data is shared in one place so an increase in sales could triggers an increase in purchases of materials, for instance.Create a contract repository. Combines contract and document management into a single, easy-to-access repository. Though you may invest in a CLM tool to use for one department, many businesses access benefits for multiple departments and contract types. The right software, implemented correctly will see a return on investment fast. Managing sell and buy-side contracts with Juro Managing sell-side and buy-side contracts should be straightforward.Using Juro's intuitive contract management software, you can simplify every aspect of the contract process, from drafting and updating to user acknowledgement and ongoing policy management.With Juro, you can create automated templates that allow you to collaborate in real-time, access secure cloud-based storage and create buy-side and sell-side contracts up to ten times faster.To learn more about how your organization can streamline the creation of your buy-side and sell-side contracts with Juro's all-in-one contract management platform, click the button below. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Buy-side and sell-side contracts sit at the heart of how businesses spend money and generate revenue — and both benefit from being managed in a single, structured system. Sell-side contracts drive revenue and need speed — CLM tools enable sales teams to self-serve on legally approved templates while legal retains control. Buy-side contracts control spend and supplier risk — CLM software gives procurement, legal and finance shared visibility into approvals, obligations and renewals. Managing both in one CLM improves alignment and ROI — a unified platform streamlines processes, strengthens relationships, and creates a single source of truth across the business. You said: Lots of businesses use Google Drive to store their contracts. But is this the most efficient way to manage them? Let's find out. What is Google Drive?Google Drive (GDrive) is a cloud-based storage solution used to save and store files online. Google Drive is part of Google’s wide range of applications, and it offers a secure way to save and collaborate on files, including business contracts. But how does Google Drive fit into most contract workflows, and could it be used more efficiently? Let’s find out. Can you manage contracts in Google Drive?You can store contracts in Google Drive, but that’s about all you can do. Google Drive is a great storage solution for most files, but it isn’t equipped to manage contracts throughout their lifecycle. After all, storing contracts is just a small part of contract management.Instead, legal and business teams rely on a wide range of different tools to manage their contracts, and Google Drive is just one of these. Usually, the process and tooling look like this:Contracts are drafted in Microsoft Word or Google Docs using contract templates found in Google Drive. Once drafted, the contract is shared internally via email for contract review and approval. If any edits are needed, the contract is pulled from emails back into an editor like Word to add tracked changes. This back and forth continues until the contract has been approved. Next, the most up-to-date version of a contract is shared with counterparties for negotiation. Again, this usually happens across email chains and involves redlining the contract in Word until all parties have agreed on the final terms. From here, the contract is usually saved as a PDF and signed using an electronic signature tool like Adobe Sign or DocuSign. Once signed and executed, the PDF is uploaded to Google Drive to be stored. Contract owners may record the contract data in a separate contract management spreadsheet too. Why is this process painful?The process described above is painful for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s fragmented. Legal and business teams are forced to jump back and forth between up to five different tools just to get a contract over the line. Not only does this create friction and slow down the contracting process, but it also means more time spent on routine contract admin, and less time reserved for higher-value work. The process also lacks the safeguards needed for commercial teams to self-serve on contracts with confidence.Google Drive can be used to store contract templates, but legal teams have no control over which templates get used when drafting a contract, or which parts of them can be edited by the wider business. There’s also no guarantee that signed versions of a contract get pushed back to Google Drive in the first place. In some cases, signed contracts never even leave email inboxes. Even when contracts are uploaded to Google Drive post-signature, they’re still not easy to find. You can set up folders and use Google Drive’s search functionality, but you’ll still have to trawl through lots of files that aren’t relevant in order to find the right one. This makes monitoring contracts and conducting contract audits a nightmare. Is there a better way to store and manage contracts?Luckily, there’s a better, more efficient way for businesses to store and manage their contracts. Instead of relying on different tools for each stage of the contract lifecycle, businesses can implement an all-in-one contract management platform like Juro instead. Juro users can create, review, approve, negotiate, sign, store and track contracts all in one unified workspace. This means no more switching between tools, and better visibility.Rather than sourcing contract templates freely from Google Drive, commercial teams use automated contract templates that have been pre-defined and approved by legal. These templates are populated automatically in Juro using the responses given during a simple Q&A workflow, or the data stored in other business systems via an integration (e.g Salesforce, Hubspot, Workday). This means that commercial teams can generate contracts in seconds, with no drafting experience required. Legal teams can also restrict which parts of a contract other teams can edit, meaning they can retain control over contracts without overseeing the entire workflow. This is an effective way to manage contract risk.Juro also offers far more functionality than Google Drive when it comes to storing, tracking, and analyzing contracts. This is because contracts created in and uploaded to Juro are built as structured data, making them fully searchable. Users can also filter contracts based on their data and build custom contract dashboards to organize their contracts more effectively. These features make it quick and easy to find contracts, and they remove the need to manually capture contract data in a separate spreadsheet. Juro also enables teams to analyze their contracts and track progress against contract management KPIs. Juro’s contract analytics feature provides detailed insights into your contract portfolio, helping you flag bottlenecks and monitor contract performance over time. All of this makes Juro a great replacement for Google Drive when it comes to contract storage. {{quote1}}But what if you’re not ready to replace Google Drive just yet? Well, if having your contracts stored in Google Drive is a non-negotiable for your business, Juro’s native Google Drive integration can help. Here’s how. How does Juro’s integration with Google Drive work?Juro’s native integration with Google Drive enables businesses to set up a contract workflow whereby signed contracts are automatically uploaded to a dedicated folder in Google Drive. This enables the wider business to have visibility into contracts post-signature without needing access to Juro. It also means less clutter in Google Drive as only executed contracts will be stored there. That way, business contracts can be backed up in Google Drive without losing the detailed insights and searchability offered by Juro. If this sounds like something your business would benefit from, fill in the form below to receive a personalized demo. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Google Drive is a reliable place to store files, but it wasn’t designed to manage contracts as they move from draft to signature and beyond. Google Drive can store contracts, but it can’t manage them — it lacks tools for drafting, approvals, negotiation, signing, reporting and lifecycle tracking. Contract workflows built around Drive are fragmented and risky — switching between multiple tools slows deals, weakens version control and increases the chance of lost agreements. The most efficient setup pairs Drive with a CLM — using a platform like Juro to manage contracts end to end, while automatically syncing signed agreements into Google Drive for visibility and backup. You said: Obligation management software can transform the way your business tracks and performs contractual obligations. Find out how in this guide. Managing contractual obligations can be a nightmare for businesses with lots of contracts and no single source of truth. But fulfilling your contractual obligations is critical to your company’s growth, so the sooner you can get a grasp on your obligations, the better. This guide explores how obligation management software can help you regain control of your contractual obligations and ensure compliance in 2026.Why should managing contractual obligations be a priority?Poorly managed contractual obligations can prove costly for businesses. In fact, the WCC estimate that ineffective contract management practices cost businesses an average of 9% of their revenue each year. This isn’t surprising when you consider the impact of missed contractual obligations. Parties that fail to fulfill their obligations will have breached their contract, meaning they could have their contract terminated, face late delivery fees, or even be forced to pay out for costly litigation. Missing contract deadlines can also cause your commercial relationships to break down because companies want to work with reliable and trustworthy suppliers that can deliver on their promises. If you don’t live up to their expectations and manage your obligations effectively, they could decide to end the relationship early. Even if a customer doesn’t terminate their contract following a breach, it’s unlikely that they’ll want to renew it.Prioritizing how you manage contractual obligations gives you the opportunity to mitigate this risk, capture more revenue, and maintain customer relationships. Why is obligation management difficult?Effective contract obligation management is difficult because there’s often a lack of visibility into contracts and the obligations within them. This manifests itself in different ways, but it often results in teams being unable to identify what their individual obligations are and when they’re due. Let’s explore these challenges in more detail now. 1. No visibility into contracts and their data The most obvious challenge businesses face is that it’s difficult to keep sight of contractual obligations when there’s no visibility into them. Businesses can manage hundreds, sometimes thousands of contracts at any one time. Yet, the Journal of Contract Management estimates that 71% of businesses can’t locate 10% of their contracts, meaning all of this obligation data could be lost forever.Even if they do know where their contracts are, identifying the contractual obligations and important dates within all of these contracts involves a lot of manual work.Lean legal teams have to read through each contract individually and capture the important contract metadata in a contract management spreadsheet of some sort. If they don’t they’ll have to regularly review individual contracts and track these obligations manually. 2. Lack of clarity and accountability for contractual obligations It’s not always clear who is responsible for which contractual obligations in a business. When contracts are created as static files in Word editors and shared with stakeholders via email, it’s easy for the contracts to get lost and for the parties to assume that someone else will manage upcoming deadlines. Obligation management software solves this problem by allowing users to set automated contract reminders and choose recipients for these. Without this clarity, it’s easy to see how important contractual obligations get overlooked, or critical deadlines are missed. 3. Poor cross-functional alignment It’s rare that the contract creator is the individual responsible for performing the contract in full. Often, contractual obligations depend on action from other departments in the business. Yet, it’s uncommon for legal and commercial teams to collaborate effectively on contract management. Legal tends to work on contracts in silos, making it difficult for business teams to understand the role they need to play, what is expected of them, and when.Fortunately, there’s an opportunity for businesses to improve their obligation management processes by implementing obligation management software. Let’s explore this solution in more detail now. Contractual obligation management softwareObligation management software is technology that helps teams to identify, track, and be reminded of their contractual obligations. It does this by bringing all of the important contract data into one workspace, making it easy to find, view and monitor obligations and responsibilities at scale.By centralizing this information, the software can reduce the time organizations spend manually tracking obligations and free up this time for higher-value work instead. It can also make contract compliance and contract performance much easier. Obligation management software features1. Automated contract templates with smartfields Contractual obligations have due dates that need to be captured and tracked to ensure compliance.Automated contract templates can streamline the process used to capture and track these dates by pulling them directly from contract smartfields into an intuitive contract dashboard. This dashboard can then be used to filter, query, and track contracts based on metadata within them, providing real-time visibility into contracts and their deadlines. Automating this data entry and capture process will help to improve compliance and reduce the time your teams spend on manual contract admin tasks. {{quote1}}2. Centralized contract repository A centralized contract repository is essential for effective obligation management because it provides businesses with the real-time visibility they need to track contracts and obligations. More specifically, a contract repository provides legal and business teams with easy access to their portfolio of contracts, rather than having to search high and low for contracts across different local and shared drives.This means that they have full visibility into contracts, obligations, and due dates. Without this visibility, it’s easy for businesses to forget about their individual responsibilities or miss important contract dates like commencement dates or contract renewal deadlines.{{quote2}}3. Automated contract remindersAutomated contract reminders ensure all parties are aware of upcoming deadlines and obligations without needing to constantly review contracts post-signature. Instead, teams can rest assured that they’ll be notified when their action is required, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks. This helps to ensure compliance with contractual terms, avoid a breach of contract, and prevent costly legal disputes that occur when important contract deadlines are missed. Juro’s automated contract reminders are fully customizable and correspond to the date smartfields within your contracts. This gives you full control over upcoming contract deadlines and enables you to spend less time tracking contracts manually and more time on other projects. {{quote3}}Manage your contractual obligations in JuroJuro’s all-in-one contract platform is data-rich and flexible, allowing teams to track, manage and set reminders for contractual obligations at scale. To find out more, fill in the form below to book a personalized demo. Give me three key takeaways please and a short intro sentence ChatGPT said: Obligation management software helps businesses stay compliant, protect revenue, and strengthen commercial relationships by making contractual obligations visible and actionable. Missed obligations are costly and common — poor visibility and manual tracking lead to revenue leakage, compliance breaches and damaged relationships. Centralised contract data is the foundation of obligation management — a single source of truth makes obligations, owners and deadlines clear across teams. Automation prevents breaches before they happen — smart templates, dashboards and automated reminders ensure obligations are tracked, assigned and met on time. You said: Contract negotiation is both an art and a science. It can be unpredictable and stressful, but also incredibly rewarding when executed well. The problem is, lots of us don’t really know what ‘well’ looks like. We all want to be great negotiators, but where do we start? Contract negotiation courses are an effective way to fast-track your learning and expand on your negotiation skills, regardless of where you are in your career. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the five best contract negotiation courses in 2026 - and there’s something for everyone. The 5 best contract negotiation courses in 20261. Negotiation experts: Classroom and Online Negotiation TrainingThe Negotiation experts offer a wide range of different contract negotiation courses, meaning there’s something for everyone. Their courses include sales negotiation training, procurement negotiation training, and advanced negotiation training. This granular and customizable approach means individuals can advance their skills regardless of their field and level. They also have a reputable client base, with customers like EY, Shell, UBS, and law firms like Allen & Overy. However, one of the biggest advantages of Negotiation experts’ courses is its interactivity, as it includes with access to an advanced simulation game that can be customized to your team’s needs.Who is it designed for?Based on the course provider’s client list, their contract negotiation courses appear to be designed for businesses of all sizes, including large corporations. Since there is a range of specialized courses to choose from, Negotiation experts’ training is suitable for most departments that touch on contract negotiation, but particularly those in sales and procurement. Length How long the negotiation course takes to complete depends on how you choose to complete it. It can either be completed within the classroom, which can take between one to four days, or online, with between one and six sessions. LocationThe in-person contract negotiation courses take place either in-house across 35 different countries, or within classrooms in US cities. Cost Online course prices start at roughly $2,530 for six instructor-led half-day sessions. However, these prices can vary considerably for in-house course delivery. They also offer early bird discounts for those that book well in advance. Independent reviews Despite having a large client base of enterprise-level companies, Negotiation experts are not widely reviewed on independent review sites. However, there are some reviews from verified users on their website:“This is one of the best courses that I have attended. The attendees inside and outside of my team still talk about it positively”“The case studies were well chosen and crafted to meet our specific work field's specialties”2. The Knowledge Academy: Contract Negotiation TrainingThe Knowledge Academy (TKA) offers a contract negotiation training course that teaches participants how to successfully negotiate contracts whilst also embracing the power of collaboration. It’s one of the most flexible courses on the market, offering a range of delivery methods to choose from depending on your learning style and budget. Who is it designed for?The Knowledge Academy’s contract negotiation course is designed for any professionals that frequently find themselves involved in contract negotiations. The course is targeted at contract managers, commercial managers, finance managers, and legal teams, among other business professionals. There are also no entry-level requirements for this particular course, making it perfect for beginners. Length It is unclear how long this contract negotiation course will take to complete since this depends on your chosen mode of learning. Although, the online self-paced course will likely be the best option for those with a busy schedule. LocationThe Knowledge Academy’s contract negotiation course is one of the leading negotiation training courses based in the UK. The training can either be delivered virtually or on-site, making it one of the most flexible.If you do decide to opt for their in-person negotiation training, you have two choices. Firstly, you can attend one of their courses in a classroom setting, which they run in 1200 locations, across 200 countries. Alternatively, you can book onsite training whereby their instructors attend your office and deliver training to groups internally. Cost The cost for attending a classroom-based contract negotiation training course with TKA is approximately £2995. Meanwhile, their online instructor-led courses are significantly cheaper, priced at £895. One of the biggest advantages of TKA’s contract negotiation course is that they also offer it within a larger package of courses, called the ‘complete contract management package’. This includes a course on contract management, contract negotiation, and report writing. If you decide to purchase this package, you can save up to £1790 by paying £2,795 rather than £4,585. Independent reviews The Knowledge Academy is a renowned professional training provider, with a rating of 4.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot. Here are some of the reviews left by those that have completed the course:“A fantastic training that has changed my perception of negotiation from a black box to a collaborative exercise”“The Tutor seemed to be very knowledgeable on Negotiation. She used PowerPoint slides as a reference but did a lot more talking which was more engaging on the subject”3. Harvard: Negotiation workshop Harvard University is renowned for its Negotiation Mastery course, and as a course offered by one of the most prestigious universities in the world, it’s bound to be good. In fact, Harvard’s contract negotiation training is taught by Michael Wheeler, author of the famous book: ‘The Art of Negotiation’. Harvard’s training sessions are only available online, and this enables participants to learn at their own pace. Although, it does make it unsuitable for those seeking more intimate in-person or on-site training sessions.Who is it designed for?This particular online contract negotiation course is perfect for students and others seeking professional and personal development. It’s among the most accessible courses online and individuals can enroll quickly and easily. That said, it will also be a good choice for business professionals with minimal experience in contract negotiation as it still covers all of the basics. LengthIt is estimated that the course is roughly eight weeks long with a time commitment of roughly four hours per week. It’s self-paced, but you will be expected to meet specific deadlines throughout the course. LocationDespite being run by Harvard University, this course is only available online. This means that you can complete it from anywhere in the world once you have enrolled. Cost The Negotiation Mastery course is priced at roughly $1,600 for around 30 hours of teaching material. This is quite expensive considering the course doesn’t include personalized, in-person teaching. Independent reviews Unfortunately, there are no reviews of the Negotiation Mastery course on independent review sites. However, you can check out some individual reviews on LinkedIn and Youtube to get a feel for the course. 4. Yale: Introduction to Negotiation If it’s affordable online learning that you’re after, then it’s worth considering this course offered by Yale via coursera. The course is titled: Introduction to Negotiation: A Strategic Playbook for Becoming a Principled and Persuasive Negotiator, and it’s the top-rated contract negotiation course on the platform. It covers the foundations of negotiations and multiple different case studies, all in great detail. Who is it designed for?Due to the depth of this course, it is suitable for both those that are beginners in contract negotiation and those that are familiar with it but looking to expand on their skills. LengthThe course takes approximately 32 hours to complete but with flexible deadlines that fit your schedule. LocationThis is an online contract negotiation course, which means it can be completed flexibly from anywhere. Cost This particular course is included with coursera plus, which costs roughly £46 per month, or £316 per year. However, individuals can enroll in the course for free. One of the best things about courses on coursera is that the platform also provides financial aid to learners that cannot afford the course fee. This makes these courses accessible to everyone. Independent reviews This particular contract negotiation course is the top-rated negotiation course available on the platform. It is rated 4.9 out of 5 with 1,341 reviews, most of which praise both the content and the professor that delivers it. “Great course! One of the best that I have ever seen on Coursera. Very well driven and great content”“A superb introduction to negotiation from a game theory point of view, which itself is a fascinating subject. Taught by Barry Nelbuff, a brilliantly simple teacher”5. The College of Law: Drafting and Negotiating Commercial ContractsIf you’re a non-lawyer seeking an introduction to contract negotiation for an affordable price, the College of Law has a fantastic course that can be accessed through FutureLearn. Since it’s for beginners, it’s far briefer than some legal contract negotiation courses. It begins by covering the fundamentals like understanding the purpose of a contract and begins to explore the legal rationale and practical knowledge that underpins contractual clauses and contract terminology. It also discusses how to close the deal, but only briefly. Who is it designed for?This course is designed for beginners and non-lawyers. It’s a fantastic option for students that are considering a career that touches on contract drafting and negotiation. However, it won’t be suitable for those that are already familiar with the core principles and are looking to advance their negotiation skills. LengthThe duration of this course is four weeks, with weekly study sessions of two hours per week. It’s certainly one of the shorter courses, and this is reflected in the brevity of the content covered. LocationLike many of the most affordable contract negotiation courses, this course is completed online.Cost This course is one of the cheapest contract negotiation courses available. Users can either join with limited access to the course content for four weeks, or they can purchase access to the course for a one-off fee of £34. However, users will only have access to a certificate if they pay for the course. Independent reviews According to FutureLearn’s reviews, this course is rated 4.7 out of 5, with 229 verified reviews. “Recommended for those who do not have a legal background. It is easy to understand and follow”“This course was taught at a high level. Within four weeks, this course covered many details that are part of the contracting process” How to choose a contract negotiation courseWhen selecting the perfect contract negotiation course for you it’s important to consider the following things:Budget: what can you afford to spend on the contract negotiation course?Prior knowledge: how much do you already know about contract negotiation?Learning methods: how do you learn best?Location: is it convenient for you to attend an in-person training session?Group size: how many people require the training? Certification: do you require a certificate of some sort?Specialism: is the course relevant to the contracts you negotiate?Want to find out more about contract negotiation?If you’re short on time or budget but want to learn more about contract negotiation, check out these free resources:Contract negotiation strategies Contract negotiation skills Contract negotiation examplesHow to prepare for negotiationsNegotiation tips for scaleupsIf you're looking for more contract management courses, check out our guide to the best contract drafting courses. ChatGPT said: Contract negotiation courses help professionals build confidence, structure, and strategy — turning a high-pressure skill into a repeatable advantage. There’s a course for every experience level and budget — from free online introductions to advanced, enterprise-grade negotiation training. The best courses balance theory with practice — combining frameworks, real-world case studies, and simulations to build practical skills. Choosing the right course depends on context — your role, industry, negotiation complexity, learning style, and need for certification should guide the decision. You said: Give me three key takeaways anhd a short intro sentence please Acceptance is one of the essential elements of a legally binding contract – in fact, without it a contract can’t exist. But what does that actually look like in practice? Today we’re going to take a look at the different types of acceptance in contract law.What is contract acceptance?Contract acceptance is the act of agreeing to form a legally binding agreement based on an offer provided by the other party. It is an essential element of a contract, and without it, a contract will not be valid or binding. To form a contract, one party must make an offer that another one accepts – e.g. “Can I buy your car for $1,500?” “Yes, I accept your offer to buy my car for $1,500.” How they accept that offer isn’t actually set in stone though. Lots of offers are considered accepted when a contract is signed, whether that’s with a wet ink signature or an electronic signature. However, what many people forget is that when you hand over your cash in a shop, say “yes” on the phone to a quote for building work, or click the “order” button on a website, you’re actually accepting an offer to enter into a contract, without a signature in sight. This is because there are different types of contract acceptance. If you’re a little confused, don’t worry. We’re going to explore these different types of acceptance together in a moment. But first, let's quickly cover the importance of acceptance in contract law.Why is contract acceptance important?Before we delve into what contract acceptance looks like in practice, let's quickly recap why it matters in the first place. As we just discussed, contract acceptance is an essential element of a contract, and without it, the contract won't exist. But there are also a few, more specific reasons why acceptance matters in contract law. Firstly, the acceptance of a contract ensures that all parties are on the same page. If one party makes an offer and the other party hasn't accepted it, the contract won't exist. This is because both parties need to consent to the contract being created, and to do that, an offer needs to be accepted. This rule prevents parties from ending up in legal agreements that they aren't willing to be a part of. However, the need for contract acceptance also protects the party that makes the offer. This is because it ensures that they are made aware if their offer has been taken up. Imagine if you offer to give someone 500 oranges and deliver them on a certain date. Now imagine that the person you're offering them to never responds, but later attempts to sue you for breach of contract when you don't deliver the oranges on that date. Without contract acceptance, there will be no contract. This means that the offeror will not be in breach since there was no contract or agreement to begin with. Sounds simple, right? However, understanding exactly what constitutes contract acceptance that's the tricky part. What are the different types of acceptance?There are three main types of acceptance when it comes to contracts:ExpressConditionalImpliedLet's go through them one by one. 1. Express acceptanceExpress acceptance occurs when someone explicitly agrees, either verbally or in writing, to accept the offer you’ve made them. This one’s nice and straightforward – it’s when you clearly say “yes” to an offer, exactly as it is. So, for example, if someone offers to buy your house for $500,000 and you send them an email saying “yes, you can buy my house for $500,000”, you’ve expressly accepted their offer.This type of acceptance should be clear and shouldn’t involve requesting any changes to the original offer. Otherwise, it isn’t a form of express acceptance. 2. Conditional acceptanceSometimes called “qualified acceptance”, conditional acceptance is when you say you’re willing to agree to the original offer but only with some changes. This is also called a counteroffer. Imagine you’re signing a rental agreement for a flat. You say you’ll sign the agreement as long as the owner fixes the leaky window before you move in. That’s an example of conditional acceptance.The person making the offer must accept your counteroffer before you can form a contract. When someone makes a counteroffer, the original offer (in our example, to move into the flat with rain still coming into that window) no longer exists. This is called the mirror image rule. 3. Implied acceptanceImplied acceptance is when you don’t directly say “yes” to an offer verbally or in writing, but you do something which implies you will. Implied acceptance can create an implied contract. If your actions clearly indicate that you have accepted their offer, but you haven’t vocalized this acceptance, it still counts. Let’s look at an example. If you buy a cake from a supermarket, paying for it implies you’re happy to accept the price (i.e. the offer) that the supermarket’s charging for that chocolate gateau. You don’t necessarily have to voice to the cashier that you accept the offer, picking it up, taking it to the till, and then paying for it makes this acceptance clear enough. Can silence be a type of contract acceptance? Generally speaking, silence will not constitute valid acceptance when it comes to contracts. This can seem confusing at first since we just discussed how contract acceptance doesn’t necessarily have to be verbal. But fear not. We’re going to explain what this rule means, as well as when it applies in more detail now. But first, let’s start with where the rule began. The story goes all the way back to a 19th-century English case – Felthouse v. Bingley – in which a man offered to buy a horse from his uncle. He said that unless he heard something different from his uncle by the weekend he’d “consider the horse mine.” The horse was then mistakenly sold at auction, and the uncle tried to sue the auctioneer. But the court decided that no valid contract existed between the uncle and his nephew. This is because the uncle’s silence didn’t constitute acceptance of an offer. There are, of course, some exceptions to this. Like if the parties involved already have an understanding about something similar, or a history of forming contracts without an explicit acceptance. Another good example is if you have a regular order with a supplier that’s the same every month. As long as you accept the goods when they arrive and don’t return them, you’re accepting their offer. Even though you haven’t explicitly said “yes, I accept your offer”, or signed anything.You don’t always need to have a pre-existing relationship with someone to form a contract without explicit acceptance though. Let’s say you book someone to come to paint your house. You have an email conversation in which your house painter says: “If I don’t hear from you by 2 March, I’ll assume you’re happy for me to start the job on 8 March.” Not replying here would constitute acceptance. But if the painter says “Let me know you’re happy for me to start the painting on 8 March” to which you don’t reply, there’s no acceptance. So no contract is formed.Need help agreeing contracts?If you want to make agreeing contracts simpler, all-in-one contract automation could be the answer. Juro’s all-in-one contract automation software enables all teams to streamline the creation, execution, and management of routine contracts at scale. To find out more, fill out the form below. ChatGPT said: Contract acceptance determines when an offer turns into a legally binding agreement — and it doesn’t always require a signature or a written “yes”. Acceptance is essential for a valid contract — without clear acceptance of an offer, no legally binding agreement can exist. Acceptance can take different forms — it may be express, conditional (a counteroffer), or implied through conduct, depending on the circumstances. Silence usually isn’t acceptance — unless there’s a clear prior understanding or conduct that makes acceptance unmistakable. You said: Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence pleaseSending a contract for approval can be painful. From miscommunication to loss of version control and long delays, the manual contract approval process has many flaws. However, given the important role that contract approval plays in getting contracts over the line, it’s a stage that legal and business teams can’t afford to overlook.With automated approval workflow for contracts, reviewing and approving contracts has never been more straightforward. What is an approval workflow?An approval workflow is a process whereby a document or decision is passed by one or more individuals or departments for their approval or rejection. Usually this is a defined sequence of tasks that have to happen in order for the project to progress, with input from the relevant people at every stage. For example, a typical contract approval workflow might look like this:The contract creator in the sales team sends the contract for approvalThe contract is then reviewed by legal counsel, who can approve or reject itThe contract is also reviewed by finance and operations, who provide their verdictOnce both of the set approvers have provided their approval, a contract can be sent for signatureThe purpose of an approval workflow is to empower certain key decision makers to exercise control over a process or piece of work, usually to ensure that certain standards have been met and reduce the risk of costly mistakes. More often than not, these decision makers will be legal counsel, quality assurance executives and other managers. Why is an approval workflow important?Approval workflows are particularly important in business as, when set up properly, they can reduce the amount of time wasted, eliminate bottlenecks in important processes and increase productivity and collaboration. Not only that, but approval workflows also add accountability and quality assurance in particular processes, which is often important for compliance purposes. What is an approval step?Within an approval workflow, there are various approval steps. Approval steps are used to define the order in which approvals will be required in a certain process. The order that these approval steps follow, and how they are delegated will depend entirely on your company’s internal preferences and processes. However, what all approval steps have in common is that they determine what needs to be reviewed, who will be responsible for approving or rejecting it, and what happens when either of these options is selected. What is contract approval?For those in the legal industry, one of the most common approval workflows is a contract approval, which is the process of submitting, reviewing, assessing, and approving whole contracts or specific terms. Within an organization, there will usually be concrete rules surrounding which contracts are subject to review and approval, and it will often be high value contracts, rather than standardized contracts with more predictable terms. As part of best practice, this approval process should be outlined in a playbook, or better, automated. If a contract requires approval, it will usually be pushed to a senior member of the legal team, typically the general counsel, to be assessed, edited and then approved. Although, certain terms will be non-negotiable, and any deviation from these will often be rejected by the approver.Why is it important to define the approval process in a contract?But why is it so important to define the approval process for contracts? Well, any legal practitioner will know that a mistake in a contract can be costly - financially and in terms of time. Not to mention the fact that errors in important legal agreements can tarnish a lawyer’s reputation, or jeopardize a client’s position altogether. That’s why it’s absolutely critical to define the approval process for a contract.Since the purpose of a contract is to provide certainty and formalize new relationships, it’s essential that contracts are free from ambiguity, inaccuracies and mistakes, and approval workflows are the perfect opportunity to guarantee that. That is if they are efficient and run smoothly, of course. Risks of manual contract approval processesWhat if they don’t run smoothly, though? Unfortunately, this is often the case with manual contract approval processes. With requests for contract approval typically sent via email and at the last minute, important contract deadlines can pass by, and critical clauses can begin to fall through the cracks. With this comes numerous different risks, including: 1. A lack of version control When you manage a contract in Word, you can find yourself with lots of versions of the same contract, each with different changes, recommendations and comments. As these get thrown around across email, it can be easy to lose control of the versions and mistake an older copy for the current contract. This means that, without the right tools in place, approvers will be wasting their time labouring over changes that might already have been made. Or worse, they could miss out on important terms in the current contract because they haven’t reviewed the right copy. In the absence of a single, centralized place to create, share, review and approve legal agreements, miscommunication can be common and so can mistakes. 2. Delays getting contracts across the line Contracts sent via email for approval can often be added to a lengthy backlog of other tasks, regardless of their urgency. Too often, busy legal counsel will stumble across an important contract that requires approval when they set their sights on it in their email, and this could be days or weeks after the deal had its initial momentum. Unlike approval workflows that are automated using software, manual approval workflows can quickly and easily lead to delays in getting contracts across the line, and this inefficiency can jeopardize deals of all types and values. 3. Miscommunication about which deals require approvalWithout a structured and clearly defined workflow in place, some contracts may sneak past the approval stage altogether. Unlike automated approval workflows which won’t let a contract progress to other stages without approval, manual contract approval workflows tend not to have any infrastructure in place to prevent this.This means that even high value contracts are vulnerable to progressing without first receiving approval. 4. Inefficiency when reviewing and approving terms With a robust contract management software in place it can be quick and easy to identify the terms that need approval, as most of these contract tools can flag specific terms and clauses that require attention. By comparison, a manual approval workflow can often require in-house legal teams to scroll through the entire contract to review and approve clauses of interest, which can be a considerable drain on their time and resources. If you can relate to these pain points, it might be time to automate your contract approval workflows instead. Hit the button below to get started or read on to find out more.The benefits of automated contract approval workflowsWith all of this in mind, it’s well worth considering how an automated contract approval workflow could eliminate these challenges, and how it can contribute to a faster and more efficient contract workflow. The main benefits of implementing an automated contract approval workflow are as follows:1. Fewer mistakes With a reliable contract approval workflow in place, fewer mistakes will be made. Automated contract workflows prevent mistakes from making it past the approvers by flagging the important clauses and requiring approval as a prerequisite before signing. This means that a contract will receive the scrutiny it needs and costly errors can be avoided from early on. 2. Increased visibility Automated contract approval workflows will also improve visibility for collaborating parties, as users will be able to see who has sent a contract for approval and when, as well as when it has been approved and by whom. This visibility can alleviate misunderstandings and ensure that legal teams and those they enable in the business are on the same page about the status of a deal. 3. More effective communication By improving visibility and accountability for approval tasks, an automated contract approval workflow can also encourage more effective collaboration and communication. Parties can easily see what is expected of them and when, which can relieve stress amongst other team members and prevent the need for constant nagging. 4. Improved security Contrary to the way contracts were traditionally approved before signing, implementing an automated contract approval workflow will also make the process more secure. As is true of digital contracting more broadly, storing contracts online for the review and approval stages is far safer and more secure than storing them on desks, or in old storage cabinets in the office.5. Enable business teams to self-serveBy setting up a structured approval process for contracts, you can also enable commercial teams like sales and procurement to self-serve on contracts, and keep risk to a minimum. This means that deals can get closed faster and legal teams can return to the higher value work that craves their attention. 6. More positive customer experienceSigning and agreeing a contract can be an arduous process for everyone involved, and the last thing you want your prospective customer to remember when they think of your contract process is hassle and stress. By streamlining the contract approval process using automation, contract negotiations and approvals will run far more smoothly and deliver a more positive customer experience. How to set up an approval workflow for your contracts1. Identify your weaknessesBefore setting up an automated approval workflow for your contracts, first understand what is causing any existing pain points for your team when it comes to reviewing and approving legal agreements. Is it version control? Do you lose track of approval deadlines? Are you getting bypassed on important, high value contracts? Understanding where your approval workflow could be going wrong to begin with is a fantastic way to identify your specific needs from a new approval workflow solution. 2. Set up a playbook of approval rulesOnce you’ve established what is causing the bottlenecks when approving business contracts, it’s important to codify this information in a single workspace that’s accessible to everyone involved in the contract process. Although the workflow will be automated using intuitive software, it’s still important that everyone understands the purpose of contract approval, and what role they should expect to have in this process. 3. Assign specific responsibilitiesWhen delegating the various responsibilities in a contract approval workflow, it’s useful to be detailed and specific about which instances approval will be required, and who it will be required from. Each and every member of the teams should be aware of how the process works and how to comply with the rules laid out.4. Choose a contract automation softwareChoose a contract software that puts the contract approval workflow into place for you. Although some contract tools won’t offer advanced features like approval workflows, some contract automation software, like Juro, will.5. Customize your approval workflowsOnce you’ve chosen and implemented the right solution for you, it’s time to ensure the solution works in the ways you want it to. For instance, you should set up notifications, permissions and conditional logic that tailors the software to your specific needs. This is something that our onboarding and customer success team at Juro is on hand to help with at any time. How to create approval workflows for contracts in Juro Let’s imagine you’re using Juro’s approval workflows for contracts already, or that you’re going to start. How do you actually set up these workflows to begin with? Well, it’s simple. Here’s how Juro users can get contracts approved by colleagues and stakeholders before sending them off for eSignature. 1. To set up approvers within your contract, click ‘Parties’ to open the sidebar, then click the three dots to open the menu and access more options. Then click ‘Add approvers’. 2. Press ‘+Add’ or begin typing in the email address of your desired approver. There is no limit on the number of approvers you can add to a contract in Juro, but all will need to approve the contract before it’s signed, so that’s worth keeping in mind! 3. To dictate the order in which approvals are set, simply click ‘Turn on order’ under the three dots and drag the name of each approver in the sequence you’d like the approval workflow to follow.4. Now that your approvers are all set up and ready, click ‘Send for approval'. This will prompt all approvers using an email notification that invites them to review and then approve or reject the contract. 5. If you are making a change to a contract that’s already been approved by your set approvers, you’ll need to resend the contract for approval again so that the approvers can agree to the new changes.It really is that easy. Gone are the days where contract approval processes meant losing control of versions, passing agreements across desks, and sending emails back and forth. Juro users can create, review, approve and sign contracts all in one workspace with ease.Contract approval made easy Ready to set up a contract approval workflow you can trust to deliver? Get Juro. Juro is an all-in-one contract automation platform that helps visionary legal counsel and the teams they enable to agree and manage contracts in one unified workspace. To find out how to automate your contract workflows with Juro, just hit the button below to get in touch. ChatGPT said: Contract approval workflows are critical to getting contracts signed accurately and on time — but manual processes introduce risk, delays and unnecessary friction. Manual approval workflows create bottlenecks and errors — version confusion, missed approvals and email-based delays slow deals and increase risk. Automated approval workflows improve speed, visibility and control — ensuring the right people review the right terms in the right order before signing. Automation enables safe self-service and better experiences — legal retains oversight while business teams move faster and customers face less friction. You said: In this guide, we’ll explore how real estate professionals can turn the tide on inefficient contract workflows and close deals faster with real estate contract management software.What is real estate contract management? Real estate contract management refers to the process of creating, negotiating, executing, and tracking contracts related to real estate transactions.It involves managing a wide range of documents, including lease agreements, purchase agreements, listing agreements, and property management contracts.But real estate contracts are distinct from other business contracts for a few reasons:Lots of stakeholders. It’s common for real estate transactions to involve a lot of different people, so effective collaboration is particularly important for these documents Long-term. Real estate contracts tend to be long-term agreements, meaning more input is required when it comes to post-signature contract managementHighly regulated. Real estate transactions are subject to lots of different laws and regulations, so real estate professionals require more visibility and better obligation management processes to ensure complianceThis makes them particularly difficult to manage without the right tools and safeguards in place.Why is effective contract management important for the real estate industry?The real estate industry is complex. A single real estate transaction involves numerous stakeholders such as buyers, sellers, agents, brokers, lenders, and property managers. Each transaction also requires the creation and management of multiple contracts and documents. Given the number of documents and stakeholders involved, a real estate contract management process can soon become messy without the right measures in place. Contractual obligations are missed, contracts get lost and contractual disputes arise. Effective contract management processes can help to ensure that transactions are executed properly, and that the parties involved have visibility into their individual rights and responsibilities, reducing costly disputes and confusion. How can real estate contract management software help?Real estate contract management software can streamline the process used to manage real estate contracts and automate routine admin tasks throughout the contract lifecycle. This, in turn, will make the process of creating, signing and agreeing real estate agreements much faster. A contract management solution like Juro can also improve the process of managing real estate transactions by providing more visibility into contracts and making them easier to find. This is because Juro’s data-rich contract repository centralizes contract storage and captures important contract metadata like inspection deadlines, party names and purchase prices by default. To find out more about how Juro’s all-in-one contract management software can streamline the contracting process for real estate transactions, hit the button below. Otherwise, keep reading. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please: Real estate contract management software features to look for When considering real estate contract management software, there are a few specific features that prove particularly impactful.1. Automated contract templatesAutomated contract templates can streamline the process used to create contracts by enabling teams to generate real estate contracts in just a few clicks. Rather than drafting them from scratch, Juro users can generate contracts from an existing, pre-defined template. These can then be populated by answering a simple series of questions (a Q&A workflow).The contract templates can also have rules and conditions built into them, meaning certain terms or clauses will be added or removed depending on the data provided. For example, your property management agreement template could have a rule to include additional clauses or indemnities depending on the dollar value of the contract.This makes it quick and easy for real estate professionals to initiate contacts without inviting contractual risk. 2. Approval workflowsReal estate contracts often have a lot of stakeholders, so having a fast, efficient and secure way for stakeholders to approve contracts is key. Real estate contract management software, like Juro, can automate these processes by setting up approval workflows at a template level, or for contracts that meet certain conditions. These approval workflows are highly customizable, allowing contract owners to set a sequence of approvers and use conditional logic to determine if and when approval is required. This enables real estate professionals to get contracts approved and signed faster, without letting contracts bypass senior stakeholders. 3. Mass actions Real estate contracts are typically managed at scale, with multiple legal documents for each transaction.Manually signing each and every contract one by one can be a burden for senior stakeholders, and waiting for them to put their seal of approval on these documents can delay transactions further. That’s why it’s worth looking for a tool that enables you to mass-sign routine contracts, like Juro. In Juro, stakeholders can select all of the contracts they wish to sign in the contract repository and add electronic signatures to these all at once in just a few clicks. This is just another example of how Juro enables real estate teams to safely automate routine contract admin and speed up transactions.4. Data-rich contract repositoryReal estate contract management software should also provide instant visibility into your contract data, making it easier to track and monitor your contracts at scale. This visibility enables real estate professionals to find, query, filter and report on contracts in seconds, rather than searching high and low in shared and local drives to review each one manually. This feature is especially important for the real estate industry as contracts are typically created, stored and managed in large volumes, making it difficult to source the right files. Juro’s data-rich contract repository is perfect for real estate transactions because contracts created in Juro are built as structured data, enabling teams to create custom table views that can be shared across the business with ease. 5. Alerts and remindersOne of the biggest challenges associated with tracking real estate contracts is keeping sight of upcoming due dates and deadlines. The more contracts you have, the harder this is. Automated contract reminders eliminate this problem by keeping your teams in the loop about contract deadlines. Juro users can set up automated reminders for any date field in their contract, meaning they can be notified ahead of any important contract dates, including commencement dates, termination dates and contract renewal deadlines. This feature is especially useful for real estate contract management since real estate contracts tend to have a longer contract duration, meaning these dates can be far in the future. 6. Integrations It’s also worth looking for a real estate contract management software that connects with the tools you use already. For example, Juro integrates seamlessly with a wide range of real estate tools and CRMs through Zapier, including Wise Agent CRM, Zillow, Cloze, Real Geeks and Chime. This enables teams to generate contracts in seconds, with all of the transaction data pulled from the CRM directly into the contract to populate it. Which real estate contract management system is best?There are plenty of contract management solutions that serve the real estate industry. However, some tools serve real estate professionals better than others - and Juro is one of them. Juro has all of the features we just described and more. Juro’s all-in-one contract management platform is flexible, collaborative and data-rich, giving real estate professionals complete control over their contracts while safely automating manual contract admin. That’s why Juro is the contract management tool of choice for growing businesses in the real-estate and proptech space, with customers like AppearHere, WeWork and HappyCo. To join the 6000+ companies already using Juro to manage their contracts, fill in the form below. Real estate contract templatesIf you're leasing or purchasing property, these free contract templates might prove useful:‍California Real Estate Purchase AgreementFlorida Real Estate Purchase AgreementIowa Real Estate Purchase AgreementMichigan Real Estate Purchase AgreementMinnesota Real Estate Purchase AgreementReal Estate Loan AgreementVenue Rental Contract ChatGPT said: Real estate contract management software helps professionals handle complex, high-value transactions with more speed, visibility, and control — without adding operational risk. Real estate contracts are complex and high-stakes — involving many stakeholders, long timelines, and strict regulatory requirements that are hard to manage manually. Specialist CLM software streamlines transactions end to end — automating contract creation, approvals, signing, and post-signature tracking to reduce delays and disputes. Data and automation drive faster closings — features like structured repositories, reminders, mass actions, and CRM integrations keep deals moving and obligations on track. You said: Contract negotiation is hard work, but it doesn’t have to be. Like many contract processes, it can be made simple with the help of the right software. This post shares everything you need to know about contract negotiation software, from what it is to how it’s used and the features that help the most. Read on to find out more. What is contract negotiation software?Contract negotiation software is a tool designed to remove friction and reduce administrative work throughout the contract negotiation process. This type of software either focuses solely on improving the negotiation stage of the contract lifecycle or provides a more efficient way to manage contracts at every stage, including negotiation. Whichever way you look at it, contract negotiation software has a certain set of features that make it quicker and easier to negotiate contracts with counterparties.Who needs contract negotiation software? The person who uses contract negotiation software will depend on who exactly is tasked with negotiating contracts.In businesses with lean legal teams, the role of contract negotiation often falls to the individual who initiated the contract. While for more complex business contracts, a lawyer will often be responsible for negotiations. However, if it’s a standard contract like an MSA, this will likely be a member of the sales team. If it’s an employment offer letter, it’ll likely be a member of the HR team, and so on. But what are these teams actually trying to solve by implementing contract negotiation software? What exactly is wrong with a manual negotiation workflow? Common challenges in contract negotiation Contract negotiations involve a lot of back and forth between parties, which is often made worse because this back-and-forth traditionally happens across multiple different platforms. Using tools like Microsoft Word and email to negotiate can slow this process down for two main reasons. 1. They’re uncollaborativeTypically, contracts are drafted in Microsoft Word, saved, and later stored as a static file. This file is then added as an attachment and emailed to the counterparty for review and negotiation.The problem here is that these tools weren’t designed for contract negotiation, in fact, they actively hinder collaboration. Contract stakeholders have little to no visibility into where contracts are in the negotiation process, or what’s blocking them. 2. They’re hard to trackIn a typical contract workflow, negotiation occurs using redlines in Microsoft Word. For this to happen the original contract owner needs to save and open a contract in Word, where they can accept or reject any redlines before sending an updated version back to the counterparty with the changesIf the counterparty is happy with the updated contract terms - great. Contracts can progress to signing. But if they aren’t, this process is repeated continuously until both parties reach an agreement on the contract’s contents.Moving back and forth between different contract tools is time-consuming and creates friction for both parties. In this process, it’s also incredibly difficult to keep track of your contract versions. When, more often than not, contracts are negotiated across email threads it quickly becomes difficult to monitor, track, and navigate them. This, in turn, creates more contract risk.6 benefits of switching to contract negotiation software So how can contract negotiation software help to improve the negotiation process for fast-growing companies? 1. Keep everything in one platform Managing the entire contract lifecycle in one place has many benefits, the most significant being that users can agree contracts faster and more efficiently. Contract lifecycle management (CLM) software enables teams to streamline their contracting processes, from creating and reviewing to signing and storing. This means that the negotiation process can also take place in one space, allowing you to keep better track of the negotiation process. In simple terms, this means no more juggling Word, email, Google Docs and PDFs. Instead, users can mark up contracts using AI Assistant and collaborate in Juro's browser-native editor.2. Separate internal and external comments One of the best contract negotiation software features is split internal and external versions. This feature enables you to move seamlessly between separate versions of a document: one for internal review and one for external negotiation. This enables you to set certain comments as internal comments, meaning that they’re shown to your colleagues but hidden from counterparties working on the same document. If you were to do this in Microsoft Word, you’d need to create separate versions of the contract and work on these individually. However, when you use a contract lifecycle management tool like Juro, you can simply separate these internal and external comments by toggling back and forth. 3. Automatic contract redliningAnother essential feature of contract negotiation software is redlining. As with most redlining software solutions, a CMS like Juro enables users to add digital redlines to contracts simply by adding their edits directly into the contract. This edit will then appear as a suggestion and be highlighted in green. This makes it easy to spot which changes have been made by the counterparty, as well as visualizing what the contract looked like before the edit. In Juro, each redline will also be accompanied by a pop-up box in the toolbar that flags the edit. This makes redlines even easier to distinguish from the rest of the contract, and it includes buttons that enable you to quickly accept or reject these redlines in seconds. 4. Version historyIt's also a good idea to look out for a contract negotiation software that creates a timeline of changes, or a detailed audit trail, like Juro.Internal approvers will need to easily identify who has viewed and edited a contract, what's changed, and when. For them to quickly catch up on changes and confidently make their approval, they need a clear version history capturing the details of all types of changes, but they also benefit from that view being interactive; allowing you to quickly navigate around the document, filter by activities, and so on.If the document can't be approved, blockers in the negotiation process can be easily identified. Understanding this is an effective contract negotiation strategy, as it helps users to determine where friction is occurring within the contract, and when to soften the terms included in it. This feature is also beneficial in terms of security as it enables users to identify who is responsible for which changes during the negotiation cycle.5. Comment threadsAnother useful feature of contract negotiation software is the ability to discuss clauses in comment threads. Threads enable parties to collaborate more effectively during negotiations, as they can ask and respond to queries in an organized sequence.Juro users can even tag individuals in comments, prompting them to respond faster and ensuring all points are addressed by the relevant stakeholders. This speeds up the negotiation and makes it easier to engage with senior stakeholders who have the final say on contracts.6. Central repository How you store your contracts matters and ensuring that they’re stored securely, kept confidential, and that you’re getting the most value from them is key to success. Often, businesses scatter executed contracts across shared drives, or in filing cabinets, where they’re never revisited. This drawn-out process makes contracts difficult to find and also means the data within them can become buried. This is data that could otherwise be used to inform strategic decisions and track success against legal KPIs. By implementing a smart storage solution for your contracts, like a contract repository, you could: Store contracts securely in one placeControl who has access to each contractCapture useful contract data (e.g contract value, contract duration) Query your contracts with easeGain visibility into your contract portfolio using customizable contract dashboardsWhen to buy contract negotiation software It’s all well and good knowing how this software will benefit you, but how do you know it’s time to bite the bullet and invest. The below outlines just some of the thing you can consider when looking to buy a contract negotiation tool, such as: How many people will be using the platform to negotiate contractWho the personas negotiating contracts actually are, and what they need from a toolHow heavily certain contracts are negotiated How many third-party contracts you manage What your budget is (and what it can afford)You’ll also need to consider if it’s just a contract negotiation tool you’re looking for, or if a more heavyweight option is better suited to your needs. Streamline your contract negotiationsA contract lifecycle management tool like Juro can help you streamline more than just your contract negotiation processes - you can learn more about Juro’s pricing options here. Juro helps organizations through all stages of the contract lifecycle - from creation to negotiation to storage. Teams can use collaborative features to agree contracts faster, such as in-browser redlining, threaded commenting and suggestions, and immutable negotiation audit trails. {{quote1}}Explore how Juro can help you transform your negotiation process and streamline your entire contract workflow by requesting a demo. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence ChatGPT said: Contract negotiation software removes friction from one of the most time-consuming stages of the contract lifecycle, helping teams agree deals faster with less risk. Manual negotiation tools slow deals and increase risk — juggling Word, email, PDFs and versions makes collaboration difficult and tracking changes unreliable. Contract negotiation software centralizes and simplifies collaboration — enabling in-browser redlining, threaded comments, version history, and clear internal vs external views. The biggest gains come from end-to-end CLM platforms — combining negotiation with creation, approvals, signing, and data-rich storage for faster outcomes and better visibility. You said: Transitioning to an electronic signature doesn’t have to be complicated. There are numerous use cases for electronic signatures that span a wide range of document types and circumstances. Fundamentally, eSignature was created to speed up the contract signing process and foster a better customer experience.It’s likely your business deals with sales contracts and customer forms, from vendor and supplier agreements to non-disclosure agreements and more. All of these documents require a signature and could benefit from a modern way to sign that ditches the pen and paper. Below, we take a look at some common (and uncommon) use cases for electronic signatures. 1. Electronic signature for real estate documentsYou’ve likely had experience signing real estate documents, be it a mortgage agreement in principle or a rental agreement. These documents can be complex, with multiple signatures signatures from landlords, renters and estate agents being necessary. This process usually takes some time and can be complicated, given the need for multiple signatures.These documents are also often based on dated and arcane boilerplate language, making them offputting and incomprehensible at times. So any modernization - like electronic signature - that can make these documents a little friendlier is more than welcome. The manual signing processLet’s take a short-term rental agreement as an example. The contract itself will outline the terms and conditions under which the renter can occupy the property for a brief period, typically less than six months.Once you’ve read the agreement and decided that the terms suit you, you’ll need to sign the document. Traditionally, this means going to your estate agent's office to deliver a wet-ink signature and hand over various documents such as your passport. This process can be long-winded, especially if you are moving to a new area. ‍Using eSignature to sign real estate documentsThis process can be made a lot simpler with eSignature, as people can sign wherever they are. Usually, this will be sent over by the estate agent handling the property via email and a deadline for signing will be given. Users can then attach images or PDF scans of their documents and sign their rental agreement as and when they are ready. Platforms such as DocuSign are frequently used during this process.Benefits of eSignature for real estateSign from anywhere. Put simply, it doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing eSignature gives you the ability to sign on any device, in any location.Time-saving. eSignatures are faster than handwritten ones, it only takes a couple of seconds to sign documents. Multiple signatories. Making sure that multiple people are in one place to sign a document takes time to organise, if multiple people can access a document to sign it remotely, this issue is solved. Best platforms for eSignature in real estateAs there are multiple real-estate documents to be managed, we would recommend using a tried and tested platform. DocuSign. DocuSign is a market leader and is used by many real estate agencies across the UK and the US. Its ease of use makes it a good platform for business-to-customer contracts, like rental agreements. Adobe Sign. Another eSignature platform rated highly for its ease of use, Adobe Sign is a good option for this type of agreement, particularly if it doesn't require negotiation or amendments. DropBox Sign. For those already using a platform like DropBox, a native eSignature feature can be a good option - you can compare it to Docusign, which leads the eSigning category, here. Juro. Juro's secure, native eSignature means you don't need to switch tools to agree terms, store or track all your real-estate contracts in one place. Everything happens natively in Juro, from creation to signing and post-signature contract management.2. Electronic signature for probateProbate grants you the legal right to deal with someone’s property, money and possessions (their ‘estate’) when they pass away. This process is sensitive and requires several documents to be signed, as large amounts of money can be changing hands. This could be in the form of signing documents for HMRC (in the UK) or a Grant of Representation.The manual signing processMultiple people can apply for a Grant of Probate, which means you might need multiple signatures. If you’re dealing with a larger estate, it is common to have a lawyer help with probate. This process typically requires all individuals applying for probate to sign the same original document. This can cause issues, as people need to travel to one specific location (usually their lawyer's office) to sign. The government form states: ‘Please send the original form signed by all applicants and required documents with payment to…’. This process could become complex if multiple parties are in different places.Using eSignature to sign probate documentsLuckily, this process is open to the use of eSignature in the UK, according to the government website which states: “Either email the statement to them to add their typed signature or print for them to sign in pen.” The website suggests that a typed signature is also acceptable, which simplifies the situation. You could also scan your signature and add it to the form, though this is more complex. Benefits of eSignature for probate Ease. In a situation which is already emotionally difficult, being able to easily sign the documents easily and quickly can help. Time-saving. Probate is time-sensitive, as you should not make any financial plans or put property on the market until you’ve got probate.Convenience. Put simply, it is more convenient to sign documents that require multiple people to sign them online. Best platforms for eSignature for probateTypically, you’ll be signing pre-written documents from an official source. Below are some lightweight eSignature tools to make the signing process easier. SignRequest. Offers a free, legally binding signature for those who don’t mind their branding and process under ten signatures a month. eSignly. Also offers a very lightweight free option that has protection in place for use. Microsoft Word. Technically, users can create a digital signature using Microsoft Word, as explained here (though it’s not a great experience!)3. Electronic signature for witnessingNot all signatures can be made behind closed doors. Some require a witness to be legally valid. A witness needs to be a neutral third party who watches the parties sign the legal documents. Some documents that commonly require a witness include: Last will and testamentsPrenuptial agreementPower of attorneysMortgage dealsThis can make the use case for electronic signature more complicated. The manual signing processFor any of the documents mentioned above, a valid witness is needed and they may have to meet certain requirements. They may be required to: not possess a criminal recordbe over 18not be a beneficiarybe of sound mindIf you are in the US, these may vary state by state. This may include a background check, entering a surety bond, receiving training and passing a state-administered exam.With technological innovation and digitalization gaining momentum, the acceptance of electronic signatures has surged over the years. Getting the signer, sender, and witness in one place can be time-consuming and costly. This is why electronic witness signing has picked up pace in the last few years, though it isn’t yet commonplace. Using eSignature to sign witnessed documentsElectronic signatures now provide a digital alternative to physical signatures when it comes to witnessing. This can be particularly helpful in an increasingly globalised world, as people won’t have to travel as much to get documents verified. It is worth noting that it depends on the jurisdiction, but in many countries eSignatures are now legally recognized as a valid form of signature for specific documents. Some will even allow witness signatures to be done electronically - a feature offered by some eSignature platforms. In practice, this may be done by the signatory receiving the document for signature by email, specifying the name and email address of the witness and the witness receiving a separate email asking them to add their signature. A form of ID verification may also be required as part of this process. Benefits of eSignature for witnessing Finding a witness to sign documents in a timely fashion can be a tall ask, so what are the benefits of witnessing online? Accessibility. Digitising this process means that anybody can witness a document, even if they can’t physically be present. Speed. Finding the time and space for a signatory and a witness to be in the same place can be difficult - eSignature solves this issue. Reduced risk. A digital process can mean the addition of verification steps to confirm the identity of the signatory and witness.Best platforms for eSignature in witnessingNot every platform will offer this capability, so it is important to choose one that facilitates this option. DocuSign. There is a special feature, DocuSign eWitness, that enables users to identify individuals to witness the execution of deeds and other important agreements.Adobe Sign. Though there is no built-in capability for witnessing, as DocuSign has, there is a workaround that allows you to use a delegation role to fulfil this need. 4. Electronic signature for succession ‍Succession doesn’t come around too often, but when it does, you’d best believe it involves a lot of paperwork. In the UK, the new monarch must partake in a series of traditions and events before they are officially crowned. In the case of King Charles III, this included a ‘not very regal frustration involving fountain pens’ according to New York Magazine.Before being crowned King officially, the Accession Proclamation must be signed and witnessed followed by taking an oath relating to the security of the Church of Scotland. This has been since the act of 1707 by which Scotland joined with England and Wales to form Great Britain. The manual signing processAfter taking the oath, the new monarch then signs two copies of the oath with a wet-ink signature. This proved, in September 2022, to be a challenge for the new king as an ink pot got in the way of the physical signing. But what if this process (and the memes that followed) could have been avoided? Using eSignature to sign the Accession ProclamationThis problem could be solved by using digital signatures. In the case of the King, whose signature needs to be witnessed by numerous people, a digital signature on a tablet could be an option. This would create a similar traditional experience, in keeping with the royal family’s image while saving the embarrassment of spilt ink.Benefits of eSignature for succession Environmental. eSignature saves paper and creates less waste, an important cause for the King. Security. These are incredibly important documents which could be protected with modern technology like encryption and secure eSignature to offer a heightened level of identity assurance. Media. In this case, eSignature may have saved the new King a few memes, though he doesn’t seem to mind!Best platforms for eSignature in successionIn this case, we’d recommend some high-security solutions for such an important set of documents. SignEasy. The platform highlights its advanced security features and a detailed digital audit trial. The platform is rated 4.6 stars on G2, fit for a King. OneSpan Sign. An easy-to-use platform that allows users to request different verification and authentication methods from document viewers and signatories.5. Electronic signature for employment contractsThere are a lot of different types of employment contracts, ranging from a job offer letter and salary increase letter to agency agreements and internship agreements. This translates to a lot of signatures and plenty of documentation to keep track of. In a modern working world, hybrid working is common and some workers may even be fully remote - automating this use case is a no-brainer. The manual signing processLet's take a look at a simple situation. You’ve hired a new member of the team. In the manual process, new employees have to sign their offer letter and their employment contract physically. This means either asking them to meet physically, to sign the document, or more often posting it to their home address and waiting for them to send it back. This can be a time-consuming process and may even put candidates off accepting the offer. Using eSignature to sign employment documentsThis process is made ten times simpler when you add eSignature into the mix. With a contract management platform like Juro, you can create, approve, sign and store employment contracts securely. Usually, eSignature platforms allow you to send out employment contracts via email, either with a PDF and a link to sign or as one unified document. You can then download and store them in your existing HR system. Benefits of eSignature for employment contracts Saving money. If you’re sending out multiple contracts it can be expensive to post and return them. This cost can be very high if you’re hiring people who live in a different country. Storage. Safely storing signed employment contracts is important for you and your business to ensure you are legally compliant. Document tracking. With eSignature, you can get instant notifications when the agreement is opened and signed.Best platforms for eSignature in employment contractsDocuSign. From onboarding to offboarding, DocuSign offers a signing experience built for HR teams. Juro. Draft employment contracts from automated templates refine them with Juro’s AI Assistant and sign them all in one place. Sign contracts faster with JuroJuro’s AI-enabled contract automation platform empowers businesses to accelerate the creation, execution, signing, and management of the whole contract process.To find out what's possible for your business, fill in the form below and book a personalized demo. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Electronic signatures aren’t just about convenience — they unlock faster, safer, and more flexible ways to agree documents across almost every industry and scenario. eSignatures dramatically speed up high-friction processes — from real estate and employment contracts to probate and witnessed documents, removing delays caused by location and logistics. They improve accessibility, security, and experience — enabling remote signing, identity verification, audit trails, and reduced reliance on paper-based workflows. The biggest value comes from end-to-end platforms — tools like Juro combine drafting, negotiation, signing, and post-signature management in one secure workspace. You said: Employment contracts come in all shapes and sizes. One of these is a fixed-term contract. But what is a fixed-term contract, and how does it compare to other types of HR contracts? Stay tuned to find out. What is a fixed-term contract? A fixed-term contract is an employment agreement between an employee and an employer that lasts for a specified period or the duration of a set project. In other words, fixed-term employment contracts are used when businesses wish to provide individuals with temporary or short-term employment, rather than permanent roles. But how do they actually work? Let’s find out. How do fixed-term employment contracts work?Fixed-term employment contracts work in the same way as most HR contracts. However, fixed-term employment contracts differ from permanent employment contracts in that they have a pre-determined end. This means that the contract will usually describe the event that will trigger the end of the contract. These triggers usually come in three forms:1. End datesTo ensure that an employment contract is only temporary, fixed-term contracts usually have a pre-determined end date. By setting an end date within the contract, the employee knows when their contract is due to end, and the contract’s duration is clearly defined. How long this period of employment is will depend on the terms negotiated by the employer and employee. However, the contract duration is usually fairly short since there are laws in place that entitle employees to have a permanent contract if their fixed-term contract(s) last long enough. We’ll explore that in more detail later, though. 2. Specific eventsAnother way that fixed-term employment contracts work is by outlining a specific event that will end the employment contract, rather than a date. For example, a startup may only employ an individual up until the company’s funding has run out. Although there is no set date provided, the fixed-term contract may still be valid if this event is specified clearly and in enough detail. It must also meet the usual requirements for a contract - of course. 3. Project completions The final way that fixed-term contracts can work is by establishing that the contract will end once a specific task has been completed. For instance, if you’re paying a contractor to complete a specific project for you, a fixed-term contract will finish once this work has been completed, not by a specific date. This approach is useful when it’s difficult to predict how long a project will take to complete. By comparison, a permanent contract will continue to operate until it has been terminated or breached.When do employers use fixed-term contracts?One instance when employers use fixed-term contracts is if they require support on a particular project. For example, if a business is working on a project that requires more manpower or certain expertise, it can hire additional employees to meet these demands.However, once this project has been completed, the additional headcount may be unnecessary, so it makes sense for the employees’ contracts to end. A fixed-term contract enables businesses to employ people for specific projects without needing to commit to hiring them permanently. Another situation where fixed-term employment contracts are common is seasonal work. A great example of this is when retail stores hire temporary staff during the run-up to Christmas. They do this to meet increased demand, as stores are typically much busier during this period.But when the festive season ends, so do these fixed-term contracts. Again, a fixed-term employment contract empowers employers to only hire individuals temporarily when there is increased demand. Another common example of fixed-term employment contracts being used is when companies need to cover certain positions. This happens when a permanent employee is off sick for a set period or has gone on maternity leave. As is true of the other examples we’ve just discussed, using a fixed-term contract enables employers to hire and release employees flexibly to meet the company’s changing needs.Find out more about employment law for in-house counsel.What is the law on fixed-term employment contracts?So long as they meet the basic requirements of a contract, a fixed-term employment contract will be legally binding - just like any other contract. But the legal implications of a fixed-term contract don’t end there. Fixed-term contracts are subject to regulation right across the globe. The main goal of this legislation is to ensure that employees still have access to basic labor rights, regardless of how long their contract lasts. One of the most common rules across jurisdictions is that a fixed-term contract can only last (or be extended until) a certain period before the employee is entitled to a permanent contract. Within the UK, the rule is that any employee on fixed-term contracts for more than four years is automatically classed as a permanent employee. Similarly, German law says that fixed-term contracts can’t be extended more than three times, and they cannot exceed the maximum period of two years. Employment laws also give employees the right to receive the same treatment as their colleagues on permanent contracts. For example, the Fixed Term Employees Regulations 2002 says that fixed-term employees are entitled to the same benefits, compensation, and opportunities as permanent staff. This is true unless the business can provide a good reason not to treat them as equals. Can fixed-term contracts become permanent?As we discussed a moment ago, it is certainly possible for a fixed-term contract to transition into a permanent one. This can happen in two ways:If an employee has had successive fixed-term contracts with the company and, under the law, qualifies for a permanent contract now instead. If a permanent vacancy becomes available and an employee on a fixed-term employment contract is chosen to fill this vacancy. At this point, they will replace their fixed-term contract with a new, permanent contract. Can fixed-term contracts be terminated early? Just as fixed-term contracts can become permanent, they can also be terminated early. Don’t worry, though. There are still a few rules around when this can happen and how it should be handled by employers and employees. What these rules are will vary depending on where you’re based and the laws that govern that area. Let’s explore an example of how this works in the UK for now. Can fixed-term contracts be terminated early in the UK?Put simply, an employer can end a fixed-term contract early within the UK. However, if the employment contract doesn’t discuss the possibility of the agreement being ended early, premature termination could result in a breach of contract. Even if the contract does discuss the possibility of ending the fixed-term contract early, the employer must still give the employee sufficient notice when doing so. The minimum notice period for fixed-term employees is a week if they’re worked continuously for at least a month. If they’ve worked continuously for two years or more, they are entitled to at least one weeks worth of notice for each year they have worked. If the contract itself promises a longer notice period, then this will be the period that applies. What happens when a fixed-term contract ends?If a fixed-term contract ends at the agreed finishing point, both parties will be released from the agreement without the need for notice. This should still be handled professionally, and the dismissal process must be fair. Are fixed-term contracts good?To recap: we’ve discussed what a fixed-term contract is, why they’re used and what the legal implications of one are. What we haven’t discussed yet, is how ‘good’ they are. But unfortunately, it’s not as simple as fixed-term contracts being ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Fixed-term contracts can be a great option for certain individuals and businesses. However, they aren’t without their flaws. Let’s explore the pros and cons of a fixed-term contract in a bit more detail now. Advantages of fixed-term employment contractsOpportunity to evaluate employeesFixed-term contracts allow employers to assess how suitable an employee is for a role without committing to their employment indefinitely. Employees also have a similar opportunity to evaluate the employer and role during this time. ‍Greater flexibility‍Another obvious advantage of fixed-term employment contracts for employers is that they have the flexibility to employ staff temporarily to meet increased demand. A by-product of this is greater efficiency, as it eliminates the potentially unnecessary cost of employing that individual during less busy periods. Disadvantages of fixed-term employment contracts‍Job insecurity‍One of the most obvious drawbacks of fixed-term employment contracts is that they create job insecurity. This is because they don’t provide long-term employment for individuals, only short-term work. ‍More difficult to recruit for‍Due to the reason we just discussed, fixed-term employment positions are also more difficult to fill. This is because job security is important to a lot of people, so they will naturally gravitate towards roles that promise indefinite and permanent employment instead. Team-building is challenging‍Since their time within a company or role is limited, it can be challenging for the employee to settle into the team. This can hinder team cohesion. Regular renewals require admin work‍Since fixed-term contracts only last for a short period, they need to be renewed more frequently than ordinary contracts. This can involve a lot of administrative work if there’s no process in place to manage renewals.How to manage fixed-term contract renewals If managed properly, fixed-term contracts can be extremely useful for businesses. Many businesses will even choose to renew fixed-term contracts. But, as we just described, frequent contract renewals can involve a lot of administrative work. But they don’t have to. By adopting a contract automation tool like Juro, you can remove friction when managing upcoming contract renewals. This is achieved in a few ways. One of the best ways that Juro enables users to manage fixed-term contract renewals is through automated contract reminders. Contracts built-in Juro are tagged automatically, and important values like the contract’s effective date and end date can be used to set automated contract reminders. These reminders are fully customizable and will notify you of any upcoming contract renewal deadlines ahead of time. This notice gives you more time to evaluate the success of a fixed-term contract and decide whether to renew it or not. If you do decide to renew the contract, you can also track the progress of this renewal with ease. Juro’s kanban view contract dashboard enables you to see where all of your contracts are in the contract lifecycle at any point. This helps to quickly identify any blockers and get fixed-term contracts over the line faster.Need help managing employment contracts?Fixed-term employment contracts aren’t much different from any other HR contracts in that they need to be managed effectively.The best way to do this is by establishing an effective contract workflow, or by adopting contract automation software like Juro. Juro’s all-in-one contract automation software enables HR teams to refresh HR documents at scale, spend 75% less time on paperwork and deliver a great hiring experience for candidates. Want to find out more? Fill out the form below. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence ChatGPT said: Fixed-term contracts give employers flexibility and employees clarity — but they come with legal, operational, and administrative considerations that need careful management. Fixed-term contracts are time-bound by design — ending on a specific date, event, or project completion, unlike permanent employment which continues indefinitely. They’re tightly regulated to protect employees — with rules around maximum duration, equal treatment, notice periods, and when fixed-term roles must convert to permanent ones. The biggest operational challenge is renewals — which is why automation tools like Juro help HR teams track end dates, manage renewals proactively, and reduce admin at scale. You said: Knowing when a contract begins is key. Discover what a contract commencement date is and how to track them at scale in this guide. Commencement date meaning A commencement date is defined as the date that a contract or legal agreement becomes effective.In other words, a commencement date marks the point at which a contract officially begins and binds the parties involved. This is also known as the contract’s effective date. Commencement date vs signing date: what’s the difference?It’s important to recognize the difference between a commencement date and the date on which a contract is signed. While they can occasionally be used interchangeably, not all contracts commence at the point of signing. Some contracts will include a clause referring to a date in the future as the contract’s commencement date, instead. If this is the case, you should treat the commencement date as the date on which the obligations become effective. Why is a commencement date important?Including a commencement date in a contract is important because this makes it clear when each party will officially assume responsibility for certain tasks and obligations. If a contract doesn’t include a clear commencement date, this can result in confusion about when certain promises are due to be performed and when the other terms in the contract come into effect. This is a common cause of contractual disputes because each party might have different expectations of when the contract actually begins. Commencement date requirements When should a contract commencement date be?More often than not, a commencement date is a date in the future. However, some people will choose to have the contract commence at the point of signing as they want it to become effective immediately. It’s also possible for a contract’s commencement date to be in the past. Although, this can only be the case if this has been agreed upon by all contracting parties. Who can choose a contract’s commencement date?All parties to the contract will need to agree to a commencement date, regardless of when it is. However, it’s usually up to the contract owner to select a commencement date when drafting the contract, and this date is then subject to negotiation when the contract is shared with the counterparty for review. Is it possible to change a contract’s commencement date? As we just mentioned, counterparties can negotiate a commencement date before signing the contract, if they wish. But it’s possible to change a contract’s commencement date post-signature, too. However, this will need to be with the explicit consent of all contracting parties, and it will be achieved by amending the contract. Where to find a contract’s commencement dateThere’s no single rule about where a contract’s commencement date should appear within the agreement. It’s good practice to have it displayed clearly at the front of a contract, though. This is because it’s one of the most important data points within a contract, so it should be easy to find and refer back to. This is also useful from a legal design perspective because it means that the contract’s core information is made more accessible for the parties involved. The importance of tracking contract commencement datesJust as it’s important to include a commencement date in your contract, it’s also important to track this commencement date. Doing this helps to ensure that you’re performing your contracts properly and not breaching the contract’s terms, which can have serious legal consequences. This is especially important for businesses that manage contracts at scale and have different contracts commencing at different times. While it can be tempting to try and remember these commencement dates or refer back to the contract at a later date to check them, this results in increased contractual risk.Fortunately, most businesses track contract commencement dates in a contract management spreadsheet of some sort. They then refer back to this spreadsheet to monitor when they need to begin fulfilling their obligations. However, this involves a lot of manual admin. Not only do contract owners need to spend time manually inputting the data, but they also need to check the spreadsheet regularly to make sure they’re not missing any deadlines. There is a better way to set and track commencement dates for your contracts, though. Track contract commencement dates in JuroContracts created in Juro are built as structured data. This means that the data points within your contracts (we call them smartfields or contract metadata) are all captured and recorded automatically, rather than you recording them manually.These dates are then pulled into customizable contract dashboards, giving you real-time, actionable insights about your contracts. To find out more, fill in the form below to book a personalized demo. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: The contract commencement date sets the clock running on rights, obligations, and risk — which is why it needs to be clearly defined and carefully tracked. The commencement date is when a contract becomes legally effective, and it may differ from the signing date if the parties agree the contract should start earlier or later. Clear commencement dates reduce disputes and confusion, ensuring everyone knows exactly when obligations begin and performance is due. Tracking commencement dates at scale requires automation, with tools like Juro capturing dates as structured data and surfacing them in real-time dashboards and reminders. You said: Contracts are a great way to finalize the terms of a project or transaction. But what if the scope of that project changes over time?Enter: the change order. This Juro explainer explores everything you need to know about change orders, when to use them, and how to best manage them. What is a change order? A change order is a written agreement that amends an existing contract after the contract’s effective date has passed. Also known as a variation, a change order is used to revise the scope of the work, the sum paid for the work, or the contract’s duration, for example. This means that, if parties wish to add or remove certain work from the existing contract, they can use a change order to do so. What is the purpose of a change order?The purpose of a change order is to provide flexibility within long-term projects and ensure that parties can update their existing contract to reflect changes if necessary. While the purpose of a contract is to finalize the terms of an agreement, it’s still possible that circumstances will change over time. This is particularly true for long-term projects where it’s difficult to predict exactly which deadlines should be set and what the costs associated with a project will be. This is why change orders are commonplace in construction projects. Construction work typically takes a long time to complete, and the scope of a project can change over time as construction teams encounter new problems. This can mean that additional time is needed to fulfill the contract’s terms, or even that the project becomes more expensive. This is why fixed-price contracts are often not useful in this context. Although it can be tempting to discuss changes to the project’s scope and costs verbally, it’s also important to record these amendments in case of a dispute. A change order can be used to amend the contract to reflect these changes in a secure and legally binding way. Without a change order, you risk completing work that falls outside of the scope of the original contract and not being paid for it. Without these changes captured within a contract or agreement of some sort, you’ll struggle to enforce the amendment in court. When is a change order used?We just discussed why we use change orders, now we’re going to explore when we use them. Change orders can be used for a variety of reasons. However, the most common instances include:If additional work has been requested during the course of the projectIf certain work is no longer necessary and the parties wish to remove it from the contractIf the work was estimated incorrectly when the contract was createdIf the parties realize that the project will take longer than they originally expectedIf the cost of materials or resources has changed since the contract was writtenIf one of the parties has found a faster or more efficient method to complete the work and both parties want to adopt this method If a change in regulations results in a change to the method or materials used Who is responsible for creating a change order?Either party to a contract can initiate a change order. However, both parties will need to agree to the terms within the change order and demonstrate their acceptance. This is no different from the ordinary requirements for a contract. This means that a contract manager, or any other individual in charge of the contract’s performance, can request a change order. How does a change order work? Let’s explore how change orders work in a bit more detail together now. As we just discussed, either party to a contract can request a change order. How they do this and what the change order will look like depends on what the original contract says. Most commercial contracts will include a term that refers to a particular change order form. If this is true for your contract, you’ll need to use that particular form and process when requesting one. However, if your original contract doesn’t discuss a form or process, the normal procedure is as follows:All parties discuss the proposed change and what the specifics of this change will be.If necessary, parties will negotiate the proposed change until they reach an agreement.Once the parties have agreed on the specifics, the change order will be drafted and signed (either with wet ink or electronic signatures).Once signed, the change order will become effective (unless it has a different effective date within the contract). It should then be treated as a supplemental contract and used alongside the original contract.What does a change order form include? Let’s turn our attention quickly to what a typical change order looks like in practice, and what it includes. Firstly, the change order will identify the project. To do this, it should provide the names of both parties and their details. It should also mention the main details or the original contract, like the effective date and an overview of the work included in the project originally. This helps all of the parties to accurately identify the project being amended. This is useful for businesses that manage lots of contracts with different businesses as it removes any confusion and differentiates between their other projects. The change order form should then also provide an updated effective date. This will determine when the change order comes into effect and when the original contract’s terms become redundant. Next, the change order needs to cover the changes requested in detail. This is arguably the most important part of the contract. If the parties have requested multiple changes, you’ll need to be exhaustive and list all of these. You should also describe them in as much detail to reduce contract risk and ensure all parties are on the same page. If there are changes in the costs as a result of the amendments, you should also be transparent about what these are and how they were calculated. You should also clarify how the original timeline will change as a result of the change order. Being upfront about these will reduce friction during the negotiation stage of the contract lifecycle. How to manage change orders more effectivelyChange orders aren’t always easy to manage. There are a few reasons for this:Updated terms are rarely agreed without negotiation first, and this negotiation can be lengthy Finding and monitoring change orders post-signature can be hard work, making it tough to track contracts and ensure contract complianceChange orders typically require approval from a range of different stakeholders, and quickly However, with the right tools in place, managing change orders can be made simple. For example, if you use a contract automation platform like Juro to manage your change orders (and other contracts), you’ll be able to reduce friction and gain visibility into your contracts. Here’s how:1. Automated contract templatesOne of the most effective ways to make creating change orders easier is to automate them. Juro users can create automated contract templates for change orders, and these can be populated in seconds using a simple Q&A workflow.2. Streamlined contract negotiation Contract negotiation can be a pain when managing change orders. Even if the parties have agreed on making a change, the exact details of this change tend to be hotly negotiated. In a traditional workflow, this usually means sending static versions of the change order form back and forth via email, downloading new versions of it into Word to redline, and repeating this process until all parties agree to the terms. It’s repetitive, time-consuming, and requires a lot of contract admin work. However, with an all-in-one contract tool like Juro, parties can negotiate change orders in one platform. Juro users can redline directly onto the contract in the platform, add their own comments, mention counterparties and invite other stakeholders to review the contract. By replacing multiple tools with one, Juro streamlines the negotiation process and removes unnecessary friction. 3. Contract approval workflows As we mentioned earlier, change orders often need to be approved by internal stakeholders before they’re signed. Juro makes this approval process quick and easy using contract approval workflows. Juro users can set up sequences of approvers for different contracts or automatically send a contract for approval if certain conditions have been met. This means that if a change order has a value over a certain threshold, it will automatically be sent to the finance team for their approval. These workflows are fully customizable and make approving contracts effortless.4. Searchable contract repositoryChange orders can often be saved in a shared drive and never looked at again. But when it comes to performing a contract audit or responding to disagreements, having these change order forms to hand is crucial. Fortunately, contracts built in Juro are created as structured data, making them fully searchable using OCR. They are also stored securely within a contract repository where they can be monitored and reported on with ease.Juro users can search through thousands of contracts in seconds, giving them access to important contract data as and when they need it. Manage change orders with Juro Juro is the all-in-one contract automation platform that enables all teams to streamline the creation, execution, and management of contracts at scale. To find out more, fill in the form below to get in touch with a specialist. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Change orders give contracts the flexibility they need when real-world projects evolve — but only if changes are clearly documented and properly managed. Change orders formally amend live contracts — updating scope, price, or timelines after the effective date to reflect agreed changes and protect both parties. They’re critical for enforceability and risk control — without a written change order, additional work or cost changes may be impossible to recover or defend in a dispute. Automation simplifies change order management at scale — tools like Juro streamline drafting, negotiation, approvals, and storage so changes stay visible, approved, and compliant. You said: Contracts are a key touchpoint between businesses and counterparties - so how can legal contract design help companies leave a better impression? Let’s find out. What is contract design?Contract design explores the layout and content of a contract, looking at ways businesses can improve their legal documents for readability and accessibility. Effective contract design can streamline the contract workflow, reducing time-to-sign and improving the counterparty’s experience.Who does contract design affect?Contracts don’t just impact legal teams; everyone in the business, from finance, to sales, to people and talent, is affected by the contract process. Effective legal contract design can impact:The wider business teamCreating and sending out well-designed contracts ensures that the business leaves a strong first impression, and reduces the friction often caused in the negotiation process.If your document is well structured and easy to read, customers and candidates won’t struggle to understand what they’re agreeing to - and will sign much quicker. This time-saving is invaluable, especially at a high-growth scaleup.Legal teams‍Lean legal teams don't need to add contract admin to their growing workload - but poorly designed contracts take up a chunk of their time. Legal teams end up answering the same questions from their colleagues, or spending too much time negotiating terms with the counterparty - terms that could be simplified to avoid this back-and-forth in the first place, leaving legal to do the work they were trained to do.Sales teamsThe sales team handles a variety of contracts, from non-disclosure agreements to order forms. Well designed contracts will enable the sales team to speed up the sales cycle, getting signatures on dotted lines much faster.People and talent teamsP&T teams send out employment contracts and option agreements, and will need to scale this process as headcount grows.ApproversThese depend on the contract type, and can also vary from business to business - usually, legal teams act as approvers. Approvers need to sign off on a contract so it can be sent to the counterparty - if the contract is difficult to read or understand, this could slow the whole process down.The counterpartyThe counterparty’s first impression of a business should be a stellar one. With contracts playing a key role in strengthening this relationship, it’s important for businesses to make sure they create contracts that people actually want to sign. Poor contract design can lead to disengagement, frustration, and a higher risk of lost deals or discouraged candidates. Businesses usually resolve issues around legal contract design in-house - where responsibility falls on the legal team, possibly with input from content and design. As businesses scale they may consider hiring a contract designer to simplify their contracts and make them more human. What does a contract designer do?A contract designer is a type of legal designer who focuses on improving legal documents to create better user experiences. Contract designers may be designers with an interest in law, or lawyers with an interest in legal design - but at its core, contract design involves implementing design principles into legal work.How can contract design affect the contract workflow?There’s friction in the contract workflow when:The counterparty has to re-read a document to make sense of complicated terms; andThe counterparty can’t find the information they need in order to sign This can be detrimental to the progress of a sales deal, or the hiring of a new candidate, for example. If the counterparty doesn’t understand their contract, or has to sift through blocks of text, brimming with legalese, to find the key information that impacts them, the chance of getting a signature on the dotted line is slim.At a scaling business, the last thing you want to worry about is how poor contract design is impacting growth. Here’s how legal teams can mitigate these problems.How can teams improve their contract designThere are several steps teams can take to improve their legal contract design:1. Establish the terms you’re willing to concedeThe business wants to get signatures on the dotted lines as quickly as possible - so explore your history of negotiation to see what you can improve. Are there any frequently negotiated terms that you can soften to speed things along? Are there any clauses in your contracts that don’t make sense, or need constant elaboration when negotiating? Do you use legalese in your documents that can be erased or simplified to help the counterparty?Get the business involved and align with different teams to figure out what you can change, what needs to be rephrased, and what needs to be deleted altogether.2. Get rid of the jargonIt shouldn’t be a mission to read and understand simple contracts - and yet, the reality is that contracts aren’t designed for the end user at all.Jargon and legalese plays a huge role here. If a contract is crammed full of incomprehensible legal jargon, chances are, the counterparty will delay signing it - or worse, refuse to sign at all. Instead, simplify your contracts by cutting out excessive jargon and making sure your document is easy to understand for people who aren’t lawyers. 3. Brand it There’s no reason why your contracts shouldn’t be branded in the same way you’d brand any other company document. If you’re looking at improving your contract design, make your contracts more welcoming and add character through branding.This could be as simple as adding logos to your documents, or using brand colours throughout the contract. Go one step further and incorporate visual elements like animations to really leave a lasting impression. Beyond visuals, you can also amend the copy in the contract to reflect your brand’s tone of voice. Here’s an example of a branded non-disclosure agreement in Juro. 4. Prioritise the key detailsThere’s nothing more frustrating for a counterparty than having to dig through pages of contract jargon to find the information most important to them. This could be anything from key dates to addresses, to renewal info.If you’re looking at improving your contract design, then make sure you place the most important information front and centre, so your counterparty has all the information they need to hand, and can make a well-informed decision.We set out to create a privacy policy that people actually wanted to read - and then open-sourced the template for everyone to use. Click the image below to find out more.Find a contracts platform that focuses on the end userIf you’re looking to replace the manual contract process with an automated system, then consider a platform that also has an intuitive interface and an in-browser editor. This will allow you to save beautiful, personalised templates from which other teams in the business can self-serve - making sure that legal contract design is at the heart of your process from start to finish.Want to find out more? Get in touch to see how Juro can help legal and the teams they enable to agree and manage contracts in one workspace. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Contracts shape first impressions just as much as sales decks or websites — and thoughtful legal contract design can turn friction into faster, friendlier agreements. Contract design improves clarity, speed, and experience by making legal documents easier to read, understand, and sign for non-lawyers. Poor design slows deals and increases legal workload, while well-structured, jargon-free contracts reduce negotiation cycles and repetitive questions. Designing for the end user pays off at scale, with branded templates, clear key details, and plain language helping businesses close deals and hire faster. You said: Sales teams spend most of their time in CRMs. It’s where all of their deals and contacts live. But CRM systems aren’t designed to manage contracts, forcing sales teams to venture into multiple different tools to close deals and get contracts over the line. That is, unless they integrate Pipedrive with a contract management platform like Juro. In this guide, you'll find out how sales reps can shorten sales cycles and remove blockers using Juro's integration with Pipedrive.What is Pipedrive?Pipedrive is a sales CRM and pipeline management platform that enables teams to monitor deals, streamline communications, and oversee the sales process. Before we get into how sales reps can use Pipedrive more efficiently, let’s explore out what a manual workflow looks like for sales teams using Pipedrive. Why is sales contract management painful for many businesses?Sales contracts are at the heart of scaling businesses’ growth. The faster the company grows, the more contracts need to be managed. The problem is, scaling companies often have lean legal teams, meaning inefficient contract processes can quickly create costly bottlenecks within a sales cycle. Within a traditional contract lifecycle, lawyers are tasked with first drafting the sales contracts. This typically happens in Microsoft Word using a pre-existing template, which is then populated manually by pasting the deal information found in sales databases like Pipedrive. This process is repetitive and unscalable, but it also distracts legal teams from higher-value tasks. But the hard work doesn’t end there. Once drafted, the contract is shared internally for review, and later shared with counterparties for contract negotiation. This back and forth usually happens over email, with versions sent back and forth and redlined in Word until all parties are satisfied with the terms included. Post-negotiation, parties typically move into yet another platform to get the contract signed. Once signed using electronic signature tools like DocuSign or AdobeSign, the contracts are saved as PDFs in shared drives where they often sit collecting dust until the next contract audit.Switching between all of these different tools and entering contract data manually often results in costly delays for sales teams, making it challenging to capture revenue efficiently and close new business contracts. The fragmented process also increases the risk of mistakes within contracts and loss of version control. Fortunately, Pipedrive users don’t have to manage contracts in this way. Instead, they can streamline the process using a tool like Juro. Let's run through how it works in practice. How to manage contracts in Pipedrive Juro's integration with Pipedrive enables sales reps to automate contracts from Pipedrive by moving a deal from one stage to another. When a deal progresses to a specific stage in Pipedrive, a contract is generated automatically in Juro using a pre-approved template. Since Juro users map properties in Pipedrive to smartfields in their contract template, the data captured in their deal records moves seamlessly between the two platforms to populate the contract.This enables reps to automate sales contracts in seconds, with no repetitive admin work required. Sales reps will know when the contract has been created in Juro because there will be a notification in the deal history in Pipedrive with a link to it. Reps can also receive contract updates within Pipedrive, with automated notifications shared in the CRM. This enables them to track the status of their contracts in real time and without leaving Pipedrive. The benefits of managing contracts in PipedriveThere are also a few more, specific benefits of managing contracts using Juro’s integration with Pipedrive. These include:Greater data accuracy: Rather than relying on manual data extraction and entry processes, managing contracts in Pipedrive means contract data moves between the systems seamlessly, and without the need for human inputFaster sales cycles: Sales contracts can be created much faster when automated in Juro than they can in a traditional workflow. This helps to speed up the sales cycle and capture revenue quicklyNo more waiting for legal: Sales teams often see legal teams as a blocker when getting contracts over the line. However, with conditional logic, teams can automate watertight sales contracts with terms that have been pre-approved by legal, rather than waiting around Enhanced version control: Switching between tools to manage contracts can result in poor version control. By integrating Juro with Pipedrive, sales teams no longer need to move between platforms as contracts progress through the lifecycle. Contract creation, review, negotiation, signing, and storage can all happen in one placeMore time for higher-value work: By creating a seamless workflow and reducing contract admin for legal and sales teams, this integration frees up more time for these teams to work on higher-value projectsAutomate sales contracts by integrating Pipedrive with JuroJuro's AI-enabled contract automation platform empowers scaling businesses to streamline the creation, execution and management of contracts. To find out more about how Juro can help your business to agree contracts 10x faster, fill in the form below. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Sales teams shouldn’t have to leave their CRM to get contracts over the line — integrating Pipedrive with a CLM like Juro removes friction from deal to signature. CRM-native contract automation speeds up sales cycles by generating contracts automatically in Juro when deals move stages in Pipedrive, with no manual drafting or data entry. Pre-approved templates remove legal bottlenecks by letting sales reps self-serve on compliant contracts while legal retains control through conditional logic. End-to-end visibility improves accuracy and momentum, with real-time contract updates, version control, and signing all handled in one connected workflow. You said: Generative AI has disrupted the world. From speech-to-text functions to instant image creation, this new technology has the power to completely transform lives. Whether it’s optimizing marketing strategies or improving customer service, the applications of generative AI span across industries – making it crucial for organizations that wish to thrive to realize its potential.In this article, we explore some of the best generative AI courses for 2025. These programs cover essential skills, such as understanding AI fundamentals, prompt engineering, and applying AI in real-world scenarios, ensuring your organization remains competitive now, and in the years to come.But before we get into these courses, let’s run through the basics first so we’re all on the same page.What is generative AI?Generative AI is a specific branch of artificial intelligence for creating new content. Whether it’s text, images, videos, or audio, this AI technology can generate assets in various formats from prompts and existing data.Think of it as a digital assistant capable of crafting marketing copy, drafting contracts, designing product prototypes, or even creating realistic customer interactions. Tools like ChatGPT can generate email templates teams can tweak and use to speed up email management, while image-generation software like DALL·E can create product mockups in seconds.Benefits of using gen AIWe already mentioned gen AI has the power to transform. But how exactly does it do this? Whether it’s ChatGPT, DALL·E, or any other tool, generative AI enhances efficiency and fosters creativity. With teams no longer having to focus on manual or time-consuming tasks, their efforts can be redirected to higher-value tasks and more strategic initiatives instead.But leveraging AI technology doesn’t just make life easier for businesses – it helps them maintain a positive and modern brand image, too. When businesses show the world they willingly adopt new technologies such as generative AI, those they sell to or partner with will perceive them as industry innovators who are willing to learn and do what it takes to position their organization ahead of the competition.And we’re seeing this across every industry today. Even more wary and traditional professions like legal are preparing to use, or already embracing, generative AI.Results from Juro's State of In-house Report 2024Why are generative AI courses important?Adopting a few gen AI technologies doesn’t mean, however, that your business is set for life.Staying ahead requires constant learning and skill development. After all, generative AI evolves especially rapidly. Since ChatGPT came into the picture in 2022, generative AI iterations have been released several times in a month. According to a McKinsey & Company report, in March 2023 alone, there were six major gen AI innovations introduced to the market, including customer relationship management solutions and technologies to support the finance sector. The same report said gen AI technologies are expected to keep proliferating to address more specific use cases rather than generic ones. With gen AI progressing at this pace, it’s clear businesses that fail to adapt risk falling behind competitors who embrace these advancements.To take full advantage of the power of any generative AI model, organizations must keep on top of AI capabilities and tooling. They should continuously train teams on new features and applications that will help to increase adoption, reduce risk, and integrate these new ways of working into their existing routines and workflows. Ultimately, completing courses and developing employee skills will help your business stand out from the crowd.Best gen AI courses for 2026Convinced your business needs to upskill to stay ahead? Let’s take a look at some of the best generative AI courses on offer in 2026. Your employees don’t have to take all these courses at once, of course. Just choose one first that meets your immediate business and team learning needs, and that fits your budget.1. Introduction to Generative AI by Google CloudDesigned for beginners, Google’s introductory course helps learners understand the basics of generative AI, covering its applications, models, and best practices.It provides hands-on experience with various Google tools and even gives learners the chance to build and develop their own generative models. The curriculum also includes modules on large language models, diffusion models, and responsible AI practices.If you’re looking for your team to learn more about what generative AI is, how it is used, and how it differs from traditional machine learning methods, this course is a great way to get started. Through a mix of videos and readings, they’ll learn everything they need to pass the quiz and display their completion badge.‍‍Price: Free‍Length: 45 minutesCertification: Yes, you can achieve a completion badgeDifficulty: For beginners2. Generative AI Fundamentals by DatabricksDatabricks’ gen AI course covers the basics of generative AI. From creating code and content to expediting customer service, this program dives into transformational use cases to highlight what AI can do for your business and why you should care.Using technology like ChatGPT, the course explores Large Language Model (LLM) applications, the potential risks and challenges, and best practices for success with generative AI.Your team can watch just four short videos. If they pass the knowledge test, they can earn a badge to display on their résumé or social media profiles.Price: FreeLength: Four short videosCertification: Yes, you will earn a completion badgeDifficulty: For beginners3. Generative AI: Introduction and Applications by IBMCoursera host another great generative AI course, led by IBM. It's called Generative AI: Introduction and Applications.Your team can unpack the capabilities of generative AI in IBM’s beginner’s course by discovering key applications and examples of generative AI in different sectors and industries, exploring common models and tools, and learning the difference between generative AI and discriminative AI.With just over three modules and five assessments, they can easily build subject matter expertise and gain a deeper understanding of the impact of generative AI and how to use it. They even have the option to put their new-found knowledge to the test via a voluntary project.Price: Free, but only for Coursera plus membersLength: 6 hoursCertification: Yes, you'll receive a shareable certificateDifficulty: Beginner level4. Generative AI for Beginners by MicrosoftMicrosoft's generative AI course is another great option for individuals looking to upskill and learn the basics of gen AI and the foundations it's built upon.Aimed at people brand new to the world of artificial intelligence, this free course introduces the fundamentals of generative AI, including its history, key concepts, and practical applications.Your team can explore prompt engineering, building and developing AI applications, and various generative models, including:Open Source modelsMeta modelsSmall language modelsIn this course, Microsoft covers the ethical considerations of generative AI and how to use it responsibly, explaining how to ensure output is fair and non-harmful. Your team can also learn about the risks of artificial intelligence, common threats and vulnerabilities, as well as best practices to secure your business’s AI system.Price: FreeLength: 21 lessonsCertification: Not clear what you'll receive on completionDifficulty: For beginners5. Generative AI for Leaders and Business Professionals: A Quick Overview by UdemyThis generative AI course by Udemy has been designed specifically with leaders and business professionals in mind, helping them understand how AI has impacted their specific sector and supporting them to embed this transformative new technology.Covering key frameworks and strategies, your team will learn how to leverage AI for strategic decision-making, risks and ethical considerations of using generative AI at work, and best practices for successfully introducing AI programs.Price: $30Length: 8 h and 41 minutesCertification: Yes, you'll get a certificate upon completionDifficulty: Designed for business leaders6. Certified Generative AI Specialist by Chartered Institute of Professional CertificationsIf you’re looking for a fully accredited program, this comprehensive course promises to equip your team with the skills and knowledge needed to master the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI.They will explore the principles of generative AI, data acquisition and preprocessing, neural network architectures, natural language processing, image and video generation, audio synthesis, and creative AI applications.By the end of the course, they’ll gain a globally-recognized credential that will distinguish them as experts in all things generative AI, boost their career, and enhance your business. Price: $490Length: 11 hoursCertification: Yes, you'll receive a certification accredited by the Chartered Institute of Professional CertificationsDifficulty: Advanced7. Introduction to Prompt Engineering for Generative AI by LinkedInGenerative AI relies on good-quality input, otherwise known as ‘prompts’. Poor prompts result in vague, inadequate content. Asking gen AI to ‘Write a 150-word product description for an eco-friendly, reusable water bottle made from stainless steel’ is better than asking it to ‘Write about a water bottle.’ The first will ensure a specific, tailored result, while the second a generic response.In other words, spending time to craft a clear, detailed prompt is key to getting the best gen AI output at work.In this ‘Introduction to Prompt Engineering’ course, your team will discover how to craft effective prompts for generative AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL·E. They will also explore techniques to structure prompts for better outcomes, refine AI-generated responses, and tackle challenges such as ambiguity and bias.Price: Free with a LinkedIn Learning subscriptionLength: 45 minutesCertification: Yes, you'll get a Linkedin certificateDifficulty: For beginners8. Getting Started with Generative AI API Specialization by CodioDelivered by expert instructors, Codio teaches learners how to write programs using OpenAI APIs and Python. From building AI chatbots to interacting with ChatGPT API, your team will get hands-on experience developing AI assistants and learn how to create content through text, audio, and images.This is a great course for those who understand the basics of generative AI and want to gain practical skills. It gives them a taste of how to use artificial intelligence to their advantage.Price: FreeLength: 1 monthCertification: Difficulty: Advanced for those with strong foundational knowledgeNext stepsAs generative AI continues to redefine how businesses operate, investing in education and upskilling has never been more crucial. Whether your business is new to AI or is looking to deepen its expertise, these courses offer a comprehensive foundation to help teams navigate this transformative technology.The knowledge and skills gained from these programs will not only enhance their professional capabilities but will also position your business as a forward-thinking leader in your industry.There's no time like the present! Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence ChatGPT said: Generative AI is moving fast — and the businesses that win are the ones investing early in skills, not just tools. Generative AI courses help teams keep pace with rapid innovation, building foundational knowledge in models, prompt engineering, and real-world applications. There’s a course for every role and maturity level, from beginner-friendly intros by Google, IBM, and Microsoft to advanced, accredited programs for technical specialists and leaders. Upskilling drives competitive advantage, enabling organizations to adopt AI responsibly, boost efficiency, and position themselves as modern, forward-thinking businesses. You said: Express contracts are one of the most robust and reliable ways to formalize an agreement. But what actually is an express contract, and how do express contracts work in practice? Read this Juro explainer to find out. What is an express contract?An express contract is a legally binding agreement with clearly stated terms, made either verbally or in writing. Within an express contract, the terms of an agreement are clearly communicated between the parties, which removes ambiguity and uncertainty. ‘But isn’t that every type of contract?’ you might be thinking. Well, no actually. Contracts can also be implied instead. These are called implied contracts. But don’t worry, we’ll talk more about how the two types of contracts compare later in this piece. First, let’s fully understand how express contracts work, and why we use them. What are the requirements of an express contract?The main requirements of an express contract are the same as for any contract. In order to be legally binding, an express contract must contain all of the core elements of a contract, including:Offer: one party must have made an offer to the other partyAcceptance: the counterparty must have clearly accepted the offer (aka contract acceptance)Consideration: both parties must receive some value from the contract The intention to be legally bound: a contract is only legally binding if all parties intend it to beContractual capacity: all parties must have the capacity to enter into a contract in the first placeFor parties in the US, there are also two additional requirements that express contracts must meet to be valid. These are: Awareness: parties must have “a meeting of the minds,” which means they must both be aware of what they’re getting intoLegality: US contracts are covered by the laws of the jurisdiction where they’re signed.If just one of these is missing, an express contract might not be legally binding. But if they’re all there, even something as simple as a deal scribbled on a napkin can be considered a valid express contract, as shown in the case of Lucy v Zehmer.How does an express contract work?Assuming that all of the contractual requirements are present, once an express contract is signed or agreed upon, the parties are legally bound to fulfill their contractual obligations. If they don’t, they could be in breach of contract. The consequences of this will depend on the nature of the contract, how severe the breach was, and what the parties agreed in advance. Most express contracts will include a clause detailing what will happen if there’s a breach – for example a penalty charge for late payment, or early contract termination if certain conditions aren’t met. But when will an agreement become an ‘express contract’? What does an express contract actually look like in practice? Let’s find out. Do express contracts have to be in writing?Express contracts do not necessarily need to be in writing, they can also be formed verbally e.g. face to face or on the phone. And these carry the same weight legally as paper (or electronic ones), as long as you can prove they contain all the essential elements we mentioned above.They can also be captured in electronic communications. This means that an email can form a contract. The same applies to text message contracts. Express contract examples Imagine that you talk to a bathroom fitter about getting a new suite for your home. They send you a letter which says it’ll cost you $5,000. You call them to accept this offer. This is an express contract, as it has an offer (from the fitter to put in that shiny new bath, sink, and toilet), acceptance (your call), and consideration (the $5,000 you’ll pay once they’re done).Let’s look at another example, this time where an express contract is created via email. Let’s imagine that you put a handbag up for sale on social media. You have an email conversation with an interested person, who agrees to pay $50 for it. These emails create a written express contract – again, we have an offer (to buy the bag for $50) and acceptance (when you say yes), and consideration. Now let’s imagine that you talk to your neighbor’s daughter and agree to let her mow your lawn every two weeks in return for a small fee. This is a verbal contract, as again we have an offer and acceptance, and consideration. But it’s also an express contract since the terms of the agreement were clearly communicated between the parties, rather than being implied.That leads us neatly to the final question: what is the difference between an express contract and an implied contract?What’s the difference between an express and implied contract?The main difference between an express contract and an implied contract is that an express contract involves clear communication between both parties about what the offer is and that it will be accepted. Meanwhile, an implied contract is inferred by behavior and actions, without explicitly stating its terms. In other words, implied contracts are created when we act in a certain way. They aren’t written down or confirmed verbally, and they don’t have signatures.A good example of an implied contract is when you eat in a restaurant. When you order your food, it’s implied that you’ll then pay for it at the end of the meal. So while there’s no explicit offer from the restaurant owner (e.g. “I offer you food”), or acceptance from you (“I agree to pay for that food”) before you sit down, you both act in a way that implies this is what will happen.Express contracts vs implied contractsExpress contracts are often more reliable than implied contracts. This is true despite the fact that implied contracts are also legally binding if they satisfy the key requirements of a contract.However, implied contracts are more ambiguous, simply because they aren’t written down or communicated clearly. This means that they can be harder to enforce if something goes wrong. After all, suing someone for breach of contract is always going to be difficult when the terms haven’t been documented. iThat’s why it’s important to capture your contractual terms and store contracts securely. It's also why it's important to draft contracts carefully to ensure that they express exactly what you need them to. Need help managing express contracts?If you're a fast-growing business that needs help drafting and storing express contracts, you're in the right place. Juro is the all-in-one contract automation platform that enables all teams to streamline the creation, execution and management of routine contracts at scale. To find out more about how Juro can help your business manage contracts, fill in the form below. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence ChatGPT said: Express contracts remove doubt by making the terms of an agreement explicit and enforceable. Express contracts clearly state the terms of an agreement, either verbally or in writing, reducing ambiguity and making them easier to enforce than implied contracts. They’re legally binding as long as the core elements of a contract are present, including offer, acceptance, consideration, and intent — even emails, texts, or verbal agreements can qualify. Compared to implied contracts, express contracts offer greater certainty and protection, which is why documenting, storing, and managing them properly is critical as businesses scale. You said: Most contracts today have exemption clauses in them. But there’s a lot of law around exemption clauses, and when they are and aren’t enforceable.Don’t worry though – here’s everything you need to know about exemption clauses in contracts.What is an exemption clause?An exemption clause is a clause in a contract that limits or removes a party’s liability if something goes wrong. Exemption clauses often restrict certain contractual obligations and ensure that parties are only responsible for things within their control. However, they can also be used to unfairly disadvantage a counterparty, too. Given how wildly different exemption clauses can be, there are certain rules and regulations that govern how and when they can be enforced. But we’ll explore that in more detail later in this piece. First, let’s explore the different types of exemption clauses used in contracts, and some examples of these. What are the different types of exemption clauses?Exemption clauses can cover a variety of things. However, there are two main types of exemption clauses you should consider when drafting a contract and entering into contract negotiations. These are limitation clauses and exclusion clauses. Let’s run through them now.1. Limitation clauses Limitation clauses are a type of exemption clause that limits a party’s liability for something. For example, parties may use a limitation clause to limit the amount of money they’re responsible for paying in damages if certain events occur, like a breach of contract. 2. Exclusion clauses An exclusion clause is another type of exemption clause. You’re probably ahead of us here – these exclude a party from liability, which means they take away all responsibility, either partly or completely. Why are exemption clauses used?Now that we understand what exemption clauses look like in practice, it’s worth considering why they are used in the first place. Firstly, many commercial contracts will include exemption clauses. This is because they typically have a high contract value and therefore bear greater contractual risk. Exemption clauses are an effective way to regulate and minimize this risk. It’s also wise to include exemption clauses when businesses enter into contracts with consumers for the sale of goods. This is because sellers can’t guarantee how their products will be used, and they want to limit their liability in the event of misuse. If a consumer uses a product in a way that’s against the purpose of the product and the instructions provided, the seller should be able to restrict their liability if it were to break or potentially cause harm. When are exemption clauses enforceable in court?Exemption clauses can be enforceable. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. Courts tend to look more favorably on limitation clauses, while being suspicious of exclusion clauses as they take away all responsibility. In fact, exclusion clauses can be deemed problematic given that they often leave innocent parties without access to any legal remedies if they are wronged. That doesn’t mean that this type of exemption clause is invalid, though. It just means there are some rules around their enforceability. Let’s explore these three rules next. 1. The exclusion clause must be “incorporated” in the contract This can be done in the following ways:if it’s signedby noticeif there’s been a “previous course of dealings”.Let’s have a look at each of those in more detail.If it’s signedThis one’s pretty obvious, so we won’t dwell on this point too much. If you’ve signed a contract with an exclusion clause, then it’s likely to be valid – unless it’s unreasonable, or based on misrepresentation (i.e. if the statements of fact, or “representations”, you relied on during contractual negotiations are shown to be false).If there has been noticeWhen it comes to this type of exemption clause, the party excluding liability must take “reasonable steps” to make sure the other knows the exclusion clause exists. And they have to do this before or at the time they make the contract. The case of Olley v Marlborough Court is a good example of this. Let’s go back to school for a moment and recall the facts of the case. Marlborough Court was a hotel where Ms Olley stayed. After checking in, she went out, leaving her key at reception. While she was away several of her things were stolen from her room. The hotel claimed that a notice in the room saying they weren’t responsible for any lost or stolen items (unless they were left at reception) was a valid exclusion clause, and meant they weren’t liable. Olley took them to court to claim damages for negligence. She won the case as the court decided the notice wasn’t visible to her until after she and the hotel had formed their contract. That’s because this happened when she checked in at reception, and she couldn’t have seen the notice until she went into the bedroom.Just to really hammer the point home that exclusion clauses must be obvious, in J Spurling Ltd v Bradshaw, the judge stated that unusual exclusion clauses need: “… to be printed in red ink on the face of the document with a red hand pointing to it before the notice could be held to be sufficient.”"The party excluding liability must take 'reasonable steps' to make sure the other knows the exclusion clause exists"If there has been a “previous course of dealings”This means that if you’ve previously been a party to a contract that involved an exclusion clause, it might be reasonable to assume it applies every time.That’s by no means guaranteed though. Let’s look at some case law quickly that proves this. In Hollier v Rambler Motors, Hollier had taken his vehicle to the Rambler Motors’ garage three or four times over five years for repairs. Each time he’d signed a legal document excluding the garage’s liability for any damage. This time they made the contract verbally over the phone, and the garage didn’t mention the exclusion clause. When the garage then damaged the car during the repairs, they tried to use “previous dealings” to argue that the exclusion clause was still valid. But the court found there weren’t enough previous transactions between the customer and the garage to make this valid. This meant that the garage did have to pay for the damage to Mr Hollier’s car after all.To recap: in order to have a chance of being enforceable, an exclusion clause will need to be incorporated into the contract in one of three ways: within a signed contract, by notice, or through enough previous dealings. If that all makes sense, let’s move onto the next rule. "If you’ve previously been a party to a contract that involved an exclusion clause, it might be reasonable to assume it applies every time"2. It has to pass the test of “construction”The legal term for interpreting an exemption clause is “construction”. Within this, there are a few rules to remember. Firstly, the courts won’t enforce a greater exclusion than the one included within the original exemption clause. And if there’s any ambiguity at all in the way it was drafted or described, that will go against the party attempting to rely on the clause. This is quite a vague rule, so let’s look at another case that illustrates it well. This is the case of Houghton v Trafalgar Insurance. In this case, an exclusion clause in an insurance policy excluded damage to a car when it was carrying “any load in excess of that for which it was constructed”. The claimant had six people in the car when it was damaged, but it was only made to carry five. As a result, the insurer refused the claim. But could the insurer rely on this exemption clause?Unfortunately for the insurer, they could not. The courts decided that the term “load” in the exemption clause was too ambiguous, saying it meant the total weight the car could carry, not the amount of people. As a result, it ordered the insurance company to pay out for the claim.It’s also important to note that courts will look at the fairness of the exemption clause in question. Let’s return to the textbooks once more and see how this rule works in practice. In Green v Cade, a seller sold potato seeds that were infected with a virus. The buyer sued them for loss of profits, but the seller claimed an exclusion clause in their contract stated that buyers couldn’t complain more than three days after delivery. The court decided the buyer couldn’t have known the virus was there within three days of the seeds being delivered, making this exclusion clause unfair and therefore unenforceable. "If there’s any ambiguity at all in the way it was drafted or described, that will go against the party attempting to rely on the clause"This leads us neatly onto the third and final rule. 3. It must be legalIt sounds obvious, but an exemption clause will not be enforceable if it is illegal. In other words, if statutes render an exemption clause illegal, it will automatically be unenforceable. Let’s look at a few different laws that could apply when drafting exemption clauses together now. Here are some from the UK:Section 2 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1997 says that personal injury or death as a result of negligence in a contract can’t exclude or restrict liability. But as long as it’s fair, a contract can exclude or restrict other liability that’s a result of negligence.The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says that businesses can’t exclude liability for injuries caused by their negligence. So a clause saying “if our product explodes and you get hurt, you agree not to sue us” wouldn’t be enforceable in a British court. Section 5(1) of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 says that a contractual term will be deemed “unfair” if it: “… causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer.Need help drafting exemption clauses?In short: exemption clauses can be an effective way to minimize contractual risk. However, they must meet certain criteria in order to be enforceable. And if they're not enforceable, they're pretty much worthless. That means it's important to draft exemption clauses with care, and most of the time it's best to ask a lawyer or attorney to draft them for you. But what if you work in a scaling company with a lean legal team? Relying on legal's help can create friction and delays within the contract workflow. Well, that's where Juro can help. Juro is the all-in-one contract automation platform that enables all teams to streamline the creation, execution and management of routine contracts at scale.Specificially, Juro empowers business teams to self-serve on contracts using pre-approved contract templates. Juro also enables legal teams to bake certain clauses into these templates when certain conditions are met. This is achieved using a feature called conditional logic, as seen below. This functionality enables legal teams to retain control over contracts and their contents without needing to draft each one individually themselves. It also means that complex clauses, like exemption clauses, can be automatically inserted into a contract with a certain contract value, or in a certain template. This automation reduces contract admin and enables legal teams to get back to higher-value work. To find out more about how Juro helps businesses automate routine contract admin and keep control of contract risk at scale, fill in the form below. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence pls ChatGPT said: Exemption clauses can be powerful risk-management tools, but only when they’re drafted and used correctly. Exemption clauses limit or exclude liability, usually through limitation clauses (capping liability) or exclusion clauses (removing it altogether), and are common in commercial and consumer contracts. They’re only enforceable if strict legal tests are met, including proper incorporation into the contract, clear and unambiguous drafting, and compliance with applicable laws and fairness rules. Poorly drafted exemption clauses are risky and often unenforceable, which is why businesses benefit from standardized, pre-approved clauses and automation that embeds legal safeguards without slowing contracts down. You said: Document automation offers lots of advanced functionality in 2023. But sending a contract from a template to lots of people used to mean mail-merging a Word document - perhaps with some attachments - and pretty much hoping for the best.So what’s changed? Well, for some people, nothing - despite the development of browser-native contracting, some businesses are still suffering with blunt instruments like mail merge in order to mass-create documents like offer letters, option agreements and NDAs.If that’s you, and you’d like to save hours of your time with a frictionless process for contract automation, then hit the button below to cut to the chase and find out more. Otherwise, read on!What is mail merge?Mail merge is a process that lets you automatically add certain contact details to documents, enabling you to email a large list of people with documents personalized for each recipient. Put literally, you can merge details from one system (like Excel) into your mail platform. Mail merge in all its gloryIf this looks like a process that’s out of place in a cloud-first, SaaS-dominated business environment … well, it is. However, Microsoft Word is still the dominant currency for business documents in millions of businesses globally, so it’s useful to explore mail merge as a technique for contract automation.Can you use mail merge for contracts?Yes. Simple contracts, like employment offer letters, non-disclosure agreements, share option agreements and so on are still sometimes handled using mail merge.While this is an option, the outputs from a mail merge-led contract creation process will be severely limited by the platforms involved.For example, an Excel-via-Word mail merge results in dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of contracts in Word document format being sent to recipients.It’s well known that Word documents are limited when it comes to contract functionality. Issues include:Version control creating frictionLack of advanced electronic signature in WordFiles needing to move between email, Word, shared drives and likely an eSignature providerData being lost at every stage of the processThis means contracts created through this kind of mail merge are at a disadvantage from inception. That said, let’s look at some examples of the mail merge process.Mail merge examplesLet's explore some of the most common mail merge tools and use cases for mail merge in a business context.Mail merge from ExcelMail merging using an Excel spreadsheet is one of the most common legacy techniques for generating large numbers of documents at a time. To mail merge from Excel, simply prepare a spreadsheet where the column headers match the field names you want to include in your mail merge.For example, if you’re mass-generating offer letters, and you want to send them to several recipients, personalizing each letter with each individual’s name, then you’ll need a separate column for first name and last name:Separate first and last names during a mail merge.Excel spreadsheets intended for mail merge are best formatted in the comma-delimited format - .csv - or alternatively a .txt. file can be used.You then need to edit a recipient list in your email client (make sure you exclude list members who you don’t want to receive the document in question).Mail merge from Excel: benefitsThere are a few advantages to using an Excel-based workflow to create contracts via mail merge. Most obviously, almost every business uses Excel (or understands how to), so the platform’s availability makes it an accessible option for a large number of businesses.Relatedly, although it’s a blunt instrument, mail merge from Excel is effective. Once you can get the spreadsheet formatted correctly, large document assembly exercises from defined lists should be possible with fairly reliable accuracy, and at considerable scale.Mail merge from Excel: limitationsAll that said, Excel and your mail platform - likely Outlook - are both tools that weren’t designed to handle contracts. That means that even basic requirements like advanced electronic signature (read more about eIDAS) will require a third-party platform to be plugged in. This increases an already complex workflow even further, making it not just risky but in fact likely that documents, data and precious time will be lost. And if you realise that you made a mistake in your document, or missed something, then guess what? You need to start the whole thing again.Using an all-in-one contract automation platform like Juro is a much more reliable way to generate and send documents at scale, and you can also gather legally robust eSignatures natively in the platform too. Find out more.Outlook mail merge with attachments from WordIf you need to send attachments from Word along with your documents, then the complicated process of mail merging gets even more complicated. In fact, if you want to send attachments along with your main document - well, you can’t. You’ll need a third-party add-on to make that happen.There are a range of plug-ins and utilities that offer this service, but they tend to be plagued by issues like:Triggering spam filtersFormatting errorsTracking being absent entirelyPoor compatibility with Mac OSAlternatively, you can use Juro to mass-generate documents with attachments defined at the template level. For example, if you were creating 100 employment contracts for new riders at your delivery marketplace, and wanted to attach onboarding paperwork like a data security policy, simply define this at template level and every counterparty will receive it automatically.Mail merge from Google docsTo mail merge from Google docs, you’ll need to use the APIs of Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Drive (depending on how much of your data lives in Google).Google’s fairly complex step-by-step instructions, including the document ID strings and lengthy source code you’ll need, can be found here.Does this look user-friendly to you?Mail merge from Google docs: benefitsIf you have the skills to wrangle the source code above and connect your various software platforms using APIs, then you can probably create a mail merge process that's lightning-quick and error free. However ...Mail merge from Google docs: limitations... if you lack the technical expertise to use APIs in this way (as many business teams will), you could use a third-party plugin to try and replicate the functionality. However this will raise many of the same concerns around formatting, deliverability, tracking and compatibility that we discussed earlier.Much easier would be using Juro to create and send templated documents at scale, using the mass-creation functionality described below.Mail merge lettersTo mail merge letters in Word, from your document, you initiate ‘Start Mail Merge’ and select ‘Letters’. This is a really common workflow for businesses looking to send letters to employees at scale. Next you would find the Excel file with the relevant data and begin the merge as described above.However, if those letters need to be acknowledged or signed by employees, then you’ll need another platform, like an eSignature or clickwrap provider, to fulfil this part of the process. Now you have at least four different software tools involved - Word, likely Outlook, Excel, an eSignature provider, and probably a shared drive to store the signed letters.Food delivery giant Deliveroo faced this challenge when it needed to update thousands of employees’ option status at scale. Read this Deliveroo case study to find out how they managed this in a fraction of the time it would usually take using Juro's mass-generation features.What’s better than mail merge?Rather than relying on several different systems in order to bulk-create contracts or other important documents, you can use an all-in-one platform like Juro to handle the process from end to end. All you need is a CSV file to get started.How to mass-create contracts or lettersTo generate dozens or even hundreds of documents for signature, follow these steps in Juro.1. Create a contract templateUse Juro’s browser-native contract editor to create the template for your documents. Alternatively you can drag and drop to upload a template in a legacy format, like Word or PDF, and turn this into a template in Juro.It's easy to generate contracts at scale from one template.You can read about this process in-depth in our help center here.2. Grab the CSV templateDownload the Juro CSV sample template to your desktop. This template helps you to make sure that your spreadsheet data columns match the smartfields you want to populate in your contract.Use a CSV to populate the contracts you'll generate.3. Fill in the CSVPopulate your template with all the data you’d like to merge into your contracts. This might the names of your employees and their email addresses, for example.4. Check it for errorsWhen you upload this data, Juro will validate it and check for errors. Any errors will be highlighted clearly so you can quickly correct them.5. Hit the green buttonNow you’re ready to mass-create your contracts with one click. They’ll all appear in a dedicated table view in Juro, from which you can selected all and mass-send to the recipients you defined in your CSV.No mail merge required.That’s it! A little simpler than the Excel to Word to email to eSignature to shared drive shuffle, don’t you think?If you’re ready to ditch mail merge and use a frictionless, templated workflow to create, send and sign documents at scale, hit the button below to find out what all-in-one contract automation could do for your business. Give me three key takeaways please and a short intro sentence ChatGPT said: Mail merge might still be familiar, but it’s no longer fit for modern, high-volume contract workflows. Mail merge is a legacy workaround, relying on tools like Word, Excel, and email that weren’t built for contracts and create risk around version control, signatures, and lost data. Scaling contracts with mail merge introduces friction and errors, especially when attachments, approvals, or corrections are needed—often forcing teams to restart the process entirely. All-in-one contract automation replaces mail merge end to end, enabling teams to generate, send, sign, and store hundreds of contracts from a single template with validation, tracking, and eSignatures built in. You said: Non disclosure agreements (NDAs) are among the most common contracts signed by employees and prospective business partners. But how often are they broken, and what happens if you do break an NDA? Let’s find out.What does ‘breaking an NDA’ mean?An individual will have broken an NDA if they act in a way that conflicts with the obligations and terms they had agreed to and were legally bound by in the non disclosure agreement they signed. Since non disclosure agreements typically prohibit the sharing of classified and proprietary information, disclosing that information to an external party puts you in breach of contract. In other words, you will have violated your NDA.But what actually happens if you do disclose protected information? What consequences can you expect from breaking a unilateral NDA?What happens if you break an NDA? Well, breaching an NDA is a serious problem. It's an action that can have serious consequences, both personally, and for your company, if you signed with signatory authority.Unfortunately, this is true whether the NDA breach was intentional or not. Here’s what a typical process looks like if you break an NDA:1. Investigation Upon finding out about the breach of an NDA, the first action most companies take is to launch a formal investigation. This will involve finding concrete evidence about which information was leaked, who it was leaked to, and most importantly, who it was leaked by. An early stage of this investigation will also involve reviewing the signed Non Disclosure Agreement to assess whether any breach has occurred at all, based on the contract’s wording. The investigation is usually conducted by the HR and legal teams, as well as any relevant security teams within the company if the breach involved gaining unauthorised access to information. It can be a lengthy process, but it needs to be a thorough one as accusing an employee or partner or breaking an NDA or an employee confidentiality agreement is also a serious decision. 2. Assess legal action What happens next will depend on the outcome of the investigation. If it could not be proven that an individual did break their NDA, then the company will drop the case. However, if there is enough evidence to suggest that a breach did occur and that it can be traced back to one or more individual, the company may decide to make a legal claim. When assessing a legal claim the individual or company may consider the following things:How serious the breach of confidentiality was (and the impact of it)Whether there are any financial ramifications of the breachWhether the breach was intentional or accidental Whether it is in the interest of the company to sue 3. Check for exceptions Although the terms contained within an NDA or confidentiality agreement are usually strict, there are some exceptions to non disclosure requirements. What these are depends on the governing jurisdiction and the terms of your NDA.Examples of this include where the NDA has expired, or where there was criminal wrongdoing. There are also some exceptional circumstances outlined within the Public Interest Disclosure Act that may be relevant. While these may support your case if you’ve been found to have breached confidentiality, you should always consult with a lawyer before making the decision to break an NDA. In the instance where an exception does apply, you should seek legal advice as to how to rely on this in the event that the offended company or person does pursue legal action.4. Suing for breach of contractIf the affected party does decide to sue for the violation of an NDA, it’s likely that both parties will need to seek legal advice and enter court proceedings. From there, the courts will assess whether an NDA has been broken and decide on an appropriate remedy. What are the remedies for breach of an NDA?If the affected party is successful in suing the breaching party, it’s likely that they’ll be awarded some kind of compensation for the breach. This will usually be provided in the form of damages or an injunction. These are called remedies, and more often than not the remedy for a breach will already have been discussed within the contract. If it hasn’t the court will use their discretion to award a remedy instead. These remedies can be ordered in various forms, and we’ve listed the main remedies for a breach of an NDA below. 1. DamagesDamages are the most common form of remedy for NDA breaches. Damages will most likely be awarded if the affected party has suffered some kind of financial loss as a result of the information being disclosed and they can prove that damage to be consequential. Alternatively, if the breaching party intended to sell the information, the court can award damages for the breach of an NDA to reflect the sum they would have received. Within the US and under the Defend Trade Secrets Act 2016, it’s possible for the breaching party to also have to pay the claimant’s legal fees, as well as any large exemplary damages. 2. InjunctionsThere will also be instances where an injunction is most appropriate. For example, if an employee doesn’t have the financial means to afford damages. An injunction will prevent the employee from ever sharing the confidential information again in the future, and there may be some additional restrictions on how they access and share information acquired from the company. Want to find out more about NDAs?If you want to find out more about how you can manage NDAs more efficiently, fill in the form below. If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to generate an NDA, check out our free NDA template. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence ChatGPT said: Breaking a non-disclosure agreement is a serious contractual breach with potentially significant consequences. An NDA is breached when confidential information is disclosed in violation of agreed terms, whether the breach is intentional or accidental. Companies typically respond with a formal investigation and legal assessment, reviewing the contract, the facts of the disclosure, and whether any legal exceptions apply. Remedies for breaking an NDA can include damages or injunctions, with courts awarding compensation for financial loss or ordering restrictions to prevent further disclosure. You said: A time and materials contract is generally used in the construction industry to outline the timeframe and materials that are needed to complete a project. Often, these contracts are based on estimates and they should be viewed as a guideline, as opposed to set in stone. These are complex contracts with many moving parts, meaning they require strong contract management to be successful. This software can help you automate this process, from creating a contract template to an in-depth analysis of key contract metrics. Keep reading to find out what a time and materials contract is, when you should use them and how to effectively manage them using contracting software.What is a time and materials contract? A time and materials (T&M) contract is a legal agreement that outlines the relationship between how a client pays for a contractor’s time and the money the contractor spends on materials. This type of contract is commonly used in the construction industry. Typically, one party pays a contractor for the costs of all materials needed to complete the job alongside an established hourly wage for the work. The contract will likely also include any fees related to the service provided. This guarantees that the contractor will be paid for expenses, as well as their labor. In addition, a T&M contract will usually include an estimated timeframe and material list for work to be completed. This is not set in stone however and the client should be aware that costs could end up higher when the project is completed. What is the purpose of a time and materials contract?Contractors use time and materials contracts to ensure they are paid in full for their services. In contrast to a fixed-price contract, which establishes a set price for the delivery of goods and services, a T&M contract plans for any changes that could happen. This means that it outlines what the customer can expect in terms of cost while making it clear that this is subject to changes. These changes could be around the cost of materials, timeframe or just the practical requirements to complete the work needed. For the contractor, this type of agreement gives them confidence that they will be paid in full regardless of any issues with supplies, materials or workforce. For the customer, it simplifies negotiation and sets boundaries, as an agreed fair rate of pay for the work performed is predetermined. This is an important distinction, as the purpose of any contract is to provide clarity for parties and to create boundaries within a business relationship. When would you need a time and materials contract?This type of contract should be used when the extent of the job cannot be determined before the work itself begins. This often happens in the construction industry, as so many factors are beyond the control of the contractor, like the cost of materials when work begins. However,, this could also occur in other industries. For example, a T&M contract may be used by software or other product creation businesses. Normally when the economic conditions are too unstable to rely on a fixed-price contract. A T&M contract ensures you are paid for the exact cost of both your labor and materials used. What should be included in a time and materials contact?Time and materials contracts are complex with lots of moving parts, here’s what should be included:Labor rates. An hourly pay rate for laborers, subcontractors, administrators and any other workers on the project. Maximum labor rates. The contract should specify a maximum cost to protect the client and ensure that the project does not run wildly over budget. Any excess hours will need to be absorbed by the contractor. Materials markup. The client should be billed for the actual cost of materials (plus freight), plus a markup of somewhere between 15 per cent and 35 per cent.Time and materials not to exceed clause. This covers all aspects of cost, not just labor. A not-to-exceed quote for the whole project can be included so the client knows what the maximum cost will be before work begins. Payment milestones. In some cases, you may choose to include pre-agreed-upon milestones for progress payments. Some more common contract clauses that you could include are:Breach of contract clause. This clause specifies the circumstances in which either party can end the contract for breach of a contractual term. In this example, the clause will limit contract termination to situations where a major contract violation occurs. Disclaimers. Contractors may wish to include disclaimers for warranties, especially as to the quality of the product chosen by the client. For instance, if a client chooses a specific material for their project, the contractor may not want to be reliable for the quality of that particular material.Modification clause. In bigger projects, changed minds are inevitable. This could be a necessity or simply the client’s choice, either way, the time and materials contract should outline how exactly this change may occur and when it’s enforceable.Time and materials contracts: pros and consTime and materials contracts exist to provide greater clarity for both parties, but they certainly aren’t without fault. Like most types of contracts, T&M agreements have their advantages and disadvantages. Advantages of time and materials contractsFor the contractor, some advantages of a time and materials contract include:Assurance that all costs will be coveredEasy implementationPredictable profitAdjustable for certain specifications Guaranteed profit for the contractorsWhile the advantages for the client could be:Clarity on cost, despite variations in material pricesA timeframe for project completion Easy adjustment for resource changes or specificationsDisadvantages of time and material contractsFor the contractor, the disadvantages of a T&M contract may be:Losing a contract to a competitor if they are offering a fixed-price contractDifficulty tracking material costs and labor hours could cost the contractor moreLack of motivation for laborers due to unfixed hours Running out of cashflow before a project is completeDisadvantages of this contract type for the client include:Difficulty in budgeting for a project with no fixed pricesIncreased risk of going over budget due to no fixed pricesHeightened tracking of labor hours and material costsHow can you create a time and materials contract?Once you’ve decided that the pros outweigh the cons when it comes to using a time and materials contract, it's time to create one. The best place to start is by creating a standard form agreement template using contract management software. This document should outline the basics and can be used as a starting point for most of your time and materials contracts. This template can be pre-approved by your legal team and populated with drag-and-drop fields ready to fill in with contract-specific details. Best practice means this template can also be modified in line with an individual project or to meet the requirements of a particular client. Using contract management software to aid with template creation is only the first step. It can also help with the entire contract process, from handling complex contract negotiations to contract storage. Streamlining this process can save your business a good deal of time and money. Let’s take a look at what this process might look like in more detail. How to manage time and materials contracts in 2026As with all contracts, time and materials contracts need to be managed properly to reduce risk and avoid legal repercussions. Luckily, time and materials contracts are a standardized contract type, making them easy to manage using a tool like Juro.1. Automate time and materials contracts using templatesAs suggested above, the first step is for your legal team to create automated contract templates for commercial teams to self-serve from. Templates can be populated within seconds using either a natural language Q&A workflow, or by pulling data directly into the contract smartfields from a customer relationship management tool like Salesforce or Pipedrive. Notably, this minimises the need for lean legal teams to spend their time on low-value work like contract authoring for standard agreements. 2. Establish contract approval workflows For higher-value time and materials contracts, you may want to consider setting up some contract approval workflows. With Juro, users can set up approval workflows manually for each contract or automate this process using conditional logic rules. Put simply, if you decide that higher-value contracts carry a lower level of risk if they receive approval from certain stakeholders, this can be built in at the template level. So if a time and materials contract is created using this template, and it has a value over a set threshold, the contract will automatically require approval before it can progress to the next stage of the contract lifecycle. This helps to ensure that your time and materials contracts are watertight, and it enables you to reduce contract risk.3. Negotiate contracts in one platformThere are so many moving parts in a time and materials contract, that it often requires a large degree of contract negotiation before reaching signature. In a manual contract workflow, this is a time-consuming process as contracts move back and forth between various platforms such as Word and email. This process is then repeated every single time a change is made until both parties reach an agreement on the terms included. Again, this process is made simpler when using a CLM like Juro, as users can negotiate contracts without ever needing to leave the platform. Automated workflows mean users can share the contract with the counterparties and add redlines directly into the dynamic contract version.4. Sign time and materials contracts from anywhere Time and materials contracts don’t require a wet ink signature and would benefit from users adopting electronic signatures. Juro’s built-in eSignature functionality empowers legal and commercial teams to sign contracts in the same platform they were created. This feature also works on a wide range of devices, which is particularly relevant for contractors who are regularly on-site and likely to be signing contracts on the move. 5. Track your contractual obligations Managing time and materials contracts doesn’t end once they’re signed, in fact, they’ve only just started. As these contacts are changeable, you need to be on top of monitoring your contractual obligations to ensure contract compliance. It may sound obvious, but many businesses find themselves in a tight spot as a result of low contract visibility - usually, these contracts are buried in shared drives (or worse, actual filing cabinets). Fortunately, Juro enables users to monitor their contracts with ease. Users can search through hundreds of contracts for certain words, phrases, numbers and characters within seconds. Simplify how you manage time and materials contractsJuro’s intelligent contract automation platform enables all teams to streamline the creation, execution and management of routine contracts at scale.To find out more about how Juro can make managing time and materials contracts frictionless for your business, request a demo via the form below. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence ChatGPT said: Time and materials contracts offer flexibility for complex, unpredictable projects — but only if they’re managed properly. Time and materials contracts bill based on actual labor and material costs, making them ideal when scope, timelines, or prices can’t be fixed upfront (common in construction and similar industries). They balance flexibility with risk, providing contractors assurance they’ll be paid while requiring clients to closely monitor costs, labor hours, and budget caps. Contract automation software simplifies creation, negotiation, approval, and tracking, helping teams manage T&M contracts at scale, reduce risk, and maintain visibility throughout the project lifecycle. You said: Contracts are hard to get out of. That’s pretty much the whole point of them. But they can be ended by “frustration”.In this article, we’re going to look at exactly what contract frustration means, when it happens, and some examples of it in action. What is frustration of contract?A contract is frustrated when it becomes impossible to perform due to a “supervening event” – one that isn’t the fault of any of the parties, and that they couldn’t reasonably have predicted.If this happens, the contract is declared invalid, and the parties to it no longer have to perform their contractual obligations. This means that frustration of contract causes a contract to end immediately, and all parties are discharged from their future obligations. In other words, they don’t have to do what they said they would anymore, and neither can sue the other for breach of contract. But contract frustration isn’t easy to prove. That’s because contracts are there to protect everyone involved – so nobody wants cancelling them to be simple. The concept of frustration exists to make sure that if something happens that no one could have seen coming, both parties can still get a reasonable result.When is a contract frustrated? A contract will be frustrated if a supervening event occurs which makes it impossible to perform the contractual obligations involved. Or, where that performance would be radically different because of the supervening event. The test for frustration was defined in a 1956 case, Davis Contractors Ltd v. Fareham Urban District Council, as follows:“… frustration occurs whenever the law recognizes that without default of either party a contractual obligation has become incapable of being performed because the circumstances in which performance is called for would render it a thing radically different from that which was undertaken by the contract.”The important words here are “radically different”. To prove frustration, you must be able to show that something has happened – that “supervening event” we mentioned earlier – that means carrying out your contractual obligations has significantly changed. In short, you’d have to do a completely (“radically”) different thing from the original one you were contracted to do to fulfill your end of the bargain. Still confused? Let’s look at an example. Frustration of contract example Imagine you own a vineyard. You’re selling the grapes your vines produce to a winemaker. But the day before you’re due to deliver, the vines are struck by lightning and a fire burns up all those lovely grapes.As long as lightning strikes aren’t common in your part of the world (so you couldn’t have predicted that this might happen), it’s likely that your contract with the winemaker would be frustrated. But if your vineyard is in Lightning Alley (an area from Tampa to Orlando that gets struck by lightning a lot – there are about 56 strikes every square mile each year, fact fans), then that winemaker might be able to sue you for breach of contract for not delivering those grapes when you said you would. That’s because you could have reasonably predicted that a strike might happen, which means frustration doesn’t apply. What type of events can cause frustration?For an event to result in a frustrated contract, it must have an extremely serious impact on a contract to make it impossible to perform. Let's run through some examples of events that could cause frustration and what these look like in practice.1. Death or incapacity of one of the partiesFrustration of contract will occur if one of the parties dies or becomes incapacitated. The obvious reason for this is that they can’t fulfil their contractual obligations anymore. Importantly, this only applies if the party is an individual, not a company or other legal entity.2. A war or riotIt's also possible for a war or riot to result in the frustration of a contract. This is because these events are typically out of the parties' control and can make it impossible to perform contracts – particularly across borders.3. An act of GodAn act of God is another example of a supervening event that can cause the frustration of a contract. This is something that doesn’t have any human involvement and can’t be predicted or planned for – like earthquakes, exceptionally heavy storms or floods, and so on.4. A change in the lawA contract can also become frustrated if there’s a change in the law that prevents or prohibits the contract from being performed. For example, if a particular product or service is suddenly banned, or if a country has a trade embargo placed on it.The case of Fibrosa Spolka v Fairbairn is a perfect example of this. In 1939, Fairbairn, a company which manufactured textile machinery, agreed to supply machines to Fibrosa Spolka, a Polish company. Fibrosa Spolka made an initial payment for these, as per the contract.But then Germany invaded Poland, and shortly afterwards Great Britain declared war on them. And a new law was brought in making it illegal for British companies to trade with Poland (as it was officially “enemy territory”). The contract was held to be frustrated because the law had changed.5. The subject matter of the contract is destroyedFrustration of contract can also occur if the subject matter of the contract is destroyed in a flood or fire, for example.This happened in the famous case of Taylor v Caldwell. Taylor hired a music hall to hold four concerts. But a week before the first one the hall burnt down.Taylor tried to sue for breach of contract and claim damages, but the court ruled the contract was frustrated because the subject matter (i.e. the hall) was destroyed.Now that we know when a contract will become frustrated, let's look at what actually happens if it is.What happens after a contract is frustrated?If a contract is frustrated, it’ll be discharged. This means all parties are released from their obligations. And nobody involved can sue the other for breach of contract. This happens from the day the supervening event took place. Anything that went on before this event still applies though – so if, for example, one party owed the other money for a shipment that was delivered before the supervening event, they’d still have to pay for that. The contract being frustrated means they won’t have to pay for any future ones, of course. And if you paid an advance payment for goods you never received, you’d get that back. There might also be secondary obligations that still apply as well, like confidentiality clauses, for example. Obviously who has to pay what if a contract is frustrated will depend on the contract itself and the law in your country (in the UK that’s the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943). When will a contract not be frustrated? As we mentioned earlier, frustration is hard to prove for a reason. You can’t decide to have a contract frustrated just because it’s more difficult or expensive to carry out your obligations than you originally thought.A good example of this is the famous case of Tsakiroglou & Co Ltd v. Noblee Thorl. The defendant was contracted to ship some peanuts to Hamburg. They originally planned to take these via the Suez Canal, but it was closed due to military operations by the British and French armed forces against Egypt. They could have gone through the Cape of Good Hope, but this would have added several days on to the trip and made it much more expensive. Instead, they refused to ship the goods, arguing that the contract was frustrated. But the court disagreed – even though it would have cost the company more, this didn’t make delivering their part of the contract radically different.You also won’t be able to argue frustration of contract if: You can’t do what you said you would due to something that’s your fault. You have a force majeure clause in your contract (a clause that removes liability for unforeseeable and unavoidable catastrophes).You could feasibly have predicted or foreseen the event – it must be something that was outside your control.Fortunately, while you can't control whether or not a contract will be frustrated, there are other ways you can reduce contractual risk and ensure contract compliance.One solution is to use contract automation software like Juro. To find out more about how Juro can reduce contract admin and risk for your business, fill in the form below. Give me three key takeaways please ChatGPT said: Frustration ends a contract automatically when performance becomes impossible due to an unforeseeable, external “supervening event” that is not the fault of either party. The bar for frustration is very high: performance must become impossible or radically different, not merely more difficult, slower, or more expensive. When a contract is frustrated, future obligations fall away but past rights remain, meaning advance payments may be recoverable, while obligations already performed still stand. You said: and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Frustration of contract is a narrow legal doctrine designed to deal with truly exceptional circumstances. Frustration ends a contract automatically when performance becomes impossible due to an unforeseeable, external “supervening event” that is not the fault of either party. The bar for frustration is very high: performance must become impossible or radically different, not merely more difficult, slower, or more expensive. When a contract is frustrated, future obligations fall away but past rights remain, meaning advance payments may be recoverable while completed obligations still stand. You said: Law and design are two separate fields. But what if there was a way to use design principles to improve the way legal processes and documents work? To find out what legal design is, how it works, and what it looks like in 2026, read on. What is legal design? Legal design is the application of design thinking to the world of law. It involves redesigning the legal systems, documents, and services we use today to make them more human and user-centric. Rather than looking at law through the lens of a lawyer, legal design considers how law is perceived by the layperson, and how it can be redesigned to better meet their needs. {{quote1}}This could mean anything from redesigning contracts to make them more digestible to making legal processes more interactive through technology. But before we explore examples of legal design in practice, let’s first look at what ‘design thinking’ means. What is design thinking? Lots of people assume that design thinking is simply about making things look pretty. It isn’t.Design thinking is about taking a more creative approach to problem-solving. It’s about rethinking a problem to understand what the user’s experience is, what problems they’re encountering, and how they can be solved.To achieve this, design thinking involves the following steps:Empathize with the user. You need to look through the eyes of the user to really understand what their experiences are and which of their needs haven’t been met.Identify the problems. You then need to identify and formulate the problem based on your findings. A common approach is to create a problem statement that clearly articulates the problem(s) you need to solve. Brainstorm solutions. Once you’ve identified the problem, you need to identify solutions. A design thinking mindset encourages creative thinking, rather than just technical solutions. Trial your ideas. Before you grab one idea and run with it, it’s important to test different prototypes and hypotheses. Doing this allows you to gather feedback and understand how your ideas solve the problem in the real world. Make a decision. Once you have enough feedback you need to make a decision about whether your creative solution is going to work or not. This is where you will decide to follow through with the idea or go back to ideation. Why is legal design important?Legal design is important because legal documents, processes, and concepts are famously complex. But when people don’t understand law, it makes it hard for them to engage with it and protect their own interests. Without legal design, individuals will remain stuck in processes they don’t understand, making promises they can’t comprehend, and signing contracts they haven’t even read. Examples of legal design in practiceLegal design can operate at various different levels within the legal industry. Let’s look at a few examples of legal design in practice now. 1. Visual design Visual design is the most obvious example of legal design in practice. It involves transforming the way information is presented to users in a way that resonates with them best. Contracts and other legal documents are a great example of this. Most contracts are crammed with legal jargon and packaged in an intimidating way. As a result, the end users of the contracts, who aren’t always lawyers, struggle to engage with and understand the contracts they’re presented. When you apply legal design principles to investigate why this is, there are a few clear problems for end users:Too much jargon. Not everyone who signs a contract will be a lawyer. Yet, most contracts are drafted using language that only lawyers understand.Important information is buried. Contracts are lengthy documents with huge blocks of text. This makes it difficult for contract stakeholders to digest the most important information in a contract. Contracts aren’t engaging. Poor contract design means that stakeholders find it hard to stay engaged in the contract because of how it looks. Instead of drafting contracts with lawyers and judges in mind, legal design thinking encourages people to create contracts with the layperson in mind. {{quote2}}This can be done by adding images, videos, and other rich text to contracts to make them more engaging and digestible. Another design-centric solution is to bring all of the most important information to the forefront of the contract, rather than burying it in masses of text. But it isn’t just the contract format that matters to users. It’s the words within a contract too. Since legal design principles focus on the user receiving the information in a way that makes sense to them, businesses should also consider drafting plain language contracts instead. 2. Process designProcess design is another branch of legal design that can be leveraged to improve the experiences of lawyers and those that work alongside them. Legal design principles can be applied to legal processes to identify pain points and provide user-centric, intuitive solutions to inefficient workflows. One example of this is the process used to enable commercial teams to self-serve on legal queries and documents. In a manual process, commercial teams will reach out to the legal team whenever they have a law-related question, or need help drafting or reviewing a contract. There are a few problems with this process:Legal are buried in low value tasks. Every time a lawyer takes time to answer a simple question, or review a simple contract, they’re taken away from higher-value work. This problem only exacerbates as your company grows and queries increase. Delayed responses. Since legal teams are busy, it’s likely that commercial teams will have to wait some time for a response, or for their contract to be approved. This can slow their progress on important projects. No consistency. Requesting support from the legal department tends to happen on an ad hoc basis. But this means that there’s no consistency around how requests are made and answered. This can become confusing for legal and commercial teams. It’s clear that the people using the process (legal and commercial teams) are both finding it painful. We’ve identified the problems they’re experiencing and how it affects their work. The next stage of legal design thinking is to brainstorm solutions to these problems. One option is to create an interactive legal playbook for commercial teams to use. This playbook can include all of the answers to the questions that the company’s lawyers are asked most frequently. This can be established as the first port of call for legal questions, and something teams should consult with before contacting legal. By redesigning the process in this way, legal teams have fewer distractions, commercial teams have access to answers on demand, and the process for accessing legal information is standardized. This redesign largely solves three of the most common problems users encounter. The same applies to the contracting process. Commercial teams frequently rely on legal teams to draft, review and approve their contracts. But the problems users face are the same: distractions for legal, delays in contract lifecycles, and a lack of consistency. A solution to this is to allow legal teams to pre-define contract templates and make creating the contract as easy for commercial teams as possible. This can be achieved using automated contract templates that can be populated in seconds using a simple Q&A workflow like the one in Juro.Rather than waiting around for legal teams to draft a contract, commercial teams can select a template and populate it by answering a few simple questions. Since the template was pre-defined and approved by legal, this can also remove the need for routine contracts to need further approval down the line. This process redesign means that legal can focus on higher-value tasks while commercial teams self-serve confidently on contract creation, with no blockers. Again, this solution focuses on improving both the experience and confidence of stakeholders when managing legal documents like business contracts. Hit the button below to find out more about Juro’s automated templates and Q&A workflows.What are the benefits of legal design?What we described above probably sounds like a lot of work. But legal design is a reiterative process designed to improve processes in the long-term, not the short-term. Besides, the benefits of implementing legal design often outweigh the costs of doing so. Some of these benefits include:Improved user experience. The most obvious benefit of better legal design is that it improves the experiences users have throughout the legal sector. By focusing on users’ needs, design thinking empowers teams to craft better experiences for them. Better engagement with legal processes. Making law accessible to all stakeholders ensures that they feel confident enough to engage in important legal processes. This is important considering everyone interacts with the legal system in some way. Reduced negotiation time. Simplifying contracts makes them easier for parties to understand, even without legal experience. This also makes them easier to negotiate. This can benefit a wide range of stakeholders, from commercial teams to legal functions. Increased trust. Making sure people have access to all of the information they need and creating a more human experience is a great way to increase trust. This is because there’s more transparency around the promises made and the processes used. More efficient processes. Applying design thinking to inefficient legal processes enables teams to identify opportunities to automate and streamline routine admin work. This is because legal design champions innovation and problem-led solutions, both of which can be used to remove friction. But there are also a few, more specific benefits of legal design for in-house lawyers, such as more effective communication and better prioritization. Want to find out more about legal design?To recap: legal design can transform the experiences of those within the legal industry. But adoption isn’t simple. It needs to be a long-term objective that your business works towards, rather than a quick box-ticking exercise. If you’re interested in finding out how legal design can improve your contracting process using a tool like Juro, fill in the form below. Give me three key takeaways and a short intro sentence please ChatGPT said: Legal design rethinks how law is created and experienced, putting real users — not just lawyers — at the center of legal documents and processes.