CLM for finance and ops: get real-time visibility into contracts

Contract lifecycle management (CLM) software isn’t just another expense for finance teams to approve.

CLM software can actually be used by finance and operations teams to secure cost savings, minimize risk, and forecast revenue more accurately. 

Finance teams are key stakeholders when it comes to contract management.

If contract data is captured and recorded properly, finance can accurately forecast revenue and spend. If teams are notified about upcoming auto-renewals ahead of time, they can decide whether to cut the costs or continue the relationship. If they know when payment dates are, they can avoid penalties for missing these.

But when businesses don’t have visibility into their contracts, finance departments find themselves buried in low-value admin work, frantically searching for contract data and trying to meet last-minute deadlines. 

Fortunately, contract lifecycle management software can reduce the strain placed on finance departments. With the right software and features, finance teams can automate routine contract admin, reduce risk, and forecast with more certainty. 

To find out which CLM features are most useful for finance teams in 2023, hit the button below to speak to a specialist, or read on.

Best CLM features for finance and ops teams

When it comes to choosing a CLM tool, finance and operations teams need to prioritize platforms that deliver visibility and reduce routine admin. There are a few CLM features that are particularly effective in achieving this goal. 

1. Automated contract templates

Automated contract templates make it quick and easy to generate watertight contracts. Legal and finance can create contract templates with terms they’ve already approved. These templates can then be populated in Juro via a simple Q&A form, or through integrations with core business systems. 

Whichever way you choose, automated contract templates remove the need for manual contract drafting, and the risks associated with sales and procurement teams freestyling contract terms. 

Before Juro, we needed to review 100 per cent of customer contracts. Now that we can lock contract fields with Juro, that number has dropped to 12 per cent - Victoria Sörving, Chief Legal Officer, Funnel

But that’s not all. Juro’s automated contract templates use smartfields to capture key data points within a contract. This data is then compiled in a dashboard, providing instant visibility into the company’s legal agreements. We’ll cover this in more detail shortly. 

2. Approval workflows 

Finance teams will need to review contracts where payment terms deviate from the standard position. Automated approval workflows make sure these contracts don’t fall through the cracks. 

Juro users can set approval workflows for templates based on the conditions within a contract, for example. This means that contracts that follow the standard position (12 month billing, for example) won’t need finance’s approval. But if the contract deviates from this, it will automatically be shared with the finance team for review and approval. 

With this workflow in place, finance teams can trust commercial teams to self-serve on contracts without worrying about increased contractual risk. 

“On the legal side, we’ve mitigated a lot of risk through Juro. There’s a clear return on investment; I'm saving time, I'm saving money, and I'm saving myself from a lot of stress  - Nicolas Costa, Director of Customer Ops and Account Management, Koombea

3. Bulk actions

Bulk actions empower CFOs and COOs to sign and approve contracts at scale. Rather than signing each and every contract individually, finance teams that use a CLM like Juro can select large volumes of contracts and add an electronic signature to all of them in just a few clicks. Automating this routine contract admin for standardized contracts enables finance and ops teams to focus on higher-value tasks. 

Our COO was incredibly satisfied with the new contract process. Previously he had to sign everything individually. Now it’s done in half a minute - he can check the information once and bulk-sign with one click - Khalid Al Turki, Senior Strategy and Ops Analyst, Tamara

To find out more about bulk actions and how they make contract processes fit for scale, check out this guide to bulk actions.

4. Key date reminders

Key date reminders are one of the most useful CLM software features for finance and ops teams. They enable teams to keep sight of important deadlines like payment collection, auto-renewal, and expiry dates. These can be set at the template level - for example, making sure you always get a reminder one month before the end of a document generated from your Lending Agreement template. This empowers finance and operations teams to identify churn risks, opt out of unwanted contract renewals and monitor payment due dates with ease. 

The fact that I can standardize contracts is a huge benefit, and I track expiry dates and contract renewals, preventing unnecessary cost - Okechukwu Eke, Head of Legal, Moniepoint

Find out more about how key date reminders can help you stay in the loop with contracts in this guide to contract reminder software.

5. Data-rich contract repository

CLM software with a data-rich contract repository provides businesses with a single source of truth for contracts. This makes it much easier for finance and ops teams to find, access, and query the data within a contract as all of the contracts are stored in one place, not scattered across shared drives and email chains. 

Juro’s contract repository goes a step further by providing real-time visibility into contracts and their data. Contracts created in Juro are built as structured data, making them fully searchable. 

Juro users can find contracts instantly using OCR-enabled search functionality, build custom contract dashboards to display contract metadata, and track the status of contracts at scale.  

Searching for documents was a time-drain before Juro. Now, I go into Juro daily, and can access all our documents through a simple search - Ulrika Leikvang, Head of Legal, Tibber

6. Integrations

If automating routine contract admin is a priority for your finance team, you'll also want to consider which integrations are available. For example, Juro integrates seamlessly with invoicing tools to automate invoices once a contract has been signed.

You can find out more about these workflows in the guides below:

• How to manage contracts and invoices in Xero
• How to manage contracts and invoices in Quickbooks
• 12 enterprise CLM integrations your company needs in 2023

Does your finance team need CLM software?

If you've got this far, you're probably asking yourself: is CLM software the solution for us? And is now the right time?

We spoke to Debbie Chandler, Chief Financial Officer at RVU, about what CFOs consider when evaluating a CLM. For Debbie, value for money and the cost of not adopting the tool are the deciding factors.

Time can be quantified by the value of the staff cost of the person who will have to compensate for the absence of the system - Debbie Chandler, CFO, RVU

Ask yourself the following questions:

• How much time are we spending searching for contract data right now?
• How much cash are we burning on unwanted auto-renewals?
• How much potential revenue are we losing through inefficient contract processes?

If the answer to any of those questions is 'a lot', it's worth filling in the form below to see how Juro's data-rich contract management platform can save you time and money in 2023.