Increasing contract volumes are a positive sign.
It means business is picking up and deals are getting closed. But how do you track these contracts as they progress through the contract lifecycle?
This guide answers that question, and more.
What is contract tracking?
Contract tracking describes the process used to identify where a contract is in its lifecycle and whether any action is required to progress it.
The maturity of this process varies wildly between different businesses, with some reliant on disorganized shared drives and manual review, and others are fully automated, making tracking contracts effortless.
If you find yourself stuck in the first category, you’re not alone. 90 per cent of stakeholders struggle to find their agreements using their current process, and almost half of businesses admit to lacking a definitive process for contract storage post-signature.
Visibility remains an uphill battle for most legal and business teams - even in 2024.
Why is contract tracking important?
Contract tracking is important because a lack of visibility into contracts, and the processes used to manage them, creates the following problems:
- Bottlenecks in deals: confusion around who the contract is sat with, and who is responsible for what, introduces delays into sales cycles and threatens revenue targets and quotas.
- Friction between teams: without visibility, teams can start playing the blame game, shifting responsibility for delays in the signing process instead of actually fixing them, which can sour relationships.
- Heightened contract risk: if relevant stakeholders can’t keep track of contract content or negotiations, then non-standard terms and language could creep into the document, leading to unacceptable and unaccounted for risks
- Missing contracts: without a secure database, companies can be left struggling to find contracts altogether, which makes it impossible to monitor risks and contract renewals
The longer you neglect contract tracking, the further into the void your contracts fall, and the harder these risks become to address. Fortunately, you have a few options.
How to track contracts effectively
Identify what you want to track
Before you can start to track your contracts, you need to understand what tracking looks like for you in practice.
Do you want to track upcoming renewals? Do you want to identify bottlenecks and improve contract management? Do you want to track average contract value, or other contract metrics?
How you answer these questions will shape your approach and the tooling you require.
For example, if you’re looking for a better way to track and reduce missed renewals, you’d benefit from a solution that offers automated contract reminders.
Similarly, if you’re looking to identify opportunities to increase efficiency, you’ll want to find a way to confidently measure things like time-to-sign and contract review durations.
Begin by identifying your pain right now and work from there.
Find a solution that works for you
Once you have a clear picture of what success looks like in the context of tracking your contracts, you’ll also be able to weigh up the options available to you.
If you only manage a handful of contracts a year, it might not be necessary to kick off a software deployment. Instead, you can get to base camp and have visibility across the lifecycle by starting with something like this free contract repository spreadsheet.
But if you do have more substantial contract volumes and higher stakes, adopting contract management software like Juro will dramatically improve your current process.
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This is because Juro provides a single source of truth for contracts, along with structured search functionality, granular access controls, advanced contract reporting, and custom contract dashboards.
To see Juro in action, hit the button below. Otherwise, read on to explore the features offered by contract tracking systems, and how they will transform contracting for your team.