Contract Reminder Software: A Guide To Features & Benefits

Content

• What is contract reminder software?
• Why do you need contract reminder software?
• What are the essential features of contract reminder software?
• Capture relevant dates
• Automated notifications
• Assign responsibilities
• Obligation tracking
• What are the benefits of contract reminder software?
• Conclusion

When multiple contracts and projects are in the pipeline, keeping track of all deadlines and responsibilities requires constant supervision. Businesses often don’t have the time and resources to stay on top of these milestones throughout the relationship. It leads to missing out on relevant dates, payments, or performance. 

It isn’t a risk companies in any industry are willing to take, as they may face legal, reputational, and operational consequences. In these situations, contract reminder software can streamline the process. To help you along, here’s all you need to know about the digital solution, its prominent features, benefits, and applications. 

What is contract reminder software?

Contract reminder software automates and simplifies the tracking of relevant contractual milestones and deadlines. Parties can use it to set reminders for obligations, deadlines, renewals, and expirations. Automation ensures there’s less probability of human error or critical undertakings slipping between the cracks. 

As a result, companies can manage the contract lifecycle without overseeing them directly. This break from manual supervision increases productivity and frees up legal staff members for high-value work. Missing contract deadlines can lead to financial penalties and even legal consequences. Contract reminder software helps to avoid these risks and ensure that parties fulfill their duties on time.

Why do you need contract reminder software?

Poor monitoring is one of the main reasons businesses lose money and opportunities in commercial relationships. When portfolios grow exponentially, parties must go above and beyond to meet the demand. Traditional contract management means parties go through legal agreements manually to capture relevant dates, obligations, and milestones. Most often, they resort to spreadsheets and calendars to monitor this data. It means constantly accessing these files or else losing out on opportunities. 

Consequently, it will hinder businesses from timely action for renewals, obligations, and financial settlements. In such cases, contract reminder software allows parties to automate capturing and tracking relevant contract events. It reduces the risk of human shortsightedness and missed deadlines. 

What are the essential features of contract reminder software?

Contract reminder software provides visibility into deadlines and events as a legal agreement progresses. It allows parties to stay on top of these relevant dates and tasks without constant intervention. Spreadsheets and antiquated techniques force parties to update data manually over time. Transparency and oversight may suffer as business agreements become more complex and numerous. The following features of contract reminder software can help to expedite the process in such circumstances.

Capture relevant dates

The primary purpose of contract reminder software is to stay on top of critical tasks and events. The platform enables users to gather and store pertinent data automatically and achieve this. Consequently, companies can keep an eye on them at every stage without reading the contract word for word. They can use smart fields to record start dates, end dates, due dates, duration, and signing dates. They can quickly gain insights by using customized dashboards and reports to present this data comprehensively. Companies can accurately track approaching deadlines even when handling hundreds of contracts simultaneously. 

Automated notifications

Merely recording pertinent information doesn’t facilitate timely action. That’s the drawback of depending on spreadsheets to monitor contracts. Fortunately, contract reminder software helps businesses overcome these shortcomings. It allows users to set up prompt notifications based on contract date and status. They can decide who and how far in advance they receive the alert. 

Businesses can customize their contract reminder according to a specific date, such as the contract expiry date, notice to renew date, review date, etc. Or they can schedule notifications when a contract has been under a particular status for a specific period. Thus, all the involved parties are in the know when the legal agreement moves through review, approval, and signing.

Assign responsibilities

Contracts often involve stakeholders spread across departments, industries, and nations. In such cases, getting everyone on the same page regarding significant tasks and milestones requires serious effort. Fortunately, contract reminder software allows businesses to assign tasks and deadlines to relevant parties.

Companies can clearly define responsibilities for contract-related activities and assign them to internal and external stakeholders. These alerts ensure that the appropriate information gets to the relevant person at the opportune moment. Thus, they can take a proactive approach to contractual obligations, milestones, and target dates. 

Obligation tracking

A prominent part of contract management is ensuring all the parties perform their obligations. It involves carrying out duties, paying bills, abstaining from specific activities, giving information, and abiding by rules and regulations. There may be legal repercussions for breaking these commitments, including damages or contract termination. 

Contract reminder software enables users to assign responsibilities to specific stakeholders. They can set up due dates and timely reminders to guarantee responsible parties fulfill their duties on time. Most digital solutions also offer AI capabilities to extract and organize clauses from huge volumes of contracts automatically. 

What are the benefits of contract reminder software?

Businesses that rely on manual processes for contract creation and storage always have concerns about the accountability and transparency of the process. Keeping up with everything about the legal agreement may prove challenging for the parties. It also increases the chance of non-compliance, poor performance, and missed deadlines. On the other hand, contract reminder software provides a specialized solution to document and monitor all activities. It improves efficiency and productivity across the board. 

Improved Renewal Management

Renewals are an integral part of successful business relationships. Parties risk ending a successful partnership or prolonging a pointless one if they fail to keep track of renewal and expiry dates. That is why businesses require ample time to review the value and risks of a contractual agreement before making a decision. 

Contract reminder software provides them with this opportunity. They can decide how far in advance the parties need notification regarding renewal or expiry. Thus, they can prepare, renegotiate better terms, or look for better prospects. It lessens the chance of disruption in the flow of goods or services. Unlike the case of autorenewals, businesses can base their decision on performance history and prior experience.

Effective Obligation Management

Obligation management determines parties’ reputation, bottom line, and contractual relationship. If the parties fail to perform their duties on time, they might end up facing breaches, litigation, and damages. For growing businesses with hundreds of active contracts, staying on top of all the rights and responsibilities is time-consuming. 

Automating obligations through contract management software enables parties to prevent human error and oversight from the process. They can assign responsibility for tasks to specific stakeholders to instill accountability. Thus, there’s always someone answerable for non-performance or failed duties. The assigned parties also receive timely alerts to perpetuate prompt action.

Conclusion

Contract reminder software is a digital solution to simplify and automate the monitoring and management of contract milestones, deadlines, and obligations. While beneficial, the platform only takes care of one aspect of the contract lifecycle. Businesses still have to depend on multiple software programs to carry out other contract-related activities, such as drafting, negotiating, and signing. It can lead to disjointed processes and information silos. Moreover, legal professionals end up switching endless systems throughout the contract management lifecycle. 

That is why Dock 365 has developed a one-stop solution for Microsoft users. Our contract management software provides features to automate every stage of the contracting process. From initial requests to post-contract management, all happen within a single platform. Thus, parties have a comprehensive overview of the processes to improve decision-making.

Template & Clause libraries: Parties can build on pre-existing templates and clauses to draft contracts for a variety of purposes within minutes.

Digital Redlining: Businesses can facilitate seamless negotiation with multiple parties without losing track of document versions using Dock 365’s digital redlining capabilities. 

Workflow Automation: Route contracts through multiple reviewers and approvers with automated and customizable workflows. 

Remote Signing: Execute contracts from anywhere with electronic signatures, such as DocuSign, Adobe Sign, and Sertifi, within Dock 365 contract management software.

Check out our competitive plans to explore all the benefits our platform has to offer.