1. Create and automate contract templates
Drafting contracts manually takes significant time, especially for recurring agreements such as employment or purchase contracts. One of the most effective ways to improve contract management is to standardise and automate templates.
You can use templates for contracts where only specific variables (e.g., price, parties, or notice period) change. Set up questionnaire-based flows so non-legal staff can generate compliant contracts without legal involvement. Ensure all templates are version-controlled so outdated versions cannot be used. For a deep dive into building effective templates, see Contract Templates: A Practical Guide for Legal and Business Teams.
2. Build a structured contract approval workflow
A contract approval workflow is the defined sequence of steps a contract must pass through before it can be executed. It determines who needs to review and sign off on an agreement, in what order, and under what conditions — before the contract goes to e-signature.
Without a structured process, approvals happen over email. Contracts sit in inboxes. Stakeholders miss notifications, forget to respond, or approve without reading. There is no audit trail, no visibility into where a contract is stuck, and no way to enforce rules consistently across teams.
This is one of the most common sources of contract delay — and one of the most avoidable.
Why email-based approvals fail at scale
Email works for occasional, low-complexity approvals. As soon as contract volume grows — or deals become more complex — the limitations become clear:
- No enforced routing: approvals go to whoever the sender remembers to copy
- No conditional logic: a high-value deal goes through the same process as a standard renewal
- No visibility: no one knows whether a contract is approved, pending, or stuck
- No audit trail: there is no record of who approved what, or when
- No substitution: when the approver is out of the office, contracts simply stop moving
A structured contract approval workflow solves all of these problems by removing the decision-making from individuals and encoding it into the system.
What a contract approval workflow should do
An effective approval workflow automation setup handles the following:
- Routes contracts automatically to the correct approver based on predefined rules — deal value, contract type, counterparty, region, or any other metadata field
- Supports both sequential approvals (Approver A must sign off before Approver B is notified) and parallel approvals (multiple approvers notified simultaneously)
- Applies conditional logic so that a standard deal skips unnecessary steps whilst a non-standard deal triggers additional review
- Notifies approvers automatically when action is required, with reminders if they do not respond within a set time
- Routes to a substitute approver automatically when someone is unavailable, preventing delays caused by out-of-office situations
- Locks the contract during the approval process to prevent unauthorised changes
- Records a full audit trail of every approval action — who approved, who rejected, and when
Sequential vs parallel approvals
Most contract approval workflows will need to support both structures depending on context:
Sequential approvals route the contract from one approver to the next in a fixed order. Each approver sees the contract only after the previous one has signed off. This is appropriate for hierarchical sign-off processes — for example, a deal manager, then a legal review, then a finance approval.
Parallel approvals notify multiple approvers simultaneously. All reviewers receive the contract at the same time and can approve independently. This reduces total approval time when the sign-off from each party is independent of the others.
The right structure depends on your organisation and contract type. Multi-level approval workflows typically combine both — for example, a parallel Legal and Finance review followed by a sequential final sign-off from the General Counsel.
Setting approval rules based on contract metadata
The most effective contract approval workflows are driven by metadata, not by manual routing decisions. Common rule types include:
- Contract value: deals above a certain threshold trigger additional approval steps
- Contract type: employment contracts route to HR and Legal; supplier contracts route to Procurement and Finance
- Counterparty risk: contracts with new or flagged counterparties trigger additional review
- Deviation from standard terms: any contract that uses non-standard clauses routes to Legal before proceeding
When rules are set at the template level, every contract generated from that template follows the same approval process automatically — regardless of who drafted it. For more on how Precisely handles approval routing and governance, see our Approvals feature page.
3. Centralise contract storage
Contracts stored across email threads, shared drives, and personal folders create visibility gaps. A centralised, searchable contract repository with structured metadata is the foundation of post-signature management. It enables renewal tracking, obligation monitoring, and portfolio reporting. For a look at what this enables strategically, see The Contract Is Not a Document. It Is a Strategic Asset.
4. Automate renewal reminders
Missed renewals are one of the most common — and most costly — contract management failures. Automated reminders set at 60–90 days before key dates prevent contracts from auto-renewing on unfavourable terms or lapsing without review.
5. Connect your CLM to other systems
Contract management software that integrates with your CRM, ERP, and e-signature tools eliminates manual data entry and keeps contract information in sync with the systems other teams rely on. For a look at why integrations are foundational to scalable contracting, read Why CLM Integrations Are the Foundation of Scalable Contracting.
For a full overview of contract management best practices to complement these steps, see Contract Management Best Practices: A Guide to Maximising Efficiency and Control.
