Role
Purchasing contracts
What stays in the company once a contract is signed? Usually a file in a folder. The thresholds, discounts and service levels you negotiated live in it for three years, and whoever happens to remember they exist is the one who uses them.
Intro call
Four questions we would start with
What is left of a contract after signing, besides the file?
If it is nothing, then the terms you negotiated exist only when somebody remembers them at the moment of ordering. The saving calculated at the negotiation never reaches the accounts.
What do you not know about performance until the end of the period?
Usually: whether the discount threshold was reached, whether the service levels were met, whether you used what you paid for.
Whose desk does the question "what does the contract say in this situation" end up on?
Usually yours - and it starts with reading forty pages to find one paragraph. With several dozen contracts that is work in itself.
How many times a year does a contract renew automatically because nobody gave notice in time?
If that happens to you, nobody is watching the notice periods systematically - and that is the most expensive form of forgetting.
We take over the watching, you keep the negotiation and the judgement
Pulling the obligations out of a contract, watching dates, checking the terms are used and reviewing performance can be taken off the desk. Negotiating the wording and decisions about continuing stay with a person.
- A contract is not interpreted automatically. - The system pulls specific obligations out of it - thresholds, dates, levels - and points to where in the text they are written. What a given clause means in a dispute is settled by a person, with a lawyer where needed.
- A term that is not watched does not exist. - A threshold nobody monitors, and a discount nobody applies when ordering, is a negotiated saving that was never made.
- A date has a reminder with room for a decision. - Not a week before notice is due, but far enough ahead to prepare an alternative.
Scope
What can be taken off contract work
Nineteen example tasks. Each one has a human approval point. Below is a selection, and the scope we fit to your process.
Preparation and negotiation
- A draft contract from the template with the agreed terms filled in (edited by: the specialist)
- Comparing the supplier's draft with the template and pointing out the differences
- Pointing out clauses departing from your standards (risk assessment: the specialist or a lawyer)
- The terms from contracts of similar scope
- The list of points to settle before signing
The register of obligations from a contract
- Pulling out the specific obligations: thresholds, dates, levels, penalties (verified by: the specialist)
- Linking a clause to its place in the text of the contract
- A register of commercial terms in a form that can be checked
- Pointing out the obligations on your side, not only on the supplier's
- Finding the clause covering a particular situation
Dates and notice
- A calendar of dates: term, notice, indexation, reviews
- Reminders with enough room to prepare an alternative
- A signal about contracts that renew automatically
- A summary of contracts expiring in the coming periods
Reviewing performance
- Checking thresholds and volumes against the clauses
- Pointing out orders placed on terms worse than the contracted ones
- Monitoring service levels against the supplier's obligations
- A summary of the contractual penalties that could be charged (decision: the specialist)
- Material for a review with the supplier (conclusions: the specialist)
A day's work
Today
- At a question about a clause you read the contract from the beginning
- You check discount thresholds at the year end, if somebody reminds you
- You learn about an automatic renewal after the fact
- You do not know whether orders are placed on the contracted terms
- Comparing the supplier's draft with the template is an evening with two documents
- You remember the terms from a similar contract, or you search through folders
With AI assistance
- You find the clause covering the situation straight away, with a reference to where it sits in the contract
- You see progress against a threshold during the year, not after it ends
- The notice date reminds you with room to prepare an alternative
- Orders placed outside the contracted terms are flagged
- The differences between the supplier's draft and the template are written out
- The terms from contracts of similar scope are summarised
- Negotiated terms actually used
the saving from the negotiation reaches the accounts
the terms are monitored in the orders, not only recorded
- Control over dates
contracts do not renew through forgetfulness
the calendar of dates reminds with room for a decision
- Consistency across the portfolio
similar purchases have similar terms
a summary of contracts of similar scope is available
- A clause available when it is needed
answering a question about a contract takes minutes
the obligations are pulled out and linked to their place in the text
We start with the dates, because they cost the most for the least effort.
- Step 1
The calendar of dates
Term, notice, indexation - for every active contract. The first review usually reveals a few contracts that renewed with no decision.
- Step 2
A register of obligations from the key contracts
Thresholds, levels, penalties - pulled out and linked to the text, verified by a person. For the dozen or so most important contracts, not for all of them.
- Step 3
Checking they are used
Whether orders are placed on the contracted terms and whether the thresholds are being met. This step usually reveals savings that existed only on paper.
- Step 4
Preparation and comparisons at negotiation
Comparing drafts with the template and summarising terms. Last, because it needs the register from step 2.
Common questions
Questions that come up at the first meeting
Does less work on contracts mean fewer people for contracts?
The problem in purchasing contracts is rarely the number of people - more often it is that after signing nobody goes back to the contract. Taking over the register and the dates replaces nobody, it makes the obligations and the notice dates visible without searching a binder. The work moves from looking things up to using what you have already agreed.
Does this fall under the AI Act?
Handling commercial contracts is not a high-risk use. The line is legal interpretation: pulling a clause out of the text is one thing, judging what it means in a dispute is another - and the second stays with people, lawyers included.
Still have a question that is not here? Book a call
Next step
How many negotiated terms never reach your orders?
We will show you what contract work looks like when the obligations are pulled out and watched, and the dates remind you with room for a decision.