Writing a group contract management policy before you choose a system

List which entities the policy covers: headquarters, wholly owned subsidiaries, controlled companies, branches, and whether minority holdings follow it for reference. Attach a table mapping each contracting entity to its legal name and the company seal it uses.

This section sets the reporting basis for everything else. If the entities are not defined, year-end totals from different subsidiaries will not add up.

This is the page people consult most often. Build it on two axes, contract type and amount: one row each for purchasing, sales, framework agreements, NDAs, investments and so on, a few amount tiers, and in each cell who approves and who countersigns.

Tiering by amount alone misses risk. A small framework agreement with an exclusivity clause can deserve more legal attention than a large routine purchase. The more specific the matrix, the easier the approval paths are to configure.

State which contracts must use group templates, who drafts and approves templates, how often they are reviewed, which fields business teams may change, and what happens when someone edits the body text. Also state when an old template version is retired.

A useful rule: contracts that use a template and change only the agreed fields get a lighter review; any change to template wording must be marked and goes to legal.

Define what legal, finance and the business owner each review, the time limit for each, and what happens on a timeout. Say which contract types, such as investments, guarantees or IP transfers, must be escalated to group legal.

Review comments should point back to specific clauses, not just "approved" or "please revise".

Set the signing order, when e-signature or paper applies, and what to check before a seal is applied. The usual checks: the version being sealed is the version that was approved, and all attachments are present.

The policy should not stop at signature. Say who follows payment, delivery and acceptance milestones, how far ahead renewals or terminations are flagged, and how amendments are approved and linked to the original contract.

Define when a contract counts as archived, who holds paper originals, how archive numbers are assigned, how long records are kept, and who approves access. Electronic and paper records must match. For the fields to record, the contract ledger template lists the essentials and can serve as an appendix to the policy.

State how often the group consolidates contract data, along which dimensions (entity, type, amount, counterparty), and how contracts signed outside the policy or beyond authority are handled.

Turn the eight sections into a table, one row each, and ask every vendor to answer row by row: where does this rule live in your configuration, and is it standard or custom work? A few rows tend to separate vendors:

• Can the approval matrix combine contract type, amount and business line, with different paths for different subsidiaries?
• Can contracting entities be managed and reported separately, then consolidated at group level?
• Is there a single template library, and are edits to template wording flagged?
• Can archive fields match the policy appendix one to one?

How an AI-assisted contract system differs from a traditional one across these daily steps is covered in AI contract management vs. traditional contract systems.

Zico (FIM) is a contract lifecycle management system covering drafting, negotiation, approval, signing, performance and archiving, delivered as a private deployment. Approvals can be tiered by contract type, amount and business line, with timeout reminders and automatic reassignment when an employee leaves; contract numbers are generated by rule; archiving records the archive number, storage location and custodian; and view and edit permissions can be assigned by organization and contract type. Pricing is quoted per customer.