Do I need to pay for a year upfront?
No. Customers that use ContractSafe for several months see a lot more benefit, so we have a discount for an annual subscription. However, we also have a monthly option. Your choice!
What is the charge per user?
We do not charge per user. All of our plans allow unlimited users. Pricing is determined by how many contracts you want to store, and which features you’re interested in. For more details on pricing, click here.
What is the difference between this and DropBox or Box?
We’re glad you asked! There’s really no comparison. There are hundreds of reasons a specialized tool will make your life easier, but here are some of the biggest:
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Better Search: We automatically run every uploaded scanned document through OCR (optical character recognition). That’s a fancy way of saying we make everything searchable. So you can find what you’re looking for with just a quick search...like Google!
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Easy Reminders: Cloud drives don’t help you manage compliance. When to renew or cancel a contract. When to make key payments. When your NDA expires. ContractSafe makes it easy to set reminders, and send them to co-workers and key partners (lawyers, accountants, etc). Don’t risk auto-renewing that copier service agreement again!
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Get Information You Need: Unlike shared drives, you have a summary of each contract stored in the system. No need to flip through pages to find the termination date, escalator terms, confidentiality provisions...that can all be noted on your Contract Page. It’s like having a mini-term sheet for each contract.
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Simple Sharing: If you’ve ever tried to manage sharing at a folder or file level, it gets tricky quickly. ContractSafe makes it easy to ensure the Sales leadership only sees the sales contracts...or to create a data room or project on the fly.
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Security: Keeping your contracts segregated from the rest of your company documents increases the security. Plus we make sure that accidental deletions can’t happen.
Fundamentally, Box, DropBox and Google Drive are just like shared drives on a server at your office. All the same frustrations in managing contracts that exist on servers exist in a simple cloud drive.
ContractSafe delivers the ease of use of a shared drive, but more features and protection. It’s a better way!
Can I store my files locally?
All of our pricing includes all the storage you need in the Amazon cloud. Here at ContractSafe, we understand how important security is. Click for more on our security.
You can use ContractSafe with locally stored files as well. Depending on the configuration and the work required, there are additional charges. Please contact sales@contractsafe.com for more details.
Does ContractSafe offer e-signatures?
We do not. We integrate with Docusign and other leading e-signature providers. For more information or quesitons please contact sales@contractsafe.com.
How long is the Free Trial?
The free trial lets you use all of the Platinum features of ContractSafe for one week. After that your account will revert back to the Free level.
Can you help me create a contract?
ContractSafe is for storing, finding, sharing and reminding. Unfortunately, we don’t create contracts or have sample contracts for download.
Where can I see pricing plans?
Pricing is available at the bottom of our home page. Just click here for details.
How do I email documents in?
You can forward an email with a signed contract right into ContractSafe. Or scan a contract and have the scanner email it into ContractSafe. And, like anything else you upload into ContractSafe, we will convert any non-searchable documents attached to the email into searchable documents.
Look for your email-in address at the bottom of the “Add New Contracts” window. Just click on “Add New Contracts” on your main Dashboard.
And in the dialog box that opens up, your email-in address is below the main window.
When you send an email in, the document name(s) in the email will show up as the document name(s) in ContractSafe. You can always rename it later.
Any Account Owner or Admin can change the email to be something easy to remember or use for your organization. For example, important_contracts@m.contractsafe.com. They can also set whether Admins and the Account Owner receive notification (via email) when a document is uploaded. This can all be managed by clicking Email-in Settings under Settings.
How do I find my documents quickly?
ContractSafe was built to make it incredibly easy to put your hands on the right document--right when you need it!
There are three ways to quickly find things in ContractSafe.
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SEARCH: The easiest, and typically the fastest, is by searching. In your Dashboard, simply enter in terms that you are looking for. ContractSafe will pull up any documents that match ALL of the terms entered. If you enter Master Lease, ContractSafe will pull up any documents that have those words, even if the words are not next to each other.
A few notes on search:
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If you want a specific term, just put your search in quotes. For example, “Master Lease” will only pull up documents that have those two words next to each other.
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ContractSafe searches through the actual contract, and all the entered information related to a contract.
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ContractSafe does not search through related documents.
2) SORT: Your Dashboard can be sorted by any of the headers. Simply click on the header, and the data will be re-sorted. One click sorts by ascending. The second click sorts by descending. A third click will remove the sort. Or, you can pull down the arrow to the right of the header to select what type of sort you want.
If the Dashboard doesn’t have the fields that you want to sort by, you can always change your Dashboard.
You can also search first, and then sort the results. This should help you find things incredibly quickly.
3) FILTER: ContractSafe filters are built right into the Dashboard. To open them up just click on the somewhat mysterious filter icon in the upper left of the Dashboard:
This will open up the filters, where you can choose to filter by Type, Party, Active, Value, Dates, Fully Executed, Party, or Tags.
You can also use filters to find Duplicates (based on file name), or recently uploaded documents.
Just like with Sorting, you can Filter first, and then search within that group of filtered results for the file you are looking for. You can also Sort after applying a filter.
And don’t forget that the Dashboard can be printed or downloaded into a spreadsheet any time by pressing the “Print” button.
How do I search inside a document?
With ContractSafe, we make it easy both to find the document you are looking for (LINK TO ARTICLE), and also to find the information you need inside that document.
Once you find the right document, you can instantly view the document by clicking on the blue icon to the right of the file name.
Or you can click anywhere on the document line in the Dashboard to open the Contract page, and then open the View Document section at the bottom of the page.
Once the document is open, you can scroll through the pages normally, or click on the magnifying glass at the top to pull up a search box. Simply type in the term or information you are looking for, and you’ll be taken right there - even if it’s a scanned document! If the term comes up more than once, you will see how many times and you can use the buttons to skip to the next or last instance in the document.
How do I print or export the Dashboard?
It’s easy to print out a summary of what you need. At any time, you can print what’s displayed on your Dashboard simply by clicking on the “Print” button (upper right).
This will open a dialog box where you can choose to Print or Export the data.
If you’d like to print different fields than the default Dashboard view, just Customize Your Dashboard. [link to Customize Dashboard article]. Or you can export your data to Excel or Google Sheets and format however you’d like.
How do I export to CSV?
To export all your records: Go to settings, and under Download Documents and Data, click on the “Data” button. Note: You must be an Account Owner or Admin to download all your data.
To export a subset: From your Dashboard, either filter or search to get the data you want. Then click on the “Print” button up at the top, next to the “Add New Contracts” button.
This will bring up a dialog box, where you can choose the option to Export (at the top). Selecting Export will export your subset of data to CSV.
How do I see recent uploads?
When you upload new contracts, they automatically appear at the top of your Dashboard. Your Dashboard will always default to show you the most recent uploads at the top.
You can also open filters (for more on filters, click here), and choose Upload Date as the filter. This will give you choices (Last 3 days, Last 7 days, etc) for recent uploads.
When your contracts are first uploaded, they are also listed as uncategorized for the Type of contract. You can also Filter by Type to find all uncategorized contracts.
How do I get rid of duplicates?
Sometimes the same file gets uploaded a second time. Or two different files have the same name. You can call your files whatever you want. We won’t judge. However, when we upload a file with the same name, we will add “Dupe” at the beginning of it’s ContractSafe name. You should probably rename it if you’d like to keep it in ContractSafe.
We also give you a quick way to identify any documents with the same file name. Just open your filters on the Dashboard, and choose Duplicates. This will bring up all the files that ContractSafe thinks are duplicates. You can then delete these, rename them, or leave them (if you really want to).
How do I see all my upcoming important dates?
To switch back to your regular Dashboard view, just click the same button again (it will be bright orange and labeled Dashboard).
Where are the folders? I want my folders!
We get it...humans have been using files and folders for centuries. However, Tags are faster, more efficient, and have the added benefit that a single document can have multiple Tags. So they work just like folders, but better.
In ContractSafe, you can apply unlimited Tags. To apply a Tag to a document, just click on the contract you want to Tag, and then click on the “Add” button next to the Tags section.
This will bring up a dialog box. From there, you can either select any existing Tags by just checking the boxes for the Tags you want to use, or create new Tags by choosing “Manage Tags”.
Once you have added a Tag, you’ll see it displayed just below the Tags header.
If you click on a Tag that is applied, it will act like a folder. Any documents with the same “Tag” will be displayed for you (just like inside a folder). You can also apply a filter for Tagged documents from your main Dashboard. This will pull up all the Tagged documents as well. Finally, if you search for the Tag you will find it as well, although that may pull up some additional results if your Tag is a more common word.
If you love folders, you’ll find that Tags deliver an ever bigger bang with less work.
How do I track Amendments in ContractSafe?
One of the most frustrating things when referring to a contract is to not realize there is an amendment. ContractSafe makes it easy to track amendments, and shows you when a contract has an amendment.
Start by linking each new amendment with the original agreement. When you upload a new amendment, open up the Contract page, and click on the Amendment check box.
This will bring up a list of your other ContractSafe documents. You can either:
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Scroll through the list to find the original contract, then click on the button
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Type in the name of the original agreement, then click on the button
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Indicate that the original agreement is not in ContractSafe (this happens if you don’t have an electronic copy of it, or may have, uhm, misplaced it). You can then manually enter the name of the original agreement.
Once you indicate it is an amendment, you also have the option to indicate if it is Amended and Restated below the Amendment checkbox.
If the original agreement is in ContractSafe, when you pull up that document, it will now show the amendment (or amendments, if there are several) listed. The amendment will also show the original contract. You can also click on the link to open up the Contract page for that document.
A contract can have multiple amendments, but an amendment can only be tied to a single original agreement.
Where have you been all my life?
Yeah, we get that a lot. We couldn’t believe there wasn’t something affordable like it in the market so we built it! ContractSafe is an easy to use, affordable way to organize all your important business documents. For more info see About us.
How do I get started?
It’s easy...just upload a contract. On the main dashboard page here, simply click on the button “Add New Contracts” at the bottom. Then either choose a file (or files) on your computer to upload, or just drag your files into the box. Choose upload and you’re off and running!
From the Contracts page, you can new click on a contract to enter information, set reminders or search the document.
How do I track the info that is important to me?
We have created several ways for you to track important things. First of all, you can create tags. These tags can be applied similar to Gmail. To create a tag, click on a contract to get the detailed view. In the first section, toward the bottom, just enter a word or phrase to help label that document. You can enter as many tags as you would like.
Important note: These tags can be used across all of your contracts. Try to use tags that you can reuse frequently.
Once you have applied a tag, the easiest way to find something is to apply a filter that uses the tag you created. To apply a filter from the main dashboard, click on the 3 lines just to the left of the word Dashboard at the top. This will open the filter tool, where you can select Tags, and then choose to filter by any tags you have created.
Another option is to store clauses or notes in the notes section. Anything you include here will be searchable, so if you search by using the Search Bar at the top of the main Dashboard, you’ll quickly find your desired contract.
How do I track non-standard contracts?
Wow! Getting tricky. Ok, when you are filling out the details for a contract, open the legal section. Here there's a line: Form agreement or custom?: with a choice of either Form Agreement or Custom.
You can stop there if you just want to know whether it’s your standard agreement or not. If you actually want to track changes or make notes, we suggest putting any details into the notes section below. You can paste entire sections from the contract, or just make a few notes about what is different.
The Filters or Search don’t seem to be working.
In order for the filters to work, you need to enter the information for your contract on the Detail page for the contract. Once you fill in some of this information, it will become searchable and filterable (that’s a word, right?).
If you have tried the above and it is still not working please contact us at support@contractsafe.com.
How do I download my original document(s)?
Ok...you've uploaded all your contracts. Now how do you get them back?
If you click to see the details on any individual document, you can click on the download button in the upper right corner of the page. To do a bulk download of all your contracts, Go to Settings and scroll down. Click on the Documents button under "Download all Documents and Data".
How do I set a reminder?
What are related documents?
Related documents is an area for you to store anything related to the contract that you would like to keep track of. Related documents is used to store:
* An earlier draft or final Word draft of a contract, for later reference.
* Statements of Work associated with a contract.
* Insurance certificates related to a contract.
* PowerPoints related to a contract
* Additional signature pages for the contract
* Pretty much anything else you want to keep track of!
Two important notes:
1) Related documents do not count toward your total contracts stored for your plan. Only the original contract counts. For example, if a single contract has 5 signature pages stored in related documents, that counts as (1) contract, not 6.
2) The content of related documents is not searched when you perform a search in ContractSafe.
What do I use Notes for?
Some possible uses for Notes:
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Cut and paste (or summarize) any non-standard clauses in your contracts.
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Put important notes from the contract (payment terms, escalators, etc) that aren’t covered in another field in ContractSafe.
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Put notes about the original negotiation (notes from your team, items to think about next time, etc) or counterparty (negotiating style, decision process, etc) so that when you are renegotiating the contract you’ll remember all of the important information.
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Any important info that comes up during the lifetime of the contract that you want to track for the renewal.
How do I add New Users?
Only the Account Owner and Admins can add other users to ContractSafe.
Click on Settings, and then select Users.
This brings up a dialog box. Just enter the new user’s email and click “Invite User.”
Important! For security reasons, your new users start with no access to any files. You need to select a Role for your user and, if they will not be an Admin, select which Types of contracts they will have access to (by clicking on the “Permissions” button that says “None”). Also, each user will default to being logged out after 45 minutes of inactivity. You can set this to longer or shorter by changing the number of minutes.
What are the different User Roles?
In ContractSafe, you can quickly and easily control access to information.
Only Admins (or Account Owners) can change User Roles and Permissions.
Typically you’ll set a Role when you invite a new User. If you want to change a User’s Role, you can always bring up the User dialog box by clicking on Settings, and then the “Users” button.
To assign or change a Role, click on the pull-down button next to their name and select the appropriate Role.
There are five Roles in ContractSafe:
Account Owner: This is an Admin, but the one who is on record with ContractSafe as the actual owner of the account. This should be the primary contact for your ContractSafe account. The Account Owner has all of the rights of an Admin.
How do I manage/restrict what a User sees? (Setting Permissions)
In ContractSafe, you can quickly and easily control access to information.
Only Admins (or Account Owners) can change User Roles and Permissions.
Typically you will set Permissions right when you add a new User. You can always come back to the User settings and change it later by clicking on Settings and then selecting Users.
To change a User’s Permissions, simply click on the button next to their name in the Permissions column.
All new users start with no permissions (displayed as None).
Clicking on the button under Permissions will bring up a simple checklist of Types. Just choose which Types of contracts a User should have access to, and click Save. You’re done!
You can see at a glance whether a User has access to All Types, Limited, or None.
How do I customize my Dashboard?
Your Dashboard can be completely customized by user. You can move columns around just by dragging and dropping them: click and hold the column heading you want to move, and move it to where you want it. You can also resize columns by moving your cursor to the edge of the column heading (like in Excel or Google Sheets) and clicking and holding to adjust the size.
You can also change what is displayed by going to Settings and clicking on Dashboard. This will pull up a simple dialog box that lets you choose what you want to see (and what you don’t). Just select the fields you want on the right side and click the left arrow. This will add them to the “Selected columns” group. You can do the reverse to remove any unneeded columns. You can also adjust the order of the columns by grabbing the three blue lines to the left of the Column Header name in the list and moving it up or down.
What are contract Types, and why are they important?
Contract Type allows you to categorize your contracts by the area it relates to in your business. Initially, the Types are set up by Corporate Area (Corporate, Real Estate, HR, IT, Sales & Marketing, etc). If you are a Gold or Platinum subscriber, you can change the Types to manage contracts however you’d like. For example, you may want to organize Types by region, branch, country, subsidiary, or by managing partner.
Types are the primary way your information is structured in ContractSafe, especially for sharing information. You can always change it later, but it’s best to set Types up to match your workflow as early as possible.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You can use this information to filter or search, and also to limit what other Users in your business might be able to see. Click herefor more information about granting or restricting access.
How do I change the Types of contracts?
Only the Account Owner and Admins can change Types.
Types can be customized at the Gold subscription level or higher.
There are two simple ways to customize Types. Either click on Settings, and select the button for “Contract Types”.
Or, from any Contract page just select the “Edit” button next to the Contract Type header.
This will bring up a dialog box with the existing Contract Types.
To remove a Type of contract, just click on the “X Remove” button next the Type you want to delete. To add a new one, type in the name and click on the “+ Add” button. Click “Done” and you’re all set.
Important Note: When you have saved contracts with a Type that you then delete, those contracts will revert to Uncategorized. Any user with access to Uncategorized contracts will be able to see them.
How do I change the currency for a contract?
All currencies start in US Dollars. You can easily change the currency for any contract by just clicking on the “USD ($)” label next to the value amount. Then choose the currency you want. If you need another currency added, just let us know at feedback@contractsafe.com.
Accessing ContractSafe on tablets and phones
What are Custom Fields?
Custom fields allow you to tailor ContractSafe to your business needs. You can set up Custom Fields to collect any information you need that may not be covered by our preset contract fields, and even display that information on the Dashboard (where you can sort and quickly tailor your views to see what you need).
There are four types of Custom Fields that you can create:
Text
Number
Check Box
Drop Down
Custom fields are available at the Platinum subscription level.
How do I add or edit Custom Fields?
To add a Custom Field, you must have a Platinum subscription.
Only the Account Owner and Admins can add Custom Fields.
There are two ways to add or edit custom fields.
You can click on Settings, and then choose the “Custom Fields” button.
Or, from any Contract page, just click on the section for Custom Fields, and choose the “Add Fields” button.
This will bring up the dialog box for Custom Fields. To edit or delete a field, choose the appropriate option next to an existing field. To enter a new field, simply type in the description for your field and click “+ New.”
You can then choose what type of field you’d like to create: Text, Number, Check Box or Drop Down (for more information on the types of Custom Fields, click here). You can also select whether you’d like to enable (or display) the field.
If you choose Drop Down as your type of field, you’ll need to enter the choices you’d like to restrict your team members to. Just enter them separated by commas.
Hit “Save” and you’re ready to go!
What types of Custom Fields can I create?
There are four types of Custom Fields that you can create in ContractSafe:
1) Text: Text fields allow the user to type in whatever they would like as input. This could be something like:
“Where is the Original Signed Contract?” or “What is the early cancellation penalty?”
Users can type any answer they want in response, up to 5000 characters.
2) Number: Number fields are also input by Users, however, the choice is restricted to a number.
Choices might be “What is the annual escalator?” or “How much do we have to pay for late payments?”
3) Check Box: Check boxes are used for any Yes/No answers. For example:
“Pre-payment Penalty” or “Confidential Contract”. Just make sure it’s really clear to users whether they should check the box or not!
4) Drop Down: Drop Downs are used when you would like to restrict the choices your Users can select. We recommend Drop Downs whenever possible to avoid misspellings or several answers that are meant to be the same, but are all slightly different (for example, My Company, My Company Inc, My Company Incorporated). This will make it easier to filter and find your data.
Examples might be “Salesperson” or “Office Branch” or “Region.”
What are tags and how do I use them?
Tags are a quick way to label a contract (some refer to this as providing a context). You can create Tags for projects, teams, branches, document types, law firms. The only limit is your imagination. Once you create and apply a Tag, you can quickly find any document with that Tag applied. It’s like a folder, but because one document can have multiple tags, more convenient and faster.
You can apply unlimited Tags. To apply a Tag to a document, just click on the contract you want to Tag, and then click on the “Add” button next to the Tags section.
This will bring up a dialog box. From there you can either select any existing Tags by just checking the boxes for the Tags you want to use, or create new Tags by choosing “Manage Tags”.
Once you have added a Tag, you’ll see it displayed just below the Tags header.
If you click on a Tag that is applied, it will act just like a folder. Any documents with the same “Tag” will be displayed for you (just like inside a folder!).
You can also apply a filter for Tagged documents from your main Dashboard. This will pull up all the Tagged documents as well.
Finally, if you search for the Tag you will find it as well, although that may pull up some additional results if your Tag is a more common word.
How can I share access by Tags?
An admin can grant access to Users either via Type (Corporate, Sales, Operations, or whatever Types you customize), or by Tags. Types are great for internal departments or divisions. Tags are great for projects.
Granting access via Tags means that you can grant an outside counsel access to documents for litigation matters, use ContractSafe as a data room for deals, tag documents for auditors to access, and lots of other efficiency-creating applications. Just go to your User settings, choose a non-Admin user (since Admins have access to everything), and select their permissions.
Once their permissions are open, choose the Tags option.
Important: You can choose to be notified if someone is granted access to a document when this tag is applied.
How do I automatically categorize emailed in documents?
When you email a document in, you can make sure that it is categorized the right way from the start. Just add: Type=SAMPLE at the end of the subject line when you email a document in (where SAMPLE matches the Type you want applied in ContractSafe). We will automatically apply that Type immediately upon uploading the document.
This can be really helpful if you have sensitive documents that you want to email in, and you want to make sure that any restrictions are in place from the start. Or if you have teams that work on categorizing new documents...they'll see the new ones in their queue right away.
What does ContractSafe do to protect my documents and information?
We understand that security is everything with important legal documents. We store your files at Amazon’s AWS ISO 27001-certified data centers using 256-bit AES encryption, and we use an SSL/TLS secure tunnel to transfer files between you and us. You can securely access files and data any time.
In addition, we have a fully redundant server that spins up after 30 seconds of inactivity. So you should always be able to access your critical documents. We also perform hourly incremental backups of your data and a complete backup daily.
Where are my documents stored?
How do I change my password?
To change your password, click on the Settings link at the top of any page (once you are logged in). In the Account section you can reset your password. If you have forgotten your password, you can choose the "Forgot Password" link on the login page and enter your email. We will send you a link to reset your password.
When will I be billed?
We bill you immediately upon your subscription. You will then be billed on the anniversary date of your subscription.
Annual Plans: For an annual subscription we will auto-renew you 12 months from the date you signed up. We will remind you beforehand in case you want to make any changes.
Monthly Plans: For a monthly subscription we will renew you each month (in advance) on the same day that you signed up, unless that day doesn’t occur that month, in which case we’ll renew you on the last day of the month. For example, if you signed up on January 31st, we would renew you on February 28th. Unless it is a leap year, in which case we would renew you February 29th :-).
What if I want to cancel?
Why would you want to do that?
Seriously, if you are not happy with ContractSafe, just send us an email at support@contractsafe.com with the email that you used to sign up. We will send back a confirmation of your cancellation. Your subscription will continue to the end of the current period (annual or monthly), and then will not auto-renew.
How do I reset my password?
To reset your password, click on the Forgot Your Password link next to the login button on the login page.
Then enter the email you registered with on the following page, and we will send you information on resetting your password.
What if I lost or forgot my password?
To reset your password, click on the Forgot Your Password link next to the login button on the login page.
Then enter the email you registered with on the following page, and we will send you information on resetting your password.
Don’t see what you need? Email us at support@contractsafe.com