Creating, executing, signing, and negotiating contracts can be a complex and tedious process for any size business. Contracts provide the bulk of business operations, and most companies fail to maximize production because of a slow contractual process.
Contract Lifecycle Management, aka CLM, answers questions that impede the growth and success of a small business. Businesses need a system that gives them a competitive edge to stay ahead. When firms handle contract processes manually, they are bound to make human errors that have a ripple effect that cripples a company’s profitability. Contractsafe tools reduce audit risk, decrease financial risk and make the process faster.
Automation gives businesses the advantage of scale and customization, which define their output strengths. Legal risks can jeopardize the financial position regardless of size, and time is also an essential factor in executing contracts. When teams default to manual processes, they spend hours on a process that could take 30 minutes on software.
Automation is the whiz kid that provides efficiency in contractual processes, eliminates risks, increases productivity, and inflates profits. Businesses that embrace technology stand on the verge of exponential success compared to their counterparts, who tweak traditional methods marred with confusion and inconsistencies.
Traditional methods require a steady workforce that is immune to the effects of human error to equate the fluency of artificial intelligence. Speed and storage space are the key aspects of a contractual process that floor the efficiency of analog functions.
Contract management systems provide pricing regimes, compliance solutions, customization, integrations, and security measures that suit small businesses.
Here is a list of contract management software for small businesses
Concord
Concord is easy to set up, and it has simple user designs that offer onboarding support for the flexibility of custom approvals, reports, and user groups. Companies appreciate unlimited contracts, access a 14-day free trial, have unlimited viewers, storage, and enjoy bulk upload features. Concord was developed in 2014 to help businesses keep track of audits and stick to compliance requirements. The unlimited integrations and storage volume ensures that users can upload an infinite number of contracts and still enjoy the advantage of speed.
However, the software has no refunds, and it is challenging to integrate contracts signed outside the software.
DocuSign
DocuSign is a small business’s best friend because of the 24/7 chat support, affordable contract management solutions, and easy workflow configurations. DocuSign is an e-signature company that was established in 2003. DocuSign is simple to operate and allows access to reusable templates, payment collection, comment notifications, and personalized logos.
Small businesses using DocuSign gain custom services such as secure storage centers, general data protection regulation, compliance, and audit trails. The e-signature software allows small business owners to access a DocuSign mobile app which makes the platform inexpensive.
Juro
Juro was founded in 2016, and it provides free plan features like template editor, e-signature, internal commenting, and an intuitive Kanban dashboard. When you opt to pay, you enjoy options like analytics, mass update of contracts, redlining, and integrations to salesforce and Google drive.
The disadvantage of this platform is you can’t send the same contract to many people at the same time, it has no mobile apps, and payment plans are expensive.
PandaDoc
PandaDoc is an all-in-one solution that helps users track the entire contractual process. The software is inexpensive, and with 24/7 customer support on paid plans, users get instant assistance. PandaDoc has animated features such as payment processing, contract duplication, contract library, and real-time notifications that make it stand out from the competition.
PandaDoc uses a browser-based program that ensures speed. PandaDoc provides customer relationship management, custom workflows, custom templates that are easy to use, and a drag-and-drop editor. The software has a robust 14-day free trial, month-month, or annual payment plan. The downside of the software is limited integrations in the free plan program and a content library that is only accessible with business plans.
ContractWorks
The software has an AI-powered program that allows free data integration, unlimited users, and 24/7 support. ContractWorks takes few minutes to set up, has a drag-and-drop feature, milestone alerts, automatic record-keeping, automated reminders, e-signature, annotations for quick document review, and free data migration.
ContractWorks provides audit reporting, data encryption and integrates with Salesforce on enterprise plans. The software offers customization like reports and branding to allow users to choose what they wish to analyze. They only have an annual pricing plan that users are billed based on volume.
The downside of this software is no document creation, no mobile app, and limited integrations.
Contract management software allows users to sign agreements online in full view of everyone throughout the contractual process. A good CLM product provides support, redlining, automated alerts, e-signature, audit trails, content repository, automatic approval process, long-term storage, and OCR capabilities.
Proper contract management allows small businesses to prune redundancy from their processes and decrease audit and financial risk.