How reporting on contract management can help you become a more strategic GC

As General Counsel, one of your responsibilities is to keep track of the potential risks and opportunities in the company’s contract portfolio. However, when businesses have large contract portfolios, tracking the contract lifecycle from initiation though award, compliance and renewal can become a burden without the proper reports.

Wasting time tracking down data means time away from assuming a more proactive role as General Counsel. As General Counsel, you’re sitting on a vast amount of data that could be valuable to you and your business. Your ability to quickly transform this data into accurate, reliable reports is key to making the transition from legal counsel to strategic business partner.

No matter the information you need – from expiring contracts, contracts awaiting signature, to specific contract values – it should always be close at hand. With organized contract management reporting, you can pull critical information such as contract review dates and values and sort contracts by contract owner, responsible departments and counter-parties, to inform business decisions.

Here are just a few key contract management reports you should be able to generate quickly:

Expiring Contracts

An overview containing all the contracts that will expire in a specific time frame (i.e. less than 90 days). A summary of the contracts that are about to expire can help you ensure that the renegotiation starts well before the notice period to secure favorable terms. For contracts with automatic renewal, the focus may be on Final Termination date rather than expiration date. Furthermore, when specific contract values are included – including contracts that contain automatic price increases – you can remind the finance team ahead of time to prepare the proper invoices.  

Draft Contracts

An overview of draft contracts can help you maintain control over contracts before they become active. By running reports on draft contracts by owner or department you can get a head start on reviewing contract terms and monitor compliance.

Pending Signature

An overview of all the contracts that require a signature can help you identify bottlenecks in your contract lifecycle. By staying on top of the contracts that need a signature you can send reminders to contract owners to follow up.

Active Contracts

An overview of the active contracts across the entire company’s portfolio can provide specific insights on contract responsibilities. For example, if you filter by a specific value, like payment type, you can report on key liabilities in contracts across the entire company’s portfolio.

Inactive Contracts

Legal issues can still occur years after a contract has ended. As such, the ability to report on inactive contracts for a past time period, involving a certain individual or specific counter party can be crucial in obtaining a positive outcome and quick resolution. Having an overview of inactive contracts can also help you report on contract workflow inefficiencies, like being unable to renegotiate in time, or commercial limitations, like payment terms.

Final thoughts

If you’re using spreadsheets or generic management software, it can be extremely difficult to get a clear, up-to-date overview of key information. Furthermore, while spreadsheets may be good at capturing structured data (ex. dates, currencies, locations), unstructured data like terms and conditions, can get lost in the mix.

With a cloud-based repository, you can easily pull up all this information and more to help you extract the key insights to guide your priorities. When you’re in control over your legal data you can become more proactive in identifying efficiency and risk reduction opportunities. And, by providing accurate reports at a minute’s notice, in-house counsel can gain visibility with the C-suite and communicate the value the legal department is generating for the company.

Learn more about how legal management software can help you report on the status of legal matters, identify efficiency opportunities and assist in controlling risk for entities, contracts, claims, assets and compliance. Download your copy of “The Importance of Reporting for General Counsel” today.