What is Contract Authoring
What is contract authoring?
Contract authoring is the first stage of the contract lifecycle management process. It refers to the process of drafting a contract with terms, conditions, and obligations to form a legally binding agreement.
With modern CLM software, contract authoring is the structured creation of contracts that specify legal terms, conditions, and obligations between parties. This process is critical for establishing clear, enforceable agreements, reducing risks, and ensuring all parties have a mutual understanding of their responsibilities and rights.
Objectives and importance of contract authoring
The objective of contract authoring is to streamline benchmarks, mitigate risk, and improve operational efficiency. CLM software helps centralize and standardize contract and workflow templates.
Without a systematized contract authoring protocol or process, contracts are prone to errors, delayed approvals, and ultimate business risk. Furthermore, without a central workspace, comparing and standardizing clauses and approval workflows is difficult.
Steps to contract authoring
1. Initiating the contract
Determine the specific purpose of the contract and the key parties involved. Select an appropriate workflow template based on the contract type and industry standards. Collect relevant details such as names, addresses, contact information, and specific requirements via intake forms.
2. Drafting the contract
Use plain language to avoid ambiguity and legal jargon. They must clearly define any technical terms and state the duties and responsibilities of each party. They can incorporate necessary clauses like warranties, indemnities, dispute resolution, and governing law. CLM software help establish standard clause language and parameters.
The stages that follow contract creation are contract review, approvals, and execution. Once the contract is signed, CLMs store contracts in a single secure workspace.
Book a demo with HyperStart to see how you can generate contracts in 2 seconds.
Author contracts with a CLM
As a foundational step of contract lifecycle management, CLMs helps standardize contract authoring with best practices like predefined workflow templates, legally approved preferred clauses, and AI-redlining for contract reviews. These functionalities empower relevant teams to create contracts in minutes without legal delays, so each department can focus on real opportunities, not routine drafts. This helps:
Automate contract creation with templates, and accelerate editing with no-code templates.
Empower business teams with the error-free creation of routine contracts.
Accelerate contract turnaround times with seamless collaboration, approvals, and AI reviews.
Contract authoring on HyperStart CLM
HyperStart’s automation accelerates time-to-contract, making it ideal for businesses today with:
Self-serve templates: Pre-approved templates and dynamic conditions are key functionalities that help automate contract drafting. This empowers non-legal business teams to create high-volume low-critical contracts like NDAs, MSAs, and offer letters from standardized templates.
AI-reviews: Contracts can be reviewed with Smart Assist AI-redlining which reduces contract review time by 80%.
These features speed up contract creation, reduce manual errors, and allow legal teams to focus on strategic negotiation rather than repetitive tasks. Book a demo and see how.
