What is Contract Deliverables
What are contract deliverables?
Contract deliverables refer to the tangible or intangible goods, services, or outcomes that must be provided under the terms of the contract. Defined in the contract, these deliverables clarify what is expected, set quality standards, and establish completion timelines. Whether it’s a consulting firm providing weekly progress reports or a contractor completing stages of a construction project, deliverables ensure both parties understand and can assess contract fulfillment.
By formalizing these outcomes, deliverables help align expectations, improve accountability, and streamline contract performance and obligation tracking. For instance, in a marketing contract, deliverables could include monthly performance reports and completed ad campaigns. A construction contract might specify deliverables such as a completed building foundation by a certain date.
Why do contract deliverables matter?
Deliverables are the backbone of many contracts, transforming broad expectations into specific actions and measurable outcomes. A well-structured deliverable not only clarifies what is due but also ensures that the quality and timelines are met according to the contract. This can mitigate disputes, enhance collaboration, and streamline process across the whole contract lifecycle.
When deliverables are clearly defined, both parties have an easier time understanding their responsibilities. For example, a software development contract might define deliverables as different project phases: initial wireframes, beta testing, and final product launch. By having concrete milestones, both the client and the vendor have a roadmap that aligns progress expectations and mitigates misunderstandings or delays.
Benefits of tracking contract deliverables
1. Accountability
Tracking deliverables helps communicate and establish clear benchmarks, making it easier to hold parties accountable for completing tasks on time and to the agreed-upon standards. Accountability minimizes delays and improves vendor or partner performance by creating a clear record of expectations.
2. Timeliness
Tracking deliverables often helps align with project milestones to maintain a steady workflow toward overall project completion. This includes catching delays before they escalate, which is essential for time-sensitive projects where missed deadlines could have costly repercussions on the supply chain.
3. Quality assurance
Defining deliverables includes specifying quality standards, making it possible to assess performance consistently. This structure supports robust quality assurance by enabling evaluations of work completed against pre-established criteria, ensuring the end product meets both parties’ expectations transparently.
Examples of contract deliverables across industries
Contract deliverables vary significantly across industries but generally aim to define work scope in actionable terms. Here are a few industry-specific examples:
Construction industry
In a construction contract, deliverables are often tied to major project phases. A housing contract may specify deliverables such as site preparation, foundation completion, framing, waterproofing, plumbing, and final inspection readiness. These phases serve as checkpoints, helping the client monitor progress, verify quality, and release payments accordingly.
Consulting services
A consulting contract might define monthly deliverables such as initial research findings, recommendations, and final project outcomes. By having these specific deliverables, the client can expect regular updates and measure progress toward the project’s objectives, enhancing transparency and satisfaction with the consultant’s work.
Software development
In a SaaS contract, deliverables often stage represent a structured goal, allowing both parties to evaluate the software’s functionality, usability, and performance. By setting clear expectations at each phase, these deliverables ensure that development stays aligned with project goals and client needs before progressing to the next stage.
Challenges in managing contract deliverables
Despite the clarity tracking deliverables brings, managing them manually across multiple contracts poses challenges, particularly when deliverables differ in scope, quality standards, and timelines. Common issues include:
1. Complexity across multiple contracts and sources
Large organizations may handle numerous contracts simultaneously across departments, folders, devices, and software, each with unique deliverables and milestones. Manual contract obligation management quickly becomes overwhelming, increasing the risk of missed deadlines, incomplete deliverables, oversight in quality checks, or potential performance gaps.
2. Quality assurance
When deliverables involve stringent quality standards, ensuring each meets the prescribed level can be challenging without a centralized management tool. Quality checks and audits become especially difficult when deliverables require specific expertise to evaluate, as in technical consulting or engineering projects. Without a structured system, quality assurance processes may fall short, leading to client dissatisfaction or rework.
3. Resource allocation and deadline conflicts
As different projects approach critical milestones, resource allocation can strain teams working on multiple contracts. Contract managers must balance priorities to avoid bottlenecks, where resources are stretched too thin across deliverables, impacting both quality and timeliness.
Automate contract deliverables tracking with a CLM
CLMs offer advanced features to optimize the tracking and management of contract deliverables, transforming contract oversight into a structured, automated process. They can auto-extract contract metadata for automated deliverable tracking. This is then supercharged with milestone-based management, automated reminders, and contract intelligence & analytics to proactively manage risk, and ensure compliance and on-time delivery.
1. Milestone-based tracking
You can set up key milestones for each contract, setting up specific checkpoints that highlight progress toward the end goal. Milestones help organizations divide projects into manageable stages, with each stage acting as a deliverable. This setup reduces ambiguity, enabling relevant stakeholders to verify completion at each stage before proceeding.
2. Automated reminders and alerts
With automated reminders, CLMs reduce the risk of missed deadlines. Users can set up reminders for each contract deliverable, obligation, renewal, or milestone, ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks.
3. Contract performance analytics
Dashboard analytics provide insights into the status and performance of each deliverable. By analyzing trends, risks, and liabilities, organizations can report on contract data more accurately. These analytics reports can be generated in real time on a visual and drillable dashboard.
4. Contract Repository
CLMs centralize all executed contracts in a single safe repository with a single-click smart import ensuring security and access. No more juggling between platforms. This enables quick contract retrieval and 80% time saved on manual tracking of deliverables.
Wrap up
Tracking contract deliverables is integral to successful contract management. HyperStart CLM stands out by offering tools that automate tracking, enhance collaboration, and reduce errors in contract management. Book a demo today.
