TL;DR: Contract management covers creation, collaboration, approval, monitoring, and storage. BoldSign helps automate each stage to reduce delays and manual work, ensuring faster turnaround times, improved accuracy, and a seamless document workflow from start to finish.
Contracts are important in any business relationship, ensuring clarity and accountability between parties. Managing contracts effectively, though, requires more than just signing. From creation to closure, contract management involves several critical steps that can delay the completion of your deal if not handled well.
What is contract management?
Contract management is the process of overseeing contracts from creation to completion, ensuring clarity, compliance, and accountability between parties. Using contract management software like BoldSign streamlines this process, reducing errors and saving time. Effective contract management solutions help businesses manage agreements efficiently, whether for partnerships, vendors, or clients, by automating tasks and organizing workflows.
What are the 5 stages of contract management?
The contract management process includes creation, collaboration, approval, monitoring, and storage.
We’ll explore the five key stages of contract management and show how BoldSign helps businesses manage them faster and more securely.
1. Contract creation
Contract management starts with a strong foundation, a valid and complete contract with all essential details in place.
Manual drafting can introduce errors, slow down timelines, and increase costs.
BoldSign simplifies contract creation with:
- Drag-and-drop fields: Easily upload contracts and place signature and date fields wherever you need them.
- Reusable templates: Save and reuse standardized contract templates, eliminating repetitive drafting while allowing quick edits for specific cases.
- Brand customization: Apply your company’s branding and attach custom legal terms for signers to accept.
How it works
- Upload or select a template
- Add signature and form fields
- Enhance the signer experience with your brand’s logo and colors
- Send the document for signing
BoldSign ensures contracts are created accurately and consistently in minutes by streamlining drafting, templating, and compliance, making it ideal for contract management for small businesses.
2. Collaboration
Turning a draft into a finalized agreement often involves multiple revisions. Traditional methods rely on long email threads and scattered communication, increasing the risk of mistakes.
BoldSign keeps everything organized:
- Real-time document editing: Instantly incorporate proposed changes.
- Tracked updates: Never miss an update from either party.
- Private messaging: Have confidential discussions about the terms of your contracts.
- Admin oversight: Customize the viewing permissions of your team and account administrators.
By keeping comments and edits in one place, teams can collaborate faster and reach agreements more efficiently.
3. Approval
Contracts often get delayed during approvals due to manual routing and waiting for signatures.
BoldSign removes these delays by:
- Automatically routing documents to the right stakeholders
- Sending notifications to keep the process moving
- Setting a clear signing order to ensure each step is completed in sequence
- Providing a clear audit trail
- Enabling secure eSignatures from anywhere
This ensures faster approvals and fewer bottlenecks.
4. Monitoring
Once sent, contracts need to be tracked to ensure deadlines are met.
BoldSign makes monitoring simple:
- Automated reminders for pending signatures
- Manual alerts for custom follow-ups
- Central dashboard to track document status
- Team view for real-time progress updates
This helps teams stay on top of every contract without manual follow-ups.
5. Storage
Contract management doesn’t end at signing. Secure storage and easy access are critical.
Secure storage
- Centralized storage: Contracts are automatically saved on the platform and accessible via the Documents page.
- Cloud integration: Seamlessly sync with repositories like Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive for backup and accessibility.
- Role-based access: Only authorized admins can retrieve contracts.
Document organization
Storing contracts is only half the battle; finding them quickly is equally critical. Manual organization leads to missed deadlines, duplicated work, and lost agreements.
BoldSign enhances organization with:
- Custom tags: Tag contracts by type, department, or priority for instant filtering.
- Smart search: Locate contracts in seconds, even across large document libraries.
- Dashboard management: View, sort, and track all agreements in one place without manual effort.
Paper-based contracts vs. BoldSign contract management
Below is a detailed comparison of how BoldSign streamlines contract approvals compared to legacy paper methods.
| Paper-based process | BoldSign eSignature platform |
| Manual workflows (email, print, in-person) | Automated routing with predefined steps |
| Takes days or weeks | Completed in hours or days |
| Physical signatures required | Secure digital signatures |
| Manual tracking and follow-ups | Real-time tracking dashboard |
| Risk of loss or damage | Bank-level encryption and compliance |
| Paper audit trails | Tamper-proof digital records |
| High printing, shipping, storage costs | Minimal operational costs |
| Limited accessibility | Accessible anytime, anywhere |
Cost comparison
Switching from paper-based methods to the BoldSign Growth plan saves about 79% annually for one user managing 50 signature requests per month.
| Paper-based | BoldSign at $5/month per user | Savings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription | $0 | $60/year | – |
| Printing ($0.50/doc) | $300 | $0 | $300 |
| Shipping ($5/doc) | $3,000 | $0 | $3,000 |
| Storage ($1/doc) | $600 | $0 | $600 |
| Labor ($10/doc) | $6,000 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| Total Annual Cost | $9,900 | $2,060 | $7,840 (79% savings) |
Contract management is a dynamic process that demands attention at every turn. Success hinges on efficiency, clarity, and oversight.
Conclusion
Contract management works best when every stage is clear, trackable, and easy to manage. BoldSign helps teams create, send, approve, monitor, and store contracts in one secure platform. Start your free trial today and simplify your contract workflow.
Take the first step toward smarter contract management with BoldSign. Sign up for a free trial today and see the difference for yourself!
FAQs
What are the stages of contract management?
Creation, collaboration, approval, monitoring, and storage.
Is contract management the same as CLM?
CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) is a broader term that covers the entire process from creation to renewal or termination.
Why do some frameworks have 6 or 7 stages?
They split steps further, such as adding negotiation, execution, or renewal as separate stages.
What happens after a contract is signed?
It is tracked for deadlines, obligations are monitored, and the contract is securely stored.
How do eSignatures fit into contract management?
They enable fast, secure approvals and execution during the signing stage.
