Best Contract Management Software

Are you tired of manually managing contracts, documents, and signatures? Let PandaDoc take care of it for you and free up your time to focus on growing your business. Our research has shown that PandaDoc is the top contract management software for most businesses. With a vast library of contract templates and document collaboration tools, PandaDoc simplifies and streamlines your contract process, making it more efficient and reliable. Say goodbye to the hassle of contract management and hello to more time for business growth with PandaDoc.

The Best Contract Management Solution for Most

Handling contract management manually can be a risky and error-prone process. That’s why we highly recommend PandaDoc as the top choice for most businesses. With its advanced features, it ensures everything stays on track and prevents problems before they even begin.

Creating contracts from scratch can also be costly and time-consuming. With PandaDoc, you have access to a wide range of pre-built templates that are specific to your industry, so you can avoid compliance concerns. Additionally, you can fine-tune user and guest access, and collaborate with your team using the platform’s built-in collaboration tools to examine the details and make revisions together.

The Best Contract Management Software to Consider:

1. PandaDoc – Best for most
2. Bonsai – Best contract management tool for freelancers
3. Accelo – Best for service or retainer-based businesses
4. Precisely – Best for multi-department contract automation
5. ContractSafe – Best contract management for unlimited users
6. Workday Strategic Sourcing – Best for supplier contract management

When Does It Make Sense to Invest in Contract Management Software?

Investing in contract management software is essential to ensure clarity between you and your clients, especially if you’re tired of paying lawyers to create contracts that you can’t explain. Contracts play a critical role in businesses, from hiring new employees to entering into service-based agreements with vendors, ensuring compliance with legal regulations, and protecting businesses against potential risks.

Manually managing contracts can become time-consuming and labor-intensive, which is why contract management software is a must for freelancers, startups, small businesses, enterprises, and all types of businesses. It allows businesses to efficiently manage existing contracts and handle new ones, regardless of their size.

The use of contract management software is crucial, especially for businesses that have lost clients, missed growth opportunities, or made critical errors in the past due to poor contract management. By investing in a reliable contract management system, businesses can put their worries behind and focus on their growth and success.

#1 – PandaDoc — Best For Most

PandaDoc is a powerful and popular document and contract management software used by over 20,000 businesses worldwide. It’s an ideal solution for small businesses and startups, providing professional contract drafting resources without the need for a legal professional.

With PandaDoc, you can easily transfer details from proposals to contracts with a single click and leverage enterprise-grade analytics to monitor and manage your documents. This platform offers repeatable and scalable approval workflows to optimize the onboarding process for new projects or clients.

PandaDoc comes with over 450 pre-built templates that are customizable and well-designed for various industries, including digital marketing, healthcare, manufacturing, and legal. Plus, every plan comes with unlimited proposals, quotes, and contracts, along with in-document collaboration, payment collection, and advanced security and compliance features.

You can start with PandaDoc’s free plan and upgrade to higher tiers as your business grows. The introductory plan starts at an affordable $19 per user per month, while the advanced plans provide single sign-on capabilities, ten different CRM integrations, a reusable content library, and custom branding, starting at $49 per user per month.

With PandaDoc, you get unlimited document management, security, and a flexible pricing structure to meet the needs of any business. Sign up for a free plan or a 14-day free trial today!

#2 – Bonsai — The Best Contract Management Tool for Freelancers

As a freelancer, creating legally binding contracts and ensuring timely payments can be a daunting task. But with Bonsai, you can simplify the process and focus on growing your business.

Bonsai offers dozens of pre-built, lawyer-approved templates for contracts, invoices, proposals, scope-of-work agreements, and quotes, saving you time and ensuring legal compliance. You can customize these templates to match your brand using Bonsai’s powerful drag-and-drop document builder.

In addition to contract management, Bonsai also provides essential tools to run your business. With time tracking capabilities, project and task management features, iOS/Android applications, unlimited collaboration with other contractors, client relationship management tools, and customizable forms, Bonsai provides a complete suite of products to streamline your operations.

Bonsai’s Workflow Plan starts at just $19 per month, making it an affordable option for freelancers and solopreneurs. Upgrading to the Plus Plan for $29 per month provides automation tools, custom branding, a client portal, and subcontracting capabilities. For an additional $10 per month, you can also add tax and accounting tools to automate expense tracking, tax write-offs, and quarterly tax estimates.

With Bonsai, you can automate the entire contract process from proposal creation to finalized contract, including automated client-side notifications for accepting proposals, signing contracts, and paying invoices. Clients can also access a personalized private portal to view shared files, review your contract, and pay their invoices.

Sign up for a free trial to experience Bonsai’s user-friendly platform and see how it can simplify your contract management and business operations.

#3 – Accelo — The Best for Service or Retainer-Based Businesses

Accelo is a comprehensive business automation solution designed specifically for service-based businesses. One of the most challenging aspects of managing ongoing service-based work is handling contract renewals and invoicing. It’s a time-consuming and daunting task, but Accelo has built a solution to automate the process and eliminate manual work.

With Accelo, you can easily manage retainer clients and recurring contractual agreements, track email communications, and take private notes regarding projects and upcoming tasks. It also includes a variety of contract management features such as time and budget tracking tools, financial and executive dashboards, an intuitive client portal, automatic and dynamic invoices, replicable templates, recurring tasks for ongoing projects, and unlimited contract types.

You can set up customized, automated notifications to alert everyone when a contract is about to expire or up for renewal. Advanced notifications ensure everyone is informed about the next steps, whether it’s renegotiating the contract, closing it, or renewing the same terms.

Accelo’s contract management software, Retainers, is $39 per user per month with a minimum of three users. However, Retainers doesn’t include proposals, quotes, or any pre-contractual features. You’ll need to purchase Accelo’s Sales solution for access to those features.

If you’re looking for a complete solution for your business, we recommend the ServOps bundle at $79 per user per month. With ServOps, you get access to all of Accelo’s products, including automation and management solutions for the entire client management process, from nurturing relationships and recurring contracts to project management and post-service client support. It’s an affordable and efficient way to streamline your entire service business under one roof.

Take advantage of the free 14-day trial or a live demo to see if Accelo’s products are the right fit for your business today!

#4 – Precisely — The Best for Multi-Department Contract Automation and Workflows

As a midsize or large business with multiple departments, managing contracts and approvals can become a complicated process. Precisely offers a contract management software that streamlines the entire process, from drafting to signing and archiving.

One of the biggest time-savers is the ability to use customizable templates for frequently used contracts, eliminating the need to create new contracts from scratch.

With Precisely, you can set up automation APIs to pull contact information from your CRM, ERP, or marketing automation software, further streamlining the process.

Moreover, you can customize contract structures, set up automatic approval workflows, and configure smart reminders.

The software comes with unlimited cloud-based storage, and you can easily access and search for contracts using smart search and filtering features.

Pricing for essential contract management and e-signing features starts at $44 per user per month. However, we recommend the Professional plan, which includes unlimited automated templates, custom approval workflows, and approval notifications, starting at $62 per user per month.

Streamline your contract management process and ensure prompt approvals by signing up for Precisely’s 14-day free trial today!

#5 – ContractSafe — The Best Contract Management Solution for Unlimited Users

For healthcare clinics, legal firms, banks, hospitality businesses, and enterprise organizations with a large number of users, ContractSafe offers a more cost-effective solution for contract management software. Instead of paying on a per-user basis, businesses can pay based on the number of active contracts in their account, allowing for unlimited users and reducing costs.

ContractSafe also offers advanced user permissions and robust security features, such as end-to-end data center encryption, to ensure sensitive information remains secure. Additionally, ContractSafe offers various training solutions, including customized training sessions and unlimited live chat, email, and phone support to help with user onboarding.

If migrating from another solution, ContractSafe offers free document and data importing, and its Jump Start service can extract data from existing contracts. Businesses can leverage optical character recognition to search scanned documents, use advanced keyword searching, and create customizable dashboards for each user. Each user can also personalize their experience with customizable alerts and notifications.

ContractSafe offers four plans based on the number of contracts in the account, ranging from $299 per month for up to 500 contracts to $899 per month for up to 5,000 contracts. This pricing structure makes it an affordable option for larger businesses and enterprises that require a large number of user seats.

Schedule a free demo or start a free trial to see if ContractSafe is the right fit for your business today!

#6 – Workday Strategic Sourcing — The Best for Supplier Contract Management

For healthcare clinics, legal firms, banks, hospitality businesses, and enterprise organizations with a large number of users, ContractSafe offers a more cost-effective solution for contract management software. Instead of paying on a per-user basis, businesses can pay based on the number of active contracts in their account, allowing for unlimited users and reducing costs.

ContractSafe also offers advanced user permissions and robust security features, such as end-to-end data center encryption, to ensure sensitive information remains secure. Additionally, ContractSafe offers various training solutions, including customized training sessions and unlimited live chat, email, and phone support to help with user onboarding.

If migrating from another solution, ContractSafe offers free document and data importing, and its Jump Start service can extract data from existing contracts. Businesses can leverage optical character recognition to search scanned documents, use advanced keyword searching, and create customizable dashboards for each user. Each user can also personalize their experience with customizable alerts and notifications.

ContractSafe offers four plans based on the number of contracts in the account, ranging from $299 per month for up to 500 contracts to $899 per month for up to 5,000 contracts. This pricing structure makes it an affordable option for larger businesses and enterprises that require a large number of user seats.

Schedule a free demo or start a free trial to see if ContractSafe is the right fit for your business today!

Methodology for Choosing the Best Contract Management Software

As we narrowed our options, we paid special attention to specific factors that should influence our final decision. We closely examined each option on this list and used these details to make the best possible choice.

We concentrated on specific contract management features, various scenarios, business size, and superior software functions.

Focuses on problems critical to contract management

Prior to discussing the details, it is important to understand the four main areas in contract management software and why they should be considered to gain maximum benefit.

This software tries to address and prevent common issues that cause pain.

Keeping contracts secure and trackable is essential for any organization. Being able to locate them based on specific criteria is a must, likewise contract clarity should be prioritized so that information relayed can be understood and reported accurately.

The core functionalities of software are crucial for streamlining operations. These include the virtual filing cabinet, search repository and other features that make it easier to keep up with an expanding business. This not only promotes efficient management, but also allows your business to scale while staying organized.

All of the options available here come complete with the features outlined.

However, if you decide to choose something not listed here, make sure it includes (at least) these core features:

• Document creation or importing capabilities
• A searchable repository with enough storage space
• Native e-signatures or integrations for it
• Automatic notifications and alerts
• Approval workflow capabilities for clarity
• Basic collaboration features
• Customer support

While some services may offer free base templates which can help you get started, they are not necessary as you can create custom contracts suited to your business’s needs. As your enterprise grows, such templates become more and more useful.

Use Cases and Business Type

When choosing a contract management software, it’s important to consider whether you need a use-case-specific solution tailored to your business needs. Although these solutions may come at a higher cost, the benefits of having use-case-specific features make the investment worthwhile.

For service-based businesses, Accelo is a highly recommended option, while Workday is ideal for those dealing with supplier contracts. However, there may be instances where a business handles both service contracts and supplier contracts, so it’s important to assess your specific needs.

If your business doesn’t fit into these categories, the decision should be based on the number of users and necessary features.

Number of Users and Business Size

When it comes to contract management software, choosing the right solution depends on your specific needs. If you’re a freelancer or solopreneur, Bonsai is the perfect option due to its affordability and all-in-one feature set, which includes time tracking, quotes, proposals, and more.

Small businesses and startups with multiple employees can benefit from PandaDoc’s robust free plan that offers unlimited contracts, quotes, and proposals. This is an excellent way to manage contracts without having to invest in additional staff.

For midsize or larger businesses, you have two options to choose from: ContractSafe and Precisely. ContractSafe offers unlimited users with pricing based on the number of active contracts, while Precisely offers unlimited contracts with per-user pricing.

Your choice will depend on your payment preference and the advanced features you need. We recommend signing up for a free trial or live demo of each software to determine the best fit for your business.

Advanced Automation and Workflow Features

Advanced features are the key to making sure you select the right decision. Taking into account the right combination of this type of features can be a game changer for your business. Be sure to consider them when looking for a final choice.

We suggest that you create a list of essential features in priority order and use it to compare each software option you’re evaluating. This will help you make the best possible choice.

Don’t forget to think about:

• Industry and use-case-specific features
• Automatic document creation with re-usable templates
• Advanced approval workflows to eliminate bottlenecks
• AI-powered search and data extraction features
• End-user or role-based access control
• Real-time collaboration capabilities
• Smart or automatic reminders and alerts
• Trigger-based workflows and automations
• Recurring contracts and automatic renewals
• Invoicing and various payment methods
• Advanced security measures and encryption
• Analytics and reporting
• Third-party integrations

Summary

Managing contracts is an essential part of running any business, regardless of its size or industry. It involves handling various types of contracts, such as supplier agreements, service-based contracts, and new-hire paperwork.

Effective management of contracts is crucial not only for compliance reasons but also to gain operational efficiency and cost savings. By implementing contract management software, businesses can benefit from powerful automation features, real-time monitoring of critical dates, and a searchable database to store everything securely.

The right contract management software can also help businesses save money by reducing manual work, automating workflows, and avoiding penalties resulting from missed deadlines or non-compliance.

With a plethora of contract management tools available in the market, businesses can choose the one that best suits their needs and budget. From contract creation to e-signatures, automatic expiry notifications, and data analysis, these tools make contract management a breeze.