Tip 7 – All Contract Standards & Templates in One Place

Create a Central Repository

Remember to store all your (contract) templates in one central place to make sure that everyone is (i) able to find the correct templates quickly and (ii) using the correct template.

Sounds very straight forward, but in reality I rarely see companies that store all templates in one central place easily accessible for all involved team members.

Storing all contract templates in one central place is challenging for most companies, but especially in case of:

• fast-growing companies
• mergers/acquisitions 
• activities in multiple countries 
• large groups with many subsidiaries or a complicated corporate structure
• contracts in different languages 
•  involvement of different departments (Account Management, Sales, Partnerships, Sales Operations, …) 

What is the Best Way to Make Templates Easily Accessible?

Best options are: 

• (a) fully/partly automate your contract creation and be strict that this is the only way that contracts can be generated. This way the relevant, most up to date and correct Contract Template is used and all templates are stored in one spot as you should only be able to use this automated system; and
  
• (b) create a central place (usually an internal website or – less ideal – a shared folder).

Crucial Step

Give training – at the start of employment and regularly thereafter – to your employees to make sure they know where the contract templates are located and how to correctly use these templates.

About AMST Legal

At AMST Legal, we provide advice how to improve your (legal) processes and contract templates. Helping you to make sense of all your standard contracts and templates and where to store them for easy access to the team is part of that. Contact us at lowa@amstlegal.com or book a meeting here for help with your legal (compliance) framework.