How do you redline a contract before signing?

Summary•4 min read

Businesses still manage contract redlining with tools that aren’t made for the job, like word documents. Find out how to improve the process with Docusign.

Once a contract is generated, changes or redlines often need to be made as a part of the contract negotiation process, before the final version is ready for signature. The majority of businesses manage this process manually with tools that aren’t made for the job, like spreadsheets and word documents (only 27% of businesses use a contract management tool). This form of contract management creates real issues. If you’ve ever found yourself searching ‘how to redline in Word’ you know the pain of version control.

Tracking, reviewing, and accepting contract redlines creates more problems than just frustration…there’s significant time lost to versioning and modifications. The average contract goes through three to four versions before it is finalised; the process of managing those reviews, redlines, versions, and approvals can take more than 30 hours per contract.

Businesses don’t have that kind of time to spare, especially not small businesses.

Docusign Negotiate is built for small businesses, speeding up sales cycles and reducing the real very risk of human error. Here’s how:

1. Automating contract generation

Making new agreements can involve cutting and pasting customer information from Salesforce to a Word doc, or Docusign Gen can use the information you’ve already entered into Salesforce to automatically generate polished agreements for you. Once generated, those agreements can be configured with just a few clicks based on business rules or Salesforce data. You can easily merge customer, product, and pricing data to generate agreements in your choice of format, including PDF or editable Microsoft Word. No code is required to configure templates and create polished and error-free agreements. Once the agreement is ready, you can easily send it out for signature with Docusign eSignature.

But first….

2. Managing all of those contract negotiations

In a perfect world, you’d send your contract out for signature and get it returned promptly, signed and ready to execute. In the real world, Docusign Negotiate helps you manage and track everything that happens between send and signature.

Better redlining. Never miss another edited or removed clause in your agreements again. With Negotiate, you can quickly see and manage all redlines in a contract – including deletions – regardless of who forgot to track changes, didn’t know how to track them, or didn’t bother to.
Assigning approvals. Not only can you dictate who can (or cannot) redline and/or approve sections of your agreements, you can track what edits they make and where those people are in the process. With access to all activity on an agreement and its assigned workflow, you can pinpoint any holdup and keep the process moving forward.
Check twice, sign once. 94% of people say human error impacts the contract process, and it’s no surprise as edits and redlines are often made in comments, deletions, or tracked changes. Negotiate lets you compare any two versions of an agreement – like first and final – to make sure nothing got lost in translation.

3. Sending for signature with a click

Once all of the edits and approvals are made, your contract can be sent out and signed digitally, simply and securely. Docusign Negotiate seamlessly integrates with Docusign eSignature so the entire process of generating, negotiating and signing an agreement is fast, easy, and free of human errors.

If you’re already using Docusign eSignature or Salesforce Sales Cloud, you already have access to all of the tools your SMB needs to generate and manage contracts through Docusign Negotiate…no complicated implementation or expensive ongoing management required. Negotiate is purpose-built for small businesses that generate agreements that require review, edits or approval prior to signature. Negotiate seamlessly integrates with Docusign eSignature and Salesforce Sales Cloud, making it easy to set up and run.

Approvals are consistently the #1 issue in the contract management process. Take the frustration, errors and wasted time out of the agreement process, and get to signature faster with Docusign Negotiate.