The Summize guide to contract reviews

What is a contract review?

A contract review is a contractual process used to identify and analyse the key provisions within an agreement. A legal professional will read each contract thoroughly to understand the terms and conditions and highlight risks or relevant information.
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When presented with a new contract or agreement, parties are allowed - and most of the time expected - to check and potentially rework the terms and conditions, ensuring the contract works for both parties. Reviewing a contract before signing clarifies each party's obligations, protects their interests and ensures that all parties are treated fairly.
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Both sides may want to suggest contractual changes, leading to further negotiations and compromise before signing a final contract. The aim is to agree on a framework for a long-lasting and mutually beneficial working relationship.
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Unfortunately, many manual contract reviews involve working through a contract line by line to analyse the implications of every provision. Manual contract review can be as time-consuming as it sounds. Alternatively, the process can be automated using specialist contract review software.

This was the case for Elior whose legal team needed to find several key provisions in their contracts. Using the Summize Word Add-In they were able to accelerate their review cycles with instant contextual summaries and actionable tasks, allowing them to review over 400+ contracts in 5 working days.

Read the full customer story here.
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The contract review process

The contract review process starts with preparation in the pre-review stage. This process includes clarifying contract-related facts, measuring the feasibility of the contract and forecasting contractual risks.

The next stage in the contract review process is carefully reviewing the payment terms and triggers, commercial terms and duration periods. The team need to be sure that the deal is on record. Part of this should involve a deep-dive interrogation into the contract's finer points to ensure that no terms are missing.

For an in-depth look into the stage of a contract review, check out our article on how to run an effective contract review.

If the contract review occurs pre-signature, then there will also be a negation period. Any changes will need to be marked up and the new version shared with the other party. This will likely lead to some back-and-forth to finalise an agreement that works for everyone at the end of the contract review process.
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How Summize simplifies the contract review process

Jonny Jessop, Enterprise Pre-Sales Consultant at Summize, explains how our software's AI and integrations with tools facilitate the contract review process.

Legal contract review

Traditionally, many non-legal firms use a diligent and experienced legal team to review all but the most basic contracts. Often a junior lawyer, paralegal or legal assistant will work through the contract first with a contract review checklist, summarising the key points. A more senior colleague then reviews the contract further.

The legal team would collaborate with the business, working with the most familiar employees with the contract's subject matter. This is typically the person who has agreed on the contract and the departments involved in its delivery.
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Business or commercial contract reviews

Business managers or the executive team may review the contract in a small business. However, this can be a slow, expensive process with a possibility of human error. A contract review for small businesses can drain resources where time is limited.
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An accessible and more cost-effective solution is to use contract review software like Summize to create a fast, accurate, and insightful process.

A simple contract review checklist

The contract review checklist is a detailed list that contains every part of a contract that needs to be checked or scrutinised during the review and negotiation process.

Contracts can vary significantly depending on the type of agreement. But there are some common elements that every contract should include.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the key points to include in your contract review checklist:

• Does the contract accurately describe the negotiated agreement?
• Are the parties involved properly identified?
• Is the duration of the contract clear, including any expiration dates and break clauses?
• What are the payment terms and triggers? What are the payment dates and are they accurate?
• Are there any terms that could be open to interpretation?
• Are both parties' obligations accurately described?
• Are there terms in place for the termination and renewal of the contract?
• Is there an agreed mechanism in place for the resolution of any disputes?

This list is far from exhaustive, but it does provide you with a contract review checklist to start with, even if you're a legal expert.
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Why are contract reviews important?

A contract review is important because it reduces any agreement's legal and financial risk. A thorough contract review provides both parties with a chance to fully understand the terms and conditions they are agreeing to before anything is signed.

Additionally, post-signature, a contract review allows the business to check clauses and provisions to ensure they still cover the needs of the company and the regulations of the relevant country. A contract review ensures that all terms are fair, enforceable, and properly documented; it clarifies what happens if either party breaks the conditions laid out in the contract.

The language and level of detail can be impenetrable for the average businessowner, which leaves them at a disadvantage in many contract negotiations. Investing in software like Summize can help, allowing users to break down, understand and review their contracts in a matter of minutes rather than days.

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“Summize's Clause Manager enables me to select the key contract areas that we regularly need to review and allows me to pull the relevant information within seconds, rather than scrolling through endless documents to find the relevant clause”.
Administrator in Computer Software, G2 Review.
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‍Read more customer reviews here.
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What is contract review software?

Contract review software helps legal professionals quickly review contracts and improve the organisation of the process and results. Summize’s contract review software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify important pieces of information in an easy-to-read summary and red lines areas of concern.

Contract review tools enable hundreds of businesses to improve and streamline complex processes, helping legal teams review contracts in a matter of minutes instead of hours. For teams outside of legal, it can make contracts more accessible; instantly defining any term or phrase while avoiding the legal jargon.

These tools are not limited to simple contracts and can often be customised to suit your business and industry. All contracts are stored digitally and encrypted to save storage space and ensure complete security.

What is AI contract review software?

Summize's AI contract review tool uses artificial intelligence (AI) to review and redline all contracts in minutes. It streamlines the contract review process, using algorithms to identify clauses and provisions, as well as highlighting risk. Contract review software by Summize combines both AI-powered technology and the best of humans to simplify and accelerate your contract review workflows.
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The Summize contract review difference

On average it takes 92 minutes to manually review a single contract, and they can be riddled with errors. This prevents legal teams from being true business leaders.

Summize takes a different path to contract review bringing accuracy, speed, and cost-savings to your contract reviews.

With Summize, users can reduce the time spent on reviewing a contract by up to 85%, freeing up time and resources for other activities. Our contract review software available as a stand-alone platform and as integrations into common workplace tools, can simplify your business' processes and empower your legal team to focus on the future of your company.

Summize's contract review software allows users to identify each point in the contract lifecycle and easily pick from the contracts that need to be reviewed.

Must-have contract review Features

• Accelerated reviews - One client turned a 6-week contract review project into 24 hours with Summize. Save time today.
• Integrated front door to legal - Summize integrates with Microsoft Teams and Slack, allowing business users to review a contract directly within Microsoft Word.

Benefits of Summize's contract review tool

Summize focuses on ease-of-use to reduce friction and maximise adoption across the business. The intelligent and game-changing Contract Analysis Engine simplifies and accelerates your existing legal review processes, without altering existing working habits.

• Simplified contract review - Summize allows users to instantly define any key term or clause. By clicking on a clause, Summize will find related paragraphs and automatically generate red flags for areas of concern.
• Faster revenue generation - By contrasting contract requests within Microsoft Teams or Slack with built-in automated triage and recorded SLAs, businesses can accelerate their path to revenue while remaining compliant.
• Mitigated risk - The powerful Summize Contract Analysis Engine provides users with instant, accurate summaries across your contract, allowing legal teams to efficiently complete contract reviews.