Contract lifecycle: draft, sign-off, signature, milestones and payments

#Purpose and scope

This chapter covers a contract from template to payment. The Contract Management home page shows status, value, payments, top contractors and expiries; the Contract dashboard gives an overview of contracts, payments and compliance.

#1. Templates and clauses

1. Keep reusable wording in Contract clauses.
2. In Contract templates set the contract type (Fixed Price, Time & Material, Unit Rate, Lump Sum or Cost Plus), default payment terms, default retention %, default warranty months and a boilerplate body.

#2. Draft the contract

1. Open Contracts. Create a contract directly, or pick a template to create a draft from it (the draft is created and its code is shown).
2. Fill in the contract code, name and scope of work; type; the contractor or consultant company; optional project, WBS element and parent contract (for a sub-contract); start, end and signed dates; warranty; and the commercial terms (retention, advance, performance guarantee percentages, payment terms).
3. On the Cost Code Lines tab enter the scope lines, each budgeted to a project cost code. Cost codes are maintained in Cost codes.

#3. Submit for sign-off

1. In the contract list choose Submit for sign-off on a Draft contract and confirm.
2. BSuit starts the approval workflow configured for the contract record type and moves the contract to Submitted. It stays in the workflow until every approver signs off, then becomes Active with the signer and date stamped.

#4. Clause extraction and electronic signature

1. Open a contract. The AI clauses tab extracts payment terms, deliverables, penalties, termination clause and expiry date from pasted contract text or an uploaded PDF, with a confidence score. The result is for review only; contract fields are never changed automatically. You can then create trackable obligation rows from the extracted obligations.
2. On the signature tab create a signature envelope, add each signer with an email, role and signing order, and choose Send for signature. Signers get their links; you can copy a signing link or void the envelope.
3. Track envelopes and signer status in Signature envelopes.

#5. Obligations, compliance, alerts and evaluations

#6. Variations (change orders)

Variations runs a three-stage pipeline: DCOR (draft change order request), COR (change order request, submitted) and CO (approved change order), each with its own page (DCOR, COR, CO). Variation types are Addition, Omission, Substitution and Time Extension; statuses are Proposed, Under Review, Approved, Rejected and Implemented.

#7. Milestones

1. In Milestones record payment milestones with a due date and amount.
2. When the work is accepted choose Achieve and confirm. The achieved date is stamped and a journal is posted to finance (or submitted for approval if a workflow is configured).

#8. Payments and RA bills

1. Record payments in Payments (all kinds), Progress payments (RA bills and final bills) or Miscellaneous payments (advance, mobilisation, retention release, other).
2. Save with a positive net payable, then choose Post to Finance.
3. The payment moves through Draft, Submitted, Verified, Pending Approval, Approved, Paid or Rejected. Once posted, the record is read-only and shows the journal number.