The Most Common Avoidable Mistakes in Contract and Document Management
Even the most skilled contract creators aren’t protected from contract management errors. Human error plays a role when relying on manual practices as there’s little to no technology to double-check the document. However, understanding the common mistakes in contract and document management will equip you to recognize and avoid them.
Reasons for Mistakes in Contract Management
Do you still rely on paper and pen when managing your documents? If your company manually manages its documents, it’s destined to make a mistake in the contract lifecycle. Many companies run into all too common document mistakes because they lack proper tools and technology, cut corners when managing critical agreements, or don’t have a solid organizational system.
When you implement an automated management platform, you can easily avoid the traps that your competitors fall into and make errors. However, it’s still essential for you to know the most common mistakes in contract management and understand how automation is the best way to avoid them.
The Most Common Mistakes in Contract Management
Contracts are the foundation of every successful company. If you want to boost the profitability of your business, you must first identify your most common mistake in contract management and use tools to resolve it. Once you optimize your agreement processes through automation, you’ll see that your deals are far more beneficial and are closed faster.
Let’s take a closer look at the most common types of mistakes in contract management and how to avoid them:
1. Rushing contract redlining
The redlining phase of a contract lifecycle is when the document is most susceptible to miscommunication and human error. Since both parties try to update terms and make edits on their end, there’s often confusion and a lack of organization. Additionally, many partners don’t take the time to thoroughly check the agreement, making edits and fixing errors, resulting in lost value.
Solution
Utilizing intelligent software will help prevent a redlining mistake in the contract lifecycle. Its single repository gives all parties visibility into adjustments made by any individual, meaning less confusion and miscommunication. Automated management speeds up negotiation without sacrificing quality so that you can avoid redlining errors and draft more advantageous deals.
2. Relying only on manually checking a document for errors
How many times have you submitted a document only to find it riddled with typos and grammatical errors afterward? It doesn’t matter whether or not you triple-checked your document for errors. There are still some that will slip through the cracks when you rely on manual error-checking. Avoiding this mistake in contract administration will give your brand a more professional reputation as others will see that you put in the effort to ensure perfection.
Solution
If you want to save your team the hassle of dealing with a form riddled with typos, you should always check a document for errors with a contract editing tool. Automated contract editing has digital features such as smart spell checking, grammar review, plus it gives you insights on making your terms more concise.
Therefore, intelligent contract software equipped with editing features will speed up the review process, making it easier to eliminate mistakes in a contract.
3. Lacking version control
It’s a waste of time to rummage through various files and folders to find the most recent contract version. Papers are easily lost, damaged, or edited, and the same goes for documents stored on an unsecured hard drive.
Additionally, it’s difficult for team members to coordinate and communicate which edits they’re making without proper version control, leading to conflicting information and different variations of the same document. As you can see, version control is an essential step in contract management if you want to avoid costly errors.
Solution
An automated repository system will prevent your team from making a miscommunication mistake in the contract forms. Management software organizes all agreement versions so that your team can work on the most recent ones while referencing the previous ones. The secure cloud-based storage also ensures that none of your information is lost or stolen.
Types of Mistakes in a Contract
Of course, contract management isn’t the same across the board, as each field has its common errors to worry about. Regardless of the variability, almost every company that handles legal documents can benefit from investing in an automated system because its advanced tools are incredibly versatile.
Here are some common mistakes in various fields and how contract management software helps prevent each:
Mistakes in a legal document
Legal teams must be sure that there isn’t a single mistake in a contract because it may become void. Typos, grammar, and formatting errors are some of the most common mistakes in legal documents, but they’re difficult to prevent when your legal firm relies on manual management. These document mistakes and more are why legal departments can significantly benefit from investing in intelligent automation tools.
Medical documentation mistakes
When working with other peoples’ private medical records, security should be a top priority. Despite that, many medical teams don’t store their sensitive records and forms on a secure platform, leaving them vulnerable to data breaches and file loss. Data breaches can cost medical teams thousands of dollars or, worse, result in stolen confidential information.
Medical departments shouldn’t make this mistake in contract security when it’s simple to implement a repository that’s stored securely on the cloud.
Business agreement mistakes
As a business owner, you want to make sure you’re negotiating the most beneficial deal for your company. However, it’s challenging to focus on negotiating contractual terms when you’re preoccupied with fixing various agreement errors. Automated management systems will save your team time by highlighting and adjusting errors so that you can get more value out of your agreements.
What Kind of Outcomes Come From Document Errors?
A single mistake in a contract can cost you thousands of dollars if you’re not careful. Meaning it’s essential to implement a strategy to avoid the effect of mistakes in contract management. Businesses that manually manage their agreements are more vulnerable to these mistakes as they don’t have a plan to prevent them.
The effect of mistakes in contracts
- Lower productivity levels
- Unnecessary lawsuits
- Compliance issues
- Lack of teamwork and communication
- Lost partnership value
- Damage to your brand’s reputation
Manual management may work for your business right now, but it does not leave room for it to grow as it paves the way for many mistakes that will harm your company. Additionally, relying on manual processes means that your competitors who embrace automation will quickly rise above you, which results in lost clients and revenue. Therefore, if you want to get the most value out of your agreements, it’s essential to implement a technology-driven contract management system to check for and prevent any mistakes in contracts.
