Capture your contract metadata for effective contract management. Here’s how.

What is contract metadata?

Contract metadata is a crucial aspect of supplier contracts that is often overlooked. It refers to the information that describes the contract itself, such as the parties involved, the terms and conditions, and the obligations of each party. In our experience at Accord, capturing the right metadata is essential for effective contract management.

Why is it important to capture key metadata?

Capturing key metadata on supplier contracts is essential for any business as it helps to ensure that all parties are on the same page, obligations and key terms are understood and that the contract is legally binding.  Metadata is the data you will seek to filter and report on, it drives your next procurement and contract management activities and ensuring you have it in hand ensures you don’t incur costly legal disputes if something goes wrong, and prevents auto-renewals of contracts you’d have rather terminated. Contract managers and procurement teams need to be able to retrieve, organise and report on contracts promptly and efficiently when called upon, and capturing contract metadata will enable them to do so. 

To capture this information, it is important to start by identifying the key pieces of information that need to be included. 

What metadata should you be capturing on your supplier contracts?

The metadata you should be capturing on your supplier contracts includes the contract start and end dates, payment terms, renewal options, and termination clauses. It is also important to capture the supplier’s name and contact information, scope of work, deliverables, and performance metrics. This information helps you to monitor the contract’s progress and ensure that both parties are meeting their obligations.

For your benefit, we’ve compiled a useful and free downloadable contract spreadsheet, which provides example contract metadata you might choose to capture.

How should you capture it?

Once you have identified the key pieces of information, it is important to create a system for capturing and storing this information. This may mean simply creating a spreadsheet to track all of the relevant details, or using a contract management system.

Using a contract management system to record key metadata on supplier contracts has numerous benefits. Firstly, it ensures that all important information is stored in one place, making it easy to access and manage. This can save time and reduce the risk of errors or oversights. Additionally, having a centralised system allows for better communication and collaboration between different departments and stakeholders.

Another advantage of using a contract management system is that it can improve compliance and risk management. By recording key metadata such as contract terms, renewal dates and performance metrics, organisations can monitor and track supplier performance more effectively. This can help to identify potential issues early on and take corrective action before they become major problems. While automated alerts around key metadata, such as renewal dates, extension periods and expiries, can help avoid costly errors and help keep contract managers and procurement teams on the top of their game.

Whatever system you choose, it is important to ensure that it is easy to use and that all relevant parties have access to the information and are responsible for ensuring a contract is managed through to natural completion, post-award, after the pre-award and execution phase.

Conclusions about contract metadata

In conclusion, capturing the right metadata on supplier contracts, and then having the facility to retrieve contracts easily using these metadata points, is crucial for effective contract management. It helps you to monitor the contract’s progress and ensure that both parties are meeting their obligations. By taking the time to identify the key pieces of information and creating a system for capturing and storing this information, you can help to ensure that your business runs smoothly, achieve cost-savings, realised benefits and ensure you are able to maintain positive relationships with your suppliers.

For more information on how a contract management system like Accord can help with your contract metadata, book a demo with our team here.