Lucy - BQ Magazine EditorA growing number of companies are ditching paper legal contracts for digital versions. What is the advantage of going digital? This post looks at a few reasons you may want to start digitising your contracts.
Free up physical space
If you’ve got customers constantly signing physical contracts, the paperwork could start to build up. Going paperless can help to free up a lot of physical space – helping your office to feel less cluttered.
Protect against damage, theft and loss
Only keeping physical copies of contracts can come with many risks. A fire or natural disaster could wipe out your contracts and you’ll then have no legal proof as to what you have agreed with clients. Physical contracts can also be stolen or mislaid. Digital contracts, on the other hand, can be backed up on a cloud server – protecting them against damage, theft and loss.
Find key information easily
Sorting through pages of a contract to find a certain clause can be time-consuming – especially when it comes to lengthy contracts of over 50 pages. If you have lots of customers and suppliers, simply finding the right contract might take time if you haven’t got an efficient filing system. Many forms of software can make it easy to search for individual contracts and clauses. For example, this Quarem lease management software allows you to easily search for keywords in leases to find the relative information.
Update information easily
If you need to update a contract, digital tools can also help you to conveniently alter information. Instead of having to print off new copies and mail them to each client, you can easily edit them and email new copies to clients – or even better update them in an app that your clients use and send notifications that terms have been updated. Clients can then electronically sign documents there and then. No need for a pen and paper when you have a touchscreen.
Automate paperwork tasks
Many manual tasks involving contracts can be automated by switching to digital contracts. Firstly, using many modern automation tools, it’s possible to automatically write contracts in seconds. These contracts can then be automatically sent to new clients to sign once they sign up for your business. Clients can sign these contracts and send them back to you.
If these contracts are accompanied by forms, certain information may be possible to digitally auto-fill. Meanwhile, data can be automatically extracted from each form once it is received and put into a database. Automated reminders can even be sent to clients who haven’t sent back forms. All in all, automation can greatly reduce manual admin work. This Zapier guide to the best online form builder apps compares a few form tools with automation features that could be worth looking into.
The bottom line
Switching to digital contracts can save you time, space, energy and money. It is how all businesses are going – so why not get on board now? You can find digital contract-building tools specialised to different industries. Compare reviews to find the most reputable software.