Manage a contract
Track a supplier or customer contract from signing through renewal in Shillinq's contract module. Each contract carries its term, value cap, payment terms, obligation list (deliverables, SLAs, notice periods), and any clauses that gate Shillinq workflows downstream (e.g. "all POs against this supplier must reference contract X").
Goal
By the end the contract will be in Shillinq with its term, value cap, obligations, the signed PDF attached, and the renewal reminder armed so it fires the right number of days before the notice period ends.
Prerequisites
- Shillinq open and the OpenRegister back end connected (see Open Shillinq for the first time).
- The right to manage contracts — contract role on the Shillinq instance.
- The counterparty exists as a customer or supplier record.
- The signed contract document, ideally as a PDF.
Steps
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Open Contracts and click New contract. The contract form opens.
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Fill in the contract — title, counterparty (customer or supplier), contract type (framework, SaaS, service, lease, …), start date, end date, value cap (total amount Shillinq budgets against the contract), payment terms, notice period in days, and an auto-renew toggle. Drop the signed PDF onto the document slot.
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Add obligations. Each obligation is a discrete thing one party must do — "Monthly status report on the first working day", "99.5% uptime SLA", "Right to terminate for convenience with 30 days' notice". Set the obligation's owner (who in your org tracks it), due cadence, and any evidence the obligation requires.
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Arm the renewal reminder. Shillinq computes the notice deadline (= contract end date − notice period) and schedules a reminder a configurable number of days before — typically twice the notice period — so the contract owner has time to decide renew, renegotiate, or let it lapse.
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Save. The contract appears in the Contracts list with its status (Active), the value cap and current burn-down (driven by POs / bills posted against the contract). New POs against this counterparty offer the contract on the Contract field; the burn-down updates live.
Verification
The contract shows in Contracts with status Active, its value-cap burn-down visible, the obligations listed with their owners, the signed PDF attached, and the renewal reminder armed. A test PO raised against the supplier shows the contract on the Contract field, and posting the PO reduces the burn-down by the PO's amount.
Common issues
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| Renewal reminder doesn't fire | The contract's notice period or end date is empty; the reminder needs both. Notification delivery also needs the user's notification settings configured. |
| Value-cap burn-down doesn't move | POs/bills aren't tagged with the contract — either back-tag them, or wait until users start picking the contract on new POs. |
| Auto-renew flipped the contract to a new term unexpectedly | Auto-renew runs at end-date minus notice-period; to prevent renewal, terminate before that. |
| Obligation owner gets no reminders | Same as renewal — the obligation needs a cadence and the owner needs notification settings on. |
| Cannot edit the contract after sign-off | Approved contracts are version-locked; create an amendment (a child contract version) rather than editing in place. |
| Screenshots may be missing | App not yet installed in the test environment; rerun npm run test:e2e:docs once it is. |
Reference
- Create a purchase order — POs against a supplier draw on the contract's value cap.
- Read your financial statements — contract commitments are disclosed in the notes to the accounts.
- Configure supplier approval chains — high-value contracts may need higher approval bands than ordinary POs.
- Shillinq architecture overview — Accord Project, contract lifecycle.