Why Version Control is Critical for Contract Management

Take a look at how your company’s contracts are organized and how your team communicates when working on those contracts.

• Are your documents labeled with extensionssuch as, “/FILENAME-DATE-v14-r02.doc”?
• Have you ever had an email discussion with your team about updating a document, made revisions directly to it and then accidentally saved over the previous version?
• Have you ever had to dig through files trying to determine which version of a contract to make updates because you can’t figure out the difference among the most recent iteration, the last final and approved contract, and draft copies?

If you’ve ever answered “yes” to any of the questions above, you recognize the importance of version control and the frustration of not having an established process. Without version control, changes become permanent; but with version control, you always know and work from the latest version, while still being able to reference previous versions.

Versioning “enables you to store, track and restore items in a list and files in a library as they are changed,” according to the Microsoft Office website. Here are seven benefits to using Microsoft SharePoint for your contract management system:

• Keep your existing documents, which were most likely created in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc., in the same file formats — meaning you’ll already know how to work in the documents and it will be easy to migrate them to a SharePoint-based Contract Management Software
• Easily search for contracts and related documents by creating consistent file naming conventions and saving contracts into organized directory structures
• Maintain records of all revisions, comments and discussions surrounding a contract for audit purposes
• Compare documents to see what changes have been made between versions
• Confidently make edits without worrying about accidentally saving over a previous version
• Know who made what changes and when
• See the evolution of a contract, with version history stored in one central repository

Version control is extremely helpful and in fact, a crucial step in creating a “productive, collaborative ‘office’ for your always-connected staff,” according to a Fast Company article. Without it, workflows within your contract management system become moot, and coordinating who should review and revise what and when becomes challenging.

Want to discover more about how version control works, why it’s crucial for collaboration and how it can streamline workflows within your contract management system? No one does version control like Microsoft, on its platform SharePoint, and as SharePoint experts, ConvergePoint will show you how version history works within our Contract Management Software and how it eliminates extra emails and confusion within your legal department.

Next step: See how effective version control is a critical piece of the entire contract workflow, and how it fits into the process.