Upon purchasing Contracts, organisations can assign tailored access levels through the User Management feature. 

Users with permission will see the New Contract button, allowing them to add new contracts to the Platform. 

The Platform is made up of three main components:

• Contract Log: A searchable list of all contracts in your organisation.
• Contract Builder: A step by step interface for adding new contracts or editing existing ones.
• Contract Dashboard: A visual summary of contract activity, including costs, deadlines, and renewal cycles.

Contracts guides users through a three step process: Details, Finance, and Summary of Activities. This structured approach ensures key information is consistently captured, and any associated risks, issues, lessons, and tasks can be tracked throughout the contract’s lifecycle.

When creating a contract, users can capture essential information to support tracking, governance, and renewal workflows. This includes:

• Vendor details: Legal name, trading name, address, and contact information
• Key roles: Contract owner, members, requester, and approver
• Contract term: Start and end dates
• Subject or department: The team or function responsible for, or impacted by, the contract
• Review date: When the contract should next be reviewed
• Notice period: The required notice time for cancellation or renewal
• Contract priority status: Used to assess the contract’s importance to the organisation

It is also possible to document the priority status of a contract. The available options are:

• Essential: Mandatory for operations, compliance, or legal obligations
• Highly Desirable: Important, but not critical; provides significant benefit
• Desirable: Valuable, but not essential; can be delayed or adjusted if needed
• Optional: Non essential; minimal impact if not in place

Once the data on the Details tab is complete, Step 2 prompts users to enter the financial information associated with the contract. 

To begin, users can select a currency and enter the total contract cost. This field is flexible and can be used in line with the structure of the contract or your organisation’s financial processes. For example, if the organisation has committed to a three year contract with a known total value, the full cost can be entered upfront. 

Then, under the Add Details section, users can log invoice amounts for each year such as Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3. As invoices are entered, the calculated cost will automatically update to reflect the cumulative value of all data recorded in the Financial Information table. Future costs such as for Years 4 and 5 can also be recorded but marked as Reference Only, meaning they will not be included in the Calculated Cost field.

By clicking Add Details, users can enter additional information related to the contract’s financial records, including:

• Cost including the ability for it to be reference only (this could be used if a contract is not yet signed off)
• Purchase order number 
• Invoice number
• Goods received 
• Payment status 
• Payment due date 
• Budget
• Budget centre 
• Budget code 
• Start date 
• End date
• Auto renewal 
• Auto renewal period
• Auto renewal date 
• Terminate by 
• Termination reminder 

For further information, please refer to the Contracts article.

The Contracts Dashboard provides a centralised and visual overview of your organisation’s contract data, helping users track financial commitments, renewal timelines, and key contract activities in real time.

The dashboard includes a collection of interactive cards that highlight critical insights such as:

• Total spend by department or subject
• Upcoming renewals
• Contracts by status (e.g. active, pending, expired)
• Top 10 most expensive contracts
• Overdue vs. On-time contracts
• Auto Renewal tracking

Each card is designed to surface meaningful patterns and trends, using visual formats such as bar charts, pie charts, tables, and summary tiles.

Filters and settings allow users to customise their view, including:

• Date range filters (based on contract start and end dates)
• Contract types
• Currency
• Department, subject, or cost centre
• Priority status (Essential, Highly Desirable, Desirable, Optional)

Users can click on any chart or tile to drill down into the associated records in the Contract Management Log, allowing for a seamless transition between high level reporting and contract level detail.

The Contracts Dashboard is especially useful for:

• Budget holders and budget approvers 
• Finance teams monitoring budget commitments
• Contract owners tracking renewals and review cycles
• School or trust leadership identifying spend trends across departments

Whether you’re looking to reduce financial risk, improve renewal oversight, or simply keep track of contract performance, the Contracts Dashboard offers the tools to support data driven contract governance.

Your organisation signs a three year licensing contract valued at £9,000. The total cost is entered upfront in the Cost field when creating the contract. Under Add Details, you can record when invoices are expected, allocate them to the appropriate cost centre, and track them for payment. As each invoice is received, you can enter invoice specific data such as:

• Invoice number
• Goods received
• Payment due date 
• Payment status

This approach allows you to understand your total committed spend over the three year period, forecast projected annual costs, and track actual spend as it occurs.

Your organisation signs a three year licensing contract valued at £15,000, which includes a one off configuration fee. The total value is entered upfront in the Cost field when creating the contract. Under Add Details you can enter:

• Invoice 1 - One off configuration fee
• Invoice 2 - Year 1 licence cost 

Additional invoice entries for Year 2 and Year 3 can be added as they are received. This approach allows you to separate implementation costs from recurring licence fees, helping to maintain a clear and detailed financial record. You also have the flexibility to log only actual costs rather than forecasted or committed spend while still having visibility of the total contract value.

An IT team is considering a new software subscription but is still awaiting internal approval. To begin tracking the proposed contract, they create an entry in the Contract Platform and enter an estimated cost in the Cost field. The cost is marked as Reference Only, indicating that the figure is provisional and should not be included in financial reporting or compliance workflows at this stage. This approach allows the team to:

• Track potential financial commitments before formal approval
• Maintain visibility of proposed spend during planning and procurement stages
• Avoid triggering alerts or workflows related to payment, compliance, or renewal tracking

Once the contract is approved, the team can update the entry with confirmed values, attach supporting documentation, and begin recording invoice data under Add Details.

A department manages a contract that is set to automatically renew every 12 months. To ensure visibility and control over the renewal process, the contract owner enables the Auto Renewal option within the contract entry. They then configure the following fields:

• Auto Renewal Date: The specific date on which the contract will renew
• Auto Renewal Reminder: The specific date on which the contract reminder will be sent
• Termination Reminder: Set to notify users 90 days before the renewal date

This setup ensures that stakeholders receive timely notifications, giving them enough time to:

• Review the contract terms
• Evaluate ongoing usage and performance
• Decide whether to continue, renegotiate, or terminate the agreement

By automating reminders, the team avoids unexpected renewals and ensures contract decisions align with operational and financial priorities.

An IT department is leading a three year digital transformation project to consolidate multiple legacy systems. As part of this process, they begin logging all current contracts into the Contract Platform to identify duplication and cost overlap.

They configure each contract entry with the following:

• Linked Applications: To show which systems or services the contract supports
• Vendor and POAs: To show which contracts have been assessed for compliance 
• Projects and Tasks: To understand each phase of the digital transformation and log individual tasks linked back to costs and terms and conditions
• Contract Duration: To track end dates of existing services
• Notes Field: To document phase out plans and transition timelines

This setup ensures that stakeholders can:

• Identify overlapping contracts that cover similar services
• Prevent unintentional renewals during the transition period
• Align contract end dates with project milestones
• Access contractual, finance, compliance and project data in one Platform

By centralising contract data, the team gains full visibility over system dependencies and makes informed decisions about when to cancel, renew, or renegotiate contracts.

In preparation for the upcoming budget cycle, the department leads begin logging proposed spend including contracts into the Contract Platform to show the proposed budget forecast for the following budget period. To separate committed versus proposed financial workflows, each entry where new budget is required or where spend is speculative can be marked as Reference Only.

This approach allows the budget approvers to:

• Understand potential future financial commitments
• Review and compare proposed spend across departments
• Prioritise spending decisions during budget planning

By separating draft spend and contracts from active ones, the organisation can plan more accurately while maintaining clean and reliable financial data.

The IT team manages a cloud services contract with Microsoft Azure, where costs vary monthly based on usage. To maintain oversight, the team creates a contract entry in the Contract Platform with an estimated annual cost.

On the Finance tab the team adds estimated cost in the Cost field based on average historical usage if they wish to exclude it from committed spend. As the year progresses they can use Add Details to log actual invoice amounts each month. If the team wishes to log all draft invoices at the start of the budget period they can add monthly entries via Add Details and can select Reference Only.

This approach enables the team to:

• Forecast spend
• Track real time usage and costs without overcommitting budgets
• Maintain visibility over total annual spend
• Adjust future forecasts based on real data

By managing the contract this way, the organisation balances flexible, usage based billing with structured financial oversight. The IT team can also enter a Start Date for the contract and leave the End Date blank as this is an ongoing committed spend. 

An organisation is planning major IT investments, including a new server installation (capital spend) alongside annual software licences (operational spend). To improve visibility, the finance team creates forecast contracts within the Contract Platform for each planned expense.

They configure each forecast contract with the following:

• Forecast Cost: Entered upfront based on project estimates
• Cost Code: Assigned as either Capital or Operational
• Reference Only: Enabled to exclude forecasts from committed spend
• Associated Tasks: Linked to related project tasks, so spend can be tracked alongside milestones

This setup allows the finance team to:

• See a combined dashboard view of both operational and capital spend
• Separate capital investments from ongoing operational costs through cost codes
• Align spend tracking with project tasks to ensure financial planning matches delivery progress

By leveraging forecast contracts and cost codes, the organisation gains a forward looking view of total commitments, helping leaders balance long term investment with day to day operational budgets.

The Contracts Platform is a purpose built solution for schools to manage vendor, service, and software contracts in one place. Unlike traditional contract systems, it’s integrated with 9ine’s Vendor and Application Platforms offering smarter visibility, automated alerts, and real time financial insights. Contracts can be linked to vendors, processing operation assessments (POAs), and applications already in your platform. This allows seamless cross-referencing of costs, usage, and compliance.

Absolutely. Most schools using 9ine previously managed contracts in spreadsheets or shared folders. The Contracts Platform offers a low-barrier way to structure, track, and optimise contract workflows.

Yes. Contract Management can be used independently or alongside 9ine’s Vendor and Application Platforms. However, using them together unlocks full visibility over your digital ecosystem and spending.

The Platform supports all contract types including IT licences, curriculum tools, service agreements, professional services, and more. You can manage rolling, monthly, fixed term, and auto-renewing contracts. Custom contract types can also be added to match your organisation’s finance, procurement, or departmental structures.

Set auto-renewal dates, termination periods, and review deadlines. The system sends smart reminders and prompts so you can act early, avoiding missed deadlines or accidental renewals.

Yes. You can log detailed financial information per contract including total cost, invoice amounts, payment due dates, budgets, and cost centres. This supports both tracking and forecasting.

Yes. You can enter forecasted or "Reference Only” costs for upcoming years, usage based contracts, or capital projects without affecting committed spend reporting.

Yes. The Platform allows you to link risks, issues, tasks, and lessons to contracts, giving you a full view of contract performance over time. These items also appear on your Governance Dashboard if enabled.

Yes. You can upload supporting documents (e.g. POs, agreements, invoices), log internal notes, and centralise all communications for future reference. You should use the Additional Notes feature to record updates, decisions, or changes. You can also upload documents such as email correspondence, purchase orders, invoices and agreements using the Attachments feature. Once attached all users with access to the contract will have visibility.