Contract Management
Welcome to the Contract Management user guide. Contract Management helps your organisation manage contracts, financial information, key dates and related activities in one place.
You can use it to manage contract details, track financial commitments, set renewal and termination dates, and link contracts to relevant areas of the Platform.
Access to Contract Management and the Contract Dashboard is included with the Contract Platform licence. For questions about your organisation's licence or entitlement, use Request Support or contact [email protected].
Accessing Contract Management and Dashboard
Upon purchasing the Contract Platform and its associated features, users can be granted access to Contract Management. Your organisation's 9ine Platform Administrators can allocate permission via User Management, available to administrators in the header.
Users with Contract Edit access automatically have access to the Financial Information Log and can manage financial information for contracts they can access. You do not need to grant separate Finance access to these users. If you need Contract Edit access, contact your organisation's 9ine Platform Administrator.
Granting an individual user access to the Contracts feature does not automatically give them visibility over all contracts in your organisation. Users see only the contracts they are assigned to, or have been granted permission on, together with contracts linked to a risk, issue, lesson or task they are assigned to. With access, they can also create new contracts. Administrators see every contract in the organisation.
A contract's permissions include:
- Owner
- Member
- Requester
- Approver
- Notified User
- Attachment Reviewer
There can only be a single owner but there are no limits to the number of members or notified users. Each attachment can also have one reviewer. Owners can edit and delete their assigned contracts, while all other roles have edit rights but cannot delete. When more than two members or notified users are added, the additional user details are combined into a single pill, which can be clicked to view further details. These pills are alphabetically ordered.
The Requester and Approver fields allow you to either select a 9ine Platform user, who will be granted access to the contract, or enter the details of individuals who are not users of the 9ine Platform. This provides flexibility in documenting key stakeholders involved in the contract process, regardless of whether they have access to the Platform. An approver receives a notification when assigned.
Info:
- A user cannot be assigned as both the Owner and a Member of the same contract. There are no restrictions on assigning users as Notified Users.
- Owner fields are mandatory throughout the 9ine Platform.
- If a user's account has been disabled and they held the role of owner, you will be prompted to reassign upon next edit and prior to saving.
Warning
If a contract Owner's account is deleted through User Management, the 9ine Platform Administrator is prompted to reassign ownership of any contracts that are not Archived or Cancelled.
Adding and removing notified users
Adding removing notified users forms
To add a notified user, use the mention function in the Additional Notes feature.
- To begin, click the @ symbol on your keyboard and type the first name of the user you wish to mention.
- A user can be mentioned at the start, in the middle, or at the end of the entered text.
- To remove a user as a notified user, simply delete their name from the relevant note.
- Mentioning a user sends an in-Platform notification and an email unless the user has disabled email notifications.
- The email notification sends a complete copy of the text entered by the user in the 9ine Platform, to the user’s registered email address.
The Notified user(s) field on the contract is read-only. As well as the users you mention, it automatically includes all the owners and members of any vendor, POA or application linked to the contract.
Entering contract details and tracking key dates
Begin by clicking New Contract in the top right corner of the Contract Log to get started. You will then be presented with three steps, including:
- Details
- Finance
- Summary of Activities
The first step allows you to capture and view key contract details, including vendor and contact information, assigned roles (such as owner, requester, and approver), contract status, and important dates, such as the start and end date, auto-renewal settings, termination deadlines, and notice periods.
Info:
This step has three mandatory fields: Title, Owner, and Contract start date. You must complete them before selecting Save & Next to move to the Finance step, or Save & Exit to save and return to the log.
If your organisation uses 9ine's Vendor or Application Platforms, use Link vendor, Link POA or Link application to link the contract. Linking a vendor automatically populates the vendor details, and Legal name becomes mandatory. These details are synchronised across the Platform, meaning any updates made here will also be reflected in the associated vendor.
If your organisation is not using the Vendor or Application Platforms, you can manually enter vendor details directly within the contract. This includes legal names, trading names, addresses, and contact information. This flexible approach ensures vendor information can be centrally managed and kept in sync, or individually recorded, depending on your organisation's setup and licensing.
Use Status to record where the contract is in its lifecycle. A new contract starts as Active, and the other statuses are Pending, Pending Termination, Archived and Cancelled. Use Contract priority status to record how important the contract is to your organisation: Essential, Highly Desirable, Desirable or Optional, or a value of your own.
When you enter a Contract start date, the Platform displays an Additional Information section with further fields to help manage renewal and review workflows. These include:
- Auto renewal: Select whether the contract renews automatically.
- Auto renewal date: The date on which the contract is scheduled to renew.
- Auto renewal reminder: A reminder date set ahead of renewal to trigger review or action.
- Terminate by: A specific deadline by which the contract must be cancelled.
- Termination reminder: A reminder to review or cancel the contract before the termination window closes.
- Next review date: The date by which the contract should be next reviewed.
These fields support proactive contract management and ensure key dates are never missed.
Enter a Contract end date wherever you can. A contract without an end date is excluded from the Top 10 Contracts and Overdue vs. On-Time Contracts cards on the Contract Dashboard.
Adding financial information to a contract
After saving your contract details in Step 1 with Save & Next, you'll be directed to Step 2 - Finance. This step allows you to capture and manage the financial data associated with your contract, giving your organisation visibility over current spend, future commitments, and budgeting needs.
Start by selecting the currency relevant to the contract. Once selected, you can enter the total value of the contract in the Contract cost field. If the contract currency differs from your organisation's default currency e.g. a contract is priced in USD but your organisation operates in GBP, you'll be able to adjust the Currency exchange rate.
The exchange rate displayed is based on live market data. When adding or updating financial information for a contract, you can manually enter a custom exchange rate if preferred. This allows you to override the live rate with a fixed value, offering greater flexibility for financial planning or alignment with internal processes. This functionality ensures multi-currency contracts are accurately tracked and reported in line with your organisation's financial setup.
Once invoice or payment data is entered in the Financial information table via the Add Details icon, the Platform automatically calculates the cumulative value of those entries. The Calculated cost field is automatically generated based on the individual line items entered in the finance table.
This distinction between Contract cost and Calculated cost allows flexibility in managing financial data, whether you're estimating future spend (Contract cost) or tracking actual invoices (Calculated cost).
Once the total contract cost is entered, you can click Add Details to open the Financial Information popup. Here you can record detailed financial information for each contract. Title is the only mandatory field in the popup. It supports real-time cost tracking and budget planning to suit the structure of your contract or organisation's workflows. Based on the Subject/Department selected in the Details tab, when a user enters the financial cost, a Financial cost allocation for subject/department table is generated in the Financial Information popup. The user can allocate a percentage to each subject/department, and the financial total cost is distributed accordingly. The total allocation must be 100% or less; if it exceeds 100% (overspent), the financial information record cannot be saved.
You can add multiple entries per contract to reflect each stage of billing or payment.
Each entry includes two tabs:
- Details: Where the financial data is entered
- Attachments: Where you can upload invoices, purchase orders, terms and conditions, signed agreements, or other related documentation
The Calculated cost field on Step 2 - Finance will automatically update based on all financial entries that are not marked as Reference only.
You can also assign a reviewer and set a review date to ensure attachments remain up to date.
Info:
- Add one entry per invoice or yearly payment for clarity and easier tracking.
- Use the Reference only option for future years or contracts awaiting approval.
- Keep PO numbers, invoice references, and Goods received (Yes, No or In Dispute) updated for accurate reporting.
- Use the Start date and End date fields to reflect the coverage period for licences or services.
- Upload supporting documents to ensure your financial records are complete and auditable.
Managing contractual risks, issues, lessons, and tasks
Create associated risk
In the top right corner there is a +New button which provides four options: New Risk, New Issue, New Lesson, and New Task. 
For more detailed information on the specific logs, please refer to their individual user guides:
When creating a risk, issue, lesson, or task the details are automatically added to the Summary of Activities table.
In a contract, the New icon offers New Issue, New Lesson, New Risk and New Task. These options become available once the contract has been saved. The items you create are listed on the Summary of Activities step and also appear in their own Governance logs.
Managing contract level resources
On the right-hand side, you will see three collapsible sections designed to help you manage contract-level content and context:
- Vendor / Contract Logo: Upload a logo to visually represent the vendor or contract. You can set a default logo which will appear across relevant areas of the Platform.
- Additional Notes: Use this section to add contextual notes or ongoing commentary about the contract. Notes are automatically time- and user-stamped, keeping a clear history of updates and insights.
-
Attachments: Attach relevant documents directly to the contract as a whole, rather than to specific finance entries. This is ideal for storing high-level documents like:
- Signed agreements
- SLAs
- Contract versions
- General correspondence
Select Attach to upload files. Each file can be up to 10 MB, and you can upload up to five files at a time. Every file is scanned for viruses before it is saved. Supported file types are jpg, jpeg, tif, tiff, png, odg, otg, txt, rtf, doc, docx, pages, odt, ott, odm, pdf, xml, xmlx, numbers, ods, ots, ppt, pptx, key, keynote, odp, otp, xls, xlsx, tsv, csv, pst, eml, emlx, ost, oft and msg. File names cannot contain the special characters : / ? < > | " \ # + & ' ~. Each attachment can have a reviewer, a review date and a comment. A deleted attachment moves to the Recycle Bin, where it can be restored within 90 days, or within 120 days by a 9ine Platform Administrator.
Info:
Documents uploaded here apply to the entire contract, not individual financial entries. Use the Attachments tab in Step 2 - Finance for year-specific or invoice-specific files.
Understanding how to use the contract and finance log
When creating a new contract or financial record, or editing an existing one, the details entered are added to the respective log. Each contract is automatically assigned a unique reference number (starting with CON) that cannot be edited.
To see only the contracts you are responsible for, turn on the My Contract toggle in the top right corner of the Contract Management Log. It displays contracts where you are the owner, a member or a notified user. In the Financial Information Log, the equivalent toggle is My Finance.
Use the switch layout icon in the Contract Management Log to move between the two layouts:
- Contract management layout
- Financial information layout
When accessing data through either of the two logs, you will find that common functionality is consistently available across them.
Sorting, View and Filter for log
Default sorting is applied to the No. column, which can be altered by clicking on the title of any other column. Clicking a column header once sorts the log by the selected column, and clicking it a second time reverses the order.
To remove individual columns, click View and deselect the columns you do not want to display, whilst retaining a minimum of one column. After selecting your preferred columns, click Apply. You also have the option to Save View.
You can also change the sequence order of the columns by dragging and dropping them into your preferred order. Any changes are automatically saved and retained on the next login.
Info:
- The changes applied to the sequence order of the log and in the View popup are user and log specific and only applied to your profile.
- The sequence order in the View popup does not update to reflect the order created through dragging and dropping.
- The log opens using your most recently saved filter and column view. If you have not saved any preferences, the organisation default view is applied, this is why the log can appear differently per user account.
To focus on specific items, you can use the Filter or Search functions. When a filter is active, an orange icon appears next to the filter icon for easy recognition.
- To quickly clear any filters, click the Clear Filters button in the popup.
- You can also apply a temporary filter without clicking Save Filter.
- To revert back to your saved filter, click Reset.
- Similarly, you can select data points and click Apply without saving your filter options.
The Contract Analysis pop-up is accessible from the Contract Management Log and provides users with an efficient way to review and compare contract information. It allows users to compare up to five contracts at the same time, making side-by-side analysis simple and effective. It is available once the log contains more than one contract. Once a Contract Title is selected, the system automatically displays the relevant contract details, including:
- Contract Title
- Trading Name
- Contract Status
- Contract Term
- Notice Period
- Contract Start Date
- Contract End Date
- Auto Renewal
- Auto Renewal Date
- Next Review Date
- Contract Cost
- Calculated Cost
- Reference Only Cost
- Payment Status
The comparison fields are Contract Title, Trading Name, Contract Status, Contract Term, Contract Start Date, Contract End Date, Auto-renewal, Auto-renewal Date and Next Review Date. Notice Period, Contract Cost, Calculated Cost, Reference Only Cost and Payment Status are also included as comparison fields.
This pop-up helps users quickly compare key contract details across multiple contracts, enhancing visibility and supporting informed decision-making.
Understanding the quick actions for a contract
The contract log offers a suite of quick-access functions through its Options menu including:
-
Create Task
This allows you to directly create a task associated with the contract. -
Create Risk
This allows you to directly create a risk associated with the contract. -
Create Issue
This allows you to directly create an issue associated with the contract. -
Create Lesson
This allows you to directly create a lesson associated with the contract. -
Add Note
Opens the Additional Notes popup on Step 1 - Details. -
Add Attachment(s)
Opens the Attachments popup on Step 1 - Details. -
Add Member(s)
Opens a members popup to quickly grant users access to the contract. -
Duplicate
Creates a copy of the contract with the prefix Copy of, including its details, owner and members, financial records, and associated risks, issues, lessons and tasks. Attachments, additional notes and any linked vendor, POA or application are not copied. -
Revisions
Opens the contract revisions popup, displaying the user name, date and time, and details of the most recent changes. -
Archive
Marks the contract as archived. An archived contract cannot be edited until you reactivate it. -
Cancel
Marks the contract as cancelled. A cancelled contract cannot be edited until you reactivate it. -
Delete
Moves the contract and all its associated records to the Recycle Bin. They can be restored within 90 days, or within 120 days by a 9ine Platform Administrator, after which they are permanently deleted. Only users with delete permission, such as the owner, see this option.
To reactivate an archived or cancelled contract, select the Active icon on its row in the log. The contract returns to Active and can be edited again.
Understanding the quick actions for a finance
The Financial Information Log (via the switch layout icon on the Contract Management Log) provides a range of quick-access functions within the Options menu, including:
-
Duplicate
Duplicates the financial record with the prefix Copy of but does not copy the linked items, purchase order number, invoice number, start date, end date, attachment, and payment due date data. -
Revisions
Opens the finance revisions popup, displaying the user name, date and time, and details of the most recent changes. -
Delete
Moves the financial record to the Recycle Bin, where it can be restored within 90 days, or within 120 days by a 9ine Platform Administrator. A financial record can only be restored once its contract has been restored.
If a financial record belongs to an archived or cancelled contract, it cannot be opened from the Financial Information Log until the contract is reactivated.
Downloading the contract and finance log
Download Governance Log Items
To download the data shown on the respective log, click the Download button located in the top right-hand corner. You can customise the download report to include or exclude data by using the search bar, filter, view options, or My moduleName functions. Upon clicking the Download button, an export will be saved to your local file explorer. The format of the exported moduleName is XLS.
In Contract Management, select Download and then Log. The export is generated in the background, so you can keep working. When it is ready, you receive an in-Platform notification and an email with a Download link to the file, which is an XLSX spreadsheet. The link remains valid for 24 hours. The export reflects your current search, filters and view.
Configuring contract notification settings
Global Due Date Notifications Alerts
To ensure you're always informed of key moduleName milestones, users can configure their personal notification preferences within the Notification Settings area of the 9ine Platform. This enables both email and in-Platform alerts for important events in the moduleName lifecycle such as end dates, due dates, renewal reminders, termination deadlines, and next review dates.
To activate alerts:
- Navigate to your Notifications (available in the header)
- Click the Notification Settings icon
Toggle Global Lifecycle Alerts on for both In Platform and Email to receive notifications through both channels.
Under Reminder, you can select how far in advance you would like to be notified of an upcoming milestone (e.g. 7, 14, or 30 days before the due date). This ensures you receive early warnings before deadlines approach. You can choose any period from 1 to 31 days in advance.
These reminders are designed to give moduleName owners and stakeholders enough lead time to review, act, or make decisions before renewal or termination windows close.
To receive multiple reminders, you can enable Repeat notifications.
- Repeats are available in weekly intervals and are only triggered if your chosen reminder period is 7 days or more.
- The number of notifications is based on your reminder window:
For example:
- If your reminder is set to 10 days, you’ll receive 1 notification.
- If it’s set to 16 days, you’ll receive 2 notifications.
This flexible notification system helps ensure key events never go unnoticed, especially in busy school environments where planning ahead is essential.
For contracts, reminders are sent for these dates when they fall within your reminder period: Contract start date, Contract end date, Auto renewal date, Auto renewal reminder, Terminate by, Termination reminder, Next review date and attachment review dates. For financial records, reminders cover the payment due date, the start and end dates, and attachment review dates. Every user with a role on the contract receives them, according to their own notification settings. Archived and cancelled contracts do not send reminders. Selecting a reminder notification opens the contract.
Managing deleted items in the Recycle Bin
Recycle Bin
The Recycle Bin keeps a deleted moduleName for a limited time, so that it can be restored if it was deleted by mistake. When you delete a moduleName, it is not erased straight away. It moves to the Recycle Bin together with everything that belongs to it, such as its associated risks, issues, lessons, tasks and attachments, and you can restore it to where it was or delete it permanently.
The Recycle Bin is used by item owners who want to recover their own work, and by administrators who manage recovery for the whole organisation. It is one log for the whole 9ine Platform, so items deleted in every module that uses it appear in the same place.
- See the items you deleted, or that you own, with the date each one will be removed.
- Restore an item, and everything that belonged to it, to its original place.
- Give an item a new owner as you restore it, if its original owner has left.
- Permanently delete an item you no longer need.
- Act on several items at once.
How long you can see and restore an item depends on your role, and is counted from the day it was deleted:
- Authorised Users can see and restore their items for 90 days.
- Administrators can see and restore items for 120 days.
The Deletion Date column displays the last day you can restore each item, so it can differ between an Authorised User and an administrator looking at the same item. After that date the item is no longer displayed to you and cannot be restored.
Warning:
The retention periods are fixed for every organisation and cannot be changed. Once an item has passed its Deletion Date, or has been permanently deleted, it cannot be recovered.
Access to an item in the Recycle Bin follows its Owner, not the person who deleted it:
- Authorised Users see only the items they own, and can restore or permanently delete those items only.
- Administrators can see every deleted item in the organisation, and can restore or permanently delete any of them.
The person who deleted an item is displayed separately in the Binned By column. If you cannot see an item you expected to find, it may be owned by someone else; contact your organisation's 9ine Platform Administrator, who can restore it for you.
Administrators and Authorised users open the Recycle Bin from the Settings icon in the header, then select Recycle Bin.
The Recycle Bin log lists the most recently deleted items first. Each row displays the item's Ref. No., Title, Type, Owner, Type of Association, Association, Location, Linked, Binned By, Binned Date and Deletion Date.
- Location displays the item the deleted item belonged to, such as the project a task sat under.
- Select the number in Association or Linked to see the items it was connected to, so you know what a restore or permanent delete will affect.
- An owner who is no longer an active user is highlighted in red.
- Attachments are displayed beneath the item they belong to.
The My Items toggle is on by default and displays only the items you own. Administrators can turn it off to see every deleted item in the organisation.
To find a deleted moduleName quickly, use Search or Filter. Search looks across the reference number, title, type, owner name, association, type of association, binned by and binned date. Filter lets you choose by Owner, Title, Type, Type of Association, Time Until Deletion (Less than 30 days, 30 - 60 days or More than 60 days), Association, Binned By, Binned Date and Deletion Date, and you can save your filter.
To restore a moduleName, select the Restore icon on its row, then select Restore to confirm. The moduleName returns to where it was, together with everything that was deleted with it.
When an item is restored:
- Everyone who had access to it gets that access back, including the Owner, Members, Notified Users, Reviewers, Approvers, Attachment Reviewers, DP Lead and IT Lead.
- Risks and issues return as Open, and tasks, projects and project groups return as Not Started. An item that was already closed when the item above it was deleted keeps its closed status.
- Links to items in other modules are restored automatically. If the linked item has since been linked to something else, the item is still restored and you are told that the link could not be restored; you can relink it yourself.
- If an administrator restores the item and a user needs module access they do not have, the 9ine Platform grants that access in User Management. When this happens during Reassign and Restore, a message confirms it.
- If you restore an item someone else owns, the owner receives an in-Platform notification and an email, according to their notification settings.
Some restores need your attention first. The 9ine Platform explains why in a message, and the item stays in the Recycle Bin until you act:
- The owner has left. If the item's owner is no longer an active user, choose a new owner under Reassign owner before restore, then select Reassign and Restore. If the new owner was a Member of the item, they become its Owner instead.
- The item above it is still deleted. An attachment, a processing operation assessment under a vendor, a processing activity under a record of processing area, or a contract's financial record can only come back with the item it belongs to, so restore that parent item first. A risk, issue, project, lesson or task can be restored on its own, and it becomes standalone.
- The item limit has been reached. If restoring the item would take your organisation over its item limit for that module, delete existing items or increase the limit, then restore it.
- An incident cannot change owner. Restore an incident with Restore, not Reassign and Restore.
Select the checkbox on each row you want, then select the Manage Recycle Bin icon, which displays how many items are selected. Choose one of:
- Restore restores every selected item that can be restored.
- Permanently Delete removes every selected item for good.
- Reassign and Restore gives every selected item the owner you choose, including items whose owners are still active, and restores them. Incidents are left in the Recycle Bin, because an incident's owner cannot be changed.
If only some of the selected items can be restored, the rest stay in the Recycle Bin and a message tells you how many were restored. A large selection is processed in the background: you can keep working, and when a restore finishes you receive an in-Platform notification and an email.
To remove an item for good, select the Permanently Delete icon on its row, then select Delete to confirm. The item, everything that was deleted with it and its attachments are removed from the 9ine Platform. This cannot be undone.
Authorised Users can permanently delete the items they own; administrators can permanently delete any item.
Before an item reaches its Deletion Date, its owner receives a reminder as an in-Platform notification and an email, so there is time to restore it. When the reminder is sent, and whether it arrives by email, follows the owner's notification settings. The reminder is for the deleted item itself; the items and attachments deleted with it return when it is restored.