Contract Properties

When a contract’s key terms live only inside the document, answering simple questions (“what’s the liability cap?”, “when does this expire?”, “is there an auto-renewal clause?”) means opening the document and reading through it every time. Multiply that across hundreds of contracts and you have a significant operational drain.

Contract properties let you capture structured data alongside each contract: dates, financial terms, legal terms, risk levels, and anything else your organization tracks. Once captured, these values are searchable, filterable, reportable, and available across the platform.

Open any contract and click the Properties tab to see its property values. Properties are organized into groups on the left, with individual fields on the right.

Click any property value to edit it inline. Changes save automatically. The field type determines the input method: text fields accept typing, date fields show a date picker, list fields show a dropdown, and so on.

Click a different group to switch between property categories. For example, clicking Financial Terms shows RCF Limit, Term Loan Limit, and Annual Contract Value fields.

Administrators define properties with these field types:

When a contract document is uploaded or finalized, Pactly can automatically read the document and extract property values. This saves time on data entry and ensures consistency.

Extracted values appear pre-filled on the Properties tab. You can review and adjust any value as needed. To re-run extraction (for example, after the document has been revised during negotiation), click the Re-Run Property Extraction button.

AI extraction works best with text and date properties where the value exists somewhere in the document text. Properties that require judgment or reference external information (like risk level or department) should be filled manually.

Each property can have a description that tells the AI what to look for. For example, a “Liability Cap” property might have the description: “The maximum aggregate liability amount specified in the agreement.” The AI uses this description to locate and extract the relevant value from the document.

Administrators can configure which properties are AI-extractable in Settings > Properties by toggling the “Auto extract with AI” option for each property. Party and User type properties cannot be AI-extracted.

Administrators define which properties are available across the organization from Settings > Properties.

1. Go to Settings and select Properties.
2. Click Create Property.
3. Configure the property:
   • Label: What users will see (e.g., “Contract Value”). Maximum 64 characters.
   • Type: Select from the types above.
   • Options: For List and Multi-option types, define the available choices. Options can be conditional on another property’s value.
   • Group: Assign to a property group for organization on the Properties tab.
   • Description: Describe what this property represents. This description is also used by AI extraction to locate the value in contract documents.
   • Categories: Optionally restrict this property to specific contract categories.
4. Save. The property becomes available on all contracts immediately. Existing contracts show the property as empty until filled.

By default, new properties are automatically added to every contract. Check Manual only if the property should not be auto-added to new contracts. Manual-only properties are available in the system but only appear on contracts where they have been explicitly added.

This is useful for properties that apply to only certain contract categories or special situations (e.g., a “GDPR Data Processing” property that only applies to vendor agreements involving personal data).

Organize related properties into groups for cleaner display on the contract record. For example:

• Date & Duration: Effective date, expiry date, term length, renewal date
• Financial Terms: Contract value, payment terms, currency, liability cap
• Legal Terms: Governing law, dispute resolution, indemnification, limitation period

Groups are ordered by sort order, then alphabetically by name. Properties within a group follow the same ordering.

For each contract category, administrators can configure:

• Show in miniview: Whether the property appears in the contract sidebar for quick reference
• Auto extract with AI: Whether to attempt AI extraction of this property’s value from the document

These settings are configured per contract category, so you can extract different properties for NDAs than for service agreements.

Contract properties are not isolated data points. They integrate across the platform:

• Filtering and Views: Any property can be used as a filter in the contract repository. Custom views can include property-based filters and property columns.
• Sorting: Date-type properties with sorting enabled appear in the repository’s Sort dropdown.
• Templates: Template variables can map to properties, so values entered during contract creation populate the generated document.
• Forms: Form fields can map to properties, so information collected through intake forms flows directly into the contract record.
• Workflows: Approval rules can trigger based on property values (e.g., “if contract value exceeds $100K, require VP approval”).
• Data Exports: Property values are included in data exports for external reporting.
• Search: Text, multi-line, and multi-option property values are included in full-text search.

• Start with the essentials. Define the 5-10 properties your team actually needs before adding more. Common starting set: contract value, effective date, renewal/expiry date, governing law, and auto-renewal status.
• Use List types over Text where possible. Dropdowns enforce consistent data entry. Free text fields lead to variations (“APAC” vs “Asia Pacific” vs “Asia-Pac”) that break filtering and reporting.
• Write clear descriptions for AI extraction. The description field doubles as the AI extraction prompt. “The maximum aggregate liability of either party under this agreement, expressed as a dollar amount” extracts better than “Liability cap.”
• Group logically. Mirror how your legal team thinks about contract terms. If lawyers ask about “financial terms” and “dates” as categories, create those groups.

• Contracts Overview
• Navigate and Search
• Custom Views
• Data Exports
• Track Contract Progress