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Pactly Help Center

Send Messages to External Parties

You need to send a counterparty the latest draft and ask them to confirm the payment terms, but you also want your team to see what was sent and when. Doing this from your regular email client means the conversation lives outside the contract record, invisible to colleagues who may pick up the negotiation later.

The Send Message action on the contract timeline lets you email external parties directly from a contract. The message, recipients, and attachments are all recorded on the timeline, and replies are captured automatically.

When is this useful?
Legal Counsel You are sending an NDA back to a counterparty with comments on the indemnity clause. Sending from the contract record means the next person who opens this contract can see exactly what you communicated and when.
Legal Ops A vendor asks for an update on their agreement. You reply from the contract with the latest document attached, and the exchange is logged on the timeline for audit purposes.
Contract Admin You need to chase three counterparties for signed copies. Using email templates, you send a consistent follow-up message from each contract without retyping the same text.

Composing and Sending a Message

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For an overview of the timeline and its action buttons, see Contract Timeline.

Step 1 of 3
1
Click Send Message above the timeline

Open the contract record and click Send Message in the action bar above the timeline feed. This opens the message composition dialog.

2
Add recipients and compose your message

In the To field, search for existing contacts or type any email address. Add CC recipients if needed. Compose your message in the rich text editor, which supports bold, italic, lists, and links. Optionally select a template from the Use Template dropdown to populate the body with pre-saved content.

Add recipients and compose your message
3
Add attachments and send

Upload files from your computer using the attachment area, or toggle on "Include latest contract file as attachment" to automatically attach the current version of the contract document. Both options can be used together. Click Send to deliver the email.

Step 1 of 3

The sent message immediately appears on the contract timeline with the full recipient list, message content, and any attachments, giving your entire team visibility into the communication.

Using Email Templates

Section titled “Using Email Templates”

If your team sends similar messages regularly, such as review requests, follow-up reminders, or signature instructions, email templates save time and keep messaging consistent.

Template dropdown in the Send Message dialog showing available email template options
The Use Template dropdown populates the message body with a pre-saved template.

Select a template from the Use Template dropdown, and the message body is populated with the template content. You can edit the populated text before sending if you need to adjust it for the specific contract or recipient.

Templates are particularly useful when the core message stays the same but details like party names, clause references, or deadlines vary between contracts.

Attachments

Section titled “Attachments”

You have two ways to attach files to a message:

  1. Upload files - click the attachment area to upload documents from your computer. Use this for supporting materials like approval letters, compliance certificates, or reference documents.
  2. Include the latest contract file - toggle this option to automatically attach the current version of the contract document. This ensures the recipient always gets the most recent draft without you having to download and re-upload it.

Both options can be used together in the same message. Attachments are included inline in the email, so recipients can download them directly without needing to log into Pactly.

What Recipients See

Section titled “What Recipients See”

Recipients receive a standard email from Pactly with your message content and any attachments. The email includes a reply-to address that routes responses back to the contract (see below). Recipients do not need a Pactly account to receive or reply to messages.

The sender name shown in the email is your name as configured in your Pactly profile. If your organization has set up a custom company logo, it appears in the email header as well. See Company Logo on Emails for details on branding configuration.

How Replies Are Tracked

Section titled “How Replies Are Tracked”

Every contract in Pactly has a dedicated email address (e.g., [email protected]). When you send a message from the contract, this address is set as the reply-to header automatically.

When recipients reply to your message, their response is routed to the contract and appears on the timeline as an incoming email event. You do not need to manually add replies or forward them. As long as the recipient replies to the email they received (keeping the reply-to address intact), the response is captured.

This means the full back-and-forth conversation between your team and external parties builds up on the timeline over time, creating a complete audit trail for the contract.

Emails sent outside Pactly

Section titled “Emails sent outside Pactly”

If someone communicates about the contract through a separate email thread that was not started from Pactly, those messages are not tracked automatically. To keep the timeline complete, you have two options:

  • Forward the email to the contract’s dedicated Pactly email address, which adds it to the timeline as an incoming email event. This preserves the original email content and any attachments.
  • Add a note summarizing the key points of the exchange. This is useful when the external communication was verbal (a phone call or in-person meeting) rather than email.

Managing Sent Messages

Section titled “Managing Sent Messages”

Sent messages behave like other timeline items. You can:

  • Pin a message to keep it visible at the top of the timeline. This is useful for important communications that anyone opening the contract should see immediately, such as a key instruction from the counterparty or a critical deadline confirmation.
  • Delete a message if it was sent in error. A deletion event is recorded on the timeline as an audit trail.
  • Control visibility by hiding a message from specific roles. This is useful when the contract record is shared broadly but certain communications contain sensitive information.

These actions are available through the action buttons on the right edge of the timeline item. For details, see Contract Timeline > Managing Timeline Items.

Tips

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  • Use templates for recurring messages. If you regularly send the same type of follow-up or request, ask your admin to set up templates. This reduces drafting time and keeps your team’s external communication consistent.
  • Toggle on the contract attachment for review requests. When asking a counterparty to review the latest draft, use the “Include latest contract file” toggle instead of manually downloading and re-uploading. This avoids accidentally attaching an outdated version.
  • Check the timeline before sending. Before reaching out to a counterparty, scroll through recent timeline events to see if a colleague has already communicated with them. This prevents duplicate or conflicting messages.
  • Pin critical responses from counterparties. When a counterparty confirms a key commercial term or agrees to a concession via email, pin that reply so it stays visible at the top of the timeline for anyone reviewing the contract later.
  • Forward external threads to close the loop. If a conversation about the contract happens outside Pactly (e.g., a phone call follow-up or a separate email chain), forward the key messages to the contract’s Pactly email address so the timeline remains a single source of truth.
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