Why Can't I Find This Contract?

You have a reference number in hand, or you know the agreement exists, but it isn’t in your list. Most of the time the contract is fine, it’s just somewhere your current view doesn’t show.

Pactly only shows you the contracts that are scoped to you: ones you own, ones in groups you belong to, and ones your role lets you see. So “I can’t find it” almost always means one of five things, not that the contract is gone.

Work down this checklist in order. The first match is usually the answer.

A contract that is still being drafted or negotiated may not have reached the stage where it appears in the lists you normally look at, and someone other than you may be holding the current step.

A contract is only Executed once it has been finalized, approved, and signed. Before that it sits in earlier statuses, Draft, In Negotiation, Pending Approval, or Pending Signature, and it often lives in whoever owns the current step’s queue, not yours.

The fix: search by reference number instead of scanning a status-filtered list. The reference (for example 2026-0499) finds the contract whatever status it’s in. The fastest way to do that from anywhere is global quick search: press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on Mac) and type the reference. If it still doesn’t appear, the contract is likely scoped to another person or group, covered below. If you do find it but it’s not yet Executed, it simply hasn’t finished moving through its statuses yet.

Note that “finalized” and “executed” are not the same step: finalizing closes negotiation, execution happens after signing. If a colleague says a contract is “done” but you can’t see the final document, check whether it has actually reached Executed status.

Every contract has one owner. Your default lists (“My active inbox”, and similar) show contracts assigned to you, so a contract owned by a colleague won’t appear there even though it exists.

The fix: clear the owner filter or switch to a view that isn’t scoped to you. Use Navigate and Search Contracts to filter by Owner and pick your colleague, or remove the owner filter entirely to see the wider list. If the contract should be yours, ask the current owner (or an administrator) to reassign it. Reassignment changes who sees it in their inbox.

Contracts can be placed in groups to limit who can see them, often used for sensitive or department-specific agreements. If a contract sits in a group you don’t belong to, it won’t show in your list at all, and search won’t surface it either.

This is the case that most often looks like a contract has vanished: it’s deliberately scoped away from you.

The fix: you can’t see into a group you’re not a member of, so this one needs an administrator. Ask whoever manages users to either add you to the relevant group or move the contract to a group you’re in. See Using Groups for Document Access for how group access works.

The contract is scoped to you, but the filter, search, or saved view you’re looking through excludes it. This is the easiest case to fix and worth ruling out early. Your inbox is just this same list filtered to the contracts assigned to you, so a contract you don’t own won’t show there.

Common culprits:

• A status filter showing only (say) Executed contracts hides anything still in negotiation.
• A saved view carries its own filters and columns. The view you opened may be narrower than you remember.
• A keyword or date filter left over from an earlier search is still applied.
• Archived contracts are hidden from the default list. If the contract was archived, you need to include archived contracts to see it.

The fix: clear all filters and search the full list by reference number. If that works, your view was the problem. Then either adjust the filters or switch back to a broader view. See Custom Views for how saved views apply their own filters, and Navigate and Search Contracts for clearing and resetting filters.

Roles in Pactly control more than visibility, they also gate actions. A Viewer is read-only, and some roles are scoped so they only see contracts in their own groups. If a contract is hidden, or visible but you can’t download, approve, or edit it, your role may be the reason.

This is also the answer to “why is my button greyed out?”: the contract is visible, but your role doesn’t permit that action.

The fix: check what your role allows against the User Role Permissions Matrix. If you need to see or act on contracts your role doesn’t cover, an administrator can change your role or widen your group access. Role and group changes are made in the admin settings, not from the contract itself.

If you’ve worked through all five and the contract still isn’t there, gather these details before asking an administrator or support, they make it findable fast:

• The reference number (for example 2026-0499) if you have it, or the contract name and the parties involved.
• Roughly when it was created or last touched.
• Who you believe owns it, if anyone mentioned a name.

With the reference number, an administrator can locate the contract regardless of status, owner, group, or your role, and tell you exactly why it wasn’t showing for you.

• Using Groups for Document Access
• Contracts overview