NEW
Sync and report on all your contracts from anywhere to Aline with a couple clicks! Explore the benefits.
Contracts are the glue that holds business deals together. But for all their importance, contracts are also one of the most mismanaged parts of business operations.
It’s not always about major errors. More often, the damage comes from small missteps like losing track of a contract in email or waiting weeks for a paper signature.
These issues sound minor, but they create real risks when they happen across dozens or even hundreds of agreements.
The truth is, many businesses still rely on outdated methods that no longer match today’s pace. Without better systems, contracts fall out of order, and disputes arise when obligations aren’t met.
On the bright side: Most of these mistakes can be avoided with clear processes, the right tools, and a little more structure around how agreements are handled.
In the sections ahead, we’ll walk through the most common mistakes in contract management and show how small changes can make a big difference.
The legal industry can be slow to change, especially when it comes to contracts.
Many businesses still depend on email, shared drives, or even filing cabinets to keep track of agreements. While these manual processes may feel familiar, they don’t hold up against today’s demands.
Missed deadlines, misplaced documents, and messy communication are common side effects when contract workflows aren’t supported by the right technology.
Modern legal tech is proving why investment matters. Tools built for the full contract lifecycle make it possible to draft, review, approve, sign, and monitor agreements all in one place. They also cut down on repetitive work, freeing legal teams to focus on higher-value tasks.
In fact, a recent survey found that 35.6% of firms now employ contract review AI, which flags risks and inconsistencies in draft agreements before a lawyer even opens the file. This first-pass review speeds things up while still leaving room for human expertise where it’s needed most.
The takeaway? Holding onto outdated systems puts you at a disadvantage. Modern contract management processes are faster, more accurate, and better suited to collaboration across teams.
Many businesses are already making the switch. Aline is a CLM platform built to support smarter contract management from start to finish. Start your free trial with Aline today.
One of the most common contract management mistakes is hanging on to outdated contract storage habits. A lot of teams still keep business contracts scattered across emails, desktop folders, or even paper files in a cabinet.
Sure, that might feel manageable with a few agreements. But once the volume grows, things can quickly and easily become disorganized. Without a proper contract repository, people waste time searching for the latest version, and deadlines or obligations can slip through the cracks.
You’ve probably seen these situations before:
These practices don’t just cause small hiccups. They create real risk when important information gets overlooked.
Using contract management software with a centralized repository keeps everything in one place. It makes it easy to search, share, and stay on top of contract renewals.
Many organizations treat contract review as a case-by-case process, which usually leads to delays and confusion. Without a consistent approach, contract approval becomes a guessing game.
One agreement might be reviewed by legal, another might skip finance altogether, and sometimes managers step in late to catch issues at the last minute. The lack of structure slows things down and increases risk at the same time.
Take this example: a sales contract is rushed through without legal input, and the contract terms include vague payment language. Months later, when a client disputes the invoice, the team realizes the contract language doesn’t hold up.
What could have been caught early now becomes a costly problem. This happens often when organizations don’t use a contract management system to guide reviews and contract approvals.
Effective contract management relies on standardized workflows. Clear steps for contract review reduce the chance of inconsistent language across agreements, which in turn lowers the risk of disputes or missed obligations.
When you set up who needs to review what and in what order, the process becomes faster and more reliable. Without that structure, risk management takes a hit, and the business pays the price through wasted time, lost revenue, or damaged relationships.
Once a contract is signed, many teams move on and never look back. But failing to manage contracts after execution is one of the most damaging mistakes in legal operations.
Oversight is what keeps agreements alive because it involves tracking obligations, deadlines, and performance data. Without it, missed opportunities, compliance issues, or even legal penalties become real risks.
Here’s what usually happens when oversight is missing:
A proper contract management approach doesn’t stop at signatures. To ensure compliance, organizations need visibility into how contracts perform over time. CLM software also helps track performance data, automate alerts, and keep relevant stakeholders informed.
When you manage contracts with ongoing oversight, you reduce the risk of disputes and create a stronger foundation for business growth. In other words, ignoring this step leaves legal operations exposed to problems that could have been avoided.
Using paper-based signatures might feel familiar, but it slows down contract completion and eats up resources.
Printing, mailing, scanning, or passing documents between parties takes far longer than it should. When multiple stakeholders are involved, the process drags on even more, making it harder to close agreements on time.
Paper signatures also create headaches for compliance. Hard copies can be misplaced, and proving that regulatory requirements were met becomes tricky without a proper record. If questions come up later, showing who signed and when isn’t always straightforward.
That’s why many teams now rely on CLM solutions with electronic signature tools built in (like AlineSign). These platforms let stakeholders sign from anywhere, keep a secure digital trail, and tie the signature step directly into the broader contract lifecycle.
For you, that means fewer delays, clearer accountability, and a smoother path to getting deals done. Holding on to traditional methods might feel safe, but it leaves too much room for errors and wasted time.
Another mistake teams make is drafting every contract from scratch. It takes more time and increases the risk of leaving out important details.
Templates and clauses exist for a reason. They save time and keep language consistent. When organizations ignore them, contracts often end up with uneven wording and extra back-and-forth between reviewers.
Templates also make it simpler to handle different contract types. Rather than starting from zero, teams can draw from a library that already covers the basics and then adjust only where needed.
This approach helps make sure that the data contained in the document is accurate and consistent.
On the flip side, here’s what skipping templates often leads to:
A contract management system with built-in templates and clauses gives teams a solid starting point, reduces mistakes, and speeds up drafting so attention can stay on the details that matter.
A mistake many small businesses make is treating contracts as a legal department task only. In reality, various stakeholders need access to agreements at different stages. When contract collaboration is limited, questions get delayed, and important details can easily be overlooked.
With that in mind, modern contract management also revolves around creating a process where all parties can stay informed and provide input when needed. A system that increases visibility makes it easier for small businesses to keep everyone aligned, from drafting to execution.
Ignoring collaboration means slower cycles, higher risk of errors, and strained relationships between teams.
So, when you build processes that involve various stakeholders and make contracts accessible in one place, you can keep the workflow moving and minimize the chance of costly mistakes.
Poor contract management has a way of draining value from a business without anyone noticing at first. A renewal date passes quietly, a clause goes unchecked, or a signature takes weeks longer than expected.
On their own, these issues look minor. But when they repeat across dozens or hundreds of agreements, the costs become serious. You can put yourself at risk of lost revenue, strained partnerships, and unnecessary stress for the legal department.
Missed obligations are often just the beginning. Without structured oversight, companies expose themselves to compliance failures, disputes with partners, and performance gaps that could have been avoided.
Modern CLM software flips that dynamic by giving teams one place to create, manage, and track contracts. With visibility into every step, the process becomes faster, clearer, and far less risky.
Aline was designed with this exact need in mind. It supports your legal department from drafting to execution and beyond, keeping contracts organized and business moving.
Start your free trial with Aline today.
The 5 C’s usually refer to clarity, completeness, consistency, compliance, and communication. Together, these principles help contracts hold up in business relationships and reduce the chance of disputes.
Mistakes can be mutual, unilateral, or clerical. Mutual mistakes occur when both parties misunderstand the terms. Unilateral mistakes happen when only one party is wrong, while clerical mistakes are simple errors in writing or recording.
The four building blocks are drafting, reviewing, executing, and monitoring. Each stage requires clear communication and oversight from key stakeholders to manage obligations, payment terms, and key dates properly.
The main ones are common mistakes, mutual mistakes, and unilateral mistakes. Each can affect validity, so contracts must be reviewed carefully before signing.
Brent is an attorney, a full-stack JavaScript engineer and the CEO of Aline.
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive new posts straight to your inbox 👇
