Contract authoring software for contract writing and contract creation from your own templates
Contract authoring software produces the first draft of a contract from approved language, so the person who needs the agreement fills in a short form instead of copying last year's Word file. AgreementSoftware does it with company templates that carry variables (counterparty, fee, term, start date), a clause library with your fallback positions, approval rules on any changed clause, and built-in e-signature that files the signed copy on the same record. It is built for US companies of 20 to 500 people without a legal operations team. Plans start at $49 a month, every price is published, and a team usually has its first templates live the same day.
Contract snapshot built from a real agreement
Pick one of four sample agreements or paste your own contract text. You get the record AgreementSoftware stores: key terms, the computed notice deadline, the renewal timeline and the clauses worth a second look.
Contract record
- Parties
- Effective date
- Term
- Auto-renewal
- Notice period
- Notice deadline
- Termination
- Payment terms
- Liability cap
- Governing law
Hover a field to see the sentence it came from.Tap a field to see the sentence it came from.
Renewal timeline
- Effective date
- Alert date
- Notice deadline
- Renewal date
This alert date has already passed, so in your account the alert would have fired on that day.
Risk notes
- Auto-renews with a notice period over 60 days.
- Liability is not capped for one or both parties.
- The other party can raise prices at renewal without a limit.
- Termination for convenience is missing or one-sided.
- No clauses flagged for this focus.
Keep this record and the alert that goes with it
Save the contract to your repository and the alert is set for the date above.
The problem
Why contract writing breaks down without a system
Most companies author contracts the same way: someone finds the last signed version on a shared drive, saves it under a new name, and edits it. It works until it doesn't. The old file carries the previous customer's fee, an indemnity your counsel already rewrote, or a payment term finance stopped accepting two years ago. Nobody notices until the counterparty signs it.
| What goes wrong | How often it shows up | What authoring software changes |
|---|---|---|
| Drafting from an old signed contract | Almost every company without templates | Every draft starts from the current approved template |
| Wrong or outdated clause | Common after any policy change | The clause library holds one current version per clause |
| Business users waiting days for legal | Constant in teams with one lawyer | Sales, HR and procurement create routine drafts themselves |
| Edited clause signed without review | Rare, but expensive when it happens | A changed clause triggers an approval before signature |
| Draft, signature and archive in three tools | Default setup for most teams | One record from template to signed PDF to renewal alert |
How it works
How contract creation works in AgreementSoftware
- Upload your current Word templates once. Mark the variables (counterparty name, address, fee, term, start date, notice period) and the template becomes a short form.
- Store standard clauses in the clause library next to your approved fallback positions, for example a 12 month liability cap as standard and 24 months as the furthest you will go.
- A sales rep, recruiter or buyer picks the template, fills in the form and gets a clean first draft in DOCX in under five minutes.
- Swapping a clause for a fallback, or a value above your threshold, routes the draft to legal or finance for approval on Plus. Pro adds multi-step and conditional routing.
- Counterparty redlines come back as new versions. Compare any two versions clause by clause, and tracked changes in the file are kept.
- The approved version goes out for e-signature. The signed PDF and its audit trail are filed on the same record, and AI reads the term, renewal and notice period so the alerts start counting.
The redline loop is covered on our contract redlining software page, and the approval and fallback playbook on our contract negotiation software page.
Who drafts
Contract creation software for the people who need the contract
Legal writes the template once. After that the drafting is done by the people who need the agreement, inside limits legal set.
- Sales and account managers creating order forms, MSAs and renewals without opening a ticket.
- HR and recruiting teams producing offer letters, contractor agreements and consulting agreements from one approved version.
- Procurement and finance teams issuing vendor agreements and NDAs on company paper instead of signing the vendor's.
- Solo in-house counsel who wants to stop drafting routine NDAs and spend the time on the contracts that carry real risk.
- Founders and COOs at companies with no lawyer on staff, who had outside counsel write the templates once and want them used correctly.
Templates are where most teams start. If NDAs are your biggest volume, our NDA management software page shows the full NDA workflow from template to survival date.
Contract authoring tools inside every plan
The authoring features scale with the plan. Nothing on this list needs an implementation project.
| Authoring feature | Starter $49 | Plus $149 | Pro $499 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Templates with variables and a short form | 10 templates | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Clause library with fallback positions | Not included | Included | Included |
| Approval when a clause or value changes | Not included | Rules by type and value | Multi-step, parallel, conditional |
| Version history and compare | Included | Included | Included |
| E-signature envelopes a month | 25 | 150 | 750 with bulk send |
| AI extraction of signed terms a month | 50 | 300 | 1,500 plus custom fields |
| Seats included | 3 | 10 | 40 |
Enterprise is $998 a month with 100 seats, SSO and SCIM. Extra seats are $15 a month on every plan.
Worked example
One contract written, approved and signed
A 90 person IT services company sends about 15 statements of work and 10 NDAs a month. Its counsel is a part-time outside lawyer billed by the hour.
- The lawyer reviews the MSA, SOW and NDA templates once and adds three fallback positions to the clause library: a higher liability cap, net 45 payment terms and a longer notice period.
- An account manager creates a SOW for a new client by filling in seven fields. The draft is ready in four minutes.
- The client asks for net 60. The account manager picks the net 45 fallback, which needs no approval, and offers it.
- The client insists on a liability cap above the fallback. The changed clause routes to the lawyer, who approves it with a comment that stays on the record.
- The signed SOW is filed automatically, AI reads its end date, and the account manager gets a reminder 60 days before it runs out.
Before the switch the same company paid its lawyer to review every SOW. Now the lawyer sees only the drafts that leave the approved language, about one in five.
Contract authoring software compared honestly
There are four ways to author contracts. Each suits a different team.
| Option | Typical cost | Good at | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|---|
| Word templates on a shared drive | No software cost | Familiar, fine for a handful of contracts a month | Old versions get reused, no approvals, no record of what changed |
| Document generation inside a CRM | Add-on to the CRM license, often $25 to $50 per user a month | Pulling deal data into quotes and order forms | Weak on vendor, HR and NDA paper, little after signature |
| AI drafting assistants in Word | Usually priced per lawyer seat | Lawyers drafting bespoke contracts and reviewing third-party paper | Built for lawyers, not for business users filling in a template |
| Enterprise CLM authoring modules | Quote only, often $20,000 to $100,000 or more a year | Conditional assembly at large scale, deep CRM and ERP integration | Months of setup, priced for legal departments |
| AgreementSoftware | $49 to $998 a month, published | Templates, clause library, approvals, e-signature and renewal alerts on one record | No Word add-in, no AI that writes a whole contract from a prompt, no in-browser co-editing |
If your lawyers draft unique deals all day, a Word AI assistant fits them better. If the goal is that the rest of the company stops drafting from old files, a template-first system does that this week. Our best contract management software guide compares the wider categories.
What is contract authoring software?
Contract authoring software is a tool for the drafting stage of a contract. It builds a first draft from an approved template and clause library, fills in deal details from a short form, flags changes that need approval, and hands the final version to e-signature. It replaces copying an old Word file and editing it by hand.
What is the difference between contract authoring and contract management?
Contract authoring covers creating the document, from template to signature. Contract management covers the whole life of the contract, including storage, key dates, obligations and renewals after it is signed. AgreementSoftware does both on one record, so the terms approved in the draft are the terms the renewal alert uses.
Can business users create contracts without legal?
Yes, for routine agreements. Legal approves the template and the fallback clauses once, and sales, HR or procurement then create drafts by filling in a form. Any change outside the approved language goes back to legal for approval before it can be signed, so control stays with legal.
Is contract writing software the same as contract drafting software?
The terms are used for the same category. Contract writing and drafting software usually means a template and clause tool for business users, while some products sold as drafting software are AI assistants for lawyers working inside Word. Check which of the two you need before you compare prices.
How much does contract authoring software cost?
Published plans for small and mid-size teams run from about $49 to $1,000 a month. AgreementSoftware costs $49, $149, $499 or $998 a month, about half when billed yearly. Authoring modules inside enterprise CLM suites are quote only and commonly cost $20,000 to $100,000 or more a year with implementation.
Can I use my existing Word templates?
Yes. Upload the DOCX templates you already use, mark the fields that change from deal to deal, and they become short forms. The wording stays exactly as your counsel wrote it, and tracked changes from counterparties are kept when their versions come back.
Related pages
Write your next contract from an approved template
Upload one template, fill in the form and see the draft, then create your account and move the rest of your templates over today.