Help Center

contractSILO is essentially self-explanatory and easy to understand. However, as a user, there are a few points you should be aware of before uploading contracts.

1. Use this documentation
2. How to name a contract
3. Customer or Supplier
4. Most important information about a contract
5. Contract Reminders
   
   

Use this documentation

We have put a lot of effort into explaining the different concepts and uses of contractSILO, so please make use of it! You can access the documentation at any time with a simple click on the toolbar of contractSILO.

How to name a contract

In contractSILO, the field "DESCRIPTION" is used for identifying contracts in the contract list. You should enter a brief description of the contract that indicates what the contract is about. For example, an employment contract for an employee could be named "Thomas Berg - Employment Contract," and a mobile phone contract could be named "Thomas Berg - Mobile Phone Contract." Insurance contracts could be named "Home Insurance Feldweg12" or simply "Health Insurance" for instance.

If you as a service provider or agency enter many contracts with customers or suppliers, it can be feasible to use, the project name and the employee's name for the title. For example, we always name our order forms with an abbreviation of the employee's name, the project name, and an indication of when the contract becomes effective (e.g., "BEWE - CRM Solution 1/23"). This way, we can quickly identify what the contract is about with a brief glance without having to investigate its details.

There is also the field "DESIGNATION IN DOCUMENT" for the contract. However, you should adopt the description from the contract document itself, the "official" title. This is usually a numerical code or a difficult-to-interpret string of characters. Therefore, it most likely will not be practical to use this title for contract management. Even though it is helpful in terms of providing information, it will not provide a quick overview.

Customer or Supplier

In the field “Role” you should specify your role in the contract. It essentially evolves around whether you are in the position of a payer or a payee as per the contract. For “Role”, you can choose from three options: Customer, Supplier, or No Role. As a rule, it is best to remember:

• If you have to pay something, then you are the Customer.
• If you offer something and get paid, then you are the Supplier.
• If direct monetary payments are not relevant in the contract, then choose "No Role".

In some cases, it can be confusing to determine who is the customer and who is the supplier, such as in an employment contract where we would typically refer to the parties as employer and employee. However, in contractSILO, the role is used to calculate expenses and income, so we need a clear description of the role.

You can refer to the following table to determine who is the customer and who is the supplier for most types of contracts:

 Most important information about a contract

When adding a new contract, you must enter the following information:

• Contract Type: Groups the contract
• Status: For contracts that are already valid, use "Active"; otherwise, typically use "Draft"
• Role: If you pay, use "Customer"; otherwise, use "Supplier" or use "No Role" if no payments are associated with the contract
• Description: Used to identify the contract

Afterwards, you should insert additional data about the contract to effectively utilize the features of contractSILO.

• Employee: If the contract relates to an employee, which is typically the case for employment contracts, service agreements, or work orders, you should enter the employee's name here. This allows for easy searching and grouping of contracts related to the employee.
• Contract Partner: Always enter the contract partner's name for a contract, even if it is just the first name. Not specifying the partner can make it difficult to understand the contract later.
• Important Information: In the "Important Information" tab, you can include paragraphs relating to topics such as liability or contractual penalties. This way, you can access the most important sections of the contract quicker.
• Start and End Date: If the contract has a limited duration, be sure to enter the start and end dates in the "Duration and Finances" tab. Additionally, you can also set a reminder for the contract’s end date straight after entering the start and end dates.
• Notice Period: If the contract has a specific notice period, especially if termination is only possible within a certain timeframe, fill in the corresponding fields. Also, activate a reminder for this notice period.
• Financial Data: If the contract involves payment of monetary amounts, fill in the contract values under the "Financial Data" section. Only by accurately recording the correct values for each contract can contractSILO provide reliable data on income and expenses.

To make optimal use of contractSILO, you should also use tags for grouping contracts and, if available, select the parent contract.

Contract Reminders

As mentioned above, you should always enter the start and end dates of the contract, as well as any applicable notice periods, and activate the corresponding reminders.

Additionally, you can add custom reminders for a contract. For example, if you want to be reminded of specific milestones, you can add a reminder for that. To do this, go to the "Reminders" tab and add a reminder. Here, you can also choose whether this reminder should be sent to all employees who can view the contract or only to you.