Procurement module
Keep every supplier contract, vendor agreement and service agreement on one register, with its value, dates, notice period and owner, and hear about a renewal while there is still time to say no. Contract management is one module of Episcript's procurement software, tied to the purchase orders and spend that run under each contract, and AI features can be added to read signed contracts and pull out the dates that matter.
Built in Singapore for the procurement, finance and operations teams who look after a business's contracts.
Contract lifecycle
Each contract is drafted, approved, signed, tracked and renewed from one record, and the renewal decision is made by a person on a date they chose.
Start from your own approved template and clause library, with the supplier's details filled in from the supplier record.
The draft goes to the approvers your policy names for its value and type, and each decision is recorded.
Send the final version for signature, then keep the signed copy against the contract record.
Value, start and end dates, notice period, owner and renewal terms sit on one record that anyone with access can find.
Milestones, deliverables, payment schedules and price reviews carry their own dates and a named person.
Alerts reach the owner before the notice period closes, and the decision and any amendment stay in the history.
Contract register
Ask most offices where the cleaning contract is and you will hear three answers: a folder on the shared drive, an email from two years ago and the copy in the finance manager's drawer. The contract register gives every agreement one record, with the signed document attached and the details your team actually looks for held in fields rather than on page eleven.
Renewals and expiry
An unwanted renewal rarely happens on the end date. It happens when the notice period closes, often months earlier, on a date that sits in clause fourteen rather than on anyone's calendar. Renewal alerts work from the notice date as well as the end date, which is what keeping track of supplier notice periods really comes down to, and they reach the person who owns the contract.
Choose when the owner hears about it, say ninety days before the notice period closes and again at thirty, and the reminders go out without anyone keeping a list.
Contracts that roll over unless cancelled carry a flag of their own. The owner sees the renewal price and any escalation terms before the date, not after the next invoice arrives.
If the owner has not recorded a decision by a date you set, the reminder goes to their manager or the procurement lead as well. Leave and resignations do not leave a contract unwatched.
Renew, renegotiate or end: the decision, the person who made it and the new terms are kept on the contract, and a renewed contract starts its next cycle with fresh dates and fresh alerts.
Drafting and approvals
Contracts tend to go wrong well before anyone signs them. An old template carries last year's payment terms, a draft is emailed back and forth until nobody knows which copy is final, and a commitment is approved by whoever happened to be in the office. Drafting, approval and every later change stay on the contract record instead.
Draft from your own approved templates, with standard clauses for payment terms, termination and service levels held in one library. Supplier names, UEN and pricing come from the records you already keep.
Each draft goes to the approvers your policy names for its value, category and department, the same way purchase requisitions do. A contract with a non-standard clause can be set to need a second approver.
The final version goes out for signature and the signed copy is kept against the contract. We already build electronic signing for corporate secretarial documents, and a signing step along the same lines can be scoped for your contracts.
Deliverables, service reviews, payment milestones and price review dates each carry a due date and a named person. Anything overdue appears on that person's task list until it is closed.
Variations, addenda and extensions are recorded against the original contract rather than saved as a new file. Every earlier version stays in the history, and the terms on screen are always the current ones.
Access is set by role and by contract type, which keeps commercial terms with the people who need them. Every view, edit and approval is logged with the user and the time.
Contracts and spend
A contract only earns its rates if the buying actually happens under it. Because the contract module sits inside the procurement system, purchase orders are raised against the contract, invoices are checked against its prices, and the money spent is measured against what the contract was meant to cover.
The same records can be shared with your invoicing and payment management system or your accounting software, keeping contract spend and the finance figures in step at month end.
Pick the contract when raising an order and its supplier, rates and payment terms come with it. Orders placed outside a contract for the same supplier or category are flagged for the buyer to review.
Committed and invoiced spend count down against the contract value. The owner sees a framework agreement running low well before it runs out, and can plan the next one in time.
Invoice lines are compared with the agreed rate card during matching. A price above the contract rate is held for review rather than paid, with the contract clause beside it.
Capability
AI contract management features are scoped with you and built in their own phase. Each one works with the contracts, orders and invoices already held in your system, and your staff confirm anything it proposes before a record changes.
AI reads a signed contract, scanned copies included, and pulls out the parties, value, start and end dates, notice period and renewal terms for your staff to check before they reach the register.
Ask which supplier contracts renew this quarter and what they cost in a year, and AI answers from your own register, with each contract listed and a link to its record.
AI assembles a first draft from your approved templates and clause library, using the supplier record and the request behind it. Your team edits and approves it like any other draft.
AI compares orders and invoices with the contract behind them and flags what does not agree: a price above the rate card, spend past the contract value, or buying from a supplier whose contract has ended.
AI projects spend under each contract to its end date and lists the renewals due in the coming two quarters with their likely cost, ready for the next budget round.
How it fits
Contract management is one module of the wider procurement system, not a separate product. It takes its suppliers from the supplier register, its approval rules from your purchasing policy and its spend from purchase orders and invoices, which is why a renewal alert can arrive with the year's spend on that contract beside it.
Most businesses arrive with contracts spread across a shared drive, email and a spreadsheet of end dates that stopped being updated some time ago. We import the documents and the register you have, map them to the new fields, and check a test import with you before the live data goes in.
Contracts are usually added once requisitions, approvals and purchase orders are running, or built alongside them where renewals are the more pressing problem. Each phase has its own quote.
We look at the contract types you hold, who owns them and the dates that matter for each.
You sign off the fields, templates, approval rules and alert timings before development begins.
Documents and any existing register are imported, and key dates are checked against the signed copies.
Contract owners, buyers and finance train on their own screens, and alerts start from the live dates.
Weighing it up
Standalone contract lifecycle management products are mature, and for a legal team negotiating complex agreements every day they can be the right choice. For a business whose contracts are mostly with suppliers, the question is how much of the value depends on purchase orders, invoices and spend held somewhere else, and when a spreadsheet of contracts stops being enough.
How a contract module inside your procurement system compares with a standalone CLM product.
| Point of comparison | EpiscriptContract module in your procurement system | Typical productStandalone CLM software |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier details | Taken from the supplier register you already keep | Entered again, or synchronised from another system |
| Purchase orders and spend | Orders and invoices raised against the contract in the same system | Connected through an integration, where the product supports one |
| Approval rules | Built from your own purchasing policy and shared with requisitions | Configured within the product's workflow options |
| Templates and clauses | Your own templates and clauses, built into the drafting step | Often extensive, with ready-made clause libraries |
| Ready on day one | Designed and built, usually in phases | Available quickly where your process fits the product |
| Renewal alerts | Timed from notice dates, with the year's spend on the contract beside them | Timed from the dates held in the product |
| AI features | Scoped with you and built to work with your own contracts and spend | Depend on the features and roadmap the vendor offers |
| Cost and hosting | Quoted per project and eligible for government grants, hosted by Episcript or in your own environment as agreed | A licence or subscription, priced per user, module or another vendor model |
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Questions
Contract management software keeps each contract as a record, with its signed document, value, dates, notice period, owner and obligations, and acts on those dates by sending alerts and tasks. A spreadsheet can list the same details but does nothing with them. Inside a procurement system, the contract is also linked to the purchase orders, invoices and spend that run under it.
It depends on how many contracts renew without anyone deciding to renew them. A small business with a handful of agreements can manage with a well kept spreadsheet. Once contracts are spread across departments, carry notice periods and automatic renewal clauses, or cover significant spend, a register that sends alerts and ties each contract to purchasing starts to earn its place.
Each contract holds its end date, notice period and renewal terms, and the system works out the last date to give notice. Alerts go to the contract owner at the intervals you set, for example ninety and thirty days before that date, and to a manager as well if no decision has been recorded. The decision and any new terms are kept on the contract.
Purchase orders are raised against the contract, invoice lines are checked against its agreed rates during matching, and spend counts down against the contract value. Orders and supplier invoices can be shared with Xero or with the accounting and ERP system you already run, keeping contract spend and the finance figures in step.
A signing step can be scoped as part of the build. We already build electronic signing for corporate secretarial documents, where each signatory receives a notification, signs on screen and the signed copy is filed on the record. Which contracts your organisation signs electronically is its own decision, and an existing e-signature service can be connected where it publishes a suitable API.
It can be added as its own phase. AI reads each signed contract, scanned copies included, and proposes the parties, value, start and end dates, notice period and renewal terms for the register. Your staff confirm or correct every field before it is saved, which turns a backlog of old contracts into a checking job rather than a typing job.
We import the contract documents and any register you already keep, map the details to the new fields and check a test import with you before the live run. Where key dates are missing from the spreadsheet, they are taken from the signed copies by your staff or with AI reading, and nothing is dropped without your sign-off.
Access is set by role, department and contract type, and commercial terms and personal data reach only the people who need them. Every view, edit and approval is logged with the user and the time. Together with your own policies, those permissions and the audit trail support your PDPA obligations for the personal data held in your contracts.
It is a module of our Procurement Software rather than a separate product, because its value comes from the supplier register, approval rules, purchase orders and spend around it. It can be built in the first phase where renewals are the pressing problem, or added once requisitions and purchase orders are running, each phase with its own quote.
Our solutions are eligible for government grants, and the EDGE grant is the scheme that fits a custom procurement build of this kind. Tell us during scoping that funding matters, and we will prepare the scope and technical detail the application needs.
Related builds
The full purchasing system: requisitions, approvals, purchase orders, suppliers, budgets and spend reporting.
Read more Corporate compliance softwareRegisters, obligations, review deadlines and client service agreements, for compliance teams and corporate service providers.
Read more Custom ERP softwarePurchasing and contracts as one part of a wider system covering sales, stock, production and accounts.
Read moreNext step
Businesses rarely lose a contract. They lose the date its notice period closes, the name of the person who should decide, and the year's spend to decide with. Book a demo, bring two or three of your real contracts, and we will set them up in the register with their alerts and the orders that run against them.