Every company needs some form of legal documentation. Whether it is the contract required to sign on a new member of staff, an agreement between shareholders, or a contract with your suppliers, you likely have a few legal documents lying around. For better or worse, signed paperwork is a necessity for all businesses.
Staying on top of all the required paperwork is not easy, this is the problem. As your company grows, or as time passes, you will likely have more paperwork than you ever imagined you needed, and often, we let things slide by mistake.
This is not ideal, so it’s time to start managing your legal documents better. Let’s see how.
Why Is This Important?
Let’s face it, legal documents can be a pain. But, they are crucial to the safe running of your business, as well as its protection from legal ramifications. Even in the case of hiring a casual, part-time employee, your business documents need to be completely in line.
Why? Well, for everyone’s protection. If a contract is poorly written, misplaced, or not properly looked after, your employee, contractor, supplier, or even shareholder could take you to court. You could even lose your business. This grows exponentially more important as your business grows into a larger corporation.
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Software Is Your Friend
So, it’s time to turn to software to help you manage your legal documents. The team at contracthound.com says that using great legal software “enables business teams and their legal counterparts to self-serve, communicate, and manage their contracts from one workspace.”
Much like everything else in the modern business era, using a centralized, cloud-based server, with a great interface, is the best way to keep all your ducks in a row. The same applies to HR, payroll, and employee benefits. Keeping everything in one secure place saves time, money, and errors.
Use Templates
When you use a good system like this, you can even get basic contract templates to save you time. Sure, you’ll have to update some company details and potentially add some of your own clauses and terms, but having a template to work off can save hours of manpower and plenty of money.
Simply put, having all the outlines of an employment contract, sales contract, or any other kind of document already laid out for you saves you plenty of effort.
Digital Signatures Save Time
Going digital saves time in another way, too. Too often, business owners spend hours, days, or even weeks getting a wet signature on a piece of paper. Instead of spending this time chasing someone for their signature in person or through the post, switch to digital signatures.
Using this kind of service means that you can simply edit, upload, and securely email contract links, meaning your team can sign them wherever they are on whatever device they want to use. Time saved.
Safe Storage
In the past, contracts would have all been stored in a locked filing cabinet in an HR office. This has worked for many years but is not necessarily the safest idea. Plus, you’re trusting a member of staff to never leave the keys out, lose them, or leave the room unlocked.
Instead, a cloud-based system can encrypt and store your digital contracts, protecting them properly and only allowing access to the necessary people. Proper encryption means your contracts will never be leaked, shared, or stolen.
Set Renewal Dates And Get Notified
Once your documents are stored in the cloud, it would be easy to forget about them – this certainly happens with paper contracts. With a modern, digital system for document storage, you can set notifications on when a contract is up for renewal or needs amending.
For example, you may require all contracts to be renewed every year or upon completion of certain probationary periods. Instead of having to remind yourself and dig out a paper copy, set renewal dates on your server and get notified when it’s time to amend or renew a contract.
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Easy Collaboration
Finally, with all great cloud software solutions, you pave the way for easy collaboration for your team. Any of the HR department will be able to access contracts whenever needed and co-sign them digitally with yourself or other necessary colleagues.
Don’t worry, they’re still protected, but the system will allow for easy collaboration between those who require quick access.
Moving to software-based systems is key for the rapid progress and development of businesses. HR and contracts are no different. Store, sign, and protect your contracts digitally and watch how quickly you save time, effort, and money.