Renewals and notice
Tracking contracts in a spreadsheet: where it breaks
Most organizations start with a spreadsheet, and that's better than nothing. The trouble is that a spreadsheet only knows what someone typed in, and it never reminds anyone of anything.
If you're keeping one, these questions will show you how much you can trust it.
Columns worth having
Give each contract one row and these columns: vendor, what they provide, owner, effective date, current end date, auto-renew (yes or no), renewal term, notice period in days, last day to give notice, annual cost, BAA on file, and a link to the signed PDF.
Make the last-day-to-give-notice column a formula, not something typed in. If the end date is in column E and the notice days are in column H, it's =E2-H2. Sort by that column, not the end date, so the next action is always at the top.
Where it breaks
A spreadsheet doesn't know a contract renewed. Say a row shows an end date of December 31, 2025 for a contract that auto-renews each year. The real next renewal is December 31, 2026, and with 60 days' notice the deadline was November 1, 2026. The sheet still shows last year's date, the row sorts to the bottom, and the window closes without anyone seeing it.
Other breaks are quieter. Two people edit different copies. The PDF link points at a departed employee's folder. An amendment changes the rate and nobody updates the row. And nothing reminds anyone, because a sheet only answers the questions someone thinks to ask.
Signs you've outgrown it
More than one person keeps it. Nobody can say when it was last checked against the actual contracts. You've missed a notice date, even once. Or an auditor asks who changed a value, and nobody knows.
None of that means the sheet was a mistake. It's usually the best starting list you'll have when you move to something else.
What to watch
When was it last updated, and by whom?
If nobody can answer, it's already out of date.
Is there a column for the last day to give notice?
Most sheets track end dates. The notice date is the one you act on.
Do the dates roll forward after a renewal?
An auto-renewing contract's end date in a spreadsheet goes stale the day it renews.
Is the contract itself attached?
A row without the signed document means someone is still digging through a shared drive or a binder.
Are amendments reflected?
A row usually shows the original terms, not the latest ones.
Can you see what changed and who changed it?
That's what an auditor or a new manager will want to know.
How Sapphires helps
- Bring your vendors in from a CSV spreadsheet, up to 500 rows, with a dry run that shows what will be added or updated first.
- Contracts are uploaded one at a time, and Sapphires reads each one's dates and terms as a draft for you to check.
- Next renewal dates and notice deadlines are worked out from each contract's terms, so they don't go stale.
- Each contract keeps a field-by-field history of what changed, before and after, for 90 days, and an audit log records changes, exports and sign-ins.