The document
The file itself: its text, its clauses, its versions and the templates it came from. This is where Word, the PDF and the shared folder live.
Guide · What a CLM is
Storing a contract is not the same as governing it.
A CLM is the category of software that takes charge of a contract from before it exists until after it expires. It is not a tidy folder or a sign button: it is the whole process, with rules and with proof.
What this family of software does
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02
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Every contract lives in three layers.
Most tools cover one. A CLM is the software that handles all three at once, which is why it shows up when the others are no longer enough.
The process
Who drafts, who approves, in what order, with what value limits and who signs at the end. This is where emails, reminders and tracking spreadsheets live.
The evidence
What can be proven later: which version was signed, who opened it, when, from where and what happened to the document afterwards. This layer almost never exists, until someone asks for it.
When a company says “everything was in order and we still could not prove it”, what it had was layer 1. A CLM exists so that the three layers are one system, instead of three separate places someone has to keep in sync by hand.
How it is done today
Three ways to handle a contract, and what each one covers.
It is not that the other two are wrong: they solve one part. The problem shows up when the contract needs the rest.
| What you need from the contract | Shared folder |
Signature only |
Full CLM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draft from controlled templates | Manual | Not covered | With versions |
| Approve by rule and amount | By email | Basic | By amount and risk |
| Sign with legal validity | Printed | Its strength | Simple and advanced |
| Leave evidence that survives an audit | Does not exist | Only the signature | The whole journey |
| Safeguard with role-based permissions | By hand | Not covered | Indexed repository |
| Warn before it expires | Someone remembers | Not covered | Alerts per document |
| Know where each contract stands | You ask around | Sends only | Live reports |
Covered
Partly covered
Not covered
What problems it solves
Versions
“Which version did we sign?”
Expiry dates
The contract renewed itself and nobody noticed
Audit
They ask for the evidence and there is nowhere to get it
Speed
The close slips a month waiting for a signature
Scattering
It is in a folder nobody knows how to maintain
Control
Something was signed that should not have been approved that way
Five scenes every company recognizes.
The contract went back and forth by email five times. There is one signed PDF and three different Word files, and nobody can say for certain which matches which.
A CLM keeps the history of every version and marks the one that was signed.Automatic renewal kicked in because the warning depended on a person checking a spreadsheet in time.
Alerts are configured per document, with the lead time each case needs.The signed document exists, but not the record of who approved it, when or with what authority. Reconstructing it takes weeks.
Every action is recorded with date, user and IP address, ready to export.The client accepted the proposal ten days ago. The contract is still on someone's desk, or waiting for the signer to print it.
The signature arrives through the channel the signer already uses, and they do not have to create an account.Contracts live in shared drives, emails and personal clouds. Finding one means asking on chat who has it.
The document files itself in the repository, indexed and with role-based permissions.An off-policy discount or an over-limit amount went through because the rule lived in someone's head, not in the system.
The approval chain changes with amount and risk, with no manual intervention.
Where it helps
A CLM is not a legal department tool.
Legal sets the rules, but every area moves the documents. These are the pieces each one brings to the table.
Legal
Master agreementsNDAsPowers of attorneyComplianceNotarized documents
See the solution →
Sales
QuotesService ordersCustomer contractsRenewals
See the solution →
Finance
Purchase ordersSupplier documentsReimbursementsApprovals by amount
See the solution →
Human resources
ContractsAddendaTermination agreementsEmployment documentation
See the solution →
Occupational safety
PPE handoverSafety talks and trainingPoliciesEvidence for inspections
See the solution →
The whole operation
The six stagesOne repositoryRules by document type
See Legale CLM →
Why Legale CLM
Where most CLMs stop, ours carries on.
Almost all of them cover drafting, approving and signing. The difference shows up in what comes next and in what local law requires.
+3.800Companies
26Countries · five regions
99.9 %Uptime with SLA
10.000Documents a day
Notary inside the flow
When the act requires it, the document moves into the notarial flow without leaving the platform, with notary routing by geolocation.
Six signature models
Remote, with SMS, bulk, in person on a device, by WhatsApp and advanced with an accredited provider. The signer creates no account.
Local advanced signature
Advanced electronic signature in Chile and Peru, under each country's law rather than an imported generic standard.
AI with certified governance
Assisted drafting runs under an ISO/IEC 42001 management system. AI proposes the draft; the decision stays yours.
Evidence with a public QR
Every document leaves with a unique number and a QR anyone can verify, without entering the platform.
It connects to what you already have
A Word add-in, an API to issue documents from your ERP or CRM, and reports exportable to Power BI.
Do you need one?
Check what happens at your company.
0/6
Check the ones you recognize. Each is a point where time or evidence is lost today.
Next step
Try it with a real contract.
Pick the document that is hardest to close today and we will walk it end to end —draft, approval, signature, evidence— in a fifteen-minute demo.
How many of those scenes happen at your company?
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