Abstract: A computer-implemented method may include steps of providing a plurality of business document templates; providing a plurality of deviation rules and associating at least some of the plurality of deviation rules with each of the business document templates; storing the plurality of business document templates and the associated plurality of deviation rules; generating a business document (such as a contract, for example) based upon one of the stored plurality of business document templates, the generated business document including a plurality of clauses and business document terms; retrieving the plurality of deviation rules associated with the business document template upon which the business document is based and applying the retrieved plurality of deviation rules against the generated business document; identifying all business document terms of the business document that do not conform to one or more of the applied plurality of deviation rules, and generating a report that includes at least the identifi

Abstract: An enterprise contract management system allows users to define different types of contracts that will support different types of lines. A common contract management infrastructure supports basic contracting capabilities common to a number of types of contracts (or every contract type handled by the system). These capabilities include defining basic attributes about a contract like number and description, defining contract parties, contract printing, versioning, status management, change control, and security. These common capabilities will be available for any type of contract handled by the system. When a user defines a contract of a particular type, the system allows the user to add lines to a contract that represent different types of agreements with a customer. Lines can describe a sale of goods, a sale of an extended warranty or support, a sale of simple service, a sale of complex service, a long-term sales agreement, a lease or rental, or any other type of customer agreement.

Abstract: A system allows a contract administrator to define the attributes of a contract template, and then generate a user interface. The contract administrator can modify the contract template user interface attributes, and the system then creates and stores a modified contract template. The modified contract template is subsequently rendered into a modified deal sheet user interface that is used by an end user to author a contract.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for searching one or more business objects and presenting the results organized by business object. According to one embodiment, searching one or more business objects can comprise receiving a set of criteria for searching the business objects. A search can be performed for one or more documents associated with each of the business objects based on the criteria for searching the business objects. A first view of results of said searching organized by business object can be presented. The first view of the results of said searching can comprise, for example, a list of contracts having one or more associated documents with content matching the search criteria. Additional views of the search results providing additional details of the results can be present based on user selections.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method may include steps of providing a plurality of business document templates; providing a plurality of deviation rules and associating at least some of the plurality of deviation rules with each of the business document templates; storing the plurality of business document templates and the associated plurality of deviation rules; generating a business document (such as a contract, for example) based upon one of the stored plurality of business document templates, the generated business document including a plurality of clauses and business document terms; retrieving the plurality of deviation rules associated with the business document template upon which the business document is based and applying the retrieved plurality of deviation rules against the generated business document; identifying all business document terms of the business document that do not conform to one or more of the applied plurality of deviation rules, and generating a report that includes at least the identifi

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for analyzing clauses of business documents of an enterprise may include steps of providing a database and storing a plurality of business documents used by the enterprise in the database. Each of the plurality of business document stored in the database may include a plurality of clauses, and each of the plurality of clauses may be associated with a plurality of clause attributes and a clause attribute value for each of the plurality of clause attributes. The method may include steps of prompting for a value of at least one of the clause attributes; obtaining at least one value for the prompted clause attributes and querying the database to identify all occurrences of clauses used in at least one of the stored business documents whose clause attribute values match each obtained value for the prompted clause attributes. A business document clause analysis report may then be generated that includes each identified matching clause occurrence.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method of authoring a contract may include steps of providing a database that includes a plurality of selectable contract clauses and a plurality of selectable contract templates, each of the plurality of contract templates including a plurality of rules, each of the plurality of rules being configured to incorporate at least one selected contract clause into the contract to be authored depending upon an evaluation of the rule. The user may then be required to select a contract template from among a plurality of contract templates and each of the plurality of rules in the selected contract template may then be evaluated, along with any global rules that may be present. User responses may then be received when one or more of the rules in the selected contract template includes question(s) requiring a response by the user.