Once a contract is signed, the real work begins: ensuring compliance with the agreed-upon terms. SpotDraft’s Obligations feature helps you track key responsibilities - like insurance renewals, breach notices, or termination windows - so nothing falls through the cracks.
You can use SpotDraft’s AI to automatically scan your executed contracts and extract these obligations, or you can create them manually. This guide will walk you through extracting obligations using AI and converting them into trackable tasks for your team.
Getting Started
Obligation Management is designed for contracts that are finalized. Ensure your contract is in the Executed status on SpotDraft before attempting to extract obligations. This ensures you are working with the final, agreed-upon terms.
Step 1: Access the Obligations Panel
Navigate to the relevant Executed contract in your SpotDraft repository.
On the right-hand sidebar, locate the Obligations section.
You will see two options here:
Extract: Uses AI to scan the document and find obligations automatically.
Create obligation: Allows you to manually define an obligation from scratch.
Using AI to Extract Obligations
Let SpotDraft’s AI do the heavy lifting by finding potential obligations for you.
Click the Extract text link in the Obligations section.
The system will begin analyzing the contract. This may take a few minutes, depending on the contract’s length.
Once finished, you will see a notification indicating how many obligations were found (e.g., "3 Obligations were extracted").
Click the Review obligations button to see the details.
Reviewing and Editing Obligations
After extraction, it’s important to review the AI’s findings to ensure accuracy and assign them to the right people.
In the review window, you will see a list of extracted obligations on the left (e.g., Notice of Breach, Insurance Cancellation).
Click on an obligation to view its details on the right.
Review the Description, Clause, Frequency, Priority, and Obligation Type.
Make any necessary edits to these fields to ensure they perfectly match your operational needs.
Click on Save Obligations once you have verified the information extracted.
You can also review all obligations first and then save them all at once.
Creating Tasks from Obligations
To ensure an obligation is actioned, you can convert it into a SpotDraft task.
While reviewing an obligation, toggle on the Create task for this obligation option.
Assignee: Select the team member responsible for this obligation.
Due Date: Set the deadline for when this action must be completed.
Reminders: Add reminders (e.g., "30 days before due date") to ensure the assignee is notified in advance. You can add upto 5 reminders for an obligation.
Click Save Obligation.
Once saved, the obligation in the right-hand sidebar will update to show that a task has been created. You can click View task to see the live task details.
Viewing Your Tasks
Tasks created from obligations are easily accessible, so you can track their progress.
On the Contract: In the contract's right sidebar, click View task next to the specific obligation.
Task Center: These tasks also appear in the main SpotDraft Task Center, allowing users to see all their diverse responsibilities in one view. Such tasks will have Obligation: prefixed to it.
FAQs
Q: Can I extract obligations while the contract is still in the 'Draft' stage?
A: It is recommended to wait until the contract is Executed. This ensures you are tracking the final, legally binding terms rather than clauses that might change during negotiation.
Q: Who can I assign obligation tasks to?
A: You can assign tasks to any registered user within your SpotDraft workspace.
Q: What happens if I don't create a task for an obligation?
A: The obligation will still be listed under the contract for reference, but no active notifications or due dates will be triggered for any user.
Need More Help?
For further assistance or questions, please contact our support team at support@spotdraft.com