Monday, December 9, 2013

Contract Guardian Search Receives Inter-Face Lift

Contract Management Search | Hosted Contract Management - Contractguardian
Search Wikiquote
Search Wikiquote (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Face-Lift for Search in Contract Guardian


The Inter-Face Lift (excuse the pun) change is in the delivery of the results.  The contract management search module in Contract Guardian now delivers the most effective results in addition to its reputation for arguably the best and certainly fastest search engine in the contract management industry.

Meta Data of Contract



Every search that has a hit on the Meta data of a contract delivers the following:




  • Name of contract
  • Link to the contract meta data and attachments
  • Type of agreement
  • Organization 
  • Status of contract
  • Name of the field(s) where the content matches.  It also highlights in yellow the search argument.
  • Date contract was created
  • Who (user) that created the agreement
  • Date contract was modified
  • Who (user) that last modified the agreement




Actual Contract and Attachments (PDF, Word, Excel, etc.)


Every search that has a hit on the content of the contract (primary attachment) and other attachments delivers the following:

  • Name of agreement
  • Link to the agreement and the document (contract / attachment)
  • Expiration Date of attachment (if provided)
  • Snippet of text surrounding the search phrase that is highlighted in yellow for each instance that it finds a match 

  • Date contract was modified
  • Who (user) that last modified the agreement





Thursday, December 5, 2013

Contract Guardian will be shown at HCCA 2014 Compliance Institute

HCCA Contract Management 2014 | See Contract Guardian
Be sure to come and visit the Contract Guardian team at the 18th Annual Compliance Institute

March 30- April 2, 2014 | San Diego


Join us in San Diego for the 2014 Compliance Institute, the most comprehensive conference specifically for today's healthcare compliance professional.

This is HCCA's largest event. Over the course of four days, more than 146 sessions and 246 speakers will cover topics such as healthcare reform, hospital physician alignment, compliance effectiveness, and HIPAA privacy/data breach. Sessions are organized into tracks as linked below. Focus on a single track or mix and match sessions to meet your needs. Specialists? Check out the pre-conference Industry Immersion sessions. Let the institute help you bring order to seeming chaos.

Contract Guardian will be in Booth 317.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Search, Filter and Report on any Contact and Contract Attachment

Contract Management Searching and Reporting | Contract Guardian

Contract Guardian Delivers Extensive Capacities in the Searching, Filtering and Reporting of Agreements.


Searching for Contracts and Contract Related Data

Simply enter a keyword or phrase in the search box and Contract Guardian will prepare the items that match your criteria.  Additional options include:
  • Terms - Search terms without double quotes will be treated as single terms. Ex: Search Terms.  This will be treated as "Search" "Terms" and both words will be found in your meta data, contracts and contract attachments.
  • Phrases - A group of words surrounded by double quotes.  Ex: "Search Terms"  This will be treated as one word and will only be found when both words are found in that order.
  • Fields - You can search any field by typing the field name followed by a colon ":" and the term you are searching for.  Ex: title:"Search Terms"  This will search for something with the title of "Search Terms".  Since Contract Guardian provides you the option to create unlimited contract types and unlimited user defined fields; you can define very refined searches.
  • Wildcard Searches - Contract Guardian supports single and multiple character wildcard searches within single terms.  To perform a single character wildcard contract search use the "?" symbol.  To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the “*” symbol.  The single character wildcard search looks for terms that match that with the single character replaced.  For example, to search for “contract” you can use the search c?ntract.  Multiple character wildcard searches look for 0 or more characters.  For example, to search for sign, signature and signs you can use sign*.  You can also search your contract management repository by using the wildcard search in the middle of a term.
Contract Management Searching


Filtering Contract Information

Contract Filtering is a great way to organize and search your contracts on ad-hoc basis.  For example: In a healthcare environment you could select the Contract Type field to include “Physician” so that you can see all of your Physician Employment Agreements.  You can combine multiple column heading filters as well.  All of the contract grids provide the ability to sort each column in ascending or descending order.   Once you identify the contract or group of contracts, you can immediately:
  • View the contract
  • Create a task for the contract
  • Create a journal entry for the contract
  • Send the contract via email
The filtering is provided in the following contract support grids:  Contracts, Contract Types, Contract Statuses, Other Parties for a Contract, Contract Attachment Types, Task Types, Custom Contract Fields,  and Custom Contract Fieldsets.  The Contract Administrator has these features as well as system administration filtering on Contract Management Users, Roles, Permissions, Organizations and Departments. 

Note: All of the contract management grids provide the client the ability to export their data to Excel or a PDF document.


Healthcare Contract Management Filtering


Contract Management Reporting


Contract Guardian enables you to construct a report using criteria from any of the contract management field including user defined.  Filtering (selecting) data is performed by a drop down menu of all the fields available in the system.  Based on the field, it will present various options like (equals, greater than, less than), date from a pop up calendar, contains (example would be a drop down list of users).   You can then add additional condition via the AND/OR inclusion.  For example: You might want all contracts that are of the type LEASE and have a contract value greater than $1,000.

Once you submit your results you can see your results almost instantaneously.  The grid presentation allows you to scroll left and right.  It also allows you to sort on any column as well as drag and drop a column into the sequence you desire.  You can name and save the report definitions for future use.  

Like all of the contract management grids, you can export the report to either Excel or PDF.   One can also link directly to the document from the report results.

Generating Reports for Healthcare Contract Management


Contract Guardian was designed with ease of use, simple administration and online training packaged into a powerful and flexible contract management system that delivers the perfect pairing for our clients in any industry.  Learn more by Scheduling a contract management demonstration or contacting sales at 513.977.4544


Thursday, November 7, 2013

Consolidate Email Notifications for Executives

Hosted Contract Management | Email Notifications for Executives
Email Icon
Consolidate Email Notifications for Executives

Most users receive a specific email that is related to each contract. However, executives often wish to receive one consolidated email.

This is easily provided in Contract Guardian by performing the following in the Contract Guardian 3.0 Email Notification System:



  1. Check the Executive Email Notice box
  2. Select the individuals that will receive one and only one notice.


Friday, August 23, 2013

Contract Guardian Expands the Custom Field Types

Healthcare Contract Management | Custom Fields - Contractguardian

Contract Management User Defined Fields


We are proud to announce the addition of some new types of user defined fields.  The contract management system has the following user defined types of fields for any contract type:

  • Auto increment: Start at any number and automatically increment each time it is created. (NEW)
  • Check box: Select your option.
  • Date: A calendar will automatically appear for you to select a date
  • Email: A formatted email address
  • MultiPicker: Select multiple options from a drop down list.  (You can define your own options)
  • Numeric: Allows only the entry of a number
  • Paragraph: Unlimited text box for all your notes/comments
  • Phone Number: Formatted for phone numbers (NEW)
  • SinglePicker: Select a single option from a drop down list.  (You can define your own options)
  • Text: A simple text box
  • Url: Entry for a web address (NEW)

Note: A user can create unlimited user defined fields.  The above are just the types of fields.

Learn more by requesting a demonstration or contact sales at 513.977.4544.







Friday, July 12, 2013

Who has access to my contracts in my contract management system?

Generally speaking, almost everyone realizes that they need to automate the management of their contracts!



However, a number of questions often occur.  Here are just a couple of common questions:
  • Who will have access to the data/information in the system (internal and external parties)?
  • What controls are in place to prevent the misuse of data by those having authorized access?
  • Is there a complete audit trail of the activity on the system and can I view/report this information?
  • Can I show/prove to auditors who has access to the system, what contracts they can view and what permissions they have?
One way to answer the question is to provide a visual map of the the various groups, permissions and ultimately the documents that a user can access and with what privileges. 

Contract Management Role Relationship Illustration from Contract Guardian

The following are suggestions for your contract management role permissions and names. The role descriptions shown below are just examples. You can create an infinite number or roles and associated permission to match your organizations needs and naming conventions.


  • Administrator
  • Contract Manager
  • Contract Author
  • Contract Reader

Learn more about suggested capabilities and features by reading Contract Management Roles Document or call 513.977.4544.



Related articles

Monday, July 1, 2013

Configuring a Contract Management System

Contract Management Solution Configuration
Modern Contract Management Solutions typically allow you the user to perform numerous configurations to address your needs.  This is certainly the case with Contract Guardian.  Our system and other products on the market allow you to configure with or without the vendor's assistance.  If you are new to a Contract Management System, we recommend you lean on the vendor for the free assistance that they offer.

Some of the more common configuration components include:

  • Roles - this is typically a group of permission that you can assign to a role.  Permissions include item likes Add Agreements, Add Attachments, Delete Agreements, etc.  Some systems have only a few options whereas others offer a more extensive permission list. 
  • Groups - this is often a great shortcut for managing security for individual users.  Instead of assigning roles to a user, one assigns them to a Group and then assigns a user to a Group.  Any user that is a member of a group, automatically inherits their permissions.  One can usually be a member of more than one group.
  • Contract Types and Custom Fields - No matter how thorough a system, the vendor can never anticipate every contract type or what content you need to capture today or in the future.  Today, the leading contract management systems allow the contract administrator to create any type and specify what information they wish to capture.
  • Other configuration items can include: contract statuses, parties and types, attachment types, task types, organization structure and definition, email notification standards, etc.
Since configuration and customization are typically collaborative, we suggest you take advantage of the vendor's service and experience. .

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Contract Guardian Presents 3.0 at HCCA Conference 2013


John was busy getting ready for the traffic at the HCCA Conference this year.   The features being presented in Contract Guardian are numerous.  Everyone really like the fact that they can manage their contracts with any mobile device at no additional charge.  Some of the other highlights included:

  • Cloud and On Premise Editions
  • Extensive enhancements to the security and data center for contract management
  • Calendar views with task assignments and scheduling
  • Unlimited Contract Types
  • Unlimited User Defined Fields for contract types

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Contract Guardian Dashboard Provides Snapshot of Contract Activity

The Contract Guardian Dashboard provides a customized window into your contract activity.  In the example below:


  • Internal Announcements
  • Recent Journal Feeds
  • Chart of Upcoming Deadlines
  • Pie Chart of Contract Types and counts
Remember, this dashboard is unique for every user based on their security profile.  Here is an overview of the Contract Guardian features in 3.0