A contract template is a reusable collection of legal clauses that can be used to set up new contracts. They encourage as much consistency as possible between your contracts, whilst allowing for negotiation flexibility.

1. Go to contract templates

Go to Legal > Contracts ⤴. Click the Add button.

2. Add a template name

Type in a contract template name and click Save.

2. Add the template’s clauses

Open your approved contract template in Word or a similar program, ready to copy and paste. Click on Add new clause and paste the body of the first contract clause into Clause text. Paste the heading into Clause heading. Choose the text Alignment of the clause.

An alternative is to add larger sections of text, instead of each clause. For instance, you might have prelims, then the main body of the text, then appendices. Paste them in as three clauses of larger blocks of text.

The advantages of adding each contract clause are as follows.

• Reuse contract clauses in more than one contract template.
• Use the automatic numbering when the template is applied to a work.

3. Make the clause dynamic

Add some tags to your text. These tags embed the relevant data into your contract. So, for instance, edit your text to something like this.

1
  The Work entitled <work_title> shall be of <page_count> pages and <word_count> words and shall be delivered to the Publisher by <delivery_date>.

It will appear in the contract PDF as the following.

The Work entitled 1000 Dreams shall be of 280 pages and 65,000 words and shall be delivered to the Publisher by 01 June 2020.

4. Format the text

Use the following mark up to add styling to your clause text.

An asterisk * either side of a word makes it bold.

e.g. *Whereby*

A tilde ~ either side of a string makes it underlined.

e.g. ~Whereby~

A hat ^ either side of a string makes it superscript.

e.g. 17^th^ of January

To omit the heading from the contract PDF, include the phrase do not print in the heading itself.

This is an example of how the PDF prints by default.

Add do not print to the clause heading so it does not print.

5. Click Save

Click Save. You return to the contract template edit page, ready to add another clause.

6. Add further clauses

Add another clause by clicking on Add new clause and pasting in, for instance, the list of territories that your contract will cover. Give it a meaningful title e.g. List of main territories.

7. Add special clauses

There are special types of clauses that insert special types of data. Clauses with body text of [Insert reserves table], [Insert rights table] or [Insert royalty table] will insert the table of data where the clause is included in the contract. Ensure you type the square brackets.

Reserves, rights and royalties data are included at the end of a contract by default, but use these special types of clause to insert data in to the body of the contract so the contract flows, rather than keeping the data all at the end in separate schedules.

8. Build the template

On the contract template edit page, tick the boxes to choose the relevant clauses and click Save. The text appears below the word tag options area. Drag your clauses into the correct order by clicking, holding and dragging the icon. There is no need to click Save to save the order - it’s done automatically. Click on the text to edit it.

Your template is ready to attach to a contract. Read how to edit a contract.

9. Troubleshooting

Do not use % signs in a contract clause. They are stripped out. Instead, spell out the word ‘percentage’ or ‘percent’.