Negotiating a Counterparty Initiated Contract

Negotiating a counterparty initiated contract in Zoho Contracts covers suggesting edits, adding comments, sending reviewed versions back and forth, and tracking changes across each review cycle.

Suggesting edits and adding comments

1. Go to Contracts and open the contract in In Negotiation, Review Pending state.
2. Edit the document directly to suggest changes. Track changes is on by default and shows as redlines.
3. To add a comment, highlight text, click Add Comment on the toolbar, enter your comment and click Add.
4. Click Finish Review when done.

Track changes is always on, so every edit is visible to the counterparty. You can also add comments from the right-click menu or smart toolbar if you have Edit permission.

Sending the reviewed contract

1. Open the contract in In Negotiation, Review Completed state.
2. Click Send Reviewed Contract.
3. The counterparty’s primary contact auto populates in the To field. Add CC recipients if needed, enter a message, and optionally check Include Review Summary to show the number of changes and comments.
4. Click Send.

If no primary contact exists, the contract owner must choose one, which then becomes the counterparty’s contact. You can attach up to 5 files, up to 15MB in total. Proceed for Signature only appears when there are no outstanding comments or changes, and Include Review Summary only appears when there are.

Re-reviewing a contract

Open the contract in In Negotiation, Review Sent state, click More > Re-review Contract, and it returns to Review Pending so you can suggest further edits and resend.

Uploading a new version

When the counterparty sends a revised document, open the contract in Review Sent state, click Upload New Version, drag and drop or browse for the file, select the received date and time, and click Upload. The contract moves back to Review Pending. Supported formats are .doc, .docx and .rtf, up to 10MB.

Comparing changes

Open the contract in Review Sent state, click More > Compare Changes, select a previous version from the Compare Version dropdown, and click Compare. Each person’s changes appear in a different colour, and you can navigate between them with the previous and next arrows.

Viewing negotiation history and activity

Click More > Negotiation History to select and view a past review cycle, or open the Negotiations tab in the contract details panel to see all past cycles, viewing the document received and the review summary for each.

Marking as negotiated

Once negotiation is complete, open the contract in Review Sent state and click Mark As Negotiated.