Contract Intelligence, Renewals, and Risk

StretchContracts doesn't just store agreements — it helps you act on them. The intelligence layer answers the questions that matter to a busy team: what's renewing soon, what's risky, and what does this document actually commit us to. This article is the overview; deeper workflows live in Staying Ahead of Renewals and Portfolio Risk and AI-Assisted Contract Analysis.

Renewals at a glance

The fastest win is never missing a renewal. The dashboard's Renewals due metric counts agreements with a renewal date inside the next 45 days that are approved or active. That single number tells you how much renewal work is on your plate right now.

Behind it sits the renewals watchlist — the set of non-terminal agreements (draft, internal review, sent, approved, active, or renewed) that carry an end date or a renewal date, ordered so the most urgent appears first. Terminal agreements (expired, cancelled, archived) are excluded, so the list stays focused on what you can still act on.

Renewal-risk scoring

Each agreement on the watchlist is scored by how soon it expires or renews:

Critical — the renewal or end date is already in the past.
High — it's within the next 15 days.
Medium — it's within the next 45 days.
Low — it's further out than 45 days.
Unknown — no end or renewal date is recorded (a data gap worth fixing).

Alongside the level, each item shows the number of days until renewal and a recommended action — from "monitor renewal timing" for low-risk items to "review immediately; renewal date has passed" for critical ones. This turns a flat list of dates into a prioritized to-do list.

Portfolio and summary views

Zooming out, the risk summary rolls your watchlist into counts by risk level so you can see the shape of your book at a glance — how many high-risk renewals you're carrying this month, for instance. It also surfaces two watchlists that catch expensive surprises:

Notice window closed — agreements whose renewal/end date has already passed.
Auto-renew will trigger — agreements marked auto-renew whose deadline is within 45 days, meaning they'll renew automatically unless you act.

The portfolio-risk view analyzes your whole set of dated, non-terminal agreements together, giving leadership a single read on renewal exposure across the organization.

Document analysis

The intelligence engine also reads individual documents. Depending on what's enabled, it can classify clauses, extract obligations and financials, compare versions, and — via AI analysis — produce a summary with parties, dates, terms, and severity-rated risk flags. See AI-Assisted Contract Analysis for how to use these. All analysis is informational, to speed review, not legal advice.

Step-by-step: a weekly renewal review

Open the dashboard and note the Renewals due count.
Open the renewals watchlist and work top-down — the most urgent renewals sort first.
For each critical or high item, open the agreement, decide (renew, renegotiate, or let lapse), and act.
Check the auto-renew will trigger watchlist and handle anything you don't want renewing silently before its notice window closes.
Fix any unknown-risk items by adding the missing end or renewal date so they'll be scored next week.

A realistic example

Every Monday, Grace runs the review above. This week Renewals due shows 6. The watchlist puts a critical item first — a support contract whose renewal date passed on Friday because the owner was on leave; she escalates it immediately. Two high items renew within two weeks; she confirms both. The auto-renew watchlist flags a SaaS subscription set to renew in 20 days at a higher rate — she opens negotiations now instead of eating the increase. She also spots one unknown item missing a renewal date, adds it, and it'll be scored properly next week. Fifteen minutes, whole book under control.

Tips

Run the review on a fixed cadence. Weekly keeps high and critical items from ever becoming critical surprises.
*Eliminate unknown risk.* Every agreement without a date is a blind spot — add the date.
Watch auto-renewals hardest. They're the ones that cost money silently; the auto-renew watchlist exists for exactly this.
Record notice periods. Knowing the notice window tells you the real deadline to act, not just the renewal date.

Troubleshooting

The intelligence panels are empty. The advanced engine is flag-gated. Renewal dashboards work from your dates, but clause/obligation/financial analysis needs the engine enabled — ask your administrator.

A renewal isn't showing in Renewals due. It must be approved or active with a renewal date within 45 days. Check both.

*An agreement shows unknown risk.* It has no end or renewal date. Add one so it can be scored.