Last updated 19 May 2025

Using Contracts

Here you can find answers to all the most frequently asked questions we receive to help you use Contracts within your Every Business Management module.

Contracts in Business Management helps you to keep a concise and up-to-date record of your property’s service level agreements (SLAs) without needing complicated and often heavy paper files.

Please note to follow the steps shown in this guide, you will need a user level of either Basic, Standard or Admin.

How do I create a contract?

There are three ways to add contracts to your Business Management module. You can either create contracts individually, from our contract templates, or by uploading a list of your pre-existing contracts using an import spreadsheet. For importing via an import spreadsheet, please see the 'How do I import multiple contracts?' section.

Creating a contract from scratch

To add a contract from scratch, go to Business, then Contracts, then Create Contract on the left-hand navigation bar. You will need to fill out the fields below to add your contract to Every.

Title - Enter a title for your contract. This is how the contract will appear on the Contracts Summary page and within email notifications. For easier identification, this could be what the contract is for as well as the supplier name.
Description - Enter a description of the contract, such as what it covers and any important clauses.
Status - Use the dropdown menu to choose from ‘Live’, ‘Notice Given’, and ‘Ceased’ depending on the status of the contract.
Assigned to - Use the dropdown menu to choose the user that the contract responsibility is assigned to.
Current Contract Start Date - Select the contract start date using the calendar provided.
Notice Date - Input here the notice period you need to give the contractor, should you wish to terminate the contract.
At Contract End - Use the dropdown menu to choose what happens when the contract length ends. The options are ‘Naturally Expires’, ‘Out of Contract’, and ‘Automatic Rollover’. This gives you clarity about what steps are needed to ensure or prevent a renewal of this contract. If 'Automatic Rollover' is selected contracts will need to be added again at the end of the contract period.
Contract Category - This is a dropdown menu option, allowing you to choose from the categories that have been added within 'Contract Settings'.
Contract Length - Select the contract length using the drop-down boxes.

Additional information

You can also add additional information to your new contract as applicable. This includes budget codes, ledger A ledger is a book or collection of accounts in which account transactions are recorded. Each account has an opening or carry-forward balance, and would record each transaction as either a debit or credit in separate columns, and the ending or closing balance. codes, a reference, and supplier information.

Setting a notification date

To give yourself enough time to consider the terms of a contract before it renews, you can set up a notification date. This will flag that the contract needs a review before a set notice date, allowing you time to consider other providers and hopefully get the best possible deal.

If a notification date is set, an email will be sent to the contract's assigned person to notify them of the upcoming renewal.

To set this up, use the 'Notification Date' field to enter the amount of time before the contract's end date that you wish for your assigned person to be notified. This can be entered in days, weeks, or months, or as a specifically specified date.

Missing mandatory information

If any mandatory information is missing when saving your new contract, a red box will appear detailing any omissions. Once rectified, click the 'Save' button again to add your new contract to those listed on the 'Current Contracts' tab in your Contracts Summary.

Create a contract from a template

Another way to add a contract on Every is to use one of our pre-existing templates. These templates have pre-set titles and descriptions of common service level agreements (SLAs) that may apply to your property.

To add a contract from one of our templates, go to Business, then Contracts, and then the Add Contract page on the navigation menu to the left.

Then choose a template from the expandable menus.

To use a template, click the 'Add Contract' button to the right, and confirm your choice by choosing the 'Create' button in the window that follows.

You will then be taken to a 'Manage Contract' page, where you can change details of the contract, including its title, description, status, contract start and end dates, and more.

Once you are happy with any changes you have made, click the green 'Save' button below. Your new contract will now be visible under the 'Current Contracts' tab in your Contracts Summary.

How do I import multiple contracts?

If you have many contracts that you are looking to add to Every, the easiest way to do this is using one of our import spreadsheets. To do this, go to Business, then Contracts, and choose the Import Contracts page on the left-hand navigation menu.

Downloading the contracts import spreadsheet

To get started, you will need to download the contracts import spreadsheet. Do this by clicking the green 'Download Contract Import Spreadsheet' button.

Once downloaded, you can open the spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. The spreadsheet is set up so that Every can read the information you enter into it, so do not change the column titles, or the order of the columns. If you have previously entered contracts into Every, these will be listed in the downloaded spreadsheet. If you are adding your first contracts to Every, the template will be blank.

The key column is for Every to assign a code to identify each contract listed in the spreadsheet. It should not be typed into or changed as the system needs this to match the corresponding data within Every.

Mandatory fields

Fill in each row with the information for each contract you would like to add to Every. Some of these fields are mandatory for Every to import a contract with the data you have added.

Title - Use the drop-down menu to choose from ‘Live’, ‘Notice Given’, and ‘Ceased’ depending on the status of the contract.
Description - Enter a description of the contract, such as what it covers and any important clauses.
Status - Use the drop-down menu to choose from ‘Live’, ‘Notice Given’, and ‘Ceased’ depending on the status of the contract.
Contract Length - Enter the agreed length of the contract, then use the dropdown menu in Contract Length Measurement to choose from ‘Hour(s)’, ‘Day(s)’, ‘Month(s)’, or ‘Year(s)’.
Assigned To - Use the dropdown menu to choose the user that the contract responsibility is assigned to.
At Contract End - Use the dropdown menu to choose what happens when the contract ends. The options are ‘Naturally Expires’, ‘Out of Contract’, and ‘Automatic Rollover’. This gives you clarity about what steps are needed to ensure or prevent a renewal of this contract.

Additional fields and notification dates

The more information you are able to provide, the more comprehensive and useful your Business Management module will be. The contracts import spreadsheet also gives you the option to add the following additional information.

Category - This is a drop-down menu option, allowing you to choose from the categories that have been added within Contract Settings. You may also free-type a new category title, which will then be imported to the contract category options for future use.
Initial Contract Start Date - Enter when the first agreed version of this contract initially started.
Start Date - Enter the start date for the latest version of this contract. This may differ to the Initial Contract Start Date if you have renewed the same contract multiple times.
Notice Date - Enter a specific date that notice regarding renewal needs to be given by, or use Notice Length to enter the notice period and choose from ‘Hour(s)’, ‘Day(s)’, ‘Month(s)’, or ‘Year(s)’ from the drop-down menu in Notice Length Measurement.

You can also add a budget code, ledger code, reference, and information of any supplier connected with the contract.

You can also set a notification date, which flags the contract to be reviewed by the assigned user before the contract's end, or notice date. This gives you a window of time to look for alternative providers and get the best deal available for this contract.

Uploading your spreadsheet to Every

Once you are happy with the data you have entered into the import spreadsheet, be sure to save your changes.

Next, head back to the Import Contracts page on Every and find the section labelled 'Import Your Contract Data'. Click the 'Choose File' button to select the saved spreadsheet file from your hard drive and the click the green 'Import Contract Data' button below to import its contents to Every.

A message will appear when the import has completed with a summary of how many contracts have been added or updated. The message will also detail and errors in the spreadsheet that have prevented contracts in the spreadsheet from being successfully uploaded.

If any errors appear you will need to go back to the spreadsheet file, remove the error and re-import the file by following the same process.

Making changes using the import spreadsheet

You can also use the import spreadsheet to make changes to multiple contracts at once. Once you have used the import spreadsheet once, you will need to re-download a new import spreadsheet to make new additions and changes.

How do I update a contract on Every?

Records about your contracts regularly need updating, such as the recording of any associated payments or changes to a contract's status. To make any changes to a contract, you will need to go to its Manage Contract page.

To find this, you will first need to locate the contract in the Contracts Summary.

Go to Business, then Contracts, and then click Summary.

From here, find the contract in the tabs below and click its title to be taken to its Manage Contract page.

On the Manage Contract page you can make changes to all the main contract information.

There is also a checkbox here to archive the contract, removing it from reports and notifications.

Adding or updating a supplier

There is also a blue 'Suppliers' box where you can add the details of any suppliers involved in the contract. Suppliers can be added from those you have added to the Suppliers area of Business Management, or found using Every's built in directory of suppliers.

Additional information

Below this there are a series of blue tabs for attaching additional information to a given contract. These tabs create a thorough record of the contract with useful information located in one central, digital location.

Line Items - Use this to add line items to a contract, with a line item title, code, price and description.
Payments - This tab is for connecting any payments to the contract, be they one-off payments or regular, recurring payments. This is explained in more depth in 'How do I add a payment to a contract?'
Assets - The green 'Add Related Asset' button allows you to connect assets to this contract, such as a boiler related to the contract of ‘Boiler servicing’. You can either create a new asset or attach one from the Asset Management module if your property subscribes to it.
Activities - The 'Activities' tab allows you to link the contract to new or existing activities. This could be an activity connected with the fulfilment of this contract, such as a scheduled task for ‘Boiler servicing’.
Notes - Notes can be free-typed into the blue 'Notes' tab. This is a useful area to add information that is not in document format.
Attached Files - Documents can be uploaded here and attached to the contract. These could be copies of receipts, terms and conditions, and order forms.
Audit Trail - Here any changes to the contract will be logged along with date and time information and usernames.

How do I add a payment to a contract?

Carefully balancing budgets is vital for any organisation. Contracts allows you to store and report on the costs of service level agreements (SLA)s, helping you keep track of your monetary commitments.

To add a payment to a contract, you first need to locate it on the Contracts Summary page.

To do this go to Business, then Contracts, and Summary on the left-hand navigation menu.

Once you have found it, click the contract's title to be taken to its Manage Contract page.

Adding payments

At the bottom of this page is a blue 'Payments' tab.

To add a payment, click the green 'Add Payment' button, enter the requested details, whether this is a single or regular payment, and click 'Save' to add it to to the table on the 'Payments' tab.

You can edit payments using the pencil icon or remove them using the red ‘X’.

Adding line items

You can also add line items to a contract in the 'Line Items' tab. Line items capture any additional costs that are outside of the contract schedule, such as excess charges or fees for setup and callouts.

Clicking the green 'Add Line Item' button to the bottom right-hand side will display a white 'Edit Line Item Details' box allowing you to enter a 'Title', 'Price', and 'Description' for the additional payment. You may also enter an optional 'Code' here.

Once saves, line items will appear in a table on the 'Line Items' tab. They can be edited using the pencil icon, or removed using the red 'X'.

Viewing contract costs

When payments have been added, the total cost, annualised cost and current year cost fields for the contract will update to factor this payment once the pay is refreshed. These fields are tied to any payments associated with the contract, helping you to keep track of costs associated with your contracts.

How does the contracts summary work?

You can access the 'Contracts Summary' page by clicking Business, Contracts, and Summary. This is the central page for viewing and managing your contracts and includes any contract notifications and end dates in the coming financial quarter that will need your attention.

Searching and filtering contracts

At the top of the Summary page you will find sections for searching and filtering the tables in the tabs below. You can also filter results further by using the magnifying glass icon at the top of each column in the tables.

Summary page tabs

The rest of the page is split into several blue tabs which organise your contracts into clear and manageable sections.

Contracts Notifications - This tab contains tables showing Due Today or Overdue Contracts, Contracts Due in the Next 4 Weeks, and Contracts Due in the Next 12 Weeks. These are based on the notice, notification, and end dates, which are flagged within the Notification Type field. You can click the contract title to go to the Manage Contract page, where you can change the contract’s details.
Current Contracts - This tab is the list of all current versions of contracts.
Historical Contracts - This tab shows all historical contracts that have the status ‘Ceased’.
Archived Contracts - This tab shows all archived contracts that are no longer relevant.

Additional actions

Use the action icons on the right-hand side of the 'Current Contracts' tab to edit (pencil), duplicate (pages), or remove (red 'X') a contract.

You can also multi-select contracts using the checkbox and selecting an action from the dropdown menu above. This is useful for editing the details of multiple contracts at once, uploading documents to contracts, or archiving contracts.