# How contracts work

The life of a contract from drafting to closing, why signing happens in Draft, how instalments become invoices, how contracts tie to cases, consultations and projects, and who sees which contracts.

A contract is the firm's agreement with a client: what the firm does, for how long and for how much. The **Contracts** app keeps it from the first draft to its end, and turns its amount into invoices.

## The life of a contract {#the-life}

A contract starts in **Drafting**, where the firm prepares it alone. **Mark Drafted** makes it **Draft**: the client can read it and sign it on the portal. With both signatures, or with **Set Valid**, it becomes **Valid**. It then ends **Closed** when the work is done, **Expired** when its end date passes, or **Cancelled** with a reason. **Set to Draft** reopens a contract to change it.

The stages follow the way a quotation becomes an order: nothing reaches the client before the firm is ready, and nothing is signed after the text has moved on, since signatures are locked once given.

## Templates {#templates}

A template holds the text of an agreement the firm signs often and its default value. Choosing it on a contract copies the value and writes the text with the firm's name, the client's name and the value in place.

## Instalments and invoices {#instalments}

The amount of a contract is split into instalments in **Auto Invoicing**, each with its trigger: a date, each linked consultation, or a level of project progress. Every hour the system drafts the invoices whose trigger is met, and the billing team confirms them. The instalments never add up to more than the contract.

## Cases, consultations and projects {#links}

The **Type** of a contract says what work it covers. A case or a consultation names its contract, chosen among the client's valid contracts; a project contract names its project and follows its progress, which can drive its invoicing.

## Reminders and notices {#reminders}

The contract settings decide whether the client and the followers receive a notice when a contract becomes valid, and whether the firm is reminded before a contract ends. The reminder goes out once for each end date, with a to-do for the person chosen.

## Who sees what {#who-sees-what}

Access to contracts has three levels in the **Legal Rights** section of a user: **Read-only**, **User: Own Documents** and **Manager: All Documents**, who also opens the **Configuration** menu with the templates, the cancel reasons and the settings. A client with portal access finds **Contracts** on the portal home, with the contracts that are past **Drafting**.

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- Source: https://jaah.app/docs/law-contract/how-contracts-work
- Updated: 2026-10-14
- Version: Contracts 19.0.1.0.26