Contract spaces are the building blocks of your shared contract repository. Think of them like folders or containers for contracts to which you can grant access rights across your organization. 

You can freely set up your contract spaces to fit the structure of your organization. Customers commonly organize their spaces by contract types, geographies, or functional departments.

Pro tip: Simplicity is key! Don’t set up your nested folder structure too deeply or too granularly. Ideally, you set up your contract spaces to share access rights to your contracts and then use contract views to flexibly organize your contracts based on your contract data. 

Let us dive into how to set up and manage your contract spaces in more detail!

How to create a contract space and share access to it?

• You will find contact spaces in the sidebar of your “Contracts” tab. 

• To create a new root space, click “Add a space” and give it a descriptive name. 
• If you want to add a sub-space to an existing contract space, just click on the contextual menu (...) of the existing space.

• To share your newly created space with others, click “Manage access” on the contextual menu or in the top-bar when you have opened the space.
  • As the creator of the space, you automatically have all access rights to it.

• Browse users added to your Company with whom you want to share access to the space.
  • Select one or multiple users from the list, or add guests by entering their email addresses in the input bar. 

• When you have selected one or more users, click “Manage access” to configure the access rights you want to grant these users.
  • See a detailed overview of access levels below.
  • Finally, hit the “Share” button to grant users access. 

• You now see the list of users with access to the space.
  • You can edit individual users’ access levels by clicking “Manage access” or entirely remove their access from the space by clicking the bin icon.

• Note that no particular user owns a contract space. Instead, an unlimited number of users or groups can be granted the right to “Manage space.”
  • At any given time, at least one user or group must have the “Manage space” permission.

How to create or move contracts in a contract space?

• If you work in an organization, you will want all contracts to be in contract spaces.
• You can either create contracts directly inside a contract space or move them into contract spaces from other locations.

Note: In order to create, import or move contracts in a space, a user needs permission to “Manage contracts” in that space.

Create or import contracts inside a contract space

• You can create or import contracts directly in a contract space.
• Just navigate to the contract space first and then click “New” to create a new draft or sign a PDF, or “Import with AI” to import signed contracts for automatic data extraction.

Move contracts into a contract space

• You can move contracts that live in “My contracts” or in shared folders into contract spaces.
• Just open the contract’s contextual menu (...) and click “Move to a space”. 

You can also move multiple contracts to a space in bulk by using the bulk action bar:

When you move a contract to a space, it is automatically removed from any private or shared folders, so that you have a single source of truth of where any given contract is.

Access levels you can grant to contract spaces

Contract spaces allow you to set granular access rights to your contract repository. Some users should just be able to view and comment while others should be empowered to fully manage contracts in a space? No problem.

See below a more detailed overview of the different access levels that can be granted to contract spaces. 

View contracts

• Can view and comment on contracts in the space.
• Can view sub-spaces in the space.

Manage contracts

• Has “full access” permission on contracts in the space and sub-spaces.
• Can create or import new contracts in the space.
• Can move contracts into the space and between spaces.
• Can delete* contracts from the space.

(*Deletion of fully counter-signed contracts is limited by default in Contractbook)

Manage space

• Can rename the space.
• Can create new sub-spaces in the space.
• Can share and revoke access to the space for other users or groups.
• Can edit the columns displayed in the space
• Can delete the space.

Note: If you are on a free plan, you are limited to sharing access to a contract space with “View contracts” permission.

Setting permissions on nested spaces

• Just like a regular folder structure, spaces can be nested into sub-spaces. In a nested tree of spaces, permissions are, by default, inherited from parent spaces to child spaces.
• So, if you grant “View contracts” access to a user on a parent space, this user will automatically have “View contracts” access to all child spaces living under the parent space. 

• To keep a clear overview of who has access to what, it is recommended to set permissions to spaces on the highest possible level of the nested tree.
• Best avoid setting permissions for individual users on a large number of sub-spaces, but consider giving access to the parent space instead.

Configuring columns on contract spaces

When you open a contract space, you will see the contract list view containing all contracts in that space. If you have "Manage space" permission on the contract space, you can edit the columns displayed in that spaces. This includes adding new columns, hiding existing columns and changing the order or size of columns. Your changes will be auto-saved on the contract space so that every other user who opens the contract space from here will see the same column configuration as you. This allows you to ensure everyone sees the most relevant contract data at first glance when opening a contract space. 

Note: Filters or sorting on contract spaces are not saved for other users, so you can play around with them without worrying about making changes that affect others. 

If you configure column sets on a contract space that contains child spaces, the child spaces will automatically assume the same column set that you have set on the parent space. 

Which concepts do contract spaces replace?

Contract spaces do not replace direct contract sharing

It is important to note that contract spaces do not replace direct contract sharing. They would rather complement direct contract sharing.

In fact, “View contracts” will grant users the equivalent access rights as “view and comment” in direct sharing, and “Manage contracts" will grant users the equivalent access rights as “Full access” in direct sharing.

The access right a user has is computed as the addition of direct access rights to the contract and access rights through the space the contract lives in. 

If you have set up a workflow automation that creates drafts from a CRM or a form, you can still configure direct sharing access to the contracts created in the automation, even when the contract is created in a space.

For example, you can grant a sales rep edit access for every contract she creates from a CRM via automations, while just granting her view access to the contract space that the contract is created in. The same applies to contracts created from forms or a Legal Portal.

Contract spaces replace private and shared folders

• Working with private and shared folders in Contractbook used to be confusing - we listened to your feedback!
• Contract spaces are designed to replace both private and shared folders in Contractbook.
• Organizing contracts and managing access to them in your organization are now one and the same thing. 

Benefits of contract spaces over shared folders

 ✓ Contract spaces allow you to set granular access rights (view, manage contracts, manage space)

 ✓ Contract spaces are owned by the Company, not by any individual user

 ✓ Contracts can be created or imported directly into contract spaces

 ✓ Access rights to contract spaces can be given to Users and to Groups (coming soon!)

 ✓ Contract spaces can be moved around freely in the space tree structure

 ✓ You can save the column configuration on contract spaces so that all users see the same

 ✓ Contract spaces come with a powerful multi-select filter for your contract views

 ✓ A contract can only be in one contract space at a time

How to move contracts from private and shared folders to contract spaces

We encourage all users to start moving their contracts into contract spaces as private and shared folders will eventually be deprecated.

Contract spaces are designed to replace both private and shared folders. If you are still using private and shared folders, we will keep them around in your account until you’ve removed them.

The easiest way to migrate contracts from folders to spaces is to use the bulk action bar.

1. Create a contract space
2. Select contracts in your folders in bulk.
3. Move contracts to the contract space with “Move to space” action.

When you move a contract to a contract space, it will automatically be removed from all private and shared folders. This is to ensure that there is a single source of truth for where any contract is located.

Note: You can only move contracts to a contract space that you are the owner of or that you have “full access” rights to.

Notification settings in Contract Spaces

Here is a list of the email notifications which will be sent to users via email:

• When they get access to the Contract space
• When their access rights change
• When the Contract space gets deleted

As opposed to shared folders, where all invited teammates get notifications about new drafts, contracts sent for signatures, etc., the notifications in Contract Spaces are limited to the above by default. 

Related articles

Want to move contracts to contract spaces automatically?

Read up on how to do it here: Move to space automation