Chapter 4. Run it as a business · Step 12 of 15
Your team and the paper trail
A contract is a team decision. The estimator knows the bid, the PM knows the schedule, the owner signs. Redline keeps one review that everyone works in, with a record of who decided what, and it follows the contract through every version until the copy you actually sign.
Inside the company
Who does what
- 1
Flag a teammate
Send specific findings to the person who should make the call, with a note. The thread stays on the review, not in an email chain. - 2
Submit for sign-off
When the redline is ready, submit it. It lands in the approvals queue, sorted by how long it has waited, with a reminder when it sits. - 3
Approve, on the record
The approver signs off with their name and the time. The review's history (created, submitted, approved) is append-only. - 4
Ask the contract
Type a question ("what happens if the owner is late paying?") and get an answer from the contract's own text with the page. - 5
Seats and audit log
Owners and members, and an audit log of who did what in the workspace.
Across the negotiation
Every version, until the one you sign
Upload the GC's response and Redline reviews it again and shows exactly which terms moved between versions: price, retainage, payment days, LDs, warranty and the rest.
Before signing, upload the execution copy. The pre-signature check compares it to what you last agreed and catches a term that quietly changed back, which is the most expensive surprise in contracting.
Over time, Redline remembers which clauses you have raised with each GC and shows it on the next contract from them, so you check how it ended last time before spending leverage on it again.
- v1
Original subcontract · From the GC
Reviewed: 29 findings, 20 high.
- v2
Your redline and packet · From you
Sent after sign-off by the operations lead.
- v3
Their response · From the GC
Term diff: retainage 10% to 5%, payment 60 to 45 days, pay-if-paid now pay-when-paid.
- v4
The execution copy · To sign
Pre-signature check: LDs changed back from $1,000 to $2,000 a day since v3. Flagged before signing.