Contracts roles and permissions
Contracts has three roles: Member, Manager, and Admin, set per person and per site in Settings > User Management. This page lists what each role can do, plus how inherited contracts and Contract Settings access work.
Where Contracts roles are set
Set the Contracts role alongside every other module role in Settings > User Management. The options are Member, Manager, Admin, and No Access. Access to a parent site automatically includes its child sites. For the full flow, see Understanding User Roles and Permissions.
If Contracts does not appear in Access Control, your organisation is not entitled to the module. See Module Entitlements and Permission Templates.
What each role can do
All three roles can view contracts, comment, follow contracts, and use Contracts Insights. Managers add creating, editing, and organising; Admins add deleting.
Capability | Member | Manager | Admin |
|---|---|---|---|
View contracts, comment, follow contracts, and use Contracts Insights | Yes | Yes | Yes |
View all comments when comment viewing is restricted | No | Yes | Yes |
Create contracts | No | Yes | Yes |
Edit contracts, record amendments, and record or change renewal decisions | No | Yes | Yes |
Manage contract categories | No | Yes | Yes |
Link and remove linked records | No | Yes | Yes |
Upload and edit contract files | No | Yes | Yes |
Delete contracts | No | No | Yes |
Following a contract needs only permission to view it, so every Contracts role can follow. For how comments work, see Comments.
Inherited contracts on child sites
On multi-site organisations, a parent site can share contracts with its child sites. The child site sees the contract in its Contracts register and on linked records, marked Inherited from [site name]. The detail page notes: "Inherited from [site name]. Read-only on this site."
Sharing is controlled on the owning site. Contract Settings sets a share-down default in the Options tab, and each contract can override it with Share, Don't Share, or Use the Site Default. Only open child sites inherit, and a person sees an inherited contract only if they can view contracts on the owning site.
An inherited contract is read-only on the inheriting site:
Edit and Record Amendment are not offered. If an edit form is opened anyway, it shows "This contract cannot be edited from this site."
The Renewal Decision card shows "Inherited contract. Decisions can be changed on the owning site." Renewals must be created from the owning site: "Create a renewal from the owning site with permission to update the earlier contract."
The Link Contract and Remove Link controls are not shown, so related agreements cannot be linked or unlinked.
Linked records such as parties, contacts, assets, and locations are view-only; they cannot be added or removed.
Make these changes on the owning site.
Contract Settings access
Contract Settings lives at Settings > Contract Settings and has a Categories tab and an Options tab.
Anyone with Contracts module access can open Contract Settings. Anyone who can view contracts can see the Categories tab; managing categories needs the Manager role.
Changing the options on the Options tab needs Site Manager access for the site, which is a site-level role rather than a Contracts role. Without it, the page shows: "You can view these settings but cannot change them. Site Manager access is required to save changes."
Without Contracts module access, the page shows: "You don't have permission to view contract settings. Please contact your administrator."