Published contract review flowcharts are drawn for organisations with a legal team, a risk function and a delegation-of-authority matrix, which is why they have fifteen boxes and three swim lanes. A business with no legal department makes about four real decisions when a contract arrives, and drawing those four honestly produces a flowchart somebody will actually follow. This page sets out the short version, names the decision points, and says which of the standard boxes are safe to delete.
The four decisions that are actually made
Is this our paper or theirs, because that decides whether you are drafting or defending. Does the commercial substance match what was agreed in conversation, which is the check most often skipped and most often wrong. Are the three risk terms acceptable, meaning the notice and renewal, the liability cap and the price uplift. And who signs. Everything else on a standard flowchart is a subdivision of one of these four or an approval step you do not have.
Where the review reliably goes wrong
Between the conversation and the paper. Somebody agrees a scope and a price verbally, the draft arrives, and it is read for legal risk rather than checked against what was actually agreed. Price, term, scope and what happens if it goes wrong should be checked first and against the conversation, not against a template. Legal risk is the second pass, not the first.
The boxes to delete, and why they are safe to remove
Delete the legal review gate if you have no lawyer on retainer, because the box will be ticked by someone unqualified and give false comfort. Delete parallel approvals if approvals happen in a conversation. Delete the risk scoring step unless somebody will act on the score. A flowchart with a box nobody performs is worse than a shorter one, because it teaches people the process is decorative.
What the flowchart should end with
Not signature. The last box is filing: the executed copy on a record with its counterparty, dates, notice period, value and obligations. If the flowchart stops at signature it describes the half of the process with a deadline and ignores the half where money is quietly lost.
Questions people ask about contract review process flowchart
What should a contract review process include?
Whose paper it is, whether the commercial substance matches what was agreed, whether the notice, liability and uplift terms are acceptable, who signs, and where it gets filed with its dates.
Who should review contracts without a legal team?
The person who agreed the commercial terms checks substance; the person who owns the contract record checks the dates and the three risk terms. Bring in a lawyer for anything unusual or large, not for everything.
How long should contract review take?
For routine supplier paper, under an hour. If it consistently takes longer, the delay is usually waiting for a person rather than reading, which is a process problem rather than a legal one.
Should the flowchart end at signature?
No. It should end at filing with the dates recorded, because that is the step that decides whether the agreement can be found and acted on later.