In our previous blog, we explored the Review & Approval stage - the phase where contracts must pass through compliance, legal checks, financial scrutiny, and stakeholder sign-off before they can be finalized.
Now, we move into the next critical chapter of the CLM lifecycle: Administration & Execution - the phase where a signed contract becomes an active, trackable, and secure business asset.
Many teams believe the work ends once signatures are collected.In reality, this is where contract performance truly begins.
The post-signature phase is about securing the contract, ensuring compliance, activating obligations, and enabling clear visibility for every stakeholder.
Let’s explore why this stage is vital, where organizations commonly face breakdowns, and how Jira and marketplace tools can support smooth execution without adding complexity.
A contract becomes valuable after it’s signed - when teams can store it securely, monitor performance, and track obligations. Effective administration and execution ensure:
Without structure, even a perfectly negotiated and approved contract risks becoming a liability.
Despite their importance, post-signature workflows often lack formal processes.
Stored across email threads, personal drives, and shared folders - never centralized.
Missing or incomplete logs of who signed, accessed, or changed the document.
Either too many people can view the contract, risking exposure, or too few can, causing delays.
Key tasks like onboarding, payment setup, deliverable tracking, or renewal monitoring often rely on manual follow-ups.
Renewals, obligations, performance checkpoints, and expirations slip through the cracks.
These gaps create operational risk, financial exposure, and compliance challenges - especially at scale.
A signature isn’t just an action - it’s a legal, security, and compliance event. Ensuring proper e-signature hygiene is foundational.
Standards such as:
ensure signatures are valid and tamper-resistant.
Strong authentication methods include:
A proper audit trail must record:
Encryption ensures that once signed, the document cannot be changed.
Secure signatures form the foundation of secure execution.
Once signed, every contract must be stored in one authoritative repository.
A reliable repository ensures:
Mature CLM programs store contracts with metadata such as:
The repository becomes the operational source of truth for the entire organization.
Strong post-signature governance depends on these two pillars.
Audit logs should include every action on the contract:
These logs are invaluable during:
Role-based access control (RBAC) ensures the right teams have the right visibility.
Common access patterns:
This prevents exposure while enabling efficient execution.
While Jira doesn’t manage e-signatures, it’s highly effective in the execution side of post-signature workflows when paired with marketplace tools or native Jira features.
Once a contract is signed, Jira can automatically trigger:
Jira workflows convert a signed document into actionable work.
Teams can track:
Dashboards and SLA timers keep obligations from slipping.
contracts can be linked to:
This connects contractual obligations directly to real operational work.
Marketplace tools help with:
These tools enhance Jira’s capabilities without requiring a separate CLM system .
Teams gain real-time insight into:
Jira becomes the execution hub where contract performance is monitored end-to-end.
A signed contract is not the finish line - it’s the starting point of the real work.
The Administration & Execution stage ensures that:
With structured repositories, robust audit trails, proper access control, and workflow-driven execution inside Jira, organizations can transform signed contracts into clear, trackable, and value-generating business operations.
The next blog in this series will explore how active contracts transition into ongoing performance, monitoring, and obligation management.
So stay connected for the next blog in the series!