Why "Contract Cleanup" Has Become the Most Requested Service We Never Knew We Offered
I've been in the legal technology space for years, but nothing prepared me for the volume of conversations we've had recently, all centered around a common problem.
It started with a simple Google search. A prospect literally typed "software for contract cleanup" into Google and found us. Then another company reached out after seeing our posts about "auto-repository" on LinkedIn.
Suddenly, I'm hearing this phrase everywhere: contract cleanup.
At first, I thought it was just a coincidence. But as these conversations multiplied, a pattern emerged. These aren't companies looking for a new contract management system. They're drowning in existing contracts scattered across so many systems that they can't even find what they're looking for.
When contracts live everywhere except where you need them
Here's what I keep hearing on these calls: "We have contracts everywhere—SharePoint, OneDrive, someone's desktop, our CLM, email attachments, that document management system we tried three years ago. When we need to find something, it becomes an all-hands-on-deck treasure hunt."
One prospect told me their legal team had effectively become "human search engines." Instead of practicing law, they were spending hours digging through folders, trying to locate the right version of agreements. Sometimes they'd discover during a client call that they couldn't find a contract at all.
Here's where it gets really painful: imagine your company is trying to raise funding, go public, or get acquired. Suddenly, you need all your contracts for due diligence. You know those contracts exist somewhere—but where? Are you confident you've found them all?
This isn't just an operational headache. It's an existential threat to major business transactions.
Why traditional solutions fall short
The conventional wisdom has been: "You need a CLM system." But many of these companies already have CLM systems. Sometimes multiple ones. The problem isn't the lack of a system; it's that their contracts predate these systems or exist outside them entirely.
One prospect said, "We implemented a CLM two years ago, and it's great for new contracts. But what about the 10,000 contracts we signed before that? They're still scattered everywhere, and migrating them manually would take forever."
The traditional approach involves hiring consultants who manually hunt through your systems, identify what might be a contract (versus a proposal, internal memo, or random PDF), then organize everything by hand. It's expensive, slow, and frankly, soul-crushing work.
What scattered contracts actually cost you
While companies focus on the obvious pain—not finding contracts when they need them—there are deeper costs at play:
Risk exposure: You can't manage what you can't find. Missed renewal dates, overlooked termination clauses, and unknown obligations create liability you don't even know exists.
Deal delays: Due diligence processes that should take weeks stretch into months because teams can't quickly produce organized contract portfolios and answer key questions.
Resource drain: Your highest-paid legal professionals become document archaeologists instead of strategic advisors.
Compliance nightmares: Auditors and regulators expect organized records. Scattered contracts make compliance a game of chance.
How we’re solving this without the headache
What if there was a way to automatically scan all your existing systems, identify which documents are actually contracts, and organize them without requiring you to migrate a single file?
This is exactly what we've started offering at Recital. Our platform connects to virtually any system where contracts might live—cloud storage, email, CLMs, document management systems—and automatically distinguishes between contracts and non-contracts.
Instead of having someone manually review thousands of documents, Recital does it automatically. Then it organizes everything: grouping contract versions together, mapping relationships between master agreements and amendments, recognizing duplicates, and extracting key data and properties.
The result is a clean, organized contract repository that gives you confidence you know what you have, where it is, and what's in it.
Want to see how this actually works?
The companies reaching out to us want their contract problems solved without disrupting their current workflows. Some opt for a one-time cleanup project. Others choose ongoing access to our platform. You don't have to abandon your existing systems; we work alongside them.
We're hosting a live webinar on October 8th where I'll demonstrate the entire process—from connecting to scattered systems to delivering an organized contract repository in as little as a few hours. You can register here.
Martin Ertl is CEO and Co-Founder of Recital, a contract data platform that helps legal teams organize, analyze, and manage contracts across multiple systems without disruption.
