A service agreement expired two weeks ago. The vendor is still working. You're still paying. Nobody noticed until accounting flagged a mismatch. Now someone has to track down the original contract, check the terms, decide whether to renew as-is or renegotiate, send it for signature again, and update the records.
That's a half-day of work caused by a missed date on a calendar. And it happens constantly — not just with vendor contracts, but with NDAs, employment agreements, lease renewals, SaaS subscriptions, retainer agreements. The list goes on.
The fix isn't a better calendar reminder. It's removing the manual step entirely.
What Auto-Renewals Actually Do
DottSign now lets you configure a renewal policy directly on any contract with an expiry date. Once set, the system handles the rest — no reminders to chase, no dates to track, no scrambling.
There are two renewal behaviors to choose from.
Before You Set It Up
One important constraint: renewal settings must be configured before any signer has signed the contract. Once the first signature is recorded, the settings lock to preserve the integrity of the contract lifecycle. The contract also needs an expiry date set.
Auto-renewal is available on Pro and Enterprise plans.
Two Renewal Behaviors
Auto-renew after notice
This is the default behavior. When the contract enters the notice window (configurable, default 30 days before expiry), the system:
- Emails all parties — the contract owner and every signatory — to confirm a renewal has been scheduled.
- Schedules the renewal execution for the date the notice window opens.
- Sends follow-up reminder emails at 30, 14, 7, 3, and 1 day before expiry.
- On the scheduled date, creates the new contract version automatically — unless the owner cancels beforehand.
The owner can cancel the scheduled renewal at any time before it fires from the contract detail page. If cancelled, no new version is created and the contract expires on its original date.
Alert only — renew manually
In this mode, the system sends the same reminder emails at the same milestones, but takes no automatic action. When you're ready, click Renew now on the contract detail page. DottSign creates the new version and sends signing requests to all original signatories.
Use this mode when you need to review or renegotiate terms before each renewal.
What Renewal Actually Creates
Whether automatic or manual, every renewal creates a complete new contract version — not just a date extension. The new version contains:
- The same PDF document
- The same signatories and signature spot positions
- All original signing records — the auto-renewed contract is already fully signed
- The same AI analysis (summary, risk flags, category) — no reprocessing needed
- A new expiry date calculated from the previous expiry date, not from today. If the contract expires December 31 and the renewal period is 365 days, the new version expires December 31 of the following year.
The original contract is not deleted. It is marked as a previous version and remains accessible from the contract detail page under Version history.
Manual Renewal: What's Different
When you renew manually, the new contract starts as Pending Signature — the signatories need to sign again. DottSign immediately sends signature requests to all non-owner signatories. You pick the new expiry date in the renewal modal.
With auto-renewal, the new contract is already Signed from the moment it's created. No action needed from anyone.
Renewal Settings
From the Auto-Renewal panel on any contract:
Renewal period — how many days the new version will be valid. Default: 365. Range: 7–3,650. The panel shows the exact start and end dates of the next renewed contract as you adjust this.
Notice window — how many days before expiry the first notification fires and the renewal gets scheduled. Default: 30 days.
Max renewals — cap the number of automatic cycles. Leave blank for unlimited. When the limit is reached, auto-renewal is disabled automatically and the owner receives an email.
Workspace Defaults
If most of your contracts follow the same renewal pattern, set workspace-level defaults at Settings → Contracts → Renewal defaults. New contracts are pre-filled automatically. Changing defaults never affects contracts that already exist.
Contract History and Versioning
Every renewed contract stays in the same contract family. The original and all renewals are linked and accessible from the contract detail page as a chronological version history — v1, v2, v3.
The main contract list shows only the latest active version by default. Cards show a version badge ("v2", "v3") when the contract is a renewal.
What Happens When a Contract Is About to Expire Without Auto-Renewal
For contracts without auto-renewal, DottSign shows a banner on the contract detail page as expiry approaches:
- 31–60 days out — informational notice.
- 8–30 days out — warning.
- 7 days or under — urgent.
For contracts with auto-renewal active, the banner uses a different tone confirming the system is monitoring expiry and will act at the right time.
The banner offers two actions: configure auto-renewal or use Renew now to create a new version manually right away. Manual renewal creates a new contract version and sends signature requests to all original signatories.
A one-time expiry warning email goes out automatically for contracts without auto-renewal when 30 days remain.
Who Has Access
Auto-renewal is available on Pro and Enterprise plans. Manual renewal is available on Starter and above.
The Contract That Expired Because Nobody Noticed
The scenario from the opening — the vendor who kept working on an expired contract — is fixable in about two minutes. Open the contract before sending it for signature, enable auto-renewal, set the notice period to 30 days, pick annual renewal, and save.
Next time that contract approaches expiry, everyone involved gets reminder emails. If nobody cancels, a new version is created automatically on schedule and the cycle restarts without any manual work.
Either way, it doesn't expire without anyone noticing.