How can you avoid missing contract deadlines?
Efficiency question :
Excel handles time and dates very well, making it relatively easy to establish rules that anticipate contract deadlines. Based on the expiry date, reminders can be calculated automatically, for example 12 days or 8 days before the deadline.
These rules can be adapted to the organization’s needs and can account for business days rather than simply using calendar days. The objective is to provide enough advance notice to renew a contract, contact a customer or supplier, or take any other action required before the deadline.
Key considerations:
First determine which deadlines need to be tracked and how far in advance users should be notified. Rules may vary according to the type of contract, its importance or the actions required before renewal or termination.
Business days, weekends and, when necessary, holidays must also be considered so reminders truly reflect the organization’s working calendar.
Challenges:
A reminder system is useful only if it fits naturally into users’ work habits. If users have to remember to manually consult a list of deadlines, a follow-up can still be missed.
One solution is to automatically trigger the deadline review when the user performs an action they already do every day, such as opening the management file.
Technology:
Microsoft Excel and its Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language, commonly associated with macros, can automate this type of monitoring.
A programmed procedure can be triggered by a button or menu, but it can also run automatically when the file opens. An Auto_Open procedure can review all contracts and display the deadlines due today, this week or over the next few days.
Developer's advice:
Do not limit the solution to a column that calculates the number of days remaining before a contract deadline. Use VBA so that the information comes automatically to the user.
A procedure triggered when the file opens can analyze the dates and immediately display, in a dialog box, the contracts requiring attention. You can also define several reminder levels based on the deadline and account for business days.
This approach turns a simple tracking file into a genuine contract deadline management tool.