Aug 01, 2025·8 min
Create a Web App to Track Vendor Contract Expirations
Learn how to plan, build, and launch a web app that tracks vendor contract expirations, stores documents, and sends timely renewal reminders.
Learn how to plan, build, and launch a web app that tracks vendor contract expirations, stores documents, and sends timely renewal reminders.
A contract expiration tracker exists to prevent “we didn’t see that coming” moments: surprise renewals, missed notice windows, and last‑minute scrambles because the agreement PDF lives in someone’s inbox.
Most teams run into the same failure modes:
A useful tracker supports different roles without forcing them to become contract experts:
When the tracker works, it creates:
Pick measurable signals that show adoption and reliability:
If your MVP can consistently solve these, you’ll prevent the most costly contract mistakes before adding advanced features.
An MVP contract expiration tracker should answer one question instantly: “What’s expiring soon, who owns it, and what happens next?” Keep v1 small enough to ship quickly, then expand based on real usage.
If you want to move fast without building a full custom stack on day one, a vibe-coding platform like Koder.ai can help you prototype the core screens and reminder flow from a chat-based spec—while still producing real, exportable source code when you’re ready to operationalize.
To prevent the project from turning into a full contract lifecycle management system, keep these out of v1:
Contract Owner: “I can see my contracts expiring soon and get reminders early enough to negotiate.”
Procurement/Admin: “I can add/edit contracts and assign owners so nothing sits unassigned.”
Finance/Leadership (read-only): “I can view upcoming renewals to forecast spend and avoid surprise auto-renewals.”
If you can deliver these stories with clean screens and dependable reminders, you have a solid MVP.
A contract tracker succeeds or fails on the data you capture. If the model is too thin, reminders become unreliable. If it’s too complex, people stop entering information. Aim for a “core record + a few structured fields” that covers 90% of cases.
Vendor is the company you pay. Store the basics you’ll search and report on: legal name, display name, vendor type (software, facilities, agency), and an internal vendor ID if you have one.
Contract is the agreement you’re tracking. One vendor can have multiple contracts (e.g., separate agreements for licensing and support), so keep Contract as a separate record linked to Vendor.
Every contract needs a clear contract owner (the person responsible for renewal decisions), plus a backup owner for vacations and turnover. Treat these as required fields.
Also capture key contacts:
Most apps store “start” and “end” dates and then wonder why renewals are missed. Track multiple dates explicitly:
Add a few structured fields to cover common renewal patterns:
For month-to-month, the “end date” may be unknown. In that case, drive reminders off notice deadline rules (e.g., “notify 30 days before the next billing cycle”).
Statuses are more than labels—they’re the logic that drives your dashboard counts, reminder schedules, and reporting. Define them early, keep them simple, and make them consistent across every vendor agreement.
A practical set for an MVP contract tracker:
Choose fixed windows so everyone understands what “soon” means. Common options are 30/60/90 days before the effective end date. Make the threshold configurable per organization (or per contract type) so the tool fits different procurement rhythms.
Also decide what happens if the end date changes: the status should be recalculated automatically to avoid stale “Expiring Soon” flags.
When a contract moves to Terminated or Archived, require a reason code such as:
These reasons make quarterly reporting and vendor risk reviews much easier.
Treat status as an auditable field. Log who changed it, when, and what changed (old status → new status, plus reason code and optional note). This supports accountability and helps explain why reminders stopped or why a renewal was missed.
A contract tracker is only useful if people act on the reminders. The goal isn’t “more notifications”—it’s timely, actionable nudges that match how your team works.
Begin with email as the default channel: it’s universal, easy to audit, and doesn’t require extra admin work. Once the workflow is stable, add optional Slack/Teams delivery for teams that live in chat.
Keep channel preferences per user (or per department) so Finance can stay on email while Procurement uses chat.
Use a predictable cadence tied to the end date:
Also add a separate class of alert for the notice deadline (for example, “must give 45 days’ notice to cancel”). Treat that as higher priority than the expiration date, because missing it can lock you into another term.
Every notification should include two one-click actions:
Record actions in an audit trail (who acknowledged, when, and any comment) so follow-ups are clear.
If the contract owner doesn’t acknowledge after a defined window (e.g., 3 business days), send an escalation to a manager or backup owner. Escalations should be limited and explicit: “No response yet; confirm ownership or reassign.”
Deduplicate reminders (no repeats for the same contract/date), respect quiet hours, and retry failures. Even a great design fails if messages arrive late or twice.
A contract tracker succeeds or fails on speed: can someone find the right agreement, confirm the renewal date, and update it in under a minute? Design the UX around the most frequent actions—checking what’s next, searching, and making small edits.
Dashboard should answer one question: “What needs attention soon?” Lead with Upcoming Renewals (next 30/60/90 days) and a small set of KPIs (e.g., expiring this month, auto-renewing soon, missing documents). Provide two primary views:
Contract Detail is the “single source of truth.” Put the essentials at the top: vendor, status, expiration date, renewal terms, owner, and notification settings. Keep supporting items below: notes, tags, linked documents, and related contacts.
Vendor Detail aggregates everything tied to one vendor: active contracts, historical contracts, key contacts, and renewal patterns. This is where users answer “What else do we buy from them?”
Settings should stay lean: notification defaults, roles, Slack/email connections, and standard tags/statuses.
Make search omnipresent. Support filtering by vendor, owner, status, date range, and tag. Add “quick filters” on the dashboard (e.g., “Auto-renew in 14 days,” “Missing owner,” “Draft”). If your users repeat the same filters, allow saved views like “My renewals” or “Finance approvals.”
Most edits are small. Use inline editing for expiration date, owner, and status directly in the table and at the top of the contract detail page. Confirm changes with subtle feedback and keep an “Undo” option for accidental edits.
Keep navigation consistent: dashboard → search results → contract detail, with a clear back path and persistent filters so users don’t lose context.
A contract tracker isn’t complete without the paperwork. Storing documents next to the key dates prevents “we can’t find the signed copy” moments when renewal time hits.
Start with the minimum set of files people actually look for:
Keep uploads optional in the MVP, but make the “missing document” state obvious on the contract detail page.
For most teams, the simplest and most reliable setup is:
This keeps your database small and fast, while object storage handles large PDFs efficiently.
Treat documents as immutable records. Instead of “replacing” a PDF, upload a new version and mark it as the latest.
A practical model is:
document_group (e.g., “Master Agreement”)document_version (v1, v2, v3…)On the contract page, show the latest version by default, with a short history list for previous versions (who uploaded, when, and a note like “Updated renewal clause”).
Document access should follow role-based access:
If you allow deletion, consider “soft delete” (hide from UI but keep in storage) and always record actions in your audit log. For more on controls, link this to your /security-and-audit section.
Contract data isn’t just dates—it includes pricing, negotiated terms, and signed agreements. Treat security as a core feature of your contract management web app, even in an MVP.
Start with a small set of roles that map to real responsibilities:
Keep roles simple, then add exceptions via record-level rules.
Define rules per vendor and inherit them to all related contracts. Common patterns:
This prevents accidental exposure while still supporting cross-team vendor contract tracking.
If your organization has an identity provider, enable SSO (SAML/OIDC) so access is tied to employment status. If not, use email/password with MFA (TOTP or passkeys) and enforce strong session controls (timeouts, device revocation).
Log actions that matter during reviews and disputes:
Make audit entries searchable by vendor/contract and exportable for compliance. This “audit trail for contracts” turns trust into evidence.
A contract tracker is only useful once it contains your real-world agreements. Plan for two paths: a fast “get it in” import so people start using the app quickly, and deeper integrations that reduce manual work over time.
A manual CSV import is the simplest way to load existing contracts from spreadsheets or shared drives. Keep the first version forgiving and focused on the fields that drive reminders:
Include a downloadable template and a “mapping” step so users can match their column names to your fields. Also provide a preview screen that highlights errors before anything is saved.
Imports expose messy data. Build a small cleanup workflow so the first upload doesn’t turn into a support ticket:
Once the basics work, integrations can keep vendor and renewal info current:
If your company already has an ERP or procurement tool, treat it as a potential source of truth for vendor records. A lightweight sync can import vendors and IDs nightly, while contract-specific dates remain managed in your app. Document what wins in conflicts, and show a clear “Last synced” timestamp so users trust the data.
If you later add automation, link to it from your admin area (for example, /settings/integrations) rather than hiding it behind engineering-only processes.
A contract tracker feels “simple” until reminders don’t fire, fire twice, or fire at the wrong local time. Your backend needs a reliable scheduling layer that’s predictable, debuggable, and safe to retry.
Use a job queue (e.g., Sidekiq/Celery/BullMQ) rather than running reminder logic inside web requests. Two job patterns work well:
Escalations should be explicit: “notify owner,” then “notify manager,” then “notify finance,” with delays between each step so you don’t spam everyone.
Store all timestamps in UTC, but compute “due dates” in the contract owner’s time zone (or the organization’s default). For example, “30 days before expiration at 9:00 AM local time.”
If you support business-day deadlines, avoid hand-rolled logic. Either:
Make the rule visible in logs and in the contract detail page so users understand why a reminder arrived on a Friday instead of a weekend.
Retries are normal (network hiccups, email provider timeouts). Design notification sending to be idempotent:
contract_id + reminder_type + scheduled_for_date + channel.This guarantees “at most once” delivery from your app even if jobs run twice.
Centralize templates so business users can tweak wording without code changes. Support variables such as:
{{vendor_name}}{{contract_title}}{{expiration_date}}{{days_remaining}}{{contract_url}} (relative link like /contracts/123)Render templates server-side, store the final rendered text in the outbox for audit/debugging, and send via email and Slack with the same underlying payload.
Testing is where contract trackers usually fail quietly: a date rule is off by one day, an auto-renew clause is misread, or notifications get sent but never delivered. Treat the reminder engine like billing logic—high impact, low tolerance for surprises.
Start with automated tests around your “contract truth,” not UI polish.
Add a small set of fixtures (realistic sample contracts) and write tests that assert the exact reminder schedule produced for each one.
Test email deliverability in a staging environment with real inboxes (Gmail, Outlook) and verify:
If you support Slack notifications, validate rate limits, channel permissions, and what happens when a channel is archived.
Run a pilot with a small group (procurement + finance is ideal) using real contracts. Define success metrics: “No missed renewals,” “<5% incorrect reminders,” and “All contracts searchable in under 10 seconds.” Capture feedback weekly and fix rule gaps before scaling.
If you’re building your first version with Koder.ai, a pilot is also the right time to use snapshots/rollback to iterate safely on the reminder logic and permission rules without disrupting the whole team.
Before launch, confirm:
A contract tracker earns its keep when it helps people act early—not just store agreements. That means clear reporting, lightweight engagement metrics, and a simple plan for keeping data trustworthy over time.
Start with a few “always-on” views that answer common questions:
If you offer exports, keep them simple: CSV for spreadsheets, plus a shareable filtered link within the app (e.g., /reports/renewals?range=90&group=owner).
To avoid “we never saw the reminder,” track a small set of events:
These don’t need to feel punitive. Their main purpose is operational clarity: you can see where follow-ups are needed and whether notification settings are working.
Once the MVP is stable, the next upgrades that add real value are:
Write down a few simple runbooks and link them from an internal page like /help/admin:
With these basics, the app stays useful long after launch—and the reporting becomes a trusted source for renewal planning.
It should prevent three common failures:
If it reliably answers “what’s expiring soon, who owns it, and what happens next,” it’s doing the job.
Start with a small, shippable scope:
Add clause tagging, scorecards, and integrations only after reminders are dependable.
Track dates separately so reminders stay accurate:
Many missed renewals happen because teams store only start/end dates and ignore the notice window.
Use a few structured fields:
For month-to-month where an “end date” is unclear, drive alerts from the notice rule (e.g., “30 days before next billing cycle”) rather than an end date.
Keep statuses mutually exclusive and tied to logic:
Recalculate status automatically when dates change, and log who changed what (old → new) for auditability.
A practical default is:
Include two one-click actions in each reminder:
Email is the best default because it’s universal and easy to audit. Add Slack/Teams only after the workflow is stable.
To reduce noise:
Also track delivery outcomes (sent/bounced/failed) so you can trust the system.
Use a simple, scalable approach:
Treat documents as immutable: upload a new version instead of replacing the old one, and show “latest” plus a short version history on the contract page.
Start with a small set of roles (Admin, Editor, Viewer) and add restricted roles if needed (e.g., Legal-only, Finance-only).
For access control:
Log key audit events: contract edits (especially dates/renewal terms), permission changes, and file uploads/downloads/deletions.
A forgiving CSV import gets teams using the app quickly. Provide:
Expect cleanup needs:
Let the import complete, but route incomplete rows to a “Needs review” queue so reminders don’t silently fail.
Escalate to the backup owner/manager if there’s no acknowledgement after a defined window.