Wie Sie schnell einen Vertrag finden

Contracts tend to be needed at short notice. The landlord is on the phone about the deposit, a supplier says the price rise is allowed under the agreement, or the accountant wants the freelancer contract from two years ago before Friday. The signed copy exists somewhere: an e-signature email, a folder called Legal, a printout in a drawer.

This guide covers how people usually track down a contract in a hurry, and how to keep contracts in Fabric so you can find one by describing it and get to the right page straight away.

How people usually find a contract

Email search is the first move for most people: the counterparty’s name plus “agreement” or “signed”. It often works, since many contracts arrive as e-signature completion emails. It gets harder when the contract was signed under a company name you don’t remember, or when the latest version was sent by someone else on your team.

E-signature platforms keep their own record of completed documents, which is useful as long as everything was signed on the same one. Small businesses often end up with some contracts in one tool, some in another, and a few signed on paper and scanned to a shared drive under names like Scan_0417.pdf.

A shared Legal or Contracts folder is the tidy answer, and it works when someone keeps it up. The common gap is the contract that never got filed, which is usually the one you need on the day.

Step 1: Gather contracts into one library

Drag signed PDFs and Word documents into Fabric or click Upload a file; large batches are fine. For contracts that arrive by email, forward the completion email or the attachment to your Fabric email address. It accepts mail only from your verified account address, and you can approve other senders for a team.

If your contracts already sit in a shared Google Drive folder, a Google Drive connection syncs them both ways, so the files appear in Fabric and stay current. Connections need a paid plan. Paper contracts can be photographed in the mobile app or scanned and uploaded, and search reads text in photos and scanned pages.

Teams that prefer working from the file system can install the desktop app, which mounts Fabric as a drive that can be shared across the team.

Step 2: Describe the contract in search

Click Search or press Cmd+F (Mac) / Ctrl+F (Windows) and describe what you need: “lease for the Elm Street office”, “agreement with the video editor”, “cleaning company service contract”. Search matches by meaning and by keyword and reads the text inside PDFs and documents. Results open at the exact page.

Fabric processes each contract when it’s added: it creates embeddings for meaning-based search, writes a short summary, extracts attributes such as content type, and suggests tags. A contract headed “Master Services Agreement” can come up when you search for the web developer you hired, if that’s who the agreement is with.

For speed, put a name or reference number in quotes for an exact match, and use filters for tag, folder location or kind of item to cut out invoices and emails that mention the same company.

If the contract comes up while you’re away from your desk, the same search is in the iOS and Android apps. Finding the right page on your phone during the call with the landlord is usually quicker than promising to email them back.

Step 3: Ask the AI for the term you need

Often the question behind the search is a single fact. Open your contracts folder and ask the AI assistant: “how much notice do we need to give the cleaning company?” or “when does the office lease renew?” It limits itself to that folder, answers with clickable references, and the reference takes you to the source so you can read the wording yourself. Follow-up questions work too, such as “does that apply if we end the contract early?”, and each answer points back to the clause it relied on.

The assistant finds and quotes what the contract says. Deciding what it means for your situation is still a human call, and for anything consequential that means your lawyer. How to keep track of renewal dates shows how to turn answers like these into reminders.

Step 4: Let contracts collect themselves

Set up a smart collection for contracts. Smart collections fill themselves based on content, so a signed agreement that lands in a general inbox folder still shows up there. Folders and tags are optional on top of that.

Adding a short comment when you save a contract helps later. Something like “renegotiated rate, see email from March” captures context that isn’t in the document. Tags such as the counterparty or the year double as search filters, and Fabric suggests some on its own when the file arrives.

Step 5: Protect the sensitive ones

Contracts hold names, rates and signatures, so it’s worth reading how Fabric handles your data on the security page. To restrict a contract further, right-click a contract or folder (or open it and use the three-dot menu), choose Add password protection, and enter a password. Password protection is on the Pro and Team plans.

There’s no password reset, so store the password in a password manager. Anyone with access has to enter it, access lasts six hours, and a password on a folder also covers contracts added later.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the fastest way to find a signed contract?

Keep contracts in Fabric and describe the one you need in search, such as who it’s with or what it covers. Results open at the matching page.

Can Fabric search inside PDF and Word contracts?

Yes. Search reads text inside PDFs and documents such as DOCX files.

Can I search scanned paper contracts?

Yes. Search covers text in images and scans, including photographed text.

How do I save contracts that come by email?

Forward the email or attachment to your Fabric email address. You can approve extra sender addresses for a team.

Can the AI tell me what a contract says about notice periods?

Yes. Ask the AI assistant inside your contracts folder and it answers with references to the source document. Interpretation is still for you or your lawyer.

Can I password-protect a contract?

Yes, on the Pro and Team plans. There’s no reset, so keep the password somewhere safe.

Do contracts need to be filed in folders?

No. Search works without organizing, and a smart collection can gather contracts automatically.

Can I share a contract with my accountant?

Yes. Share it with view or comment permission; external people can open shared links without signing up. How to store important documents securely online covers sharing sensitive files.