Documentation

Contracts and deadlines

Only a title is required. For deadlines, enter the end date (for auto-renewing contracts: the end of the first term), the renewal type and the notice period. ContractCube shows the last day to cancel and, for automatic renewals, the next renewal date.

Fixed term	Ends on the end date. After it, the contract shows as Expired.
Renews automatically	When a term ends, the next term is projected using the renewal period. The stored end date is not changed; projected dates are labelled "auto".
Renewal by agreement	Nothing happens by itself. Use "Record renewal" on the contract once a renewal was agreed.
Open-ended	No end date; runs until terminated.

Notice rule "Exact calendar date" subtracts the notice period from the term end (3 months before 31 December is 30 September). "Must arrive by end of a month" moves the deadline to the last day of the previous month.

Reminders

New contracts get recommended reminders: 90, 60, 30, 14, 7 and 1 day before the end, cancellation and renewal dates, and on the day. Change the days and time per rule on the contract's Reminders tab, or add milestones and document expiry dates.

In the desktop app, reminders appear as Windows notifications and in the bell menu. ContractCube keeps running in the system tray when you close the window; quit it from the tray to stop reminders. In ContractCube Cloud and the Server Edition, reminders are also sent by email, and reminders nobody handled are escalated to a manager.

Money

The amount and billing frequency on a contract are enough for the reports. For rate changes, use Financial terms: a term in the same series replaces the previous rate from its start date; a different series adds a separate payment line. Amounts in other currencies need an exchange rate under Financials (the rate valid on each payment date is used). One click fetches the daily rates of the ECB or the BNR.

Documents

Drag files onto a contract's Documents tab or use Add files. In the desktop app, files are encrypted on your disk with a key kept in Windows Credential Manager.

Save the recovery key (Settings, Backup and recovery) somewhere safe. Without it, encrypted attachments cannot be opened after reinstalling the operating system.

Import

Go to Contracts, Import and choose a CSV or Excel file. Download the template to see the expected columns. Rows with errors are skipped and listed; possible duplicates are flagged. Nothing is saved until you confirm, and if saving fails nothing is saved at all.

For a single contract, use smart import: drop in a PDF, scan, Word file or photo and review the suggested fields. Each suggestion shows the text it was taken from.

Backups

Settings, Backup and recovery, Create backup writes one .zip with the database and the encrypted attachments. Restore replaces the current data and keeps a safety copy of the previous database in the data folder.

Licensing

The trial runs 30 days. After buying, activate the key under Settings, License and Activation. The license file is signed by our server and bound to your workspace. When online, ContractCube checks it once a day. After expiry, the app becomes read-only: you can still open everything, download attachments and export your data. Renew with the button on the same screen; no reinstall is needed.

Using ContractCube for the same company on another computer? Activate the same key there and choose "Use the licensed workspace on this device" (fair use up to 25 devices). Data is not synchronised between desktop computers; for a shared workspace use ContractCube Cloud. Computers without internet can use offline activation.

Cloud and teams

Sign up for ContractCube Cloud, create your company and invite colleagues by email. Give each person a role: Owner, Admin, Editor or Viewer. Two-step sign-in and single sign-on (Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace or any OpenID Connect provider) can be turned on by an administrator.

Cloud includes 10 GB of document storage (2 GB during the trial). Extra storage packs can be ordered when you need more.

Server Edition

The Server Edition runs on your own Windows or Linux server with Node.js 22 or newer and one database: PostgreSQL 13 or newer (recommended) or the built-in SQLite. An SMTP account is optional, for invitations, password resets and reminder emails.

Unzip contractnest-server-<version>.zip, for example to C:\ContractNest or /opt/contractnest.
In that folder run npm install --omit=dev and node cli.js gen-key.
Copy .env.example to .env, put the generated key in DATA_KEY (keep a copy somewhere safe: documents are encrypted with it) and set PUBLIC_URL and DATABASE_URL.
Check the database with node cli.js check-db, then start the server with node server.js.
On first start the log prints a setup code. Open PUBLIC_URL in a browser, enter the code and create the company and the first owner.
Activate the Server Edition license under License in the app. A Standard license is not accepted by the Server Edition.

Documents can be stored on disk or in any S3-compatible storage. They are encrypted with DATA_KEY before they leave the server. Back up the database, the documents and the DATA_KEY.

Keyboard shortcuts

`Ctrl` + `K`	Search
`Ctrl` + `N`	New contract
`Ctrl` + `1` to `9`	Go to a section

Something missing? Ask us, and we will add it here.