[Drafting and templates]
Drafts that know
whose side you are on.
Draft from a brief or from your templates. Clausel asks who you act for, writes each clause for that side, and says where the draft leans, with a fallback for each lean.
The Customer may end this agreement on 30 days' notice, for any reason. The Supplier may not.
Either party may end this agreement on 90 days' notice, and work done is paid for.
Only the Customer may leave, on 30 days' notice.Fallback: 60 days, for both parties.
Either party may leave on 90 days' notice, and work done is paid for.Fallback: 60 days.
Only undisputed sums, 30 days from a valid invoice, no interest on a disputed amount.Fallback: 45 days.
14 days from invoice, with interest on late payment.Fallback: 30 days, interest at the statutory rate.
From a brief
Say the deal in a sentence.
Clausel asks a short intake, the side first, and never asks what the brief already says. The template you picked is the document: it appears whole, and only its blanks are filled, each value checked against the brief's own words before it is written. Proof at every step starts with the first draft.
Mutual NDA between Helios Retail Ltd and Northwind Systems Inc for a joint tender. Three years of confidence. We act for Helios.
The side, first. One mandatory question, and the brief above already answers it, so it is not asked.
The template. Matched from the brief, longest keyword first, or the one you picked.
The blanks. Parties, purpose, period, court, amounts: filled on the server, before the document is placed, from what the brief states and nothing it does not.
The grounding. Your playbook and the firm's approved clauses are read once and placed in front of the model.
The lean. The note opens with the side it was drafted for, and ends with where it leans, clause by clause, each with a fallback.
This agreement is made between Helios Retail Ltd and Northwind Systems Inc for the evaluation of a joint tender, and each party's duty of confidence runs for three years after disclosure.
4 filled from your brief. A blank the brief does not settle stays a field for the lawyer to fill.
After the draft
Drafted here. Approved here. Signed here.
A draft does not leave Clausel to get finished. Colleagues edit it, the other side comments, approvers decide, supporting documents come in and every party signs, all on the same contract.
Your colleagues edit the same line, at the same time.
The cap is 12 months' fees, excluding fraud.
The limit. Viewers can watch but cannot write, and one editor writes the record. Comments stay on the clause they are about.
The other side sees the named items, and nothing else.
The limit. One person cannot share alone. Every view and comment by a guest is logged.
Approval belongs to one exact version of the text.
The gate. Sending is refused until the firm's send rule, the review approval and the approver chain are met, wherever they apply.
Signed only once the papers are in hand.
The gate. A signer cannot sign until their items are done, and your firm's own items must be ticked before sending. The certificate lists what was met.
Every party signs, in order, on one document.
The gate. An edit after sending pauses signing. If a party named in the document has nobody signing for it, the envelope does not go.
Templates
Your templates are the paper.
Add the firm's own templates and draft from them. A template is a settled document: Clausel fills it in, it does not rewrite it. Describe a new one and Clausel authors it, with a bracketed blank for every value that changes from matter to matter.
The template on the page, every bracketed blank a field.
From a brief, the side asked first, the blanks filled from what you said.
Describe the type, the parties, the key terms and the firm's positions. Clausel returns a complete template for you to review and edit before it is saved.
The library keeps only what a lawyer keeps.
21 templates for South African law, full instruments across ten practice areas.
- Mutual NDA
- One-way NDA
- Operator Agreement (POPIA)
- Employment Agreement
- Independent Consultancy Agreement
- Master Services Agreement
- Software as a Service Agreement
- Software Licence Agreement
- Distribution and Reseller Agreement
- Supply of Goods Agreement
- Commercial Agency Agreement
- Commercial Lease Agreement
- Residential Lease Agreement
- Sale of Shares Agreement
- Sale of Business Agreement
- Shareholders Agreement
- Joint Venture Agreement
- Loan Agreement
- Deed of Suretyship
- Settlement Agreement
- Franchise Agreement
Written for one jurisdiction, and labelled as such. Your own templates carry whichever law you work under.
The canvas
An editor with Clausel beside you.
Select any wording and comment on it, or ask Clausel about it. Every saved change is a version, and you name the one that goes to the other side. Two lawyers can be in the document at once. Your letterhead frames the page.
For a period of five years after termination, the Supplier shall not solicit or employ any employee of the Customer.
Five years is longer than we accept for non-solicitation. Can we take this to twelve months?
Agreed. Twelve months, and I will send it back.
The passage goes to the chat box as a question, quoted. Nothing is sent until you send it.
Comment, with an @mention that notifies a colleague, or Ask Clausel. On your own fresh draft there is no counterparty position to mark against, so Redline this waits for review.
Every saved change records a version. A named snapshot carries your change note and is never overwritten.
Pick any two versions and read them side by side. Restore one into the live document.
Colleagues see each other's cursors, and every change syncs as it is typed. Viewers watch.
Export a .docx with native tracked changes. Import a marked-up .docx and its tracked changes land as live marks, ready to accept or reject.
A logo, a header line and a footer line, set once by a firm admin. It frames the canvas and the signed PDF. The Word file carries the document, not the paper.
Fields
Fields your firm fills. Fields each signer fills.
Every blank in a draft is a field. Mark it as the firm's, or assign it to Signer 1 to 4. The firm's fields fill from one panel, everywhere each one appears. A signer's fields wait for that signer, and are filled into the document when they sign.
Before the draft goes out. Fill the draft once, and the value lands everywhere the field appears.
Filled at their signing ceremony, in signing order.
The same, for the second signer. Up to four signers can each have their own fields.
This agreement is entered into on Effective date by Company name, represented by Signer 1, full name, and the Employee, Signer 2, full name, identity number Signer 2, ID number, on the terms below.
A field a signer has to complete is never filled by the firm, and never by a model.
Attachments
Each attachment answers one question.
A matter, documents, a template and skills can all ride on one conversation. Each answers a different question, so they compose instead of competing. When one stands down for a turn, Clausel says so, in plain words, and keeps it armed.
Matter. Which deal? It scopes every read of the repository.
Documents. Which paper? The subject of this turn.
Template. What shape? The instrument a draft must follow.
Skills. How? The method, the firm's own or one from the library.
Mutual NDA is set aside on this turn. A template is the shape of a new document, and this turn works on the Northwind SOW. It stays armed for your next draft.
The notice you read and the rule the model is given are built from the same resolution, so they cannot drift apart.
Review tables
The same questions, asked of every document in a matter.
Documents in rows, your questions in columns. Every cell carries a word-for-word quote, located in the document it came from. A value with no quote to stand on is flagged for you, never shown as an answer.
Each party's aggregate liability shall not exceed $5,000,000.
Flagged for you to check. Clausel read $2,000,000 but found no words in the lease that say so.
Five questions to start
Governing law, liability cap, change of control, auto-renewal and term. Write your own, up to 300 characters each.
In chat, or under a matter
Ask for up to 12 contracts against 6 questions without leaving the conversation. Under Matters, a vault runs the same engine with no cap.
Take it with you
Export the table as CSV or Excel. Ask one question across a whole vault, and every claim is grounded in the document it cites or named as unsupported.
Frequently asked questions
From yours, when you pick one or when the brief matches one. The picked template is the document: it appears whole, and only its blanks are filled. The built-in library is labelled for the jurisdiction it was written for, and a template you describe is authored for you to review before it is saved.
The intake asks, as its first question, in the same words a review uses. Balanced, market-standard paper is one of the answers, and it has to be chosen. A lean is never left unstated: the draft's note names the side it was drafted for and the clauses where it took the strongest position, each with a fallback.
The template, your brief and answers, your playbook, and the firm's approved clause library, read once and placed in front of the model. A document you attach is used as a precedent to follow, or as the facts of the deal, and the intake states which. Every repository read is scoped to your firm, and to the matter you name.
Yes. Export a .docx with native tracked changes, and bring a marked-up .docx back in: its tracked changes land as live marks to accept or reject. The firm's letterhead frames the canvas and the signed PDF, and is not part of the Word file.
What the brief states is filled on the server before the document is placed, and checked against the brief's own words. The rest stays a field. The firm fills its fields from one panel, and a field assigned to a signer is filled by that signer when they sign, never by the firm and never by a model.
Yes. Co-editing runs on one service inside Clausel, with the same sign-in. Editors see each other's cursors and every change syncs as it is typed. Viewers connect read-only. Comments carry an @mention that notifies the colleague by name.
Bring us a template you use every week.
Book a demo and draft from it with Clausel. Read where every draft leans before it goes out.
- FirstA draft on your template, every blank a field
- ThenThe side declared, and the lean read back
- LastApproval and signing on the same contract