CRETUS MAKING IDEAS REALITY CLM
Contract Lifecycle Management

Every contract runs on a clock. We keep time for you.

Creatus CLM turns your signed contract into a live deadline tracker. Log what happens on site and it works out every notice, claim and response the contract demands, counts the days the way your contract counts them, and warns the right people before a time bar closes.

Book a walkthrough See how it works
  • In daily use on three live contracts
  • Built from your signed contract, clause by clause
  • Email warnings before a deadline is missed

Illustration with example data

Why contracts need managing

Signing the contract is the easy part.

The day a contract is signed, it turns into a long list of obligations with dates attached: notices, claims, replies, reports, payment claims, securities, completion, defects and the final account. Contract lifecycle management means administering every one of them, on time and with proof, from award to final account.

Where most CLM software helps

Before the signature

Most contract software is built for companies that sign hundreds of agreements. It helps you get a contract signed and find it again.

  • Drafting and templates
  • Approvals and electronic signing
  • Storage and search
  • Renewal reminders
Where the money is won or lost

After the signature

On a construction or supply contract the risk sits in the years after signing, when something on site starts a clock that someone has to notice, count and answer.

  • A delay that needs a notice within days
  • An instruction that needs a reply
  • A claim with a detailed follow up due
  • Reports, payment claims and securities on a cycle
The cost of a missed day

A good claim can die on a single missed day.

Some time limits only cost goodwill when they slip. Others, the time bars, can cancel your entitlement outright. Most teams track them in diaries, spreadsheets and memory, and find out a deadline mattered after it has passed.

28days

to give notice of a claim under the FIDIC 2017 Red Book, Clause 20.2.1. Late, and the claim can be lost however strong it is.

84days

to submit the fully detailed claim. Leave out its legal basis and the notice lapses.

Dozens

of clocks running at once on one contract, each with its own window and its own way of counting days.

Example periods from the FIDIC 2017 Red Book. Your contract may say something different, and your app follows what yours says.

Time bars are unforgiving

Many contracts say a claim is lost if the notice is late, however strong the claim. One day late can mean no extension of time and no money, while delay damages keep running.

Every clause counts differently

Some clauses count calendar days, others working days. Public holidays drop out. The first day is excluded and the last day included. A spreadsheet gets this wrong quietly.

The proof gets scattered

When a dispute comes, you need to show what was sent, when, and under which clause. Email threads and shared drives were never built to answer that.

Why this app exists

Built inside live contracts, not in a meeting room.

Creatus CLM was built for a contracts team running three live contracts at once: construction works and a supply agreement. They needed certainty that no time limit would slip, worked out the way their contracts actually count. Ordinary tools could not give them that, so we built one that could.

It has administered those contracts every working day since. Every feature on this page is there because one of those contracts needed it.

A compliance tool has one job: tell you the truth about your dates, early enough to act.

  • Proven on real contractsIn daily use on three live contracts, with the people responsible warned by email every working day.
  • Shaped by the people who run themBuilt with the commercial manager who administers those contracts, so the screens follow how contract administration really works.
  • Every lesson built inPublic holiday counting, separable portions, who may see what, late and time barred steps. What live use taught us is part of every new app.
  • One job, done properlyIt is not a document store with reminders added on. It is a deadline engine for your side of your contract.

Why not a spreadsheet, or ordinary CLM software?

Because neither one knows what your contract says, and a deadline tracker that does not know the contract is only a calendar.

Spreadsheet and calendarTypical CLM softwareCreatus CLM
Knows what your clauses sayNoStandard templatesEvery time limit from your signed contract
Works out deadlines from what happenedYou type them inReminders you setFrom each logged event, automatically
Follows the chain: notice, claim, replyNoNot usuallyEach step starts the next clock
Counts working days and public holidaysBy handNot usuallyPer clause, on your country's calendar
Warns the person who must actIf someone remembersGeneral remindersEmail when a step turns amber, red or is missed
Keeps the proof with the stepScatteredStored by documentLetters attached to each step, dated
Shows the money at riskNoNot usuallyDelay damages, caps and retention, live
How it works

Log what happened. The contract does the rest.

You never type in a deadline. You record facts, and the app works out every date from the clauses of your signed contract, every time you open it.

1

Log the event

Something happens on site: a delay, an instruction, a defect, a claim received. Log it with the date it happened. One event can cover several sections of the works.

2

The chain appears

The app expands the event into its clause by clause chain: your notice, the detailed claim, the other party's reply. Each step gets a live countdown and a traffic light.

3

Record it with proof

Mark each step done with the date it was given or received and attach the letters. A late step is flagged LATE. A late step on a time bar is flagged TIME BARRED.

4

Get warned in time

Each working day the people responsible get an email when a deadline turns amber, a reminder when it turns red, and one final notice if it is missed.

One event, one chain of deadlines

Example: a delay claim under the FIDIC 2017 Red Book, as the app shows it on 2026/11/27.

More than 4 working days 2 to 4 working days 1 day or less, or overdue
Event

Delay on site

Access road closed by others. Logged with the date the team became aware.
Trigger date2026/11/02
Time bar

Notice of claim

Within 28 days of becoming aware.
Due 2026/11/30Given 2026/11/12
High

Fully detailed claim

Within 84 days of becoming aware, with its legal basis.
Due 2027/01/2559 days
Other party

Response to claim

Within 42 days after the detailed claim is received.
Starts when the detailed claim is recordedWaiting

An example only. Your app uses the periods written in your own signed contract, clause by clause.

What you get

Everything the contract asks of you, in one place.

One app per client, with the contract calendar running underneath every page.

Live deadline dashboard

Alerts grouped by traffic light, countdowns, and a timeline of what is coming up on each contract.

Process maps

Each clause drawn as a swimlane: who acts, and in what window. Click a step to record it.

Plain language register

Every obligation in the contract, written in plain English, cited by clause, grouped by category and risk.

Fixed and routine duties

Programme, securities and final claims from the Contract Data. Weekly and monthly reports and the payment cycle, generated on schedule.

Correspondence and variations

Letters in and out with response dates and status. Variations tracked from instruction to notice to response to order.

Commercial exposure

Delay damages accruing against their caps, and retention, for each section of the works and for the contract overall.

Portfolio view

Managers see every contract on one page: what is red, what is late, and where the money is at risk.

Monthly executive report

A board ready PDF of the month: progress, risk trend, exposure and what needs a decision.

Evidence on every step

Attach several documents to each notice, claim and reply, with the date it was given or received.

Built for your contract

Not a template. Your contract.

Most contract tools make you squeeze your contract into their screens. We work the other way round. Each Creatus CLM is set up for your contract, from the signed document, and the app follows its rules exactly.

ContractorEmployerEngineer or Employer's Representative

The app tracks what your side must do, and shows what the other party owes you.

What changes

Less counting. Fewer surprises. A record you can stand on.

Managers

See it before the meeting

Every contract on one page. You know what is red and where money is at risk before anyone tells you.

Contract administrators

Stop counting days

Log the event and record each step. The app does the arithmetic, holidays and all, and reminds you what comes next.

Commercial and QS

Claims on time and complete

Notices go out inside the window, detailed claims follow on schedule, and the monthly report writes itself.

In a dispute

Proof, in order

A dated record of what was sent and received, under which clause, with the letters attached.

Getting started

From signed contract to live warnings.

You bring the contract and the people. We build, check and hand over.

Step 1

Send the contract

The signed General Conditions plus the completed Contract Data, schedules and special conditions.

Step 2

We build and verify

Clause register, deadline engine, holiday calendar and your branding. Every clock tested against the wording.

Step 3

Add your team

Your administrator invites people and decides who can see and who can edit each contract.

Step 4

Go live

Log events, record steps, upload proof. Daily warnings start, and a training manual and quick reference guide come with the app.

Security and access

Your contract record stays yours.

A contract record is evidence. It has to be complete, private and in your control.

A separate system per client

Your own database, your own sign in, your own web address. Nothing is shared with other clients.

Access by invitation only

Creating an account opens nothing. Your administrator grants each person access, contract by contract, and can withdraw it at any time.

Verified sign in

Google or email and password, with every email address verified before it can be used.

Private by design

The app is hidden from search engines and protected by strict browser security. Every email it sends is kept on record.

Who sees what

Each person gets a role, and separate rights on each contract.

ManagerEverything, including the portfolio, settings and people
Quantity surveyorAll working pages and the executive report
ContractorAll working pages, without internal reports
ViewerThe contract dashboard only
On each contract a person is either an editor or read only. No entry means no access.
Questions

Straight answers.

Which contracts can it handle?

It was built on FIDIC construction contracts and also runs a bespoke supply agreement. If your contract runs on notices, time limits and payment cycles, it can be set up the same way. Send it to us and we will tell you what it takes.

Does the app read our contract by itself?

No. People read your contract and write its rules into the app, clause by clause, and every deadline is checked against the wording before you go live. After that the app calculates. It never guesses what a clause means.

Does it replace our contracts manager or lawyer?

No. It makes sure nothing they need to act on slips past, and it keeps the record they will need later. The decisions stay with your people.

What happens if a deadline is missed?

The step turns red as overdue, the responsible people get one final email, and when it is eventually done it is marked LATE, or TIME BARRED if the clause is a time bar. Nothing is hidden from the record.

Can we run several contracts?

Yes. Each contract keeps its own register, deadlines and access list. Managers see all of them together on the portfolio page.

Can the other party log in?

Only if you choose. Access is granted person by person and contract by contract, and can be read only.

Who gets the daily emails?

You choose, per person and per contract: first notices, reminders, missed deadlines and routine items can each be switched on or off. Every email sent is kept on record.

Where is our data held?

In a cloud database set up for you alone, in the region closest to your team.

What does it cost?

Each app is set up for your contract, so the price depends on the contract and how many you run. We quote after the walkthrough, once we have seen what your contract demands.

See it on your contract

Send us one signed contract. We will show you its clocks.

A short walkthrough on your own contract: which deadlines it creates, which are time bars, and how your team would work with them every day.

Book a walkthrough trevor@creatus.co.za