Getting a contract right often takes more than one person. With internal comments and suggestions, your colleagues can comment on specific text and suggest new wording directly in the contract, while it’s a draft and after it’s been sent. You decide which suggestions to accept, and nothing internal is ever shown to your recipients.
Internal suggestions sit alongside recipient suggestions. You can use both: agree on the wording with your team, then negotiate with your buyer on the signing page.
Turn on internal suggestions
Internal suggestions are off by default. You can turn them on at three levels.
For your whole entity (admins)
Go to Settings › Document settings › General.
Toggle on Enable internal suggestions.
This sets the default for all new documents and templates on your entity. Existing documents keep their current setting.
For a contract template
Open the template’s settings.
Toggle on Enable internal suggestions.
Every contract created from the template inherits this setting. Anyone with edit access to the template can change it. New templates start from your entity default.
For a single contract
Open the contract and go to its document settings.
Under Comments & suggestions, toggle on Enable internal suggestions.
The contract owner can turn this on or off for any contract, whatever the entity or template setting.
Note: Suggestions need comments to work. Turning on internal or recipient suggestions also turns on comments.
Who can do what
Role | Comment internally | Comment so recipients can see | Suggest changes | Accept or decline suggestions |
Contract owner | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Admin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Other colleagues | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Recipients | No access to anything internal |
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Suggest changes
Open the contract and switch the editor from Editing to Suggesting.
Select the text you want to change.
Type your new wording, or delete the text.
Your suggestion appears as a tracked change in the contract and as a card beside the page. Everyone with the contract open sees it right away, without reloading.
You can switch to Viewing at any time to read the contract without making changes.
Add internal comments
Highlight the text you want to comment on.
Write your comment and post it.
To bring someone in, type @ and choose a colleague. They’ll get an email that takes them straight to the comment.
You can reply to comments, and resolve or delete them when you’re done. Comments can’t be edited after posting.
Comments on sent contracts. While a contract is a draft, every comment is internal. After you send it, owners, admins and managers choose who can see each new comment. Every comment is labeled Internal or Visible to recipients, and the reply box shows when recipients will see your reply. Comments from the draft stay internal after you send.
To find comments quickly, filter the comment history by status or by who can see them.
Review suggestions
As the contract owner or an admin, you can respond to each suggestion in three ways:
Accept: the new wording is applied to the contract.
Decline: add a reason, and the colleague is notified.
Ask for changes: the colleague can rewrite the suggestion and send it back from the same card.
When a colleague makes a suggestion, the owner sees it marked “Your turn”. Every decided suggestion is kept in the history, along with its reason.
Suggestions on a sent contract
Colleagues can keep suggesting changes after you send a contract, until any recipient has signed or approved.
When you accept a suggestion on a sent contract, the new text is saved as Unpublished changes. Recipients only see it once you publish a new version. Learn more about updating a sent document in Understanding Document Lifecycle.
Note: Once any recipient has signed or approved, colleagues can no longer suggest changes.
Why you can’t send or publish yet
While a suggestion is still open, you can’t:
send a draft
publish a new version
restore an earlier version.
The button shows what needs a decision first. Accept or decline every open suggestion to continue.
What recipients see
Nothing internal reaches your recipients. Internal comments and suggestions never appear on the signing page, in emails or on the signing certificate.
Recipients only see:
comments you’ve marked Visible to recipients
the final wording once it’s published
suggestions from recipients themselves, if recipient suggestions are on.
Notifications
Colleagues get an email when:
they’re @mentioned
you ask them for changes to a suggestion
their suggestion is accepted or declined.
If the contract owner suggests a change themselves, nobody is notified unless they @mention someone.
FAQs
Can recipients see internal comments or suggestions?
No. They’re never shown on the signing page, in emails or on the signing certificate.
What’s the difference between internal and recipient suggestions?
Recipient suggestions come from your buyers on the signing page. Internal suggestions come from your colleagues and are only visible to your team. They have separate settings, and you can use both on the same contract.
Who can accept or decline a suggestion?
The contract owner or an admin.
Can I turn internal suggestions off later?
Yes. Any suggestions that are still open stay visible to the owner, so the contract never gets stuck.
Does this work with Deal Rooms?
No. This applies to contracts only.