Your first dossier — read a contract and find the last day to cancel

Paperwell keeps everything about one matter — a contract, an application, a policy update — in a dossier: the documents, every tool result and your own notes. The dossier lives in this browser; a document only leaves it when you run a tool on it. This tutorial uses an invented example, so you can try everything without your own files.

1. Open the example

Click Launch Paperwell. The Overview shows Start from a template. Choose SaaS contract before signing — a two-year software subscription with automatic renewal.

The screen has three columns:

• Documents on the left: the library of the dossier. Northwind subscription agreement.txt is the only document. Press / to filter it.
• The view in the middle. The tabs above it switch between Overview, Read, Compare, Deadlines, Pages, Redact, Forms, Checks, Batch and Report (keys 1 … 9, 0).
• Document details on the right: name, kind of document, tags, a note, the lineage (where a document came from) and the tool runs of the selected document.

The four cards on the Overview count documents, tool runs, high-attention findings and open deadlines.

2. Run the next step

Next steps lists what Paperwell can do with your documents right now. Here it says Read the contract “Northwind subscription agreement.txt”. Press Run.

The text goes to the site’s before-you-sign tool. The status bar at the bottom shows the progress and then the summary, for example Flagged 13 clauses in 11 categories (11 high, 0 medium, 2 low attention). You can keep working while a tool runs.

3. Read the findings

Open Read (key 2). The tabs Contract reading, Privacy policy, Form explainer and Identifiers & data are the readers; Contract reading is selected for a contract.

Each finding is a clause category — Minimum term / lock-in, Automatic renewal, Notice period, Price changes / escalation and so on — with the attention level, the quoted wording from the contract and Questions to ask before you sign. The quotes let you check every claim against the text above.

The reading is rule-based: it finds typical wording, not every clause, and it is not legal advice.

4. Turn the notice period into a deadline

In the contract reading, press Open notice deadline. The Deadlines view opens with the contract Northwind Metrics subscription: start date, Kind of contract (Fixed term: notice before the end of the term), Initial term 24 months, Automatic renewal 12 months and Notice period 90 days — the numbers the reading found.

Below the fields, Terms and notice deadlines lists every term with its start, end and Last notice day. With a start on 1 November 2026, the first term ends on 31 October 2028 and the notice must arrive by 2 August 2028. Change any field and the table follows immediately.

5. Export to your calendar

Reminders (days before) is set to 30 and 7. Press Calendar file (.ics) for this contract, or Export all (.ics) for every deadline in the dossier, and import the file into your calendar app. Re-importing a newer file updates the events instead of duplicating them.

Public holidays and the way notice must be delivered are not considered — keep proof of delivery.

6. Nothing to save by hand

The bar next to the dossier name says Saved in this browser: every change is autosaved, Ctrl+Z undoes it. Your dossiers are listed under File → Templates and recent dossiers….

Next: compare two offers and two policy versions.