nextAI - Contract Capture – ISPnext Helpcenter

1. Purpose of Contract Capture

Contract Capture is the nextAI functionality within Contract Management that automatically analyses contract documents and extracts contract data. After uploading a contract document (PDF), nextAI extracts relevant data points – such as contract name, dates, notice periods and other relevant data points from the contract – and automatically populates these in the contract form where the contract fields are located. The user reviews the extracted data and confirms or adjusts it before the contract is saved.

In addition to data extraction, nextAI offers the possibility to compare an uploaded contract document with the internally registered standard accepted purchasing terms and conditions via a Terms analysis. The results provide insight into clauses, risks and deviations compared to these own terms and conditions. Please see the other Help Centre article for this.

Contract Capture is intended for contract administrators and other users who create new contracts and edit or manage existing contracts within Contract Management. It ensures greater consistency in filling contract files, increases the amount of data recorded in the system as manual actions are drastically reduced, and if the functions within Contract Management are separated within an organisation, it prevents data loss when registering the agreement.

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Info: General guidelines for the responsible use of nextAI, including human oversight and responsibilities, are described in the article Responsible use of nextAI.

2. Access and permissions

No additional permissions or roles are required to use Contract Capture (data extraction when creating or editing a contract). The functionality is available to all users who have access to Contract Management and can already create and/or edit contracts via the Contract Management Moderator user role. nextAI for Contract Management must be activated in the environment.

Navigation path: Contracts module, create new contract

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Info: Contract Capture is part of nextAI, an optional module that must be activated separately. Please contact your account manager for more information about availability and activation.

3. Functionality overview

3.1 Data extraction when creating a new contract

When creating a new contract, a contract document can be uploaded. nextAI analyses the document and automatically extracts the data points displayed on the contract creation screen based on preset prompts. The extracted data is filled in the contract form for review, after which the user can confirm or manually correct it.

3.2 Data extraction for an existing contract

For an already created contract, you can also click the nextAI button in the 'Details' tab. However, you cannot upload a new document here but can choose from the PDF documents already uploaded as attachments to the contract to start data extraction. In this case, nextAI will analyse not only the data fields on the creation screen but all data fields with a prompt from the details tab. In addition to the extracted data, the system also shows the currently filled-in value in the contract file so you can immediately see if the data needs to be adjusted. This can be confirmed with a single click.

3.3 Supported file types

nextAI supports the following file types for processing:

PDF (text-based and image-based)

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Tip: Text-based PDFs generally provide the best recognition results. For image-based PDFs (scanned documents), the quality of the extracted data may vary.

4. Prompts and field configuration

There are two types of fields in a contract file: Standard ISPnext fields and Custom client fields. The ISPnext contract fields that are subject to data extraction have a standard prompt that you do not need to specify yourself but can adjust if necessary. Custom client fields must always be provided with a prompt by the client to include that field in the analysis.

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Note: If no prompt is saved for a custom client field in the admin module, the field will not be included in the nextAI data capture functionality.

4.1 System prompts and client prompts

One prompt can be set for both types of contract fields. There is a distinction between system prompts and client prompts:

System prompts are set by ISPnext for standard contract fields but can be adjusted by the client.
Client prompts must be set by the client for free fields (custom client fields).

4.2 Setting a prompt

Navigate to:

Admin > Contract Settings > Contract Settings > Contract Custom Fields

Admin > Contract Settings > Contract Settings > Personalisation

Select the desired field and open it (this can be a standard field or a custom field depending on the navigation route chosen as described above). In the configuration window of an individual field there is an AI Prompt section. Enter the prompt here that nextAI should use for this field.

If it is a standard ISPnext field, the prompt that will be used by default is shown below the AI prompt field so it can be supplemented or adjusted if needed.

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Tip: Prompts work best in English. Formulate the prompt as specifically as possible. Leave the field empty if nextAI does not need to include the field in the analysis.

Example of a client prompt for the field indexing information:

Find any information related to the agreed upon indexation terms in the contract. Make a summary of at least the described term, timeline and any mentioned exclusions or abnormalities. If indexation is not mentioned return: Not mentioned in contractual document. If the document states that indexation is explicitly excluded return: Indexation is not permitted.

After entering the prompt and clicking outside the text box, the field briefly turns green – this confirms that the content has been saved.

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Note: A green field only confirms that the prompt has been saved correctly, not that the recognition produces the desired result. It is important to test this and, if necessary, refine the prompt later. Prompts can be edited at any time.

5. Creating a new contract with Contract Capture

5.1 Navigation

Go to:
Contracts

Click the button to create a new contract. The configuration window for the new contract will open.

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Warning: Some contract fields such as category, supplier, template and contract manager will need to be filled in manually. This may be because these data are purely internal fields not present in the contract document, or because the number of options such as for supplier and category is too large to be sent to the AI processing layer.

5.2 Steps

5.2.1 - Upload document

Click Upload at the top right of the configuration window (to the left of the cross). Select the contract document to be analysed. nextAI processes the document and extracts the available data points.

5.2.2 - Check extracted data

After processing, the data extracted by nextAI is automatically filled into the corresponding fields of the contract form. This may be only the fields on the contract creation screen or the full detail card for an existing contract. Check the proposed data carefully.

5.2.2.1 - Process with extra detail (image-based PDFs)

If the extracted data is incomplete or incorrect after the first processing, it is possible to reprocess with a higher processing quality. After completing the initial processing, the option Process with extra detail is available for this purpose.

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Info: The option Process with extra detail is intended only for PDF files made up of images, such as scanned documents. More information about this option is available via the tooltip. For text-based PDFs, this option does not provide an improvement.

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Note: Processing with extra detail takes significantly longer than standard processing. Use this option only when standard processing does not provide sufficient results.

5.2.3 - Confirm or correct data

Next to each data point on the right is a tick box to indicate whether the proposed data should be adopted in the file. You can of course still manually adjust this data if it was partly incorrect or simply needs to be worded differently.

5.2.4 - Save contract or automatic saving of changes

Save the contract after checking and correcting the data. The filled-in fields are saved in the database. If it was an existing contract, all confirmed data points will automatically be updated in the file.

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Note: When creating a new contract, only the mandatory fields are extracted and filled in. After the contract is created, it is possible to have the document processed again by nextAI for all other fields. This can be done via the details screen of the contract, where the nextAI button is available.

6. Best practices

Preferably use text-based PDFs for the best recognition results.
Formulate prompts in English and as specifically as possible.
If the free field contains a dropdown list, nextAI will automatically include it; you do not need to repeat each option in the prompt.
Always check the extracted data before saving a contract.
Leave the AI Prompt field empty if nextAI does not need to process the relevant field.

7. Summary

nextAI Contract Capture analyses uploaded contract documents and automatically fills in contract fields.
Supported file types are PDF (text and image).
Client prompts can be set for free fields via the contract settings.
Manual adjustment of extracted data is always possible.