Custom Terms are the legal terms behind a Custom Agreement. You write them once, pair them with a Cover Page, and update them as your legal position changes without disturbing agreements that are already signed.

NOTE: Custom Terms are currently available to select customers. Reach out through the support bubble in the lower right corner if you'd like access.

Go to the Templates page and open the Custom templates tab. Your existing terms are listed in the Custom Terms table, along with the current version of each and the number of completed agreements that use it.

Click Add a new template in the upper right. Under Form-built templates you have two ways to create terms:

Set up Custom Terms opens the New Custom Terms page.

Give your terms a Name. This name is public-facing and appears in every agreement that uses these terms, so use something a counterparty will recognize.

Write the terms themselves in the Terms editor. The toolbar covers headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, bulleted and numbered lists, block quotes, links, and tables. If you'd rather work in markdown, click Switch to markdown below the editor.

Click Save when you're done. Your terms are saved as version 1.

Upload Custom Terms file takes terms you've already drafted elsewhere and brings them in as a file rather than editable rich text. Use this when your terms are already final and you don't need to edit them inside Common Paper.

To change existing terms, open the ⋮ menu on the row and choose Edit terms.

Every save creates a new version, and that version becomes the one new agreements are built from. Agreements that are already in flight or already signed stay pinned to the version they were created from, so updating your terms never changes an agreement someone has already agreed to.

Check the Completed Agreements count before making a significant change. It tells you how many signed agreements rely on these terms.

Choose View terms from the same menu to read the current version without opening the editor.

Duplicate creates a copy of your terms as a new, separate set starting at version 1. This is the right move when you want a variant for a different region, product line, or counterparty type. Editing the copy has no effect on the original.

Archive terms removes a set of terms from the list so nobody creates new agreements from it. Archiving does not affect agreements that already use those terms.

Custom Terms don't produce an agreement on their own. You pair them with a Cover Page, which supplies the fields your team fills out when creating an agreement. See Cover Pages for how to build one and connect it to your terms.