When someone sends you an agreement through Common Paper, you can negotiate it in the app instead of trading marked-up documents over email. You can propose changes to the terms, and when the other side proposes changes back, you decide whether to sign or counter.

This article is for the person receiving an agreement. If you are the one who sent it, see Proposing Changes to a Sent Agreement.

Open the agreement using the link in the email you received. From the agreement view, click Other actions and select Propose changes.

This opens the cover page editor, where you can update the deal terms. Long-form fields like Purpose use a rich text editor, and you can click Switch to markdown if you would rather write in markdown.

When you are ready, click Submit changes in the top right corner. The sender receives an email letting them know you have requested changes.

To discard your edits instead, click Cancel changes. Your changes are lost immediately, with no confirmation step.

NOTE: There is no preview. Your edits are either submitted to the sender or discarded.

Propose changes appears only when the sender has allowed negotiation on the agreement, and only while the agreement is unsigned. If it is not in the Other actions menu, contact the sender directly and ask them to enable it or to send an updated version.

The sender is notified by email and the agreement moves into a state where they are asked to review your changes. While you wait:

When the other side proposes changes, you get an email. Open the agreement and you will see a redlined version of the cover page, with the changed text called out in red.

You have two options.

To accept, sign the agreement. Depending on your setup, the button reads either Sign agreement or Accept and send for signature.

Signing accepts every proposed change and incorporates it into the document, then sends the agreement back to the other party for their signature.

To push back, click Other actions and select Propose changes, then edit the terms as described above. The agreement goes back to the other party, who can then sign it or propose another round.

You cannot accept some of the proposed changes and reject others. Signing accepts all of them. To keep most of what the other side proposed while pushing back on one term, use Propose changes and edit that term back to what you want.

NOTE: There are no per-change Accept, Reject, or Counterpropose buttons on a Common Paper agreement. Those decision options belong to Gerri, a separate product that reviews redlined .DOCX uploads. They do not appear here.

You can go back and forth as many times as you need. Each round sends the agreement to the other party and waits for their response. Negotiation ends as soon as either party signs.