How to Build a Contract Obligation Register (With Indian Vendor, Lease and SaaS Examples)
Most contract value is lost after signature, not before. A practical guide to building an obligation register: which obligations to extract, the fields to capture, who owns each one, and the alerts that stop leakage, with Indian vendor, lease and SaaS examples.
A signed contract is a list of promises with dates. If nobody owns the list, the promises are kept by accident. Service credits go unclaimed, renewals auto-trigger at old prices, rent escalations are missed by the tenant and over-applied by the landlord, and payment deadlines with tax consequences slip. An obligation register is the fix: a structured list of every dated or triggered duty in every live contract, with an owner and an alert. This is how to build one. Position as of October 2026.
What goes in the register
Extract from each contract anything that is (a) dated, (b) triggered by an event, or (c) measurable. For most Indian businesses that means:
- Payment obligations: invoice dates, due dates, milestones, escalations.
- Performance obligations: deliverables, SLAs, response times, reporting.
- Term events: expiry, renewal windows, auto-renewal, notice periods, price revisions.
- Compliance obligations: data handling, audit rights, insurance certificates, regulatory reporting.
- Conditional rights: termination triggers, step-in rights, credits and penalties.
The fields to capture
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Contract and counterparty | Vendor MSA, Acme Support Services |
| Obligation | Monthly availability 99.5%, credits for miss |
| Type | Performance / SLA |
| Who owes it | Vendor |
| Who owns it internally | Head of Customer Support |
| Trigger or date | Monthly, by the 7th |
| Evidence required | Vendor SLA report |
| Consequence | 5% credit per 0.5% below target, cap 15% |
| Alert lead time | 3 days before report due; immediate on miss |
| Status | Open / Met / Breached / Waived |
Four Indian examples
1. Vendor MSA with an MSE supplier. The supplier is registered as a micro enterprise. Section 15 of the MSMED Act, 2006 caps the agreed payment period at 45 days from acceptance (15 days if nothing is agreed in writing), and section 16 charges compound interest at three times the bank rate on delays. Since Assessment Year 2024-25, section 43B(h) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 allows the deduction only in the year of actual payment if that limit is missed. Register entries: MSE flag; "pay within 45 days of acceptance" with a 7-day alert to accounts payable; year-end check for unpaid MSE balances.
2. Commercial lease, Gurugram office. Rent escalation of 5% every 12 months from the commencement date; lock-in of 36 months; renewal option by written notice 6 months before expiry; registered under section 17(1)(d) of the Registration Act, 1908 as a lease exceeding one year. Register entries: escalation date with a 30-day alert to finance (both to apply it and to check the landlord's invoice); lock-in end date; renewal notice deadline with a 60-day alert to the office head.
3. SaaS subscription, annual auto-renewal. Renews for 12 months unless either party gives 30 days' written notice; price revision "on renewal" at the vendor's then-current list. Register entries: notice deadline (expiry minus 30 days) with a 45-day alert to the tool owner; a review task 60 days out to decide renew, renegotiate or exit.
4. Customer support outsourcing with personal data. The vendor processes customer data on the company's behalf. Section 8(5) of the DPDP Act, 2023 keeps the company responsible for safeguards on that processing; rule 7 of the DPDP Rules, 2025 (from 13 May 2027) requires the company to notify the Data Protection Board without delay and file a detailed report within 72 hours of becoming aware of a breach. Register entries: vendor's contractual breach-notification window (for example, 12 hours); annual security audit right with a reminder; erasure on termination (section 8(7)(b)).
A fifth, cross-cutting entry: under the second proviso to section 16(2) of the CGST Act, 2017, if a supplier is not paid within 180 days of the invoice date, the input tax credit claimed must be reversed with interest. Add "180 days from invoice" as a standing rule on every payables contract.
Who owns what
The register fails when legal owns every line. Assign ownership to the person who can act: accounts payable for payment dates, the function head for SLAs and renewals, the data protection owner for DPDP items, facilities for leases. Legal owns the register's structure and the escalation path, not the obligations.
The alert design
- Lead time matches the action: 7 days for a payment, 45-60 days for a renewal decision, immediate for a breach.
- Two recipients per alert: the owner and a backup.
- Escalate unacknowledged alerts after 48 hours.
- Close the loop: every alert ends in a status change (met, breached, waived) and evidence.
Starting from scratch
- Pick the 20 highest-value live contracts.
- Extract obligations into the fields above (an afternoon per contract by hand; minutes with AI-assisted extraction, then review).
- Assign owners and set alerts.
- Run for a quarter; count alerts that led to action.
- Extend to the next tier of contracts and make extraction part of the signature workflow for new ones.
Where Legatio fits. Legatio captures obligations at signature, holds the register against each contract, routes alerts to owners and records the outcome, so the register is a by-product of execution rather than a separate spreadsheet. The obligations and the Indian rules behind them are the same on any system.
Position stated as of October 2026. The examples are illustrative; terms vary by contract.