> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.alvahq.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Contracts and Recurring Revenue

> Track contracts, renewal dates, and recurring revenue in Alva.

Contracts track your ongoing customer relationships after a deal is won. They're where you manage ARR, MRR, renewals, and revenue changes over time.

## Creating a contract

There are two ways to create a contract:

### From a closed deal

When a deal moves to **Closed Won**, you can create a contract directly from the deal page. The contract inherits the deal's company, value, and contact, and its status is set to **Active** automatically.

### Standalone

Go to **Contracts** in the sidebar (under CRM) and click **New Contract**. Fill in the details manually.

## Contract fields

| Field                   | Description                                          |
| ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| **Name**                | A descriptive name for the contract                  |
| **Company**             | The company the contract is with                     |
| **Primary contact**     | The main contact for this contract                   |
| **Owner**               | The team member responsible                          |
| **ARR**                 | Annual Recurring Revenue                             |
| **MRR**                 | Monthly Recurring Revenue (auto-calculated from ARR) |
| **Billing frequency**   | Monthly, quarterly, annual, biannual, or custom      |
| **Contract start date** | When the contract begins                             |
| **Contract end date**   | When the contract expires (if applicable)            |
| **Auto-renew**          | Whether the contract renews automatically            |
| **Service level**       | The tier or level of service                         |
| **Notes**               | Any additional context                               |

## Contract statuses

| Status        | What it means                                                                         |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Active**    | The contract is live and generating revenue                                           |
| **Pending**   | The contract is agreed but not yet started (e.g. linked to a deal that hasn't closed) |
| **Cancelled** | The customer cancelled the contract                                                   |
| **Expired**   | The contract end date has passed                                                      |
| **Suspended** | The contract is temporarily on hold                                                   |

## Revenue tracking

### ARR and MRR

When you set the **ARR** (Annual Recurring Revenue), the **MRR** (Monthly Recurring Revenue) is calculated automatically by dividing by 12.

### Expansion and contraction

You can record revenue changes on a contract:

* **Expansion** — the customer increased their spend (upsell, more seats, higher tier)
* **Contraction** — the customer reduced their spend (downgrade, fewer seats)

These are tracked separately so you can see net revenue movement over time. The initial ARR is preserved for comparison.

## Renewals

The **next renewal date** is set to the contract end date by default. If **auto-renew** is enabled, the contract continues automatically; if not, you'll want to track the renewal and create a new deal for the renewal negotiation.

## Searching and filtering

The Contracts page supports:

* **Search** — by contract name or company name
* **Filter by status** — show only active, pending, cancelled, etc.

## Linking deals to contracts

When a contract is created from a deal, the deal is automatically linked. This means:

* The deal's type is set to "subscription\_initial"
* The deal page shows the linked contract
* The contract page shows the originating deal

Future renewal or expansion deals can also be linked to the same contract, giving you a complete revenue history.