Redlining - Early Preview

Background

Redlining is Document Crunch's AI-powered contract review tool that automatically reviews your construction contracts against DC's risk assessment checklists and returns a plain-language risk summary, a detailed findings table, and a negotiated output you can download and use in your workflow. For .docx files, CrunchAI returns a Word document with suggested tracked changes. For PDF files, CrunchAI drafts an addendum reflecting the same suggested revisions. You can also save the output back to your project as a new version, keeping your negotiation history inside the platform and making it accessible through Version Comparison.

Things to Consider

• This is an exclusive early preview and must be enabled by your Document Crunch Customer Success contact before it will appear in your account

• Only users with Editor or Admin permissions can initiate a redline or draft addendum

• The option that appears depends on your file type: Redline appears for .docx files and Draft Addendum appears for PDF files — the underlying AI review is the same, but the output format differs

• Only .docx files support tracked changes, Save as New Version, and the clean/redlined download options; PDFs will produce an addendum document instead

• The review uses Document Crunch's fixed risk assessment checklists — Prime Contract Risk Assessment for prime contracts and Subcontract Risk Assessment for subcontracts; custom checklists are not available at this time

• Redlining and Draft Addendum are designed for construction prime contracts and subcontracts only

• Once downloaded, applied changes cannot be undone from within Document Crunch; tracked changes in .docx files can be accepted or rejected in Word using standard functionality

• Redlining and Draft Addendum can be initiated and reviewed on mobile, but the download option is not supported on mobile

Steps

There are two ways to launch a redline. Both entry points lead to the same experience.

Entry Point A: From the Crunch View

1. Open a project and navigate to an uploaded DOCX contract. Open the Document Chat view for that document.

2. Click the Redline button (for .docx files) or the Draft Addendum button (for PDF files) in the Quick Actions menu on the left, or type a natural language request such as "redline this contract" or "draft an addendum for this contract" in the chat input on the right.

   Remember: The Redline Quick Action will only appear for prime and subcontracts uploaded as a .docx. The Draft Addendum Quick Action will appear for prime and subcontracts uploaded as a PDF.

3. The agent will run the risk assessment. A progress indicator will appear in chat while the review is processing — wait for the two-part output to appear.

4. Review the Risk Summary — a narrative overview of the contract's key risk areas in plain language.

5. Review the Review Card — a checklist-style table showing each risk category, the specific finding, and its compliance status (Compliant / Non-Compliant).

6. Decide which suggested changes to apply. You must affirmatively select each change you want included in the final document — any suggestion you do not act on will be treated as rejected.

   Note: Not every suggested change will be appropriate for every trade or project context. Review each item carefully before applying it.

7. When satisfied with your selections, click Download to export your file.

   • For .docx files: download as a Redlined Document (DOCX with tracked changes), a Clean Document (DOCX with changes accepted), or a PDF.

   • For PDF files: download the Draft Addendum as a PDF or DOCX reflecting the suggested revisions.

   The file will be named with the original filename plus a timestamp.

8. For .docx files only: Optionally, click Save as New Version to save the output back to your Document Crunch project. The saved version will appear in Version Comparison alongside the original and can serve as context for future Project Assist sessions on that project. Saving is optional — you can download only and manage the file externally if you prefer.

9. For .PDFs only: Optionally, click Save to Project to save the output back to your Document Crunch project. The saved version will appear in Version Comparison alongside the original and can serve as context for future Project Assist sessions on that project. Saving is optional — you can download only and manage the file externally if you prefer.

10. For .docx files only: Open the downloaded DOCX in Word. Tracked changes are attributed to the user who initiated the redline and can be accepted or rejected using standard Word functionality before sharing externally.

    Note: Always review all suggested changes before sharing the document with a counterparty or attorney. You are responsible for the content of the output.

Entry Point B: From Project Assist

1. Navigate to a project in Document Crunch and open Project Assist from the navigation bar or project dashboard.

2. Type a natural language request in the chat input, such as "redline this contract" or "draft an addendum for this contract."

3. If the project contains multiple contracts, the agent will ask you to specify which one to redline. Select the correct file.

4. The agent will confirm the contract type — prime contract or subcontract — either automatically or by asking you to confirm.

5. If prompted to select a checklist, choose the default option (Document Crunch's Prime Contract Risk Assessment or Subcontract Risk Assessment). These checklists have been optimized for redlining.

6. Follow steps 3–9 from Entry Point A. The agent behavior and output are identical regardless of which entry point you use.

User-Directed Redlines & Addendum Edits

In addition to the automatic risk-assessment-based output, you can direct the agent to make specific changes to any contract uploaded to a project. Instead of asking the agent to "redline this contract," provide a targeted instruction — for example, "strike section 7 of the subcontract" or "redline the subcontract to state that liquidated damages are capped at 10% of the contract price." For .docx files this produces tracked changes; for PDFs it produces a targeted addendum. The entry points are the same as above. This also means you are not limited to prime contracts and subcontracts — any contract uploaded to a project can be addressed through a user-directed request.

Iterative Revisions

If you want to refine a proposed revision after the initial output, you can follow up with a conversational prompt in Project Assist to request further changes before downloading or saving.