Best Practices for Version Comparison

Background

Getting the most out of Document Crunch's Version Comparison feature starts before you ever upload a second document. Because the AI is built to detect meaningful, substantive changes between contract versions — not just cosmetic differences — how you prepare your documents, navigate the summary, and work through your review process directly affects the accuracy and usefulness of what you get back. Following these best practices will help you run faster, more reliable redline reviews and get the clearest picture of what changed and what it means for your project.

Things to Consider

• The Version Comparison feature is designed for two versions of the same document — not for comparing a prime contract to an addendum or two entirely different agreements

• Documents that are more than 30% different will produce less granular summaries; the closer the versions, the more precise the AI's change detection will be

• New versions are uploaded from within an existing crunchview, not from the main upload page

• Reviews applied to V1 do not carry over to V2 automatically — you can manually add a review to any subsequent version

• Version Comparison is not available for crunches with a playbook attached

• For digitally stapled documents, both versions must contain the same documents stapled in the same order

• Documents with columns are not well supported at this time

Best Practices

• Confirm your documents before uploading — both versions must be the same root document (not a prime contract vs. an addendum); mismatched documents will not produce reliable results

• Use high-contrast markup colors — black, dark blue, and red are easiest for OCR to read; light yellow and light blue annotations may be missed in the comparison

• Prioritize Modifications and Deletions when reviewing — these represent the highest-risk changes where favorable language may have been altered or removed

• Use Chat to ask questions across all versions — Chat automatically reads the comparison report and all uploaded document versions to provide grounded answers; no need to specify a version before asking

• Ask targeted questions in Chat to go deeper on high-priority changes — be specific about the clause or change you want to explore (e.g., "What impact does the change to the indemnity clause have?" or "Were any payment terms modified between versions?")

• Download the comparison report to annotate and share — the report includes both document names, the date generated, your organization and team, a count of each change type, and a summary of every change with section and page references; use it to collaborate with your team or track review progress outside the app

• Upload additional versions as negotiations progress — Version Comparison supports V3, V4, and beyond; a new comparison report is generated for each version uploaded, giving you a round-by-round record of how the document evolved

• Manually re-apply reviews when uploading a new version — reviews from V1 do not carry over automatically, so add them to each new version as needed