Check the term length and renewal mechanics, the notice period for cancellation, how pricing changes at renewal, what triggers additional charges, data ownership and export rights at termination, service commitments, and the data processing agreement. Most disputes later come from renewal terms and exit rights rather than from anything in the product.
Automatic renewal paired with a long notice period is the classic one. A contract that renews annually unless cancelled ninety days in advance means the practical decision point arrives nine months into the year, and teams routinely miss it. Read the notice window, diarise it immediately, and negotiate it down if it is unreasonable. The second is uncapped renewal pricing, where year one is attractive and subsequent years are subject to whatever list price applies. Ask for a cap or a stated maximum increase. The third is a definition of the licensed unit that can drift: if you pay per user, define what counts as a user, since some agreements count anyone with a login including hiring managers who log in twice a quarter. Clarify it before signing rather than at your first true-up.
Four things explicitly. That you own your candidate and hiring data. That you can export it in a usable, structured format during the term without a fee or a support request. That on termination you have a defined window to retrieve it, with the format named. That the vendor deletes their copies, including backups, within a stated period afterwards, and will confirm in writing. Also check any clause allowing the vendor to use customer data to improve their products or train models, since that has become common and is not always opt-out by default. If your organisation processes candidate data under privacy regulation, the data processing agreement should be attached and consistent with the main terms rather than contradicting them. Sort this out before signature, because leverage disappears entirely once you have migrated.
In the contract or an attached schedule, not on a web page the vendor can edit. Look for uptime commitment, how it is measured and what is excluded, support response commitments by severity, whether those refer to first response or resolution, and a named escalation route. Ask what remedy applies when commitments are missed. Service credits are modest in value but their presence signals that the vendor takes the obligation seriously. Check which tier your commitments belong to, since support levels usually differ by plan and the sales conversation may have described a higher one. If implementation assistance was promised verbally, get the scope, duration and deliverables written into the order form. Verbal implementation promises are the single most common gap between what was sold and what arrives.
Negotiable in most cases: term length, notice period, renewal price protection, payment schedule, a ramp for user counts as your team grows, implementation scope, and sometimes a termination right if defined milestones are missed. Rarely negotiable for smaller contracts: liability caps, jurisdiction, and standard security terms, which are usually uniform across the vendor's customer base. Prioritise accordingly, because spending your effort on a liability clause you will not win costs you the renewal cap you might have. Ask for redlines early rather than at the end of the quarter, and involve whoever signs at your organisation before the final week. A contract reviewed under deadline pressure is where the clauses you did not read become the ones you live with.
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