ChatGPT can help organize supplied documents, but an extraction is not a legal assessment. OpenAI's guidance on reviewing results, checked October 24, 2026, calls for checking important details and appropriate expert review for legal decisions. This guide prepares that review; it does not recommend signing, interpret enforceability, or supply replacement legal language.
Check what the packet actually contains
Use only an agreement you are authorized to provide through your organization's approved process. If that permission or the handling route is unclear, resolve it before uploading. Removing names alone may leave sensitive terms and identifying context.
Inventory the main agreement, schedules, referenced policies, amendments, and any signature pages provided. Ask ChatGPT to list what it can read and what is missing. Confirm that list yourself against the files; a confident answer is not proof every page was processed.
The following clauses form an original fictional teaching packet. They are deliberately incomplete and were not extracted by ChatGPT:
| Location | Supplied wording | Preparation question |
|---|---|---|
| Section 2 | Services are described in Schedule A. | Is the supplied Schedule A the referenced version? |
| Section 4 | Fees are payable within 15 Business Days after receipt of an accepted invoice. | Where is invoice acceptance defined, and what records establish it? |
| Section 1 | Business Day excludes weekends and holidays listed in Schedule B. | Can the reviewer obtain the missing Schedule B? |
| Section 4.2 | Fees are set out in Schedule B. | Which fee schedule belongs with this agreement? |
Schedule A is present in this packet; Schedule B is not. The packet does not define “accepted invoice.” Those are document and wording gaps to resolve, not findings that a contract is valid, invalid, fair, or unfair.
Follow definitions and cross-references together
Ask for the exact clause, its location, the defined terms it uses, and the referenced material. Check each quotation in the original. Preserve “receipt of an accepted invoice”; shortening it to “receipt of an invoice” removes a condition.
Do not calculate a payment deadline from these excerpts. The acceptance trigger and holiday list remain unresolved. Keep a question for the reviewer instead of asking the model to choose an interpretation.
The University of Arkansas's supplier-contract guidance emphasizes confirming contract information and seeking assistance with unclear wording. Its institutional routing applies to that university. Use your own organization's authorized reviewer and process for a real agreement.
Copy an extraction-only review prompt
Prepare a factual question list for an authorized contract reviewer.
Agreement name, version and my role: [ENTER]
Permitted main agreement, schedules and amendments: [ATTACH OR PASTE]
Review scope: document completeness, defined terms, cross-references,
and source wording needed to understand stated obligations.
First inventory the files and readable sections. Identify referenced
documents not supplied. Then return: clause/location | exact quote |
defined terms/references | supplied supporting location | question.
Keep quotations exact and distinguish missing documents from a term
you could not locate. Do not infer that missing from this packet means
missing from the executed agreement.
Do not invent standard terms, calculate dates from unresolved triggers,
judge enforceability, recommend acceptance, or draft legal changes.
List unreviewed sections and uncertain extraction. Do not alter originals,
contact the counterparty, sign, send or publish anything.
Take the questions back to the complete agreement
Retrieve Schedule B through the authorized channel and give the reviewer the original packet, exact quoted questions, and its version labels. A newly supplied schedule needs confirmation that it belongs to this agreement; a matching filename alone is insufficient.
If two versions need comparison, use the separate document-comparison workflow. Keep its differences beside this completeness check. Let the authorized reviewer resolve the meaning and required action before updating any payment instruction or contract record.