Trash Bin: How do I restore a deleted contract?

A contract is gone. One click too fast, the wrong row ticked, or someone tidied up and caught more than they meant to. The first question is always the same: is it gone for good? Almost always, no. Deleted contracts go to the trash first, and from there you can bring them back in full.

What's in it for you

The trash is your safety net for the moment your stomach drops. You need neither a support ticket nor a backup: you restore the contract yourself, with every field, document, task and link exactly as it was.

It also keeps the episode traceable. For each contract the trash shows who deleted it, when, and the reason they gave. That helps when you are tidying up — and again when an audit asks why a contract was missing for a while.

How it works

1. Click Trash at the bottom of the left-hand navigation. A number next to it — for example Trash (1) — tells you how many contracts are in there. You will also find the trash at the very bottom of Settings.
2. Find the contract using Search deleted contracts... or straight from the list.
3. Check the Deleted on, Deleted by and Reason columns. The deletion date is followed by how long you have left, for example (29 days left).
4. Tick the checkbox at the left of the row. A bar appears at the bottom showing how many contracts you have selected.
5. Click Restore in that bar.
6. In the Restore contract dialog, give a short reason under Please give a reason why you are restoring this contract. The field is mandatory (500 characters maximum).
7. Confirm with Restore contract. The contract is back in your contract list immediately.

You can also select several contracts and restore them in one go — via the row checkboxes or Select all in the bottom bar.

Common questions

How long do I have to bring a contract back?

30 days by default. After that, contracts are permanently deleted automatically; the yellow banner at the top of the trash spells this out. You can change the window under Settings → Organization → Organization details → Trash retention, choosing between Use platform default (30 days) and Custom retention period, where you enter the number of days yourself.

Anything from 1 to 3,650 days works — up to ten years. A system owner sets it, it applies to the whole organization, and it costs nothing extra. If you have retention obligations to meet, this is the lever: with a long window, deleted contracts stay traceable for years, complete with the deletion reason and the person who deleted them, instead of disappearing after a month.

What happens to the tasks on a deleted contract?

They disappear from the task overview along with the contract — including tasks already set to Closed. That is not a bug: a task in ContractHero always belongs to exactly one contract, and without the contract there is no task.

Restore the contract and the tasks are back immediately, with their status, assignees and due dates unchanged. They are only lost for good once the retention period runs out or someone empties the trash.

Worth knowing if you need a lasting record of which contract was deleted, when and why: a task is the wrong place for it, because it vanishes with the contract. The trash itself does the job — it shows Deleted on, Deleted by and the Reason. For long retention obligations, raise the retention period as well (see above).

Who is allowed to restore contracts?

Only users with delete rights — admins, or users with full permissions. Someone with write access alone cannot restore a contract, not even one they deleted themselves. In that case, ask a colleague with admin rights.

Does restoring lose any data?

No. Fields, category, status, team, documents, tasks, links and verification status all come back untouched. Only the Last updated timestamp moves to the day of the restore.

Are deleted documents, contacts or tasks in the trash too?

No. The trash holds deleted contracts. An individual file you delete from a contract via Remove is gone permanently and never appears here. Download such files first if you are at all unsure.

Tasks belonging to a deleted contract do not show up as separate entries either — they hang off the contract and come back with it (see above).

Good to know

• Deleting always requires a reason. In the Delete contract dialog, Reason for deletion is a mandatory field. It feels like friction in the moment, and it is exactly what saves you when someone later has to reconstruct what happened.
• The retention period is your compliance lever. Before building a process around deletions — tasks meant to document them, for instance — check whether a longer trash retention already covers the requirement. That is a setting rather than a process.
• Depending on your setup, deletion needs approval. The delete dialog notes that administrators are notified if approval is required. If a request is already running for a contract, no second one is raised.
• Contracts in the trash still count towards your contract limit. If ContractHero says you have hit the limit while your list shows noticeably fewer contracts, check the trash first. That is the flip side of a long retention period.
• Categories cannot be deleted while contracts of that category sit in the trash. They are still assigned to their category in there. Either wait out the retention period or empty the trash.
• Only system owners can empty the trash. Empty trash removes every contract in it immediately and permanently — there is no way back from that.
• The trash is not a backup. It covers misclicks, not the loss of a whole data set. If you need an independent copy of your data, that is a separate setup.

Related articles

• Write access: let your team edit without letting them delete — granting and withdrawing delete rights
• Approval rules: require approval before signing or deleting — make deletions subject to approval
• What information is available in the Change Log? — trace who changed what
• Backups in ContractHero: automatic or on request — an independent copy of your contract data
• How does billing work at ContractHero? — background on the contract limit

Updated on: 10/30/2026