In a lot of small offices, the person who signs software renewals is not a lawyer. It is the operations manager, the office manager, or whoever owns the budget line. The renewal lands in their inbox with a deadline, and the review is whatever they can fit in between other work.
That is the job I want to make easier here. Not "read contracts better." Just one repeatable check you run every time a revised agreement shows up, before your name goes on it.
I run Stepthrough, free hands-on AI and software training for white-collar workers. The tool in this routine is Foxit PDF Editor (affiliate link: I may earn a commission, at no cost to you). The steps below come from a free lesson I built on real Foxit PDF Editor Cloud screens from my own account, captured October 2026. The company, the vendor and both versions of the agreement are made up.
The problem: you review the new draft, not the difference
When a revised contract arrives, most of us open the new one and read it. That feels like a review, but it is not a comparison. You read looking for what you expect to change, and you fill in the rest from memory.
The expensive edits are the ones nobody mentioned. A number in the payment clause. A notice period. One new sentence in the middle of a section you already approved last year.
Lining up two PDFs by hand is slow. In the lesson's sample it takes about 40 minutes, and it is still easy to slide past one changed figure.
Why it matters for the person who signs
In the sample, the business is Bright Path Marketing, and Dana Reyes is the operations manager. Their software vendor sends version 2 of a subscription agreement and asks for a signature by Friday.
Here is what version 2 quietly changed, compared with version 1:
- Section 1: named users went from 25 to 20.
- Section 2: the fee went from $1,200.00 to $1,350.00 a month, and invoices are due in 15 days instead of 30.
- Section 3: notice to cancel went from 30 to 90 days, and the renewal increase allowed went from 5% to 9%.
- Section 5: a new sentence lets the vendor change, add or remove features with 10 days notice.
- Section 6: the liability cap went from 12 months of fees to 3 months.
The fee alone is $150 a month more, which is $1,800 a year. The person who signs owns that number whether they spotted it or not.
The routine, step by step in Foxit
1. Start from the version you agreed to. In Foxit PDF Editor Cloud, click Open File and pick the old version. In the lesson that is Sample-Subscription-Agreement-v1.pdf. This matters more than any other step, so I come back to it below.
2. Open Compare. Compare lives on the View tab in the ribbon. Click View, then click Compare.
3. Add the new draft. The Compare PDF Files dialog opens with your open file already set as the Old File on the left. Under New File, click Choose and pick the version the vendor sent (Sample-Subscription-Agreement-v2.pdf in the lesson). Both files show a preview, and the page range is set to all pages, 1 to 2. Click OK.
4. Read the count first. Foxit makes a new PDF called The result of Comparison.pdf. Page 1 is a Summary. In the sample it shows 10 total changes: 9 replacements, 1 insertion and 0 deletions. That count is your reality check against "just a few cleanups."
5. Walk every change in order. On the Compare Results tab, click Next Change. Old version on the left, new on the right. Read the right side for what the contract says now, and the left side for what it used to say. Replaced text has a yellow wavy underline, inserted text a blue underline, and deleted text a red strike. Keep clicking Next Change. It stops on each mark, so you never skip one.
6. Pull the list. On the left edge, click the Comments icon. Every change is saved as a comment, grouped by page. Click a page, such as Page 3, and each card says Replaced Text with the [Old Text] and [New Text], for example "thirty (30" to "ninety (90".
7. Keep a copy. Foxit keeps the result in your Foxit files. Click Download File in the top bar to save it to your computer, next to the contract.
8. Reply instead of signing. Send the vendor the changes you did not agree to and ask which ones they meant. In the sample, that reply lists seven changes. A short, specific list gets a faster answer than "please explain the changes."
Common mistakes
Comparing against the wrong old file. If you compare version 2 against the vendor's last draft instead of the version you agreed to, any change already sitting in that draft looks like "no change." Compare is only as good as the old file you give it. Keep the agreed version of every contract somewhere you can find it.
Stopping at the summary. The count tells you how many things moved, not which ones cost money. Money, dates and notice periods are where a small edit costs the most, so step through each one with Next Change.
Treating a mark as a verdict. Compare shows what changed, not whether it is fair. A lower liability cap is a question to ask, not an automatic no. For anything large, have a lawyer look at it.
A short checklist for every renewal
- I opened the version we agreed to, not the vendor's last draft.
- I ran Compare with the new draft as the New File and all pages selected.
- I read the Summary count.
- I clicked Next Change until the end and read the right side each time.
- I checked fees, payment terms, notice periods, renewal increases, new sentences and liability.
- I copied the old and new text from the Comments panel into a reply.
- I downloaded The result of Comparison.pdf and filed it with the contract.
- Anything large went to a lawyer before I signed.
That is the whole routine. It does not replace judgment. It just makes sure your judgment is working on the actual changes, not on what you expected to see.
Practice it step by step
I built this as a free, hands-on lesson. You click through the real Foxit screens yourself in a practice copy, with the same two sample agreements, and it checks each step as you go. It takes about 8 minutes and nothing touches your real accounts.
Practice comparing two contract versions in Foxit PDF Editor
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