The Submit Request feature for a contract allows contract requestors to raise a new contract request. Contract rules enable the automation of processing the contract requests submitted by the requestors.

The administrator can define rules to identify if:

  • a contract document should be automatically generated after the contract is submitted for processing
  • the contract should be sent to a user group for reviewing and processing the contract

The following are some requirements for which contract rules can be configured to automate the contract request process:

  • If the record type is NDA, the system should generate a contract document automatically with a predefined template and send the document as an email attachment to the contract's primary contact.
  • If the contract is other than NDA and needs review and negotiation with the other party, the system should assign it to the legal team.
  • If the record type is NDA but contains non-standard legal language, the system should assign it to the legal team for review.
  • If the Total Contract Value exceeds $5000, the system should assign it to the legal team for review.

Contract rules can be configured with one or more conditions to determine how a contract should be processed.

Let's take a use case to understand how contract rules work.

Use Case

For a contract of type NDA with Non Standard Legal Language checkbox not selected, contract document should be automatically generated. But, if the NDA contract has Non-Standard Legal Language checkbox selected, the document should not be generated, and the contract should be forwarded to the legal team for review. Additionally, if the non-standard contract is with ACME International account, it should be forwarded to a the account-specific legal team.

To achieve the above use case, you need to configure contract rules as shown in the table below:

Contract Rule #SequenceRule TypeRule ValueInclusion CriteriaFilter Criteria
11Submit Request ModeAutoRecord Type Equals NDANonStandardLegalLanguage Equals false
21Agreement Template<contract template name>

31Email Template<email template name> 

42Submit Request ModeManualRecord Type Equals NDANonStandardLegalLanguage Equals true
52User Group<user group for ACME International account>Record Type Equals NDA
  • NonStandardLegalLanguage Equals true
  • Account Equals ACME International
62User Group<general user group>Record Type Equals NDA
  • NonStandardLegalLanguage Equals true
  • Account NotEqualTo ACME International

Now let's see, how the contract rules are executed depending on the contract information.

Scenario1: The requestor creates an NDA contract with Non Standard Legal Language checkbox not selected.

  • The inclusion criteria for all the contract rules configured above are satisfied. 
  • The system evaluates the contract against the filter criteria configured. It determines that the contract matches the filter criteria configured for Submit Request Mode rule of type Auto.
  • The Submit Request Mode rule of type Auto is triggered.
  • All the rules configured with the sequence same as that of Submit Request Mode rule of type Auto are triggered.

As a result of the above, a contract document is generated with the template selected in agreement template rule. The contract document is sent in an email using the email template rule.

Scenario2: The requestor creates an NDA contract with Non Standard Legal Language checkbox selected for ACME International account.

  • The inclusion criteria for all the contract rules configured above are satisfied. 
  • The system evaluates the contract against the filter criteria configured. It determines that the contract matches the filter criteria configured for Submit Request Mode rule of type Manual.
  • The Submit Request Mode rule of type Manual is triggered.
  • All the rules configured with the sequence same as that of Submit Request Mode rule of type Manual are triggered.

As a result of the above, the contract owner is changed to account specific user group selected in the user group rule.