About CLM

A contract or an agreement is a legally binding arrangement between two or more entities. Contract Management (CM) or Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) is the process of managing contract creation, analysis, execution, and maintenance. Conga Contract Lifecycle Management (Conga CLM) is a cloud-based solution that standardizes, streamlines, and automates the contract lifecycle management process—from the initial request through drafting, redlining, sending for signatures, securing documents, managing obligations, and renewing contracts.

Conga CLM runs on the Salesforce platform and all the contract data is stored in Salesforce. Conga CLM data-handling practices are the same for Conga CLM as they are for any Salesforce implementation: cross-border data exchange, data transmission methods, data storage and encryption, and logical and physical separation of data.

As an administrator, you can design the user interface of Conga CLM by creating page layouts, customizing agreement actions, adding custom links, and customizing the action panel. Conga CLM lets you manage user profiles by configuring user permissions and secure the agreement documents by implementing document protection. With X-Author for Contracts, you can create agreement templates and agreement clauses and use Conga CLM to manage them. You can design workflows and agreement lifecycles in Conga CLM. You can integrate Conga CLM with eSignature solutions—Adobe Sign and DocuSign. You can also track agreement versions and secure agreement documents. Conga CLM allows you to schedule jobs to automate recurring tasks, such as refreshing agreement data, setting the expiration date for the links used to download multiple agreements, extracting intelligent data, and generating reports.

The following flowchart depicts the Contract Management process:

As a user, you can create a contract from pre-loaded templates or import a third-party document as an offline agreement document. Contract Management works with optical character recognition software to scan imported third-party papers and convert them to a searchable PDF. You can send your agreement documents for eSignatures if Contract Management is integrated with eSignature solutions—Adobe Sign and DocuSign. Contract Management is able to provide a set of standard or customized, reports to track activity status, expirations, non-standard terms, etc. You can also use Agreement Explorer to configure and reuse searches and reports.

An agreement goes through the contract management lifecycle according to the workflow defined by the application administrator. Your access to all the features of CLM depends on the roles and permissions assigned to you by the application administrator.

The following table lists the tasks that administrators and users can perform using CLM.

Administrator

Administrator/User

Manage user profiles
- Create, edit, and delete a user profile
- Add single or multiple users to a user profile
- Assign a license to a user
- Apply security and permissions to a user profile
Configure user interface
- Create and edit page layouts and record types
- Configure custom links on the home page
- Add the action panel
- Configure an offline agreement window
Manage templates
- Set up a template object
- Secure documents
- Organize agreement clauses
- Manage template versions
- Configure term exceptions
- Configure dynamic document assembly
- Configure auto and manual template publishing
- Set up template filtering rules
- Configure query templates
Manage agreements
- Set up an agreement request process
- Set up agreement record types
- Customize agreement actions
- Schedule jobs to refresh agreement data
- Set up an agreement output format
- Track clauses used in agreement documents
- Control access permissions for agreements
- Route documents to content libraries
- Configure agreement rules to route content
- Configure intelligent import
- Configure agreement versioning
- Implement agreement protection
- Configure contract wizard
Manage workflow
- Create, edit, delete, and validate workflow rules
- Configure workflow and approval email alerts
- Configure retention policies
Configure reports
- Manage cycle time reports
- Configure Agreement Explorer

For administrator functionality, see CLM for Administrators.

Work with agreements
- Create
- Generate
- Send for review
- Negotiate
- Finalize
- Sign/Execute
- Activate
Manage agreement lifecycle post-activation
- Amend
- Renew
- Terminate
- Expire
Work with offline agreements
- Create
- Import
- Review an agreement created by intelligent import
- Store an executed agreement
Manage document and template versioning
Run the contract wizard to automate agreement creation
Create, run, and delete an Agreement Explorer report
Execute SOAP and REST APIs

For end-user functionality, see CLM for Users, CLM for SOAP API Developers, and CLM for REST API Developers.

Key Terminology

It is important to understand how terms are used when working with Conga CLM.

Term	Definition
Action panel	A collection of agreement action buttons on the user interface that can be enabled for the Agreement Record page in the Classic mode for community portals.
Agreement	A set of terms and conditions agreed upon by two or more parties.
Agreement actions	The actions available at various stages of the agreement such as Preview Agreement, Generate Agreement, Regenerate Agreement, Generate Supporting Document, Send for Review, Send for Signatures, Import Offline Document, Activate, Amend, Renew, Expire, Terminate, and Cancel Request.
Agreement document	A document generated by merging information stored in a record with an existing template.
Agreement Document Protection	A feature that helps protect your documents when they are generated in Microsoft Word format. Contract administrators can configure document protection rules so that a contract user can perform any of the lifecycle actions, depending on the protection rules that are applied to specific user roles. There are four document protection types such as ignore, unprotect, prompt, and automatic.
Agreement Explorer	A search and reporting feature that allows you to search for records in the Agreement object using configurable and reusable search reports.
Agreement Line Item	A product or service line item that is associated with an agreement.
Agreement Lock	A feature that represents a lock on the agreement. The agreement is locked by the logged-in user automatically after the user checks out the agreement document. Only users with UnlockCheckedInDocument action permission can unlock the locked agreement.
Agreement Protection	A tab in the Conga Contract Management application that specifies protection settings (available on the Agreement Wizard) for agreements.
Agreement Rule	A condition that allows you to configure how an agreement request is processed when the user clicks Submit Request. Based on the administrator-defined criteria for a specific agreement record type, agreement rules can dictate if: A document is generated automatically when the agreement is submitted for processing. An agreement is sent to a queue for review and processing.
Agreement versioning	A solution framework for document versioning at the agreement record level.
Amend	An action that enables you to modify the terms of an active agreement. It creates a new version of the agreement record with an "amended" relationship to the original agreement. The new, amended record shares the same base agreement number as the original, with the decimal point incremented by one.
Apttus Retention Policy Schema	An XML schema that describes the retention policy specification. A retention policy determines the length of time a record must be stored. Generally, organizations apply retention policies to all records sharing certain characteristics, such as record type, region, and owner. You can edit the specification of a retention policy to define the date until which the agreement is retained.
Clause	A modular block of text that is used frequently across multiple templates.
Content libraries	An alternative contract repository option to organize files and manage user permissions.
Contract	An agreement between two or more entities, with specific terms.
Contract wizard	A wizard that prompts the end user to answer a series of on-screen questions, and then creates the Agreement record.
Contract Document Versions	A solution framework used for document versioning at the Agreement record level. Contract Document Versioning divides the version of an Agreement document into three parts: Major, Minor, and Revision. Each version of an agreement document is represented as a period-delimited numeric value in the Document Version Details object (for example, "1.0.0"). The first version of the document is created after you have created and generated an agreement. Subsequent versions are added during the review and negotiation phases. Version values are numerically incremented as various actions are taken on the document by different users.
Contract Management	The process of systematically and efficiently managing contract creation, execution, and analysis.
Cycle Time Reporting	A feature that enables organizations to track the elapsed time between any two statuses or status categories.
Custom link	Allows you to add a customized link to internal or external URLs.
Document	A dynamically generated output through merging information stored in an agreement record with the static text of an existing template. Output documents can be sent for review, approval, or signature.
Dashboard	A user interface that organizes and presents key statistics in an easy to understand format Agreement records that you own or have permission to access are displayed in the Agreements dashboard. You can customize the dashboard by configuring a ribbon that provides a quick view of the agreements and their corresponding status categories.
Document Finder	A feature that helps contract managers, sales persons, and legal teams to easily filter and find agreement documents directly from an agreement record.
Document output format	Document format (file type) to be used for generating an agreement document.
Dynamic Document Assembly	A feature that enables you to configure filter rules that drive a sequence of prescribed dynamic clause or attachment insertions in a generated document.
Expire	An action that marks the agreement as Expired after the agreement term ends.
Intelligent import	Intelligent data extraction functionality lets you import a third-party paper. Conga CLM works with optical character recognition software to scan the imported third-party paper and convert the document to a searchable PDF. Note You need to have an Intelligent Import license to process third-party paper in Conga CLM.
Merge web Service	Merge Web Service APIs for generating and manipulating documents.
Object	A definition of a specific type of information that you can store in Salesforce. Some objects are native to Salesforce, such as Contacts or Accounts, while others are specific to Conga functionality, such as Templates or Agreements.
Offline agreement	A third-party paper that you want to use as a basis for your contract.
Organization/Org	An organization (org) is a Salesforce instance with a defined set of licensed users. An org is the virtual space provided to Conga CLM by Salesforce. Your org includes all of your data and applications, and is separate from all other orgs.
Page layout	A UI element that allows you to organize the layout on an object detail or edit page. You can use Page Layout to organize the following elements for your users: Fields, related lists, and custom links Field properties (visible, read-only, and required) Page section customizations
Query template	This feature allows you to narrow down the list of templates available for document generation.
Record	A collection of fields with information about a specific item of a specific type (represented by an object), such as a Contact, an Account, or an Opportunity.
Record Type	An element that allows you to offer different business processes, picklist values, and page layouts to different users. A record type defines which page layouts users see when they view agreement records, based on their user profile. For example, you can create record types to differentiate your regular sales deals from your professional services engagements, offering different picklist values for each.
Redlining	Allows you to identify the changes made by reviewers and accept or reject changes according to your business requirement.
Renew	An action that enables users to create a new version of the agreement.
Reports	Salesforce delivers standard report folders that contain reports for each record type. For example, Accounts, Opportunities, Leads, and so on.
Retention Policy	A rule that determines the length of time a record must be stored.
Template	A blueprint to generate a variety of document types when merged with data from agreements or quotes.
Template filtering rules	The Template Selection page can be configured to set up user-defined filters to narrow the list of Templates displayed to the user for Preview/Generate/Generate Supporting Document/Regenerate tasks.
Template versioning	A solution framework of document versioning at the Template level to track template versions against generated documents.
Term exception	An exception clause or term is a stipulated condition in your agreement to grant or prevent certain allowances to or from a particular group of users in your agreement.
Terminate	Action on the Agreement Details page that enables users to terminate an active contract.
User profile	A set of permissions granted to a group of users for the purpose of limiting feature accessibility. According to a user's role in an organization, Conga CLM Administrator can assign a profile to the user. There are five basic profiles associated with Conga CLM—Administrator, Contract Manager/Template Admin, Read Only, Requester/Approver, and Contract Creator/Negotiator.
Wizard	A wizard that prompts the end-user to answer a series of on-screen questions and then creates the Agreement record.
Wizard Component Library	A tab that enables you to create reusable inputs and steps for your wizard designs.
Workflow rule	Enforcement of key business processes, allowing you to automate tasks, email alerts, field updates, and outbound messages without the need to write any code.

For more information about terms used with Conga products, see Conga Product Glossary.