Conga CLM template is a common set of sections, clauses, text, and placeholders for terms and conditions. Templates can be merged with structured data to generate agreements or proposals. Templates are stored within an Apttus template repository, and are used to create quotes and contracts. A template can be termed as a blueprint or mold for creating distributable documents.

X-Author for Contracts is a Microsoft add-in designed to work with Microsoft Word. It allows users to dynamically interact with Salesforce data and updates Word with two Apttus-specific ribbons. In a typical scenario where an agreement/proposal document is sent to an external party for negotiation, the external party makes changes to the document as part of the negotiation.

Template Administrators maintain and manage contract and clause templates. These templates contain merge fields, which pull the respective field values to create distributable documents the template is generated. Template Administrators can perform the following tasks:

  • Create complex contract templates from existing Word documents or other contract templates kept in Salesforce
  • Apply conditional clauses or text to display if the condition is met
  • Insert smart fields enabling reconciliation with the agreement/proposal
  • Insert clauses from clause libraries which get resolved during the generation of the contract agreement
  • Translate contracts from one language to another

Ensure that the API name of the smart fields you insert in your template do not end with start or end.

If the changes to the document involve data belonging to the agreement/proposal record, then the reconciliation provides the mechanism to ensure the values in the document and the agreement/proposal records are reconciled.

For details, see X-Author for Contracts.

  • Setting Up Template Object for Contract Management
  • Securing Documents
    Word Trust Center/Protected View options can impact your ability to see generated documents and should be disabled before you begin using X-Author Contracts.
  • Agreement Clause
    Clauses have embedded merge fields contained within them that get auto-populated during agreement creation time.
  • Agreement Clause Subcategories
    Subcategory picklists display values based on what was selected in the Category picklist. The picklists also now behave the same for both the Playbook and Create Section dialog, in that they both have Category and Subcategory drop-down lists.
  • Creating Offline Agreements
    You can create offline agreements directly in X-Author by taking an existing Word document that was created outside of Salesforce and has not previously been associated with an agreement.
  • Auto Publishing
    Publishing templates improves document generation performance by taking referenced clauses in a template and 'publishing' them before the template is used to generate a document. This takes the content of the clause and enters it into the template body as static text, as if it was another part of the main template. Auto-publishing enhances this by enabling you to schedule a batch job, which will automatically complete the publishing task that previously needed to be completed manually.
  • Document Generation for Templates with Nested Clauses
    The Autopublishing features improve document generation performance, but some Contract Management customers choose to generate documents without using the Autopublishing features.
  • Query Template
    Using template filtering rules, you can set up user-defined filters to narrow the list of templates that display for tasks that involve previewing or generating documents. For example, for agreement templates created for multiple regions, you should only be able to select templates for the region to which they belong. The template filter uses agreement fields and related child object fields to select the templates to display.
  • Template Datasource Filter
    Template Datasource Filter enables you to filter the records of various business objects in your Agreement document based upon the filter criteria.
  • Dynamic Document Assembly
    Dynamic Document Assembly enables you to preconfigure filter rules that drive a sequence of prescribed dynamic clause insertions in a generated document. This results in a complete and well-formed agreement using a combination of contract field values. These contract field values are expressed as a user-configured key that determine the desired contract clause content during document generation.
  • Setting Up Template Filtering Rules
    By setting up the 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. The template filter is set up by an administrator and allows agreement fields and related child object fields to be used in selecting the templates.
  • Agreement Term Exception
    An exception clause or term is a stipulated condition in your agreement that may need approval from management, to grant or prevent certain allowances to or from a particular group of users in your agreement. Contract Management enables you to associate such exception clauses or terms to your agreement document as a separate agreement term exception record.