At any point in the negotiation process, prior to finalizing the document, you can send an agreement document for review to your customers or other parties involved in the negotiation. After an agreement document is generated, you can send it for internal or external review to one or more reviewers. You can also select multiple documents and send them for review.

The parallel review is an unordered workflow that allows reviewers to review an agreement document without having to wait for another reviewer to approve it. After the review cycle has started, you can view the review progress for the document in the Document Versions section, whether the review cycle is In Progress, Cancelled, or Completed. A reviewer can upload the reviewed document or send the reviewed document to the Contract Administrator to upload it. The review cycle is marked as complete when all the reviewers have uploaded their reviewed documents. You can track review activity in the Document Version section on the Agreement Detail page when you send the agreement for review, add additional reviewers, cancel the review, or end the review.

When you navigate to the Review Cycle page, you can see all the review cycles for a document on the left panel and the latest review cycle details on the right panel. You can click any Review Cycle name on the left panel to view the review cycle details.

To use parallel review, you must send documents in the DOCX format with the Document Type as Agreement Document. The following conditions apply when you send documents for parallel review:

  • If you send documents for parallel review with any other file format (PDF, PNG, DOC, etc.), documents will go through the normal review (not parallel review).
  • If you send documents with other file formats along with DOCX, documents in other file formats will go through the normal review, whereas the document in DOCX file format with the Document Type as Agreement Document will go through the parallel review.
  • If you select documents with Document Type as Agreement Document and other file formats (PDF, PNG, DOC, etc.), you will see the Send for Review page instead of the Parallel Review page.

You can send related agreement documents according to the administrator configurations and the parallel review does not impact the status and status category of related agreements.

This feature spans X-Author Contracts and CLM. For more information, see Send for Parallel Review using X-Author Contracts.

Prerequisites

  • Your administrator must have configured the settings mentioned in Prerequisites for Parallel Review.
  • You must have a generated agreement document.
  • You must ensure that the Status Category of the Agreement is In Authoring or In Signatures.
  • You can only send DOCX documents for parallel review. 
  • You can view the Upload Reviewed Document button after you send a document for parallel review. 
  • If you are using Salesforce Lightning, clickjack protection is disabled. For more information, see Disabling Clickjack Protection.

Restrictions

  • If the reviewed document is less than 25 MB, you can reply to the review email by attaching reviewed documents. If the reviewed document exceeds 25 MB, you can share the document with the contract owner. The contract owner can upload the reviewed document and end the review. For information on supported file sizes, see Supported File Sizes in Lightning and Supported File Sizes in Classic.
  • If you select related or child agreement documents for parallel review and the Parallel Review for related agreements comply system property is disabled, documents are considered as supporting documents. You must not reply to the review email with related or child agreement documents after review. You can reply to the review email with the reviewed document that has your email address in the file name.
  • When you reply to an email with comments or add comments while ending a review, you can add only 32k characters.
  • When you track the review status from X-Author Contracts, the buttons on the Review Cycle page are disabled.

To send an agreement document for review

  1. On the Agreement detail page, click the Send For Review button from the Additional Actions section.
    The Select Documents page is displayed. You can view the latest version of the agreement documents. You can sort the columns to view ascending or descending order of data in a column.
  2. From the Agreement Documents section, select the agreement documents in DOCX format that you need to send for review. From the Related Agreement Documents section, select the agreement documents in DOCX format that you need to send for review.

  3. You can use the agreement documents search box to search for agreement documents with the document name. You can use the related documents search box to search for related documents with the document name, agreement name, or agreement relationship.

    If the agreement has any related or child agreement documents, you can view the Related Agreement Documents section and select related or child agreement documents in any format that you need to send for review. Only the documents in DOCX format are considered for parallel review. You can click the Show filters icon () to filter Related, Sibling, Parent, or Child agreement documents. 

  4. To add, remove, or reorder columns:
    1. Click the settings icon () to configure the fields to view the Select Fields to Display popup. 
    2. To add a new column, select a field from the Available Fields and click the  icon to move the field to Visible Fields.
    3. To remove a column, select a field from the Visible Fields and click the  icon to move the field to Available Fields.
    4. To reorder the columns, click  or 
    5. Click Save.

  5. After you select a document, the Next button is enabled. Click Next to proceed to the next step.
  6. In the Email Detail section, enter contacts or recipient email addresses.

    At least one contact must be available in your org. You can add up to of 150 recipients.

    When the APTS_IncludePrimaryContact admin entry is set to true, it adds the primary contact from the agreement to the To field of the email.

    When the APTS_DefaultSendersforReview_SendToOtherPartyForReview admin entry is configured with required reviewers, it adds them to the To field of the email. You can remove a default reviewer if needed.

  7. To update the email subject, you can enter the new subject in the Subject field.
  8. To change the email template, click the Select another email template hyperlink to change the email template. In the Select Email Template popup, select an email template folder from the dropdown and then select an email template. Click Save.

    The default email template is based on the value set for APTS_EmailTemplateForReview or APTS_EmailTemplateForReviewSignatures admin entry. If the admin entries are not configured, the default email template is set to the template provided by Conga. The default email template folder is based on the value set for the APTS_DefaultEmailTemplateFolder admin entry. 

    When the APTS_SkipEmailTemplateSelection admin entry is set to true, you cannot see the Select another email template hyperlink to change the email template. Default Template will be selected. For information on admin entries, see Admin Entries.

    The APTS_EnableValidationForEmailWithoutUserContact admin entry is not applicable in Lightning, the admin entry is still applicable in Classic.

  9. In the Permission Setting section, you can select one of the following document protection levels from the Document Permission dropdown.

    • Full access: To allow users to read and write. This option is selected by default.
    • Insert comments and tracked changes only: To allow reviewers to insert comments. All the changes made by the reviewer are tracked.
    • Insert comments only: To allow reviewers to insert comments.
    • Fill in form fields only: To allow reviewers to fill in the form fields.
    • Read only: To allow read-only access to reviewers.
    • Ignore: To inherit document protection used while generating documents.

      To view permission setting, you need to configure agreement protection. For more information, see Configuring Agreement Document Protection. When you select any of the document protection options except Ignore, the document protection selected while sending for review is given priority irrespective of the document protection applied while generating the document. 

  10. To add any supporting documents from your local drive:
    1. In the Attached Documents section, click Add More.
    2. Drag and drop or upload documents from your local drive.
    3. On the Upload Files popup, click Done after the documents are uploaded.
    4. Click Add.

      If the comply user property is not configured then you can view the add more button by default. 

  11. To remove an uploaded document, click the remove icon () beside the document name. The remove icon is not available for agreement documents If you need to remove agreement or related documents, click Previous and unselect the required documents.

    You can only remove uploaded supporting documents from the Attached Documents section. No review cycle or document protection is added for the uploaded supporting documents. 

  12. Click Send.
    The Status Category changes to In Authoring and the Status changes to Other Party Review for your agreement record.

    If the toggle Set field and clause permission is on, you will see the Next button instead of Send. You can toggle Set field and clause permission off if you do not want to set field and clause permissions.

    When you select PDF or documents of type Agreement Document for review or the Enable document permissions for review comply system property is disabled, you cannot see the Set field and clause permission toggle.

  13. Click Next to view the Set Document Permission page.
  14. Click Add beside Recipients to add additional recipients and enter an email address, contact, or user.
  15. Select or unselect field permissions and click the Clauses tab to select or unselect clause permissions.
  16. If you are sending multiple documents for review, select a document from the agreement name dropdown and repeat steps 13 to 14 to set permissions.

    By default, all documents have Full Access permission. When you switch between documents, the permissions are retained. 

  17. Click Send.
    The Status Category changes to In Authoring and the Status changes to Other Party Review for your agreement record.

To view the review cycle of an agreement

  1. Navigate to the Agreement detail page of an agreement sent for parallel review to view the review cycle details in the Review Status section.
  2. Click the refresh icon () to refresh the review status.
  3. Select the document dropdown to view the review status of the selected document.
  4. Click the Review Cycle Details hyperlink to navigate to the Review Cycle page.

(or)

  1. Go to the Document Versions section or the Documents tab.
  2. In the Review Status column, click the In Progress link to open the Review Cycle page.

Note

The Review Status column displays the Not Started link until the notification emails are sent to all the recipients. Click the Not Started link to navigate to the Review Cycle page and click the Refresh button to refresh the review status.

To view the review cycle of a document

  1. Navigate to the Review Cycle page.
  2. In the left panel from the document dropdown, you can select the latest version of the document if you had sent multiple documents for parallel review.

To add additional reviewers to the review cycle

  1. Navigate to the Review Cycle page.

  2. Click Add Reviewer. This opens the Email Edit page.

    The Add Reviewer button is not enabled for reviews in Completed or Canceled status.

  3. Enter Contact or User or Email details.
  4. Click Send. An email notification is sent to the reviewer. 

To end a review in a review cycle

  1. Navigate to the Review Cycle page.
  2. For a reviewer, click  and select End Review.
    This opens the End Review window.

    When you select the header checkbox to select all the reviewers in the review cycle, all the reviewers that have In Progress status are selected. Reviewers in other statuses are not selected.

  3. Click End Review to end the review without uploading the reviewed document. A message is displayed and you will receive a notification upon completion. An email notification is sent to the reviewer that the review ended without uploading the reviewed document.
  4. You can either click Upload Files or drag and drop your file. 
    This displays the Upload Files popup. You can upload only one file at a time. If you select a document unrelated to the current review cycle, an error is displayed.
  5. You may add a comment.
  6. Click End Review. A message is displayedyour request to end the review is being processed and you will be notified upon completion.
  7. Click Ok. The review status changes to Completed for the reviewer on the Review Cycle page.
    You must end review for each document individually. After the end review request is processed, the checkbox, End Review, and Cancel Review are not visible for that reviewer. The reviewed document is merged with the latest version of the document. When you end the review for all the reviewers, the review cycle status changes from In Progress to CompletedIf two or more reviewers have reviewed the same field or content, the review of the last reviewer is considered as final.

    If a document review fails while merging the reviewed document with the latest document, you receive an email notification regarding the failed review. You can retry the review up to three times. If the review fails again, you can cancel the review and initiate a new review. For more information, see Retry Review.

To upload a reviewed document from the Agreement Detail page

  1. Navigate to the Agreement Detail page.
  2. In the Agreement Action Panel, click Upload Reviewed Document to view the Upload Reviewed Document page.
  3. Click Upload Files to upload the reviewed document from your local drive or drag and drop your files to open the Upload Files popup. 

    You can upload only one reviewed document.

  4. (Optional) Add a comment in the Comments column.
  5. (Optional) If you upload an incorrect document, click the delete icon () to remove the uploaded document.

  6. Click End Review. The document review status changes to Completed.

To submit reviewed documents via email

Prerequisite: You must configure the email service and admin entry to submit a reviewed document via email. For more information, see Configuring Email Service for Ending Parallel Review by Email.

  1. Open the email containing review documents.
  2. Download documents and make the required changes.
  3. Reply to the review email by attaching reviewed documents and adding your comments in the email body.

    Conga recommends replying to the review email with a single attachment if the file size is more than 10 MB.

    You can reply to the review email with a single document or multiple documents. When you reply to the review email, make sure that the combined file size of reviewed documents is not more than 25 MB. The review cycle does not end if the file size of reviewed documents exceeds 25 MB or more than three reviewers send 25 MB reviewed documents simultaneously. Reviewers can encounter errors when the file size of reviewed documents exceeds 25 MB and more than 2 reviewers are in the review cycle.

    If you do not reply to the review email with a document that belongs to the current review cycle, you receive an email notification to attach a valid document.

    When you reply to the email with the reviewed document and the document processing takes time, the review cycle status is updated to Merge In Progress. If other reviewers also reply to the email at the same time and a document is already being processed, the review cycle status of the remaining documents is updated to In Merge Queue.

    Documents that are in the review are locked and are not available for sending for review and activation.

  4. To verify if the review has ended for you:
    1. Navigate to the Review Cycle page of the agreement that you have reviewed.
    2. You can see that the Review Status is Completed and the Comments column has your review comments.
    3. Activity log has a new entry that the review was ended.


To cancel a review in a review cycle

PrerequisiteThe Review Status must be in In Progress status to view the Cancel Review button.

  1. Navigate to the Review Cycle page.
  2. Select a reviewer or multiple reviewers and click the Cancel Review button in the header
    (Or) For a reviewer, click  and select Cancel Review.
    This opens the Cancel Review window.

    When you select the header checkbox to select all the reviewers in the review cycle, all the reviewers that have In Progress status are selected. The reviewers in other statuses are not selected.

  3. Add a comment (optional) and click Cancel Review.
    The review status for that reviewer changes to Cancelled on the Review Cycle page and the reviewer receives a notification email regarding cancellation of the review. The review cycle status remains In Progress until all the reviews are completed or Cancelled. If you cancel the review for all the reviewers, each reviewer's review status and the review cycle status changes to Cancelled and the original document is available for activation. If one reviewer has completed the review but other reviews are Cancelled in that review cycle, the review cycle status changes to Completed, and the reviewed document is considered the final version. 

To retry review in a review cycle

Prerequisite: When merge document fails due to any issue during a parallel review. 

  1. Navigate to the Review Cycle page.
  2. For a reviewer, click  and select Retry.