Working with Clauses (Pre-FX2)
Even though you will have standard clauses that you wish to use in every contract, through negotiations, your trading partners will not always agree with them – as you know. We provide the concept of template libraries - alternative clauses or sometimes known as fallback provisions. This simply allows you to select the alternative language with differing degrees of risk and acceptability so that you can replace your current clause with it.
As with contract language templates, clauses also can have embedded merge fields contained within them that gets auto-populated during agreement creation time. Please ensure that you markup the clause template documents using Microsoft Word to identify the merge fields similar to the language templates.
Creating Clauses
Clauses or clause templates are created and maintained the same way as agreement templates. The difference is that clauses are smaller sections of text that can be manually added during the negotiation process or automatically added to an agreement using conditional logic, whereas agreement templates are comprehensive terms and conditions and can be used by the Apttus Merge Server to generate an actual agreement. Open your clause document in Word or create a new one by pasting a pre-existing clause from the clause library into a new blank document.
As mentioned before, you can keep the clause the way it was or you can add merge fields or FX2 fields, conditional text, or change it any way you like. Once you’re sure the clause is the way you want it, select either Check-In or Clone menu to save the clause to Apttus.
Enter appropriate properties for the clause. You can select multiple agreement types this clause applies to or deselect types by clicking while holding the Ctrl key down. When finished, click Save or Clone. A message should appear saying the clause template was created.
Updating Clauses
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Make the required changes to the clause and click Check-In.
Best Practices on Using Clauses
For best results with your templates follow the best practices described as under:
- Do not start or end a clause with a smart field. The clause must have an empty line or some text at the start and the end of the clause.
- Do not start or end a clause with a repeat-table. You must add an empty line or some text before and after a table.
- Two clauses must not be side by side without space.
- You must insert a blank line (not a new line) between two consecutive clauses.
- Avoid using repeat table or Microsoft Word table inside a clause, as it may result in unexpected behavior.
- Using Refresh Clause on a clause containing a Microsoft Word table may result in an incomplete update of the table cell values.
