AODocs Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) is a tool that lets you streamline and automate your processes throughout the entire lifecycle of your contract: creation, approval, negotiation, signature, ongoing management and renewals.
CLM lets you insert clauses into your contracts automatically. For example, you may want to create a clause called "Publicity" with two options, "Publicity allowed" and "Publicity not allowed". In your contract, you can select a specific clause and define which option to insert into the contract file when you assemble your contract.
This article explains how to create new clauses and set up contract templates so the text from your clauses is automatically generated when users create a contract from a template. It is aimed at:
- library administrators who must configure settings in the library administration
- end users who can create documents containing the text for the clauses once the library has been configured by the administrator
Automatically generated table of contents
Create a category and properties for your clause
As a library administrator, you must create a category (with values) in your library, corresponding to the name of your clause and its options. In the example below, we will create a category called "Publicity" with the values "Publicity allowed" and "Publicity not allowed".
For users to be able to select the various clause options, a library administrator must also add corresponding properties in the 05 Clause document class and the 03 Contracts document class. In our example, we will therefore add properties, both named "Publicity", one in the 05 Clause document class and one in the 03 Contracts document class.
1. Access the library administration interface.
2. Select Document classes and then 05 Clause.
3. In the Properties tab, add a new Category type property to the Type of Clause section. Give it the name of the clause you want to create. When creating your Category type property, you must also create a new category for your library.
Learn more from AODocs:
When you save your new Category property, it is added to the list of properties in the 03 Clause document class.
4. From the property you just created, follow the link to create a set of values corresponding to the various options for the clause. Learn more: Define values for categories.
In our example, we added the values "Publicity allowed" and "Publicity not allowed".
5. Return to the list of document classes in the library administration and select 03 Contracts.
6. In the Properties tab, add a new Category type property in the Clauses section. Give it the name of the clause, in our example, "Publicity".
Important: The name of the property must be identical to the name of the property you created in the 03 Clause document class and you must choose the same category. Learn more from AODocs: Assign an existing category to a new property.
Create documents containing the text for the clauses
You need to create one clause document for each option of the clause you added in the library administration.
Note: This can be done by end users if a library administrator has created a category and properties for your clause.
In our example, for our new "Publicity" clause, we need to create two clause documents:
- one containing the text for the "Publicity allowed" option
- one containing the text for the "Publicity not allowed" option
2. Click the New button and select Clause. A new clause option document opens in create mode.
3. In the Type of Clause section, select a value for the clause option that you are creating. In our example, we selected "Publicity not allowed" for the "Publicity" property.
4. Fill in the properties in the General info section. Enter the name of your clause option in the "Clause name" property. In our example, we entered "Publicity - Publicity not allowed".
5. Under Attachments, add an attached file containing the text of the clause.
Important: The file format must be either a Google document or a Microsoft word file.
Learn more from AODocs about how to add attached files to documents in libraries using the various storage platforms.
6. Save your clause option document. Its title is added automatically when you save.
Repeat this procedure for each clause option.
Send your clause for approval
If required, you can send your clause for approval. If your organization doesn't require this step, you can skip it. The next step is to add the clause placeholders in your contract template.
1. Check that there is at least one approver defined in the "Clause approver" property in the clause document. If no approver is defined, add one. Learn more from AODocs: Edit custom properties.
2. Select Submit for approval in the workflow menu.
The clause option approver receives an email prompting them to approve the clause option. They can either approve the clause or send it back to the initiator if an update is required.
Add the clause placeholders in your contract templates
1. Open the Templates view and select the template into which you want to insert the clause text.
2. Add the clause placeholder into the contract template at the position where the clause text should appear when you assemble the contract. The format of the placeholders is:
${insertDocument#propertyname}
where propertyname is the name of the Category property you created earlier.
Learn more: CLM: Manage your templates.