This template is designed to help manage and track contracts through a formal review and approval process.
App Features
- You can record important inform about your contracts and manage them through to approval and execution.
- In order to organize and report on your assets, they are categorized in the following ways:
- Department – A list departments within your organisation, such as IT, Sales and Finance, etc.
- Contracts are reviewed by the business manager, then a Finance Department approver and finally a Legal Department approver.
- Approvers get notified whenever a contract is waiting for their review.
- The contract can be abandoned at any stage.
- View and report on contracts as they process through the approval process.
Contract Management Template Images |
|
Setting Up the Contract Management App
Please following these steps to get the Contract Management app ready for use in your organisation:
- The Contract form asks for the department the contract is for. To supply this list of department names, you need to go to Lookup Lists > Departments in the left side navigation, and create a Department record for each department name you want to use: i.e. Sales, IT, or Finance.
- You will need to assign the appropriate people to the security roles within the application. Go to Lookup Application Setting > Edit App in the left side navigation, and once the app design screen appears, select Security > Roles and Users in the left side design navigation. Then select each of the applications roles (discussed below in App Design Details), and use the right side panel, that appears when you select a role, to set who should be in the role.
Using the Contract Management App
When a new contract needs to be reviewed, enter the details into a Contract record. Once all the information is entered, click on the Submit button at the top of the form. The contract will then go through a three stage review and approval process:
- Business Review – The department manager or VP would usually do the business review. Here we are looking at whether the contact makes good business sense.
- Finance Review – Senior members of the Finance Department would usually do the finance review. Here we are looking to ensure that the pricing is competitive and that the department is staying within budget.
- Legal Review – Senior members of the Legal Department would usually do the legal review. Here we are looking to ensure that the contract terms are favorable and meet company policies.
At each approval stage the reviewer can mark the contract records as: Approved, Rejected, Returned to Requester or Abandoned.
After all reviewers have approved the contract it is marked as approved. Once the real contract is executed, the the app record is also moved to the Executed workflow stage.
App Design Details
- Department lookup records can only be created and edited by the App Admin role, but are visible to all.
- Contract records are the main records in the application, and can be created by members of the Editor and App Admin roles. Security for the record is detailed in the workflow section below.
- Security Roles, and their general purpose, are:
- Reader – Can read, but not edit, records.
- Editor – Can create and edit, but not delete, records.
- App Admin – Can edit delete all records.
- Business Reviewer (Dynamic) – Can edit and approve records at the Business Review stage. THe role is dynamic and is configured to be the person named in the ‘Primary Business Contact’ field.
- Finance Reviewers – Can edit and approve records at the Finance Review stage.
- Legal Reviewers – Can edit and approve records at the Legal Review stage.
- Workflow stages are:
- Draft – The App Admin role and the record owner can edit and delete the record, the Editor role can edit the record, and the Reader role can see but not edit the record.
- Business Review – The App Admin role can edit and delete the record, the Editor role can edit the record, and the Readers role can see but not edit the record. The Approver and App Admin roles can Approve and Reject feature records and assign them to a release.
- Finance Review – The App Admin role can edit and delete the record, the Finance Approver and Editor roles can edit the record, and the Readers role can see but not edit the record. The Finance Approver and App Admin roles can Approve and Reject feature records and assign them to a release.
- Legal Review – The App Admin role can edit and delete the record, the Legal Approver and Editor roles can edit the record, and the Readers role can see but not edit the record. The Legal Approver and App Admin roles can Approve and Reject feature records and assign them to a release.
- Approved – The App Admin role can edit and delete the record, the Editors role can edit the record, and the Readers role can see but not edit the record. The App Admin role can Execute the Contract.
- Rejected – The App Admin role can edit and delete the record, the Editors role can edit the record, and the Readers role can see but not edit the record.
- Abandoned – The App Admin can return the contract to the submitter so they can rework it and resubmit it.
- Workflow notifications are:
- Draft stage – On Submit the Business Reviewer (Dynamic) role, which is configured to be the person named in the ‘Primary Business Contact’ field, is notified that there is a contract waiting for review. The email template is called ‘Business Review Notification’.
- Business Review stage – On Approve the Finance Approvers role is notified that there is a contract waiting for review. The email template is called ‘Finance Review Notification’.
- Finance Review stage – On Approve the Legal Approvers role is notified that there is a contract waiting for review. The email template is called ‘Legal Review Notification’.
- Business Review, Finance Review & Legal Review stages – The submitter is sent a notification if the contract is rejected or returned, using the email template is called ‘Returned or Rejected Notification’. If the contract is abandoned a notification using the ‘Abandoned Notification’ email template is used.
Updating the Contract Management App
Don’t forget, as well as being a fully functional app that’s ready to go, the Contract Management template app can also be a useful starting point for you to build from. If you want extra information tracked for your contracts or want additional views to sort the contracts in different ways, you can make those updates yourself.