Auto-Archive Contracts

This article covers the Auto-Archive functionality, explaining how contracts are automatically archived after their end date, how notifications can be sent to Contract Owners, and how archived contracts are managed.

 Restore Visibility

Estimated Read Time: 5 Minutes

Sections in this article:

• What is the Auto-Archive Feature?
• What Happens When a Contract Has Been Archived?
• View Archived Contracts
• Restore Archived Contracts
• Enable Auto-Archive on Contracts
  • Prerequisites
  • Existing Contracts
  • New Contracts
  • Bulk Update Contracts

What is the Auto-Archive Feature?

The auto-archive feature automatically changes the status of a contract record to Archived once they have surpassed their end date. This can be used in conjunction with the Contract Owner field to notify the owner X days before the contract end date that it will be archived, allowing for further review by the Contract Owner. Gatekeeper automatically processes and archives contracts once per day.

What Happens When a Contract Has Been Archived?

When a contract is archived, it is not deleted from your Gatekeeper instance. The record can still be accessed, but will not appear by default. This applies to contracts that have passed their end date and will not be renewed, those that were never intended to be fulfilled, or to remove test data.

When a contract has been archived, the following will occur:

• All meta-data continues to be available, including any uploaded files.
• It is removed from your Pipeline and Live Contracts lists. If applicable, this will keep you below your plan quota (Starter & Pro customers only).
• The contract is no longer reported on in any Dashboards within Gatekeeper. This ensures the number of contracts in the Overdue column of the dashboard is accurate, as archived contracts are not included here.
• The contract is removed from reports. This ensures that any figures and values reflect your active contracts.
• It will no longer appear in workflows, as they are generally configured to ignore archived contracts.

View Archived Contracts

To access archived contracts:

1. From the navigation menu, click Contracts.
2. Expand the Status filter and select Archived Contracts.
   

Restore Archived Contracts

To restore an archived contract: 

1. From the navigation menu, click Contracts.
2. Expand the Status filter and select Archived Contracts.
3. Expand the 3 dots on the relevant contract record and select Edit.
4. From the Status dropdown list, select either Pipeline or Live.

Enable Auto-Archive on Contracts

Prerequisites

Contract End Date (Mandatory) - A contract must have an end date to enable auto-archiving. For further information on setting an end date against a contract, see Contract Expiry Dates.

Contract Owner (Optional) - As well as automatically archiving a contract when the end date is reached, a notification can be sent to the Contract Owner. If no Contract Owner is set, no users will be notified when the contract reaches its end date is archived.

When a Contract Owner is assigned, they will receive an email notification X days before the contract’s end date, alerting them that the contract is scheduled for automatic archiving, allowing them to review and make changes. The notification timing can be adjusted as needed.

For further information on setting Contract Owners, see Adding a Contract via the User Interface.

Existing Contracts

1. From the navigation menu, click Contracts.
2. Expand the 3 dots on the relevant contract record and select Edit.
3. Click the Renewal section and select the Auto-Archive checkbox.
   
4. If required, select the additional checkbox to notify the contract owner before the end date, and enter the number of days.
5. Click Save & Exit.

New Contracts

1. Create a blank contract record.
2. Click the Renewal section and select the Auto-Archive checkbox.
   
3. If required, select the additional checkbox to notify the contract owner before the end date, and enter the number of days.
4. Click Save & Exit.

Bulk Update Contracts

If you need to enable auto-archive feature in bulk, you can use the export/import functionality to do this efficiently. See Import and Export Contract Data for detailed guidance.

Once you have exported your contract data, locate the Auto Archive column and change the value to Yes on all relevant rows. When completed, re-import your data.