Configure eNegotiate

Take Control

Estimated Read Time: 12 Minutes

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Sections in this article:

• Part 1 - Create the Record and Draft Version 1
• Part 2 - Enable Draft Submission/Approvals/Redlines
• Part 3 - Draft Finalisations
• Part 4 - Signing the Contract

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Introduction

eNegotiate allows you to create, redline, publish and  sign a contract document via workflow within Gatekeeper. There are the four key stages required leverage Gatekeeper's full contract negotiation suite, but your workflow can include as many additional approval or collaboration steps as necessary. This article will cover each step of configuring eNegotiate on a workflow. 

 

Part 1 - Create the Record and Draft Version 1

To initiate negotiations on a contract draft, a Contract Record must be associated with the workflow card. Only then can you create or associate the initial draft agreement.

There are four standard methods to achieve this:

Method 1: Manual Actions

Enabling one or both of the below actions allows users to simultaneously create the Contract Record and choose the first version of the draft agreement:

• Create Contract with eNegotiate Draft: This action allows users to select a prebuilt contract template, pulling in Contract metadata to use in the document.
• Create Contract and associate a Contract Master Draft: This action allows users to use a .docx file which has been previously attached the form, or upload one directly as the first version of the draft agreement.

These actions can both be enabled at the same time, so users can choose between prebuilt templates/form attachments/their own uploads depending on the contract being reviewed.

There are also separate actions for these if they should be performed at different stages/by different users:

• Create Contract to create the metadata record.
• Generate Draft from Contract to create a draft from a prebuilt template.
• Associate a Contract Master Draft to use a form attachment or upload a file.
  
  

🆕 PDF Support for Drafts
You can now upload a PDF file instead of a .docx to initiate contract negotiation.

✅ Supported formats: Microsoft Word (.docx) and PDF (.pdf).

❗ Important: When starting with a PDF, negotiation must follow the Internal and External Negotiation process.

⚠️ PDFs do not support dynamic field merging, template handlebars, or tracked redlines. For editable, templated contracts, continue using .docx.

Method 2: AutoActions

To remove administrative burden/delays, you can automate these actions on two sequential phases:

• AutoAction | Create Contract followed by AutoAction | Generate Draft from Contract
• AutoAction | Create Contract followed by Associate a Contract Master Draft

Currently, draft documents cannot be automatically associated. If you aren't using an eNegotiate Template document, you must manually select an attached file using the Associate Draft'workflow action.

Once you have generated a document using an eNegotiate template, editing the fields in the repository will not affect the document content.

Method 3: Associate a draft from a workflow file or AI Extract

If using an Attached File field within your workflow form, you can choose to code this field to associate a draft. Alternatively, you can associate an AI Extracted file as your draft.

• Associate a Contract Master Draft: This action allows you to manually select a file linked to the current workflow card or upload a file directly to the workflow for use as the draft.
  
• AutoAction | Associate a Contract Master Draft: This AutoAction enables you to either use an AI-extracted file or choose a specific field from your workflow to designate as the draft. It is frequently applied with Attached File field types for contract uploads.
  
  

✨ Update: PDF files are now accepted in this step, alongside .docx.

✔ Ensure the uploaded file is either a .docx or .pdf. Other file types are not supported and will cause the AutoAction to fail.

📌 For PDF files, the negotiation process must be routed through Internal & External Negotiation due to format limitations.

Part 2 - Enable Draft Submission/Approvals/Redlines

For External Vendor Users

It is possible to automatically send draft versions to external parties via the workflow notification, with action links embedded in the email. These action links allow the vendor to submit their own version or accept/reject the current terms.

To configure an external eNegotiate phase, follow the below steps:

1. Navigate to the workflow and click on the phase to edit it.
2. Click the Form Access section then select the Vendor eNegotiate checkbox. Changes are saved automatically.
3. From Auto-assign card owner by, select an individual phase owner (for example Contract Owner or First Vendor User).
   1. This must be an individual user because the notification email contains unique submit/approve/reject action links. Sending these to multiple people could lead to confusion with contradicting document revisions.
4. From the Notifications section, enable the email notification toggle for the Card Owner. Click the pencil icon to ensure that the Button Type is set to eNegotiate.
5. From the Approval section, select the Enabled radio button. (This can be omitted if you need the Vendor to upload a revised version, and don't want them to proceed without providing an updated contract version).
6. From the Actions section, select the Submit Contract Draft checkbox.
   1. If required, select the Email - Submit & Approval Only checkbox to remove the ability for Vendor Users to reject a draft, meaning they will only be able to Submit a new version or Accept the latest version.
7. Configure the transitions from the phase based on the draft actions taken:
   1. Suggestion for Submit : Send to your internal eNegotiate phase
   2. Suggestion for Approve : Send to Draft finalisation/eSign phase
   3. Suggestion for Reject (if allowed): send to your internal eNegotiate phase

For Internal Users and Groups

To allow internal users continue the draft negotiation cycle by submitting new versions, follow the below steps:

1. Navigate to the workflow and click on the phase to edit it.
2. From the Form Access section, configure the settings for the relevant individual/team who should be managing contract negotiations.
3. From the Notifications section, enable the email notification toggle for the individual/team.
4. From the Approval section, select the Enabled radio button.
5. From the Actions section, select the Submit Contract Draft checkbox.
6. Configure the transitions from the phase based on the draft actions taken:
   1. Suggestion for Submit : Send to a Vendor eNegotiate phase
   2. Suggestion for Approve : Send to Draft finalisation/eSign phase
   3. Suggestion for Reject (if allowed): send to a Rejected (Done) phase.

Internal users can access the draft review from the following areas: 

Email Notification

The user can use the eNegotiate notification buttons found within the notification email. To configure this, ensure you have set an individual user within Form Access, and selected eNegotiate as the button type within the Card Owne" Email Notification.

Workflow Card 

The user can click the buttons directly in the workflow card. This will also display the Contract AI Summary if available:

 

Via Microsoft Office for the Web (on the workflow card)

This gives the user the Upload New Version / Edit in OFTW buttons as well as and the same buttons as the eNegotiate email.

 

For example (with Track Changes enabled):

 

Part 3 - Draft Finalisations

Once all parties agree on the terms of the draft document, it must be converted to a final, executable state. If using Gatekeeper eSign, the document must be converted to PDF.

If you are using an alternative Signature method (i.e. one which takes place outside Gatekeeper) you do not need to perform this step.

Method 1: Manual

Before converting to PDF, a user or team may want to review the Word document to tidy up any comments, redlines, or typos. After doing so, the following actions can be used:

• Publish Contract Draft & Convert MS Word to PDF - This action converts the current contract version from Word to PDF for you.
• Publish Contract Draft & Upload PDF - This action allows the user to provide their own tidied/reviewed PDF version, ready for signatures.

Method 2: AutoAction

Gatekeeper can be configured to automatically convert Word documents to PDF, when appropriate, using the following action:

• AutoAction | Publish Contract Draft & Convert MS Word to PDF

Part 4 - Signing the Contract

Gatekeeper eSign

The final step of the contract negotiation process is to gather signatures from all authorising parties - this can be done as part of the workflow using Gatekeeper's native eSign solution.

There are two methods for configuring Gatekeeper eSign actions on a workflow phase:

Method 1: Manual

• The Enable eSign action allows users to initiate eSign, sending a contract document to any number of internal/external signatories
  • Select the Inline Only eSign checkbox to require signature boxes to be placed on the document itself before the signature request can be sent.

Method 2: AutoAction

• The AutoAction | Send for eSign action automatically sends the master PDF document for eSignature to the Internal Contract Owner and Vendor Contract Owner.
  • If the associated contract metadata record does not have both of these owners populated, the action will fail.  Select the External Signatory Only checkbox to remove the Internal Contract Owner signature request. This could be useful for pre-signed boilerplate contracts like NDAs/Terms of Service.

DocuSign

The Enable Docusign action will allow users to utilise the DocuSign Integration when sending documents for signature on workflows.

This signature method can be enabled alongside Gatekeeper eSign so users will have the choice of signature method depending on preference or contract compliance standards.

External Signatures

If you wish to use an external signature method (for example other third party tools or physical document wet ink signatures), enable the Upload Signed Document action. 

This allows the user to provide a PDF which has been signed outside Gatekeeper.

Additional Reading 📚

• Workflow Basics: Configuring Workflow Actions
• Workflow Basics: Configuring Workflow Notifications
• Workflow Basics: Adding Phases (Form Access)
• Configuring Contract Actions