🛠 Create Your Own - Contract Renewal Review Workflow

Create a workflow to automate the initiation and process of reviewing contracts approaching key termination periods!

   Take Control

  Safeguard Compliance

   Estimated Read Time: 12 minutes

    Estimated Configuration Time: 25 - 60 Minutes

 

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Sections in this Article

Introduction & Demonstration

Workflow Diagram

Configuration

🛠 Mandatory Configuration Steps 🛠

Assign Phase Owners

Configure New Contract Request Link

🛠 Additional Configuration Steps 🛠

Use the "Clone" Action for Extensions

Configure Approvals

Create Workflow Groups

Amend Email Notifications

Amend Triggers

⚡️ Trigger Operation Consideration ⚡️

Add New Triggers

Remove Triggers

Add Custom Metadata

Add/Amend Form Sections

Configure Local Workflow Admin/Collab Users

Before you Start - Other Considerations

Getting Started

Additional Reading

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Introduction

 

By automating your contract renewal process, you can save time and resources, improve accuracy, reduce errors and minimise risk.

This workflow can be configured to automatically initiate reviews well in advance of key renewal periods, ensuring that all renewal tasks are completed on time and in compliance with your regulations and policies. Additionally, starting these reviews well in advance will enable you to negotiate better terms and conditions,  identify opportunities for cost savings and allow time for contract optimisation

Like other Gatekeeper workflows, this will also provide real-time visibility into the status of contracts, enabling you to make informed decisions about renewals, renegotiations, and terminations

 

 

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The Workflow - Walkthrough Demonstration

 

 

Workflow Diagram: XML / PDF

 

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The Workflow - Configuration

 

 

Adding the Template

Step 1) Head to the Workflows page

Step 2) Hit Add > Workflow Template

Step 3) Select the Contract Renewal Review Template

Step 4) If necessary, amend the new workflow's Title

Step 5) Hit ✅ Create

 

 

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🛠 Mandatory Configuration Steps 🛠

 

These are the basic steps required to make the workflow functional

Technically, once you complete this chapter, your new workflow will work as an end-to-end process

The ⬇️ Additional Configuration ⬇️ steps are optional additions to change the scope of the process & adapt the workflow further to fit your organisation's practices & Gatekeeper subscription

 

 

Assign Phase Owners

There are various steps of the contract renewal timeline which take place on this workflow

You should configure owners for the below phases to match how you normally assign responsibility in your organisation

 

Step 1) Head to a phase which needs an owner to be assigned & hit Edit this Phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Form Access tab

Step 3) Assign the User/Groups who should be responsible for the phase's action & hit ✅ Save

Step 4) Repeat Steps 1-3 until owners have been assigned for the below phases

 

 

 

 

Configure Hyperlink in "✉️ Renewal Notification ✉️"

When they come to renewing contracts in Gatekeeper, many of our clients find that the initial terms of a contract have gone far too long without a review and thus contain undesirable/outdated content...

This is why the 'suggested actions' on the Renewal form contains 2 options for renewals:

a) Renew (with a new set of terms to be negotiated & signed)

b) Extend (with minor amendments only)

The latter of these is very simple, all that is required might only be simple tasks;

e.g. Sign an extension letter / raise a new PO / extend the metadata dates

However, the former of these refers to those outdated contracts which require more scrutiny

Since these contracts might need to undergo significant revisions, we recommend taking this process out of this renewal workflow & into a New Contract Request workflow - so that they may be treated with the proper due diligence & assessments

 

Step 1) Get the URL for Contract Request Workflow form

Step 2) Open up your Contract Renewal Workflow

Step 3) Go to the ✉️ RENEWAL NOTIFICATION ✉️ phase & hit Edit this Phase

Step 4) Navigate to the Notifications tab

Step 5) Hit this Edit button for the Email Template of the enabled Card Owner notification

Step 6) Replace "LINK HERE" with the url to your New Contract Request Form

Step 7) Hit ✅ Update, then ✅ Save

 

 

 

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🛠 Additional Configuration Steps 🛠

This chapter will contain optional steps to amend the scope or preconfigured settings of the workflow so that it works optimally for your organisation & users

 

Use the "Clone" Action for Extensions

 

Part 1) Add an AutoAction:Update Contract phase to archive the old contract version

Part 2) Add a new Clone Contract phase to generate a new linked record

Part 3) Redirect the Approved:Extend transition to your new AutoAction phase

 

 

 

 

 

Configure Approvals

In a previous Mandatory configuration step, you assign owners (Users or Workflow Groups) to workflow phases in order to complete various actions

It is possible for the Approvals ✅ phase to assign multiple approvers or conditional approvers

Option 1 - Multiple ("Parallel") Approvals 

Step 1) Edit the Approvals ✅ phase

Step 2) Head to the Approval tab to check that Approval is  🔘 Enabled

Step 3) Select 🔘 Parallel

Step 4) In the  Parallel Approvals view, select the required Users/Groups then hit ✅ Save

ALL of the users/groups you populate in the "Parallel Approvals" view will need to provide approval for Contract Renewals to proceed  past this phase of the kanban board

Option 2 - Conditional Approvals  

Step 1) Edit the Approvals ✅ phase

Step 2) Head to the Approval tab to check that Approval is  🔘 Enabled and set to 🔘 Parallel

Step 3) Hit ➕ ADD NEW PARALLEL APPROVAL

Step 4) In the pop-out  Parallel Approvals view, select the required Users/Groups

Step 5) Select 🔘 Conditional then hit ✅ Save

Step 6) Hit ➕ ADD to assign conditions for the selected user/group to require approval

Step 7) Repeat Steps 3 - 6 until all conditional approvers are set

Gatekeeper will check the rules for all of these approvals and apply those approvers where the specific Contract Renewal Form matches the conditions

 

 

Create Workflow Group/s

Step 1) Go to Settings > Users

Step 2) Hit Add > Workflow Group

Step 3) Enter the Title of this new group

Including a Description is optional but can help you identify the group if making updates in future. It may be useful to mention the team and processes this group has been created for.

Step 4) Edit this new Group to begin adding Members

 

Amend Email Notifications

This workflow is designed to manage all of your contract renewals.

As a result, you should adapt the messaging & dynamic content in the notification emails to include any context/actions specific to your organisation's renewal management procedures

Step 1) Select a phase where you wish to amend the notification content & hit Edit this Phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Notifications tab

Step 3) Switch On or Off any notifications to change emails for cards when they arrive at that phase

Step 4) For enabled notifications, hit the Edit button for the Email Template

Step 5) Add any other context as necessary for your review process

Step 5) Hit ✅ Update, then ✅ Save

 

Amend Triggers

There are 3 triggers which have been created by default for this workflow

You may wish to amend/remove these depending on whether they fit your current review procedures & timelines

 

It is possible to keep all 3 of these active simultaneously: whichever becomes true first for your contracts will trigger first

 

Step 1) Go to the Workflows page

Step 2) Click to edit the workflow then select the Workflow Triggers option

Step 3) Click your trigger's name

Step 4) Choose from the below configuration updates

Hit the Edit icon to amend any condition's parameters where necessary

Hit the   Delete icon to remove any conditions from the set

Hit ➕ ADD to add new conditions

 

⚡️ Trigger Amendment Consideration/Example ⚡️

 

These triggers use an operator to match contracts where the dates occur in exactly the number of days specified - "Occurs in"

The alternative operator matches contracts where the dates occur in the number of days specified AND any day between then and the beginning of time - "Occurs in less than or equal to"

Still, you may still want to switch the operator type for your triggers. If so;

Step 1) Follow the same instructions from ⬆️ the above steps/gif ⬆️

Step 2) Change the "Select an Operator" dropdown & hit ✅ Update

 

 

Add New Triggers

Step 1) Go to the Workflows page

Step 2) Click to edit the workflow then select the Workflow Triggers option

Step 3) Hit ➕ ADD TRIGGER

Step 4) Name your trigger then hit ✅ Create

Step 5) Use ➕ ADD to compiling the list of conditions for the trigger to fire

 

 

Remove Triggers

The ⬆️ above triggers ⬆️ are our best practice recommendations

However, if you wish to only leverage one or two of these (or create your own triggers from scratch), you can remove them

Step 1) Go to the Workflows page

Step 2) Click to edit the workflow then select the Workflow Triggers option

Step 3) Hit the Delete icon alongside the trigger you wish to remove, then hit OK to confirm

 

 

Add Custom Metadata

If you have custom contract metadata in your Gatekeeper tenant, this could be added to the workflow form so that:

a) Your users can see all the information about the contract & make fully-informed decisions

b) You have the option to update any data from the workflow

Part 1 - Add the Data to the Form

Step 1) Go to the Start Phase of the workflow & hit Edit this Phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Form tab

Step 3) At the bottom of the page, hit ADD SECTION

Step 4) Choose a Name for the section (for simplicity, you can copy the name of the Custom Metadata Group)

Step 5) Select Predefined > Contract then Custom Data Group > [NAME OF YOUR GROUP]

Step 6) Hit ✅ Save

 

Part 2 - Amend the Form Visibility Rules

Step 1) Choose a phase where you want to change the setting & hit Edit this Phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Form tab

Step 3) Find your form section and choose whether the section should be Visible ("Read Only"), Hidden or Editable for your users at that phase

Step 4) Repeat Steps 1 - 3 for any other phases of the workflow

 

 

Add/Amend Form Sections

Step 1) Edit the start phase of the workflow

Step 2) Navigate to the Form tab

Step 3) If there is a section of questions you wish to add which does not "fit" within one of the pre-existing Form Sections - hit ADD SECTION at the bottom of the page

Step 4) Use the below options to edit the fields included in your form:

+ ADD FIELD to add new form fields

then to edit existing form fields

then to delete existing form fields

 

Add Local Workflow Collaborators/Administrators

Aside from the stakeholders within each phase (and any Workflow Admins), there may be members of your organisation who should be made "Local workflow Administrators/Collaborators"

This means they will be able to retain oversight of all cards created on this specific workflow

Step 1) Go to the Workflows page

Step 2) Click to edit the workflow then select the Local Workflow Authorisation option

Step 3) Hit Add > New Workflow Administrator/Collaborator, choose a User & hit ✅ Save

 

 

 

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✋ Before you start - Additional Configuration to Consider 🤚

 

If you have followed all the steps above, your workflow is almost ready to go

However, to ensure this process runs as smoothly and reliably as possible, there are some other areas of your Gatekeeper environment you should check over!

Setting Internal Owners

This part of contract metadata is key for Gatekeeper to assign the appropriate stakeholders & decision makers during the workflow

Step 1) Find a contract with no owner assigned & hit Edit

Step 2) Navigate to the Owners tab

Step 3) Populate the contract owner/s & hit ✅ Save & Exit

 

Setting End/Notice Period Dates (& Start Dates/Evergreen)

Without these values populated, some of your key expiration/auto-renewal dates may pass under the radar leaving you in a poor position when it comes to renegotiations & cost reductions

Step 1) Find your contracts with missing dates & hit Edit

Step 2) Navigate to the Contract Dates tab

Step 3) Populate the key dates & hit ✅ Save & Exit

 

 

Setting Team Owners

If you do not have Team Owners assigned, the Late Response Escalation (and potentially Approvals) phase may not work as desired

Step 1) Head to the Teams menu

Step 2) Find any teams with no "Manager" populated & hit Edit

Step 3) Navigate to the Owners tab

Step 4) Select the Team Owner/Manager, then hit ✅ Save & Exit

Step 5) Repeat Steps 1 - 4 until all teams have an owner

 

 

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⚡️ Getting started! ⚡️

 

Activating your trigger/s 

Step 1) Go to the Workflows page

Step 2) Click to edit the workflow then select the Workflow Triggers option

Step 3) For any trigger with a Pipeline status, click on the trigger's name

Step 4) Switch the Trigger Status from Pipeline to Live

Step 5) Hit < Back  to return to the list of triggers

Step 6) Repeat Steps 3-5 until all your triggers are Live

 

Your Renewal workflow is now active!

Any of your Contract Records approaching their End/Notice Dates (and any other dates for which you've configured a trigger!) will automatically begin a review process!

 

 

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Additional Reading 📚

 

🛠 Create your Own - Internal Contract Request Workflow

Learn how to configure this workflow from our Best Practice templates for the Request, Approval, Negotiation & Signature of new contracts

 

Bulk Import/Export Contract Data

Learn how to bulk export & re-import your contract metadata so that you might flesh out thee necessary values (dates & owners) for this workflow to function

 

⚡️Testing Triggered Workflows

Learn how to manually trigger test cards for this workflow to test out the process before switching on the real triggers for your active contracts