Learn how to create a workflow for effortlessly setting up new vendors & contracts in Gatekeeper
Estimated Read Time: 8 Minutes 
Estimated Configuration Time: 15-30 Minutes
Sections in this Article
Additional Configuration Steps
Before you Start - Other Considerations
Getting Started - How to start using your new workflow
The Workflow - Introduction & Demonstration
For an introduction to this feature, see our webinar:
This workflow is designed to remove the administrative burden of getting new Vendors added to your Gatekeeper repository by:
a) Shifting some of this burden onto your vendors
b) Leveraging our AI Autobuild solution to pre-populate key vendor metadata
c) Pairing this setup with the automatic creation & signature of a new contract
With this workflow, you and your users will save time filling out forms and speed up the time it takes for you to begin new partnerships!
Not only that, but this workflow will handle the automatic generation of a initial contract document so you can rest assured that - during any further discussions & negotiations with your new vendor - they have already reviewed and agreed to your initial contracting terms.
💡 In this article, those "initial contracting terms" take the form of an NDA.
However, you are free to use this workflow for any other template agreement of your choice like a Terms of Service, Code of Conduct, DPA, MSA and so on!
Example Demonstration of a new NDA Request
Workflow Diagram: XML / PDF
🛠 Configuring the Workflow 🛠
Adding the Template Workflow
Step 1) Head to the Workflows page
Step 2) Hit Add > Workflow Template
Step 3) Select the Touchless NDA Request Template
Step 4) If necessary, you can amend your new workflow's Title here
For example, If you prefer to call these CDA's (Confidentiality Disclosure Agreements) or are using the workflow for a different contract type
Step 5) Hit ✅ Create
🛠 Mandatory Configuration Steps 🛠
To complete the necessary steps to turn this template into a fully functioning workflow, you can follow along with the below video
Alternatively, you can follow the step-by-step instructions which start below the video
Configure your Contract Draft Template
Part 1 - Adding the contract Template
Step 1) Head to Settings > Configuration > eNegotiate Contract Templates
Step 2) Hit Add > MS Word Template
Step 3) Use the Handlebar Instructions page to set up all the sections of your template's dynamic/configurable content in Microsoft Word
Step 4) Once finished, upload your MS Word template as the Document file along with the other values (Title, Status & Contract Type)
Set Status to Live to make the template available for use in your workflow
Step 5) Hit ✅ Save to store this template
For a full Walkthrough guide showing how to create this template, see our below article:
Part 2 - Add a Contract Template PDF Preview
To enable the Contract Preview within the Touchless Form, a PDF Document needs to be uploaded to the eNegotiate Template
This is also required to provide vendor users with the option to either "Suggest changes" or "Proceed to eSign" within the Touchless Form
Step 1) While in the eNegotiate Contract templates screen, click to open your NDA
Step 2) Hit View Test Template - this will cause Gatekeeper to generate a PDF copy for you
Step 3) After this PDF Preview downloads, hit Edit
Step 4) Upload this newly-downloaded PDF for the PDF Document option & hit ✅ Save
Part 3 - Selecting this template in the Workflow
Step 1) On the workflow, click to edit the 📄 AutoCreate NDA Draft 📄 phase
Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab
Step 3) Alongside AutoAction | Generate Draft from Contract, hit Edit AutoAction Values
Step 4) Alongside NDA, choose the new template you have just created
Step 5) Hit ✅ Save
Set the ⚙️ AutoAction default values
Within the AutoAction: Create Contract phase, there are key fields such as Category*, Entity & Team which are mandatory in order to store a valid contract record in your Gatekeeper Repository
Below, you can set defaults for these & amend other dynamic values like Dates & Owners.
Please note, the External Owner field must be set as the 'First Supplier User'
Step 1) Click to edit the 🛠 AutoCreate Contract Record 🛠 phase
Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab
Step 3) Alongside AutoAction | Create Contract, hit Edit AutoAction Values
Step 4) Populate & Amend the default values for your NDA records
Step 5) Hit ✅ Save
*If you wish to eventually leverage the ⚡️ RBAC for All: Total Vendor Visibility use case, it is advisable to create a new Contract Category called "Confidentiality Agreements" and use this in the above AutoAction field settings!
🛠 Additional Configuration Steps 🛠
Add Personalised Links
Personal links can be created for the touchless form so that - when new vendors initiate an NDA request - the link they used will assign a specific Internal Contract Owner based on the internal user who shared the link & instigated the request
If you do not use Personalised Links, Gatekeeper will assign a default Internal Contract Owner to all new NDAs
See below article for a full explanation of this feature:
Step 1) Click to edit the first phase of the workflow
Step 2) Navigate to the Form Access tab
Step 3) Hit Manage Personal Links then Add Personal Link
Step 4) Select a list of users to create links for by typing names or simply hit Select All to create one for every user in your tenant
Step 5) Hit ✅ Save
Apply/Amend your Company Name
The name of the Start Phase will appear at the top of the form when opened by suppliers. Changing it to your own company name is useful to add reassurance that the supplier is in the right place
Similarly, the Vendor | Draft Review notification email sent to suppliers can include your Company Name in the Email Subject line.
Part 1 - Form Title
Step 1) Click to edit the first phase of the workflow
Step 2) Change the value in the Phase name field (you can also tweak other parts of the name)
Step 3) Hit ✅ Save
Part 2 - Email Notifications
Step 1) Click to edit the 👷♂️ Supplier | Draft Review 👷♂️ phase
Step 2) Navigate to the Notifications tab
Step 3) Alongside the enabled email, hit the 
Edit icon
Step 4) Edit the Names (& any other text) from the email Subject/Content
Step 5) Hit ✅ Update & ✅ Save
Branding: Form Header Logo
This logo will appear at the top of the form being initiated by suppliers.
If this is not set, the (left-hand) Gatekeeper logo below will be the only one visible so suppliers expecting to complete a contract for your organisation may be confused!
If you do not have access to the Branding sidebar menu option, please contact your CSM or reach out to our CS Team here for assistance & they can set this logo for you
Create/Assign Workflow Group
For the 👨💼 Internal | Draft Review 👨💼 phase, it may be necessary to assign a responsible team in case the Internal Contract Owner is not appropriate to perform legal revisions
💡 Legal / Contract Management Teams are usually recommended here
See 📖 Creating a Workflow Group for more guidance.
Part 1 - Creating the Workflow Group
Step 1) Go to Settings > Users
Step 2) Hit Add > Workflow Group
Step 3) Title your group then hit ✅ Save
Step 4) Edit your group to assign its Members
Part 2 - Assigning the Group to your Workflow
Step 1) Click to edit the 👨💼 Internal | Draft Review 👨💼
Step 2) Navigate to the Form Access tab
Step 3) Unselect 🔘 Contract | Owner then check 🔘Workflow Group
Step 4) Select your desired group from Part 1 & hit ✅ Save
Joint vs External-Only Signatures
If the eNegotiate template being used does not require an internal eSigner (maybe it's a pre-signed version), "External eSign Only" can be selected within the eSign AutoAction to only request signature from the Vendor.
Step 1) Click to edit the ✍️ eSign ✍️ phase
Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab
Step 3) Underneath ⚙️ AutoAction | Send for eSign, check ☑️ External Signatory Only
Remove "I Need to Propose Changes" option
Depending on the Vendors you usually deal with, you may encounter the problem that many of our clients do:
"If we give our vendors the option to suggest changes, they may think it's expected and create unnecessary work for us"
Especially if you are using a pre-signed template & you want to avoid vendors making updates to your NDA, you can remove their option to hit "I need to propose changes"
This will effectively force them to agree to your standard NDA terms or not register at all
Enable "Reject" for Supplier Draft Reviews
By default, the ability for a supplier user to Reject a draft during the revision cycle has been removed because it can be seen as "unproductive"
➡️ i.e. Suppliers may only Accept the current draft or Submit a new draft
However, "Reject" can be re-enabled if you want suppliers to be able to opt-out of continuing negotiations
Step 1) Click to edit the 👷♂️ Supplier | Draft Review 👷♂️ phase
Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab
Step 3) Alongside Submit Contract Draft, uncheck ☑️ Email - Submit & Approve Only
See below article for more context & guidance:
Enable OFTW (Microsoft "Office for the Web")
If your company uses Microsoft Office for the Web to perform document editing, you can enable this within the workflow to facilitate the Internal Draft Review phase redlining.
Step 1) Click to edit the 👨💼 Internal | Draft Review 👨💼 phase
Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab
Step 3) Underneath Submit Contract Draft, check ☑️ Office for the Web
Add Local Workflow Collaborators/Administrators
Aside from the stakeholders within each phase (and any Global Workflow Admins), there may be members of your organisation who should be added as "Local Workflow Administrators/Collaborators"
💡 This means they will possess Control (Administrators) & Oversight (Administrators & Collaborators) of all cards created on this specific workflow
Step 1) Head to the Workflows page
Step 2) Click to edit the workflow then select the Local Workflow Authorisation option
Step 3) Hit ADD to select a user to be a new Administrator or Collaborator, then ✅ Save
⚡️ Gatekeeper Expert: Connecting a Vendor Onboarding Process ⚡️
See this Knowledgebase article for an introduction to this use case:
Part 1 - Amend the Vendor Approval Status
At the end of this workflow, AutoActions will update the status of your Contract/Vendor records in your repository;
Once fully signed, The NDA Contract Record will be set to Live & Approved.
The Vendor record will also be set to Live & Approved.
However, you may wish to instead require a more thorough Vendor Onboarding/Due Diligence assessment take place before you class this Vendor as "Approved".
Step 1) Click to edit the NDA Executed ✅ phase
Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab
Step 3) Alongside ⚙️ AutoAction | Update Vendor, hit Edit AutoAction Values
Step 4) Change the Approval dropdown value from Approved to Awaiting Approval
Step 5) Hit ✅ Save
Part 2 - Triggering your Onboarding Workflow
The combination of Live but not fully approved ("Awaiting Approval") is what you can use to trigger the next process in your Vendor Management Lifecycle.
💡 NB. Once your Vendor has been set to Live by the NDA workflow it can now be used for other internal contract requests by your users.
Step 1) Head to the Workflows page
Step 2) Click to edit your Vendor Onboarding Workflow then select the Workflow Triggers option
Step 3) Hit ➕ ADD TRIGGER & name this something like "NDA Executed, ready for Onboarding"
Step 4) The 2 conditions for this onboarding workflow should be those values set in Part 1
Vendor / Status is one of Live
Vendor / Approval is one of Awaiting Approval
✋ 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!
Configuring your Signatories
The ✍️ eSign ✍️ phase of this workflow comes preconfigured to automatically send your NDA out for signatures as soon as any card arrives on it
If you plan on having your contracts signed by both internal and external signatories, the Internal Signatories need to be configured in advance of using the workflow
Without doing this, you will find that the eSign Action Fails and needs to be manually restarted!
Follow the below steps to set up the necessary internal authorised signatories who - for this workflow - will be the "Contract Owners":
Step 1) Go to Settings > Configuration > eSign
Step 2) Hit Add > eSign Sender
Step 3) Select the name of the user who should be able to sign & hit ✅ Save
Step 4) Repeat Steps 2-3 until all users who may need to sign NDAs have been added to the Signers list
If you have a lot of users to assign this permission and don't want to do it one-by-one, you can use the bulk export & import feature to grant this permission en-masse
See the demonstration video here: 📖 User Bulk-Export & Import
⚡️ Getting started! ⚡️
Now your workflow is fully configured, all that's left is sharing the link!
If you have Employee Portal, your users with a Personalised Link can access & copy this link in their Submit Requests dashboard.
If you do not have Employee Portal or wish to access the standard URL (i.e. not a Personalised Link), you can get this on the Form Access tab of the initial workflow phase:
The link/s can be shared share directly with your vendors or even stored somewhere they can access in their own time.
💡 For Example 💡
Embedded in onboarding forms
Linked somewhere on your website/sign-up page
Linked in email signatures
Additional Reading 📚
Review all the necessary steps to be able to use our native eSign solution.
💡 Pay attention to the designation of Authorised Signatories so that any user who wants to sign NDAs via this workflow will be allowed to do so!
While you may not need to create a new diagram for your version of this Workflow, this article may provide useful in helping you decipher the version at the top of this article.
See a full overview guide of the feature for setting up a contract template so you may create an NDA document for this workflow.