Associate Existing Contracts and Vendors in a Workflow

Estimated Read Time: 7 minutes

Sections in this article:

Enable Associate Existing Records
How This Works in Practice
Associate a Record Without Updating Metadata

When a workflow is used to review or make changes to an existing contract or vendor record, the Associate Contract/Vendor with the card checkbox ensures the workflow card is linked to the correct record in the Vault. This is useful in scenarios such as a contract variation, early termination, or updating vendor details.

This is what tells Gatekeeper which existing repository record the card belongs to, so that any workflow actions (such as Update Contract) can apply changes made in the workflow form to the correct record. When a record has not been associated successfully, the card will show Vendor: not set or Contract: not set, and the workflow will not work as expected.

Note: In most cases, Gatekeeper automatically associates the workflow card with the relevant record, for example when a workflow is triggered automatically, or when a new record is being created as part of the workflow. The checkbox is only required when a user is manually initiating a workflow against an existing record, or when a workflow triggered by one record also needs to update a separate existing record.

Enable Associate Existing Records

Note: Users require the Workflow Administrator or Local Workflow Administrator permissions to configure workflow phases.

To ensure that workflow cards are associated with existing records in your repository, follow the steps below:

Within the relevant workflow, click on the start phase to edit it.
From the Form section, ensure that the Contract or Vendor predefined section has been added.
1. If this section isn't in your form, click ADD SECTION.
2. Enter a name for the section, then select Vendor or Contract from the Predefined dropdown and click Save.
Expand the 3 dots on the Contract/Vendor Name field then click the pencil icon.
Select the Associate Contract/Vendor with the card checkbox.
To only allow the requestor to select an existing record in the repository, select the Select Existing Dropdown Values Only radio button.
Once finished, click Save.

Note: This checkbox is not selected by default, and will be reset to unselected when cloning a workflow.

How This Works in Practice

When requestors are completing the workflow form, a dropdown list of contracts/vendors will display.

If Select Existing Dropdown Values Only has been enabled, they can only select from the existing list; new entries cannot be added.

If selecting a contract name, the vendor name will be included in brackets:

The user experience will depend on where the user is submitting the form:

In an Employee Portal form: Once a user selects an existing contract, the visible metadata fields are automatically populated with data from the record in the Vault.
In a Public Form: Only the Vendor Name will populate. Other metadata is excluded to protect confidential information from unauthenticated users.

Note: If the Associate Contract/Vendor with the card checkbox is not selected, after the form is submitted, the workflow card may display Vendor: not set or Contract: not set.

not set

Associate a Record Without Updating Data

If you need to associate existing records for a process that doesn't require updates to metadata (for example, for attaching and approving or signing a document), you can add a field to link the record without adding the full predefined Contract/Vendor form section. To do this:

Within the relevant workflow, click on the start phase to edit it.
Click Form, then click Add Field on the relevant form section.
Enter a label, for example Parent Contract/Vendor, then select the Mandatory checkbox.
From the Type dropdown list, select either Contract or Vendor depending on which record you want to link.
Select the Select Existing Dropdown Values Only radio button.
Click Save.
Expand the 3 dots on the newly created field, then click the pencil icon to edit it.
Select the Associate Contract/Vendor with the card checkbox.
Click Save.

FAQs

What happens if the Associate Contract/Vendor with the card checkbox is not selected?

If this checkbox is not selected, the vendor or contract record will not be linked to the card, even if a user selects one from the dropdown. This can cause the following features to fail or return errors:

Workflow actions such as Update Contract, Associate a Contract Master Draft, or Generate Draft from Contract will fail
Smart Forms for the vendor or contract will not display
The Risks tab will not work as expected
Market IQ data will not display, or vendors will not connect successfully
Email notifications will not send to vendor users
Approval emails will be missing details such as the vendor name, contract value, and contract type
Any dynamic fields referencing the record in notifications (such as vendor.name) will return blank
Forms won't be available to vendor users in their Vendor Portal
The card display name/title will be blank
The card will not appear on the Workflow Forms tab of the relevant vendor or contract record in the Vault
NetSuite sync may not execute correctly

If the workflow form also has vendor metadata fields and I associate a contract record with the card, will the vendor fields populate from repository data too?

Yes, however, this is only available for Employee Portal authenticated forms.

What happens if I lock form fields when selecting existing records?

Locked fields will not be overwritten by values pulled in from the record in the Vault. This means the locked value will take precedence over any existing data in the record. Use with caution, as this may replace important data once an action runs.

What happens if I change the contract type, and some dependent fields become hidden?

These fields will retain their values, but will be hidden from all aspects of the UI - including the workflow form and (after an Update Action) the contract record in the Vault. To avoid unintended data loss or confusion, it's recommended to either hide the Contract Type field, or clearly communicate which changes users are allowed to make.

If a user attempts this, Gatekeeper displays the following warning:

Changing this Contract type will remove all data from the dependent sections.

Can manually initiated update workflows also have triggers to serve as both ad-hoc reviews and scheduled review workflows?

Yes, this is possible when using an Employee Portal form. However, due to the differing nature of these processes and the potential for confusion caused by notifications, it's recommended to set up separate workflows for these use cases.

If some metadata fields in the request form are hidden, will their values still be pulled onto the form when an existing record is selected?

Yes, as long as the fields are visible on other phases of the workflow, their values will still be pulled into the form in the background - even if they're hidden on the current phase.

Which records will appear for selection in forms?

Only records with a status of Live or Pipeline will appear. Archived records are excluded from the list.

What happens if I change the vendor name in the form once I have associated the card with a contract, and it has automatically pre-populated with contract metadata?

This depends on when the vendor name is changed:

If changed before submitting the form (i.e. at the start of the workflow), the new vendor name can successfully be linked to the card and will pull through its metadata values.
If changed at any other point in the workflow, the original vendor remains associated with the card and the values will not change. Only the Vendor Name field will update. Any vendor metadata already pulled into the form will remain unchanged - it will not be replaced with data from the newly selected vendor.

Therefore, it's important to use caution if your workflow includes Update Vendor actions, as this may unintentionally update the original vendor record with metadata from the newly selected vendor.

Will this allow users to see record details outside their profile permissions when populating a form?

Yes, if a user has access to the Employee Portal form, they can select names of contracts outside their assigned permissions. Therefore, if your workflow form includes metadata fields containing confidential information, use caution when adding these to the form.

Users with access to a Public Form will only be able to see the Contract Name field, no other metadata will be visible to them in the form.

Can this be used on a workflow with eNegotiate actions?

Yes. However, if the existing contract record already has a master record file from a previous eNegotiate workflow, this cannot be replaced. You would need to first use the Clone Contract action to create a new metadata record to which a new master record can be linked.