⚡️ Gatekeeper Expert: Team Contracts ⚡️

How to give your users visibility of all contracts coming through the pipeline for their team

  Restore Visibility

   Estimated Read Time: 4 minutes                                   Estimated Configuration Time: 30 Minutes

 


 

Sections in this Article:

Introduction

Configuration

Configuration - Metadata

Configuration - Workflow

Configuration - Saved View

Summary

 


 

Introduction

 

Background on User Access to Workflow Cards

Gatekeeper Workflows are far and above the most useful way to get new Vendors &  Agreements set up & added to your repository

They can ensure proper procedures are adhered to, metadata records are fully decorated/reviewed, and can even facilitate most of the key contracting actions along the way by embedding functionality like approvals, draft redlining & signatures

However, due to the fact that Contracts can be confidential in nature, access to active workflow processes is designed to be kept on a "need-to-know" basis for your users

For a complete guide to the ways to grant users access to a workflow, see this article:

📖 Workflow Authorisation Overview 

 

The TL;DR of the above article is that you can gain access to a workflow form if you are a user who:

(a) Previously submitted a request (& will maintain visibility of your requests)

(b) Is responsible for a specific Workflow Action/Approval (i.e. a Phase owner)

(c) Has Workflow Administrator permission so can see all workflow cards

 

If you have some users who do not fall into these 3 buckets but still want to be aware of contracts in the pipeline for their team*, you can leverage a small amount of data/workflow config to give them the ability to stay in the loop! 

* This will rely on these users having "Own Team" repository access (or similar RBAC Access)

 

This Solution

Due to how "Own Team" access works for access to Contracts records in Gatekeeper, you can create saved views in the repository which can give users a glimpse into what is going on in the Workflow
i.e. As long as a Contract Record is created from your Workflow Card, users who can see the Contract can be shown details about the Workflow Card it belongs to
With the presence of AutoActions, you can even automate the status/progress they will be able to see

 


 

Configuration

 

Summary - the configuration steps for this solution will consist of the following parts:

 

Part 1 - Adding a new Custom Data field to act as a "Workflow Status indicator"

This field will be a dropdown list containing options which mirror the phases of your workflow

 

Part 2 - Configuring Workflow AutoActions to automatically set/update this "Status Indicator" as cards progress through the kanban board

 

Part 3 - Configure a Saved View in the repository to show/filter using this "Status Indicator"

 

Part 1 - Adding the Custom Field

Step 1) Head to Settings > Configuration > Custom Data

Step 2) Hit Add > Add Custom Group

Step 3) Name this group "Workflow Statuses" & select Allocated to: Contract

Check ☑️ Collapsed by default & Uncheck ☑️ Editable in Repository before saving

Step 4) Hit Add > Add New Custom Field

Step 5) Label your field to match the workflow

For Example, if your Workflow Name is "Contract Approval Workflow"
Set your Field Label to "Contract Approval Workflow Status"

Step 6) For Type, select Dropdown List, then populate an Option representing every phase of your workflow where you wish to display the progress to your users:

 

See below example where every phase of the workflow is represented in the dropdown list

Bear in mind: You do not have to do this for EVERY phase on your workflow

We have demonstrated doing this for every phase for the purpose of being thorough.....However, you might simply want to pick the most significant milestones. 

 

 

See 📖 Configuring Custom Data Fields for a complete guide to this configuration task

 

Also  see the 📖 Product Update: Editable Locations to view how this new field can be locked so it may only be edited via the following Workflow AutoActions

 

 


 

 

Part 2 - Set/Update the field using Workflow AutoActions

Once you have created your new "status" field, you can leverage Gatekeeper's AutoActions to set this field whenever a card transitions  through the kanban board

 

💡 This will involve adding an AutoAction Phase ahead of pre-existing Phases to "flip the switch", setting the 'status' field in the Repository record to be a reflection of what is currently underway on the workflow

Example Workflow Before

Example Workflow After

 

Part A - Adding Phases where the AutoActions "Fire"

Step 1) Navigate to the right hand side of the workflow board

Step 2) Next to New Phase, hit ADD

Step 3) Choose a phase title for your phase (such as "🛠 AutoUpdate [x]  🛠"), then hit ✅ Save

Step 4) Hit Reorder & Minimise to move your phase to the point in the workflow where it fits your process, check ☑️ Minimise, then hit ✅ Update

Step 5) Repeat Steps 1 - 4 until every original phase of your workflow is now preceded by a minimised "AutoAction" phase

 

Part B - Re-Pointing Transitions to your new AutoAction Phases

For any Workflow Transition which pointed to a pre-existing phase on your workflow, you need to edit that transition to now point to the preceding "AutoAction" phase

Pro Configuration Tip: If you want to find out which transitions point to a phase, simply try to archive that phase

 

Gatekeeper will not let you archive a phase if there are active transitions pointing to it 

Therefore, when attempting to archive a phase, you will be presented with a list of transitions blocking the archive action;

This list will contain hyperlinks to navigate directly to those transitions so you can quickly change the destination for that transition rule

Step 1) Click to Archive one of the original phases (but do not actually archive it!) 

Step 2) If there exists a Transition pointing to this phase, click its name to view it

Step 3) While viewing the transition, edit the "Transition to Phase:" value, changing it to the AutoAction Phase preceding the phase you just tried to archive

Step 4) Hit ✅ Update to save this new transition setting

Step 5) Repeat Steps 1 - 4 until all there are no transitions pointing to your original phases - they all should all point to the AutoAction phases preceding your original phases

 

Part C - Add your "Status" field to the Workflow form

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

Step 2) Navigate to the Form tab

Step 3) Scroll to the bottom and hit ADD SECTION

Step 4) Name this section "Workflow Status"

Step 5) Select Predefined: Contract, then for Custom Data Group choose the new group you created ⬆️ above ⬆️

Step 6) Set this new section to 🔘 Hidden on every phase of the workflow

Users should not need to populate this status field nor will it benefit them to see it in the form, so it should be hidden to avoid confusion/clutter

 

Part D - Configure the AutoActions

Step 1) Go to an AutoAction phase & hit Edit this Phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab

Step 3) Enable ⚙️ AutoAction Update Contract

Also enable ☑️ Submit Card On Action &  ☑️ Update Form on Action

NB. If a contract had not been created yet, the first of these AutoActions needs to be ⚙️AutoAction Create Contract

Step 4) Hit Edit AutoAction Values

Step 5) Tick the master Take value from form ☑️ option for all fields except the new dropdown field, which you should set to indicate the status of the card at the current phase on the workflow

Step 6) Repeat Steps 1 - 5 for all of your AutoAction phases



 

Part E - Configure the New Transitions

Step 1) Go to an AutoAction phase & hit Edit this Phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Transitions tab

Step 3) For the Submission transition, select the phase immediately afterwards in the workflow & hit ✅ Update

 

 


 

 

Part 3 - Creating the Saved View

Once this field is created and you have configured your workflow to automatically update the value, users can create a new Saved View selecting the fields and the "workflow statuses" they wish to see:

Step 1) Go to your Contracts Repository

Step 2) Hit the Configure Columns button & select the "Workflow Status" field (as well as any other useful/relevant fields for this view), then hit ✅ Save

Step 3) Hit the Filter icon & select all the options from your Workflow Status field, then hit ✅ Save

💡 If you only want to include "In-progress" contracts in this view, you could select all options except that of the final completed value

Step 4) Hit Save This View, choose a Title & hit ✅ Submit

 

 


 

The Result

Users - regardless of their Workflow Access - can now view all new & in-progress Contracts in the repository and be aware of their status in the Contracts pipeline

All without risk of seeing confidential information or superfluous records from other departments on the workflow!

 

Pictured below: A user "AverageAccess User" who cannot see any Workflow boards but has set up a Saved View in his Contracts repository to keep tabs on all new contracts being set up for his Team

 

 


 

FAQ 💬

 

Q: Can I create this view as an admin and share with my users?

A: Currently, Saved Views cannot be shared between users.

If this is an important scenario for you - Please upvote this Ideas Forum post:

💡 Idea: Share Saved Views with Other Users

 

 


 

Additional Reading 📚

 

Saved Views

See a full walkthrough guide of the uses & settings for configuring Saved Views

 

AutoActions

See a list of all the available AutoActions in Gatekeeper Workflows