The contract lifecycle feature uses conditional logic to initiate workflows. Its purpose is to enable you to get a contract to an 'executed' state (or the next required step) as quickly as possible without forcing you to go through unnecessary steps.
In this article:
How to progress along the Contract Lifecycle
The contract lifecycle allows you to illustrate and communicate the status of a contract from drafting through to execution.
As you progress through each stage of the contract, simply click the proceeding icon to smoothly transition it along the lifecycle. This empowers your team to stay well-informed about the contract's phase, while also enabling your organization's internal business users to effortlessly track the current state without the need for continuous updates from the legal team.
Approval workflows can be attached to any stage and automatically applied to contracts of your choice. You can also implement financial delegation approval flows for contracts that exceed a preset dollar value.
The approval conditions must be met before progressing the contract along the lifecycle.
If the contract has been waiting on approval for a long time, you can click on 'send reminders' to trigger a reminder for the Approver.
How to shift back to a previous stage
As long as the contract isn't executed or expired, you can change the contract stage by simply clicking the desired stage.
However, if the contract is executed or expired, you can move it back by voiding it.
Only the Contract Owner can void the contract. To assign yourself, find the 'Contract Owner' field in the 'General Information' or 'Contract details' tab and search for your name. You may need to refresh your browser for the ellipsis (three dots) to appear.
Unvoid the contract by clicking the Stage button, which is set to Void. This prompts the window below where you can move it back to the 'Draft' stage.
If you have a document in there already, do not worry - it won't disappear. You can progress the contract back through the stages, download it, physically sign it (if needed), and then upload it at the signing stage.
As the contract gets reset back to the 'Draft' stage, you will need to go back through any approval processes that were set.