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Our new Contract Self Service allows business users using our Business Portal to load their contracts or create them through standard template wizards and work with them directly from Preview mode, enabling you to self-upload, self-serve, and manage your own contracts.

Our self-service contract mechanism bypasses the need for legal to undertake work on behalf of the business. This helps speed the timeline to securing successful deals and helps the team focus their time doing the right work at the right time.

To use the Contract Self Service, you will need to be a Business User (Standard User) using the Business Portal. Your LawVu Administrator will need to switch on the Create Contracts and Preview Contracts permissions for your profile.

As a business user, you can create a new contract by accessing the large 'Create a contract' button in the set of 3 buttons from your Business Portal page

Or use the Article contract buttons (if they were set by your Admin) to enter and complete the creation flow. There may be a decision tree available where you are directed by a few decisions, similar to this one :

If a wizard was set up for the contract type you selected, then you will see this screen and be able to create a new contract/upload an existing one.

Create New – complete the contact form which will auto-populate the field content into the template

Upload Existing - upload your contract from your local drive, select the appropriate contract type then complete the contract fields to provide more context and ensure efficient search capabilities

Below is an example of creating a contract using the "Upload Existing" option:

Click here for more information on the contract creation process.

Having created your contract, you can manage it directly from the preview :

Use the existing Stage button to manage the contract lifecycle and move the contract to another stage. If there are people that need to approve the contract, you will see them listed and be able to send them a reminder as well. As soon as they approve, the window will update to reflect the change.

Use the existing Expiry field to adjust the Expiry date of the contract :

Use the Suggested next step option to send the contract for Approval or for Signing.

Depending on the signing options available for your organization, you can either print the contract or digitally sign it. Once a contract is sent for signing, you will see an informative banner letting you know how much time has passed since you sent it.

If you chose to sign the contract via DocuSign or AdobeSign, a digital signing panel will open on the right-hand side next to Conversations and you'll be able to see the current signing status and trigger new signing actions: send reminders, edit or void the envelope.

A contract that is in signing cannot be executed until a signed version is returned from digital signing or uploaded if it was printed. Click Upload contract to upload a signed version from your local drive:

From the preview of the contract, you can also use Key dates to set up any important date for which you want a reminder.

Click + Add key date to add your first key date. You are able to add another one from the same window. If you want to edit or delete them, simply click on the Ellipsis button next to each key date.

Download, Replace or Share the Contract file

Download - this will create a local copy of your contract.

Replace - this will allow you to upload a new version / or a signed version.

Share - this will allow you to share the contract with one or more people via email.

Start a conversation - if you want to collaborate with members of the contract ( that can be your legal team), click on the speech bubbles icon to open the chat window on the right-hand side. Click + New Conversation

You can also share files, @mention people in the conversation to get their attention, and invite other people to join