COBBLESTONE SOFTWARE

Contract Insight — User Guide

E-Approval Flow/Groups- Document Generation

Document Templates: Generation/Merging › E-Approvals - Document Generation › E-Approval Flow/Groups- Document Generation

Note: Each procedure in this guide begins at the Contract Insight homepage, so any section can be followed on its own. Custom fields are configurable, so the exact field list on a contract category record may vary between environments.

1. Overview

An e-approval flow controls who must approve a document generated from a template, and in what order. The flow is configured per template under Administration → Document Templates, on step 3. Approvals & signing → E-Approvals tab. When Use E-Approvals is enabled, generating a document from the template copies the approval flow onto it, dormant until someone starts it.

The flow is made of approval groups. Approvers are invited group by group: participants within a group act in parallel, and groups run sequentially. The Document Templates list shows each template's Approvals and Signatures configuration side by side (for example, “On · 2 steps” or “Off”), so you can see which templates route for approval before any document is created.

2. Key Elements

• Document Templates list: the Approvals and Signatures columns show each template's configuration. A template can have approvals On with signatures Off, signatures On with approvals Off, or both.
• Use E-Approvals: when Enabled, generated documents carry the template's approval flow. Click Save approval settings to apply.
• Approval process: links the template to a shared process from Approval & Signing Processes, if one is configured for the record type and template type.
• Who approves, and in what order: lists the template's approval groups in sequence, with Add group to create a new group.
• Group actions: Edit, Participant, Rules, Copy, and Delete.
• Participant row actions: When this approval is required (filter icon), Content controls this approver may edit (shield icon), and Remove this approver (trash icon). Each participant shows its Title (approval placeholder), Source, Approver, and whether it is required or optional.

3. Navigating to a Template's E-Approvals Settings

1. From the Contract Insight homepage, click the Administration icon at the bottom of the left navigation bar.
2. Type Document Templates in the Search administration box and click the Document Templates card.

3. Review the Approvals and Signatures columns to see which templates route for approval. Use the Search box to find a template, then click Open on its row.

4. In the template editor, click step 3. Approvals & signing. The E-Approvals tab opens by default.

4. Enabling E-Approvals for a Template

1. Navigate to the template's E-Approvals tab (see Section 3).
2. Check Use E-Approvals (Enabled).
3. If a shared approval process exists for the record type and template type, select it under Approval process.
4. Click Save approval settings.

Note: If E-Approvals is on with no process selected, the page shows “E-Approvals are on with no process selected - generated documents will carry no approval flow” unless the template has its own approval groups (see Section 5).

5. Configuring Approval Groups

The Who approves, and in what order section lists the template's approval groups. Each group is numbered in the order it runs and shows its participants, their source, approver, and whether each is required or optional.

5a. Adding an Approval Group

1. Click Add group.
2. In the Add group form, enter a Group name (required) and an optional Description.
3. Confirm the Sequence (the group's position in the flow).
4. Select For version: Initial Version Only, Additional/Modified Versions, or All Versions.
5. Choose whether to Accept tracked changes on complete, and optionally Set record status on complete.
6. Click Save approval group, or Cancel to discard.

5b. Adding a Participant to a Group

1. Click Participant on the group's header.
2. Under Participant is from, choose Employees, Roles & Groups, or Vendor/Customer Contacts.
3. Select the approver (for example, Select employee).
4. Enter a Title, which must be unique per template and is used as the approval placeholder, and an optional Reason.
5. Set Required and Locked as needed.
6. Click Save participant.

5c. Managing Groups and Participants

• Use Edit, Rules, Copy, or Delete on a group's header to change, condition, duplicate, or remove the group.
• Use the participant row icons to set when this approval is required, the content controls this approver may edit, or to remove this approver.

6. Shared Approval & Signing Processes

Instead of each template carrying its own groups, an approval flow can be shared by many templates.

1. From Administration, search for and open Approval & Signing Processes.
2. Click Approval under Show to list approval processes, or click New process to create one.

Once an active approval process exists for a record type and template type, it can be selected in the template's Approval process field (see Section 4).

7. Viewing Approvals on a Generated Document

1. Open the record and click the Attachments & Templates tab.
2. In Merged Document Templates → Saved documents, click the Approvals (checklist) icon on the package's row.
3. The Approvals panel opens beneath the package and shows the flow copied from the template. If the template has no approval groups, the panel reads “This document's template has no approval groups set up, so there's nothing to route.”

See Generate New Document Package for how packages are created.

8. Quick Reference Summary