COBBLESTONE SOFTWARE

Contract Insight — User Guide

Managing Electronic Approval Groups, Participants & Attachments

Document Templates: Generation/Merging › Manage Electronic Approval Process › Managing Electronic Approval Groups, Participants & Attachments

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 approval process's console brings its groups, participants, and attachments together in one place. The summary bar at the top shows the process Status and counts for Groups (how many are finalized), Participants, and Files. The Groups and participants section lists each approval group in order with its people, and is where you add, replace, re-notify, or remove participants. The Files in this process grid lists the documents attached to the process. The header holds Pause, End process, and Finalize for managing the process as a whole.

2. Key Elements

• Groups and participants lists each group in sequence, marks the current group, and shows when each group was notified or finalized.
• Each group offers Add participant and Resend. Only the current group can be re-notified.
• Each participant row shows a status (Pending, Expired, Approved, …) and offers Re-send this invitation, Replace this participant, and delete icons.
• The FILES counter in the summary bar and the Files in this process grid track the documents attached to the process.
• Pause, End process, and Finalize manage the process as a whole.

3. Opening an Approval Process Console

1. From the Contract Insight homepage, click the Approvals & Signatures icon in the left navigation bar.
2. Select Negotiation Processes.

3. Set the type filter to Approvals only and use the status filter or Search to find the process.
4. Click Open console on the process's row.

4. Reviewing Groups, Participants, and Files at a Glance

The summary bar shows how far the process has progressed. Groups shows how many groups are finalized (for example, 0 of 2 finalized), Participants shows the total number of people across all groups, and Files shows how many documents are attached.

1. Check the Groups, Participants, and Files counters in the summary bar.
2. Scroll to Groups and participants to see each group's people. The icons on the right of each participant row are Re-send this invitation (bell), Replace this participant (people), and delete (trash).

Note: Participants copied from the template show a FROM TEMPLATE tag and cannot be deleted from the console. Replace them instead (see Section 6). Re-send is unavailable for a participant whose group has not been notified yet.

5. Managing Groups

Groups are notified one at a time, in order. Within a group, participants act in parallel.

1. Find the group marked current group. Its notified timestamp shows when its participants were invited, while later groups read not notified.
2. To re-notify everyone in the current group, click Resend on the group's header.
3. To add someone to a group, click Add participant on that group's header (see Section 6a).

6. Managing Participants

6a. Adding a Participant

1. Click Add participant on the group's header. The Add a participant to [group] panel opens.
2. Choose the participant type: External participant, Employee participant, or Company contact participant.
3. Enter the Full name and E-mail address (or select the employee or contact), and optionally explain Why are they being added?
4. Click Add, or Cancel to close the panel.

Note: Participants added to a group that is already running are invited as soon as they are added.

6b. Replacing a Participant

1. Click the Replace this participant (people) icon on the participant's row.
2. In the Replace “[name]” in this group panel, select the replacement and enter Why are you replacing them?
3. Click Replace, or Cancel to close the panel.

Note: The replacement keeps the group's placed fields. If the invitation already went out, the new person is invited automatically and the previous participant is told.

6c. Re-sending or Removing a Participant

• Click the Re-send this invitation (bell) icon to re-notify one participant.
• Click the delete (trash) icon to remove a participant who was added in the console. Participants added through the template cannot be deleted.

7. Reviewing Process Attachments

The FILES counter shows how many documents are attached to the process. The Files in this process grid lists each one with its #, File, Type, Description, Versions, Checked out to, and Flags.

1. Scroll to Files in this process.
2. Use the Search box or the column filter icons to find a file.
3. Check Versions to see how many versions exist, and Checked out to to see whether someone is editing the file.

8. Completing the Process

As each group finishes, its header shows finalized with the date, and each participant shows their outcome (for example Approved) with the date they acted. When every group is finalized, the status banner reads This process is completed/finalized.

• Finalize completes the process once every group is finalized (for example, 2 of 2).
• Pause temporarily stops a running process.
• End process cancels a running process.

9. Quick Reference Summary