The Core System provides Contract Insight’s core components and functionality for full lifecycle management of your organization’s contracts and committals.
CORE SYSTEM
NEW FEATURES
Launchpad, a Guided Setup Workspace with a Readiness Score
Reference #: 260916.100.0001
Launchpad is a new screen in the Administration area that gathers everything needed to bring a system live into one workspace. A readiness dial scores every area of configuration from the system's own data, covering license and activation, company basics, custom fields, reference data, drop-down lists, record stages, record layout, counterparties, employees, the clause library, document templates, email and alert wording, security and roles, sign-in, workflows, approvals and signing, bringing data in, and the contracts themselves. It can be worked as a guided path or as an all areas view, with collapsible phase groups and a settled count on each group. Every step opens its work in place on the same screen rather than sending you to another page, and each step can be marked done, reopened, or dismissed with a reason; a dismissed step leaves the score alone rather than counting against it. A Needs a look list names the current priorities and a feed shows recent setup changes.
Two cleanup queues sit alongside the checklist, one for duplicate counterparty names and one for active people with no email address, each row opening the record it refers to. The Fields step includes a wizard that reads a spreadsheet saved as CSV, profiles every column and proposes a field for it, working out whether it holds a date, a number, an amount, a tick box, a list with its values, long text or plain text, whether it should be required, and whether it resembles a field you already have; every proposal is reviewed and adjusted before anything is created, and creation then follows the same validated path as adding a field by hand. A printable implementation report records what is done, what has been deliberately ruled out and why, and what could not be checked.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
Launchpad System Health, Continuous Checking of Configuration and Data
Reference #: 260916.100.0002
A second mode on Launchpad, chosen from its header, checks the health of the system's own configuration and data. More than thirty checks look for duplicate values, orphaned rows, blank required data, oversized history tables, license and activation state, people with no security group, tasks nobody owns, tasks long past their date, contracts that end before they start, alerts queued but never sent, and whether the scheduled jobs have actually run, alongside two sweeps generated from the site's own field and drop-down configuration. Each finding carries a severity of Action required, Needs review, Advisory, Passed or Unable to verify, a count with its trend since the previous scan, and a recommendation. Anything critical caps the overall score, so a serious problem is never averaged away. Findings can be dismissed or snoozed with a required reason and stay listed and dimmed rather than disappearing, and a printable review lists what needs attention, what was clean, and what was accepted and by whom.
Every finding is worked from the board itself. A row that is a single record opens in the standard record panel with edit, record actions and open as page, and closing it re-checks just that finding, so what you fixed leaves the queue. A finding that groups records by a shared value expands in place to list the records sharing it, and a finding that points at a configuration list opens that list with a trail back to the board. Long queues are paged, a finding with nothing to open shows no action buttons, and the board scans on demand as well as overnight. Additional checks can be added for an organization without a software update. Which of the two modes Launchpad opens on is a decision about the system rather than a personal preference: switching mode in the header changes the mode everybody opens on, and the same choice can be made as Launchpad Opens On in Application Settings. It arrives set to the setup checklist, so a system long past go live is worth switching to system health once.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
Merging Duplicate List Values, One Step Cleanups and an Undo
Reference #: 260916.100.0003
Where System Health finds the same list value entered several times, for example a department, contract type or location repeated, it can merge them. The merge panel lists every entry in the group with how many records point at each one, preselects the value the records already use, names every area whose records will move, and states the effect in one sentence before you commit, counting the records that will be moved and the duplicate entries that will be deleted. The whole merge runs as a single transaction and is written to the audit trail. Merging is refused for entries that are real records rather than list values, and for very large tables, because two real records need reconciling field by field. Some findings also carry a one step cleanup, run against the rows on screen after a confirmation that states the count: deactivating accounts that are dormant or were never used, clearing the security group memberships of disabled accounts, and removing drop-down configurations whose field no longer exists.
Every merge and cleanup records what each affected row looked like beforehand, inside the same transaction as the change. An Undo offer then sits at the top of the finding showing what was changed, how many rows, when and by whom, and puts the records and deleted list values back in one step. It refuses rather than half restoring if anything needed to reverse the change is missing, and where a change cannot be reversed it says so up front instead of offering an undo that would not work. The stored before images are kept for thirty days.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
Contract Insights, Eight Analytics Boards with Written Summaries
Reference #: 260916.100.0004
Contract Insights, found under Insights in the navigation, is a new screen that reads the whole contract portfolio and presents it as eight boards: Overview, Renewals & Expirations, Financial & Vendors, Operations & Activity, Approvals & Signatures, Cycle Time, Data Health, and a board covering sign-in activity and license use. Overview carries headline figures for total, active, expiring in the window you choose and total and average value, a donut of the status mix, bars for the most used contract types, and a list of contracts expiring soon colored by urgency, each entry linking straight to its record. Every board charts its numbers and lists the records behind them, so a chart can be opened rather than only read, and every figure is a straight count or total of real contract data; nothing is estimated and nothing is written back.
Each board also carries a button that asks VISDOM to read that board and write a short plain English briefing calling out risk, concentration and suggested next actions, which can be regenerated at any time. The screen needs no separate reporting product, where graphical dashboards in version 22.7 required one, and it covers the whole company rather than one person's records.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
Home Is Now a Dashboard Each User Can Arrange
Reference #: 260916.100.0005
The page you land on after signing in is now a dashboard you arrange yourself. Customize lets you add panels from a catalog, remove them, drag them into position and resize them, and the arrangement is saved against your account. The catalog covers My Tasks, Alerts, Calendar, Recent Contracts, the summary tile band, My Favorites, a web page panel, ad hoc and custom report previews, a tag cloud, and the report designer, saved search and search engine panels. Customizing the built in Standard layout quietly makes your own copy the first time, so the standard layout is always there to go back to.
Home opens with a line naming what is actually waiting for you and a strip of four tiles: tasks overdue, tasks due this week, approvals and signatures, and unread alerts. Clicking a tile filters the My Tasks panel directly below it, and clicking the lit tile again clears the filter; zero counts stay visible and quiet, and module counts sit below the panels where they read as reference rather than as something to act on. The My Favorites panel lists every record you have starred, from every area, newest first, and on a dashboard an administrator publishes to other people it resolves per viewer, so everyone sees their own starred records.
How will this affect users?
Every user can arrange the first screen they see around their own work, and anyone who changes nothing keeps the standard layout.
Awaiting Action, Four Tabs Covering Everything That Needs You
Reference #: 260916.100.0006
The Awaiting Action card on Home carries four tabs. Awaiting action lists the approval and signature steps naming you together with your overdue and due this week tasks, most urgent first, each row acting in place with Sign now, Review & approve or Open. Checked-out documents lists every document you hold checked out across every record, with a link into that record's files. Sent, awaiting others answers what you sent that has not come back, covering approval and signature processes you started and signature requests you sent outside the organization. In progress holds your own unfinished work: drafts you parked, processes you set up but never sent, and requests you raised that are still pending.
Rows are acted on without leaving Home. A checked out document can be checked back in, previewed over the dashboard, downloaded, or opened in the full document tools. The card pages five rows at a time and its foot states the true total alongside how many are on screen, and the In progress tab loads the first time it is opened rather than with the page.
How will this affect users?
Every user can see and act on everything waiting on them from the first screen after sign in, including the two questions, what did I send and what am I holding, that had no screen before.
See Who Else Has a Record Open, and Take Their Changes Without a Refresh
Reference #: 260916.100.0007
A record now shows the people who currently have it open, as small photographs or initials beside the title. Anyone with the form open for editing carries an amber ring and marker, and resting on a face gives that person's details card with Viewing this record or Editing this record under their name. Where more people are present than fit, a panel lists them all with the same wording per person, and the people who are editing are listed first. Nothing is locked or blocked; this is information, not a guard, and nothing appears when you are alone on a record.
Work done by other people arrives without a refresh. A new note or file appears in its panel, tinted and badged New until you open it, with note visibility respected so a note meant for someone else never appears, and the task list reloads itself when a task changes. When somebody else saves the record's fields, a bar names who changed what and offers Show changes, so the screen never repaints under you unasked. Pressing it marks every field that moved: while reading, the form takes the new values and each mark says what the value was; while editing, your own entries are left exactly as you left them and each changed field shows the other person's initials and their value, in amber where you have edited the same field and are about to replace theirs. Saving itself behaves as before.
How will this affect users?
Anyone working a record at the same time as a colleague can see who is there and what they changed, and decide whether to take it, instead of discovering it after saving.
A Sidebar Beside Every Record, Configured per Record Type
Reference #: 260916.100.0020
Records now carry a sidebar alongside the form holding a summary of the record's key identifying values, its notices, its stage, its risk, related records, its status history and a jump list of the sections on the page. Each panel collapses, and the whole sidebar is configured rather than fixed: a new Record Sidebar Widgets screen in Administration controls which panels appear for each record type and whether a panel is hidden, always shown, or shown only when it has something in it.
How will this affect users?
Everyone who opens a record sees the key information beside the form rather than behind another tab, and System Administrators decide what each record type shows.
Insights and Timeline Tabs on a Record
Reference #: 260916.100.0021
An Insights tab can be added to any record type from Tab Details Setup. It shows where the record sits among others of its type, where it is in its term, how active it has been, which key fields are still empty and what stands out, and offers a VISDOM reading of those same figures under four angles: Summarize, Risks, What next and Value. Comparisons are given as a percentile, for example that a record is larger than 81% of its type, rather than as a percentage above average, so a single mistyped amount cannot distort the picture, and every signal states the rule that produced it. It ships ready for contracts, requests, solicitations, purchase orders and vendor or customer records, and nothing is placed automatically; an administrator decides which record types get the tab and where it sits among their tabs.
A Timeline panel can be placed the same way, showing everything that has happened to the record in date order, so the history of a record reads as a sequence rather than as a table of entries.
How will this affect users?
Anyone opening a record can see how it compares with its peers and what has happened to it, once a System Administrator has added the tabs to that record type.
Mention a Colleague in a Record Note with @
Reference #: 260916.100.0023
Typing @ in a record note offers the people who can be notified, and picking one drops a chip into the note. Saving the note tells that person in the application and by email, with a link back to the record. Only people who can open the record are offered and told, and the confirmation says how many of those named were actually reached. The email carries the note's subject and a link but never the note's text, because notes can be internal. Mentions are available on contracts, requests, solicitations and vendor or customer records.
How will this affect users?
Anyone writing a record note can bring a colleague into the conversation without leaving the record; revising a note notifies the people it still names, so removing a chip before saving is the way to avoid that.
A Risk Panel on the Record, and One Screen Rolling Risk Up Across Records
Reference #: 260916.100.0031
Risk now sits beside the record rather than on a screen of its own. The panel shows the risk warnings currently firing against that record, each with its title, its message and, where the warning is configured to show one, the comparison figure it was measured against and how many records that figure came from, and the record's own risk register underneath. A risk is added and removed in place with its category, exposure, probability, owner and mitigating control, and the register is drawn as a three by three heat map of exposure against probability, so where a record's risk sits is clear without reading the rows. The panel is one of the panels the Record Sidebar Widgets screen controls, so an administrator decides which record types carry it; it stays quiet on a record type with no warnings configured and an empty register, and a warning whose configuration is broken reports nothing rather than stopping the record from opening.
Risk under Insights rolls the whole register up across every record type, highest exposure first, with counts of high, medium and low risks and how many records are affected, and every row opens the record the risk was raised on. Version 22.7 could list the risks on one record at a time and had no view across them. Risk categories are maintained on a second tab of the same screen, and which warnings exist, with the thresholds that fire them, is configured under Administration then Risk Warnings.
How will this affect users?
Anyone reading a record sees the warnings and the risks recorded against it beside the form, and the people responsible for risk can read the whole register, worst first, in one place.
Rest on a Person or a Company Name to See Their Details
Reference #: 260916.100.0032
Wherever a person is named, resting the pointer on the name opens a card carrying their photograph or their initials, their job title and department, their email address and their phone and mobile numbers, with Email, Copy email, Call and Open record on it and a marker when the account is inactive. An action is offered only where the detail behind it is recorded, and a person with no contact details on file says so rather than showing an empty card. The same card is used on a record's fields and notes, on signature rows, in the employee picker while you are choosing somebody, and beside the faces of the people who have the record open, so one card answers the question wherever it comes up.
Resting on a field that names a company opens the company's card. It leads with how many contracts that company appears on, then the contact recorded for them with their title, their phone and email, the account number and the website, and it marks a company that is inactive or under legal hold, which changes what may be done with its records. It works on any field that looks companies up, including fields an organization defined itself. Neither card navigates anywhere, so the record you are reading stays where it is.
How will this affect users?
Anyone reading a record can find out who an owner, an approver or a counterparty is, and how to reach them, without opening a second record to do it.
Save an Unfinished Record as a Draft and Come Back to It
Reference #: 260916.100.0008
Every add screen now carries Save as draft beside Cancel, which parks what you have typed, including the sub-table rows you staged and the record you were adding from. Nothing is written to the record itself until you come back and save for real, so a parked form does not appear in lists, reports, workflow or anywhere else, and nothing is numbered until its author finishes it. Parking runs none of the form's validation, which is the point of parking it, and password fields are never stored in a draft and have to be entered again. Drafts are picked up from My Drafts in the profile menu, where each one shows its name, record kind and type, how much of the form holds something, and when it was started and last saved. Nothing is saved automatically; a draft exists only when somebody presses the button.
Administration carries a Record Drafts screen listing every unfinished form in the system with the name of the person who saved it, where an administrator can preview what a draft holds and delete it. There is deliberately no resume action there, because finishing somebody else's draft would create a record attributed to the administrator with values they cannot vouch for; an administrator resumes their own drafts from My Drafts like everyone else.
How will this affect users?
Anyone who starts adding a record and cannot finish it in one sitting can park it and return to it, and administrators can review and clear stale drafts without being able to complete them.
Print or Save a Record, a List or a Report as a Composed Document
Reference #: 260916.100.0009
Every record carries a single Print / PDF action in its Actions menu that opens a composer. The two items version 22.7 carried on a record, Print and Record PDF, are now this one action, which produces the same composed document whichever output you take, and the address the Record PDF item used still resolves, so existing links and bookmarks keep working and now return the full packet rather than the flat field and value sheet. The composer lists the sections this record actually has with live counts, so you can see how many line items a record holds before deciding whether to include them, and you choose the sections, paper size, portrait or landscape, one or two field columns, whether to hide empty fields, and which of your configured watermarks to stamp, then Print, Download PDF or Attach to this record, which files the packet with the record's own documents as a dated snapshot. The document is rebuilt from the same permission filtered information the record screen shows, so it can never print a field the screen hides, and it carries a cover page and contents list with real page numbers, letterhead, and who printed it. Your choices are remembered per record type, every print is written to the record's audit history, and a record under legal hold carries the hold notice on its cover.
The same composer reaches lists and reports. A print button sits immediately to the left of Export on every list, where you choose which of the list's fields to print, group rows by any printed field, add a totals row for money and decimal fields, number the rows and add a cover page; the printed sheet carries letterhead, a line stating exactly what the list was filtered to, headings repeated on every page and a footer with who printed it and the page number, and grouping turns the cover's contents into a real index. The composer states roughly how many pages the print will run to before anything is pressed and warns past a hundred. Print and Export run the same query, so they can never show different rows. Ad hoc report and saved search run pages get the composer with a criteria cover page on by default, carrying the report's name and description, its criteria as readable lines, the number of matching rows and who ran it when.
How will this affect users?
Anyone who needs a record, a list or a report on paper or as a shareable PDF gets a composed document rather than a screen print, and a printed report now states what it was filtered to.
Read Any Attached Document Inside Contract Insight
Reference #: 260916.100.0010
An eye icon on every file row, on the file tiles and on each earlier version opens a full screen viewer. Word, PDF and Excel documents render as pages with page jump and zoom, images have zoom, fit and rotate, text and web files display inline, and anything else is named plainly with its download. You can step Previous and Next through the record's documents with a count of where you are, and Escape closes the viewer. The same viewer opens documents in the Document Library and on document templates, so reading a document behaves the same everywhere.
No document is handed to an outside service to be displayed. Access is checked before anything is shown, and where a file carries its own list of who may see it, that list is enforced on the preview exactly as it is on the download. The file is fetched and virus checked once for the whole document rather than once per page, so a long document opens noticeably faster than page by page viewing did.
How will this affect users?
Everyone who opens attachments can read them in place, without downloading them and without a separate application window.
Copy a Link to a Record, and Star the Records You Keep Returning To
Reference #: 260916.100.0033
A record's Actions menu carries Copy Link, which copies the address of the record exactly as it stands on screen, including the tab you are on, so what you paste into an email or a message opens the files or the documents tab your colleague needs rather than the top of the record. Copying also works on sites that are not served over a secure connection, where the browser's own clipboard is unavailable, and the confirmation appears only when something was actually copied. A value marked as copyable while reading a record, such as a reference number, is taken by double-clicking it.
The same menu carries Add to Favorites and Remove from Favorites, which star the record itself using the same star a row on the list carries, so a record reached from a link, a report or a task can be kept without going back to the list to find its row. Stars are personal and are never seen by anyone else, and everything you have starred, from every area, is listed in the My Favorites panel on Home. Reports are starred the same way from the reports list. Administration lookup lists offer no star, and neither action existed in version 22.7, where a record address could only be taken from the browser and nothing below a list could be starred.
How will this affect users?
Anyone who sends a record to a colleague sends them the tab they meant, and anyone who works the same handful of records can reach them from Home instead of searching for them again.
Jump to Any Screen or Start Any Record with Ctrl+K
Reference #: 260916.100.0012
Pressing Ctrl+K, or Command+K on a Mac, opens a search box over whatever screen you are on. Typing filters every destination in the menu, every record type you are allowed to create, and offers a global record search for what you typed. Results are grouped by kind, arrow keys move, Enter opens and Escape closes. Its contents come from the same navigation configuration as the side menu, so it offers only the screens and add actions your permissions allow and stays in step automatically.
Matching is forgiving: typing dropdown lists, admin drop or ddl all find Drop-Down Lists, words may be typed in any order, a word from the menu group counts as well as the screen name, and the letters that matched are highlighted in each result so it is clear why the result appeared. Results are ranked so the screen actually called by that name wins over one that merely mentions it.
How will this affect users?
Frequent users can reach any screen or start any record in a couple of keystrokes without remembering exactly where it sits in the menu.
Two Navigation Layouts, Workspaces and Breadcrumb Trails
Reference #: 260916.100.0018
The menu can sit down the side of the page or across the top of it, and an organization that has always shown its menu across the top keeps that layout, because that setting is now honored. Either way it draws the menu your organization has configured, as a grouped, icon led tree gathered into sections such as Contracts, Clauses, Sourcing, Directory, Insights, Library, Approvals & Signatures, Procurement and Administration. Navigation is organized into workspaces that a user can switch between from Change Workspace in the profile menu, so each person works from the areas that matter to their job rather than the whole menu at once.
Every screen now shows a breadcrumb trail above its title, giving the section and list a record belongs to with the record's own name as the final step, each step a link back. The trail is derived from the menu, so reorganizing the navigation moves the trails with it, and a record opened from a report row, a task list or an assignment carries a trail back to where you actually came from rather than to the module list. It renders only when it has something to add, so a top level list does not repeat its own name.
How will this affect users?
Everyone navigates the menu their organization configured, in the layout it chooses, and always has a one click way back to where they came from.
Menu Items Pointing at Replaced Screens Are Translated Automatically, and Where Did This Go? Answers the Rest
Reference #: 260916.100.0013
An upgrading organization keeps the menu it built, and this release replaced a number of the screens that menu points at. An entry naming a screen that has a direct replacement is translated to it as the menu draws, including entries whose destination depends on what they carry, such as an add form for a particular record type or a saved report. An entry with nothing to point at is shown muted and, when selected, opens a page called Where did this go?, which names what the entry was, explains what happened to it and offers the nearest screens the application does have, with a search over every page as a fallback.
The same finder sits in the Help menu in the header at any time, so somebody can look a screen up by the name they knew it by in version 22.7 without first having to find a dead link. Answers are given in plain words, for example that Welcome is now Calendar under Main, with a Take me there button, and guided tours of the new navigation are offered alongside the answer. Upgrading systems can also install a short tour that opens on the home screen the first time somebody visits it, covering one subject only: what changed about the menu, where the menu you built has gone, and who can change the default back.
How will this affect users?
Every user upgrading from version 22.7 can find where a familiar screen now lives, either by following their old menu item or by looking the name up from the Help menu.
Menu Review for Reconciling a Customized Menu After the Upgrade
Reference #: 260916.100.0014
The Navigation Menu screen in Administration carries a one off review that walks a workspace entry by entry and sorts it into what already works, what was translated automatically, what has a suggested replacement, what has no equivalent, and what points outside the application. From the same place an administrator can accept a suggestion, repoint an entry by hand, or hide rather than delete one, and can add the screens this release has that their menu does not, gathered into a group so the additions are easy to see and easy to undo. The point is to reconcile the menu you built rather than reset it. A prompt to work through the review also appears on Launchpad, linking straight to the workspace in the worst shape.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen, though they benefit from the corrected menu.
Search from Anywhere, with Results as You Type
Reference #: 260916.100.0019, 260916.100.0106
The search control in the header opens a dialog that shows results as you type, across every area configured for quick search, covering record fields and the text read out of attachments. Two filters narrow the search to a single area or to attachments only, results appear per area as each one lands rather than after all of them, so the likeliest match paints first, and a link opens the full results for an area. The forward slash key opens the dialog, arrow keys move between results, Enter opens the highlighted one and Escape closes it, and a result with no screen to open says so instead of looking clickable.
Screens are searchable too: when what you type matches the name of a screen, the matching screens appear as a compact strip of links above the record results, so an administration or configuration screen can be reached by name rather than by knowing where it sits in the menu. Ctrl or Cmd plus K still opens the command palette for jumping to pages and actions, and the palette now ranks results by fuzzy matching, so words typed in any order, initials alone, or letters with gaps all find the page, with the matched characters highlighted so it is clear why a result is there.
The full search screen returns permission filtered, paged results across the tables and fields an administrator has configured, with a relevance cutoff that can be raised or lowered and an indicator when more matches exist than were returned. A sidebar keeps your recent and saved searches with run and delete actions, recent searches trimmed to the fifty most recent per person, and the index is rebuilt on a schedule and backed up so it survives a restart or a move to another server. When a record type returns nothing, the screen checks whether the administrator filters set for that record type exclude every record and only then says so, with the conditions available behind a disclosure.
How will this affect users?
Every user can search from any screen without leaving it, using a click or the slash key where the previous box disappeared on small screens, and can find screens by name as well as records. Administrators can see why a search returned nothing.
Administration Opens on a Searchable Hub of Every Setup Screen
Reference #: 260916.100.0025
Administration now opens on a hub listing every administration tool grouped into categories, with a search box that finds a screen by name, so instead of working down a configuration menu looking for the page you need, you type what you want to change. The hub has three states. Tools you can open are shown as cards. The rest are held behind a disclosure naming how many tools you do not have access to, each one stating the permission it requires, for example Needs "Manage Custom Fields". Somebody with no administration access at all sees a short explanation and the route to ask an administrator, rather than a restricted message. Searching always reveals matching tools, whether or not you can open them.
How will this affect users?
Administrators reach any setup screen by name, and a user who lands in the Administration area is told which permission they would need and how to ask for it.
Each User Chooses the Columns and the View a List Opens With
Reference #: 260916.100.0026
A Columns option in the list toolbar opens a tick list of every field an administrator has published for that list, with select all, unselect all and a reset to the standard layout. The choice is saved for that person, applied every time they open the list on any machine, and carried into exports as well as the grid, without changing what anyone else sees. The published set stays authoritative: a personal choice can only narrow it, never add a column or change the order, so a column an administrator adds to a list appears for everybody straight away.
A View drop-down directly beneath the page heading on the Contracts, Requests, Vendors / Customers, Purchase Orders, Solicitations, Employees and Clause Library lists offers ready made filters such as Created by me, Updated by me, Recently updated, Recently added and My department alongside All, and the Contracts list adds Renewal window (next 180 days) and Expiring within 30 days. The selected view appears in the page address so it can be bookmarked and shared, views respect record permissions exactly as the full list does, and each list remembers the page size and the view you last chose. Where a list has more columns than fit the screen, a narrow rail at its right edge pages a screenful across and states how many columns are out of view.
How will this affect users?
Every user can shape a list around their own job without affecting anyone else's, and administrators keep control of which columns exist.
Dark Mode, Personal Color Themes and Interface Zoom
Reference #: 260916.100.0016, 260916.100.0135
Account then Appearance now carries a Dark mode switch. Turning it on repaints the whole application, including grids, pickers, dialogs, dropdowns, menus, editors, charts and the navigation, and the choice is stored against your account rather than in one browser, so it follows you from a desktop to a laptop and is applied before the page paints, with no flash of a light screen on the way in. Light remains the default for everyone who never opens the screen. The sign-in, multi factor, password reset and sign out screens follow your choice on that device, and the setting is held separately for each installation, so darkening a test system does not darken the live one. Dark mode darkens the application, not the documents inside it: file previews, email message bodies, merged templates, the document editor and report and dashboard output stay on a white page. That is deliberate. A contract reads as a lit page on a dark desk, and an email body carries the sender's own formatting, which Contract Insight does not recolor.
The same screen offers a gallery of color themes plus a Custom option where you pick your own navigation, accent and heading colors, with a miniature preview of the application beside the swatches and the organization's own default shown alongside, so you can see what you are changing away from. Administrators set that organization default under Administration then Branding, and can switch personal colors off entirely, in which case the Appearance screen says so and shows the organization palette read only; choosing the first swatch clears a personal choice and follows the organization from then on, including later changes to it. A Zoom control in the account menu scales the entire interface in steps between 70% and 130%, buttons, navigation, grids and editors together rather than text alone, with a click on the percentage to return to 100%; it is remembered per browser, so you can run larger on a high resolution desktop and normal on a laptop.
Interface zoom stays with the computer you are sitting at rather than following your account, and is no longer shared between people who use the same browser. The supplied color themes and any custom color are also adapted automatically when dark mode is on, so the navigation rail still reads as a distinct region against a dark page and headings keep the color of the theme instead of turning grey; themes such as Midnight, Forest, Burgundy and Teal show their own color rather than a washed out grey.
How will this affect users?
Every user can set the appearance, colors and scale that suit them without an administrator being involved, and administrators keep control of the organization default; appearance choices also follow a user from one computer to another.
Contract Insight Works on a Tablet or a Phone
Reference #: 260916.100.0017, 260916.100.0131
Screens now adapt to the width of the window. At roughly 900 pixels and below the navigation becomes a slide in panel opened from a menu button in the top bar, with a dimmed backdrop that closes it, it closes itself once you navigate, and page content reflows to a single column. Below roughly 760 pixels page headings, trails and action buttons rearrange so the buttons take their own row under the title, and below roughly 560 pixels the search control becomes a single icon rather than disappearing. Wide tables keep their own sideways scroll rather than forcing the whole page to scroll sideways.
On narrower or shorter displays, typically 1366 and 1440 wide laptops and any window under about 820 pixels tall, the application also tightens itself: the base text size, control heights, header icons, navigation width and grid row height step down together so more of the page is visible. Nothing is hidden, only sized, and it works alongside the personal zoom control.
How will this affect users?
Users away from their desk can approve a task, read a record or check a document from a phone or tablet, on the same screens they use at a desk, and anyone working on a laptop or a smaller monitor sees the interface tighten to fit.
A Library of More Than One Hundred Guided Tours
Reference #: 260916.100.0024
The release includes an optional library of more than one hundred guided tours covering the home screen, every main area of the application and every card on the Administration hub. Administration tours lead with what the screen governs and what it affects, including the settings that are not reversible and the ones whose symptom shows up somewhere else entirely. Only the home screen tour is offered automatically on a first visit, and any of the others can be promoted with one click. Administrators can rename, re-target, deactivate or delete any of them from Administration then Guided Tutorials; they are ordinary records rather than built in content.
Writing a tour of your own opens straight into batch picking: click every element you want a step for, then write them all up one after another with Save and next, Skip this one and Stop here. Chosen elements stay outlined and numbered on the page and can be undone, and picking can be paused so you can open a menu or panel normally and then resume. When you pick something inside one of the header menus the tour records how to open that menu, shown on the step as Opens first, so at run time the step opens the menu, highlights the item inside it, and closes it again when the tour moves on. A saved tour can be reopened and edited in place, which version 22.7 could not do at all, its steps dragged into a different order or repointed at a different element, and Preview runs the tour on the real screen before anyone else is offered it.
How will this affect users?
New users get a guided introduction to every screen, and System Administrators can tailor, add to or remove any tour.
Ask an Administrator, or Report a Problem, from Any Screen
Reference #: 260916.100.0015
Submit a System Request in the profile menu opens a panel over whatever page you are on, where any user can ask for a field, an account or some access, or report something that is not working. The panel records the page you were looking at as a link the administrators can follow, and can attach a picture of that screen; the picture is drawn by the application with no sharing prompt and is previewed before you send it, with the browser's own screen capture, paste and choose a file as alternatives. A My requests tab in the same panel shows the requests you have raised, their status and the replies. A problem on one screen now affects only that screen: you stay signed in, everything else you had open stays live, and the screen itself offers Try again, a way back to the home page, and a short reference code for the fault. It also carries a Report this problem button that opens the same panel with the page and that reference code already attached as a tag, so the reference cannot be deleted or mistyped and an administrator receives something they can act on.
Administrators work the requests from a System Requests queue in Administration, with status tabs and counts, where each row leads with the subject of the request, shows its type and status, and expands to reply and change the status in one save. A System requests tab also appears on the notification bell and the Notifications screen, listing the requests still waiting with the urgent ones marked, who submitted each one and how long it has waited, with the count shown on the tab itself. An organization that already runs its own help desk can switch the whole feature off from the switch on the System Requests screen or from Application Settings, in which case the profile menu entry and the error screen button go with it; requests already raised stay readable and answerable.
NOTE: This can be enabled/disabled from the System Requests tile under Administration.
How will this affect users?
Everyone gets a direct route to the people who run the system from the screen they are on, and administrators receive those requests in one queue instead of by email.
A Warning Before an Inactive Session Signs You Out
Reference #: 260916.100.0027
Contract Insight now enforces the configured inactivity timeout, and warns before it acts. Real activity, clicking, typing, changing a drop-down and scrolling, keeps your session alive across all of your open tabs; simply moving the mouse does not. Two minutes before the session would end, an "Are you still there?" message appears with a live countdown and the choice of Stay signed in or Sign out now. Staying keeps the session alive without losing the screen you were on. At zero the application checks with the server before signing you out, then says plainly that you were signed out after a period of inactivity, and returns you to what you were doing once you sign back in. The timeout length is the session timeout already configured for your organization.
How will this affect users?
Every signed in user now gets a warning and a countdown before an idle session ends, and a session that is genuinely idle will end rather than staying open.
License & Session Usage Reporting
Reference #: 260916.100.0028
A new License & Session Usage screen in the Security & Access area of Administration, linked both ways with the Session Manager, reports how the system is actually being used. It shows seats in use right now per license type against the maximum the key allows, daily or hourly peak concurrent sessions over a date range you choose, headroom at peak per license type, median and longest session length and seat hours, a typical day profile folding the range onto one 24 hour clock with the busiest and quietest hours and the best maintenance window, and sign-ins, sign-outs and inactivity timeouts by day. Session history is available alongside it for investigating individual sign-in activity, and every table on the screen can be downloaded as Excel, CSV or PDF, built from the same figures shown.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
A Test Message That Proves Outgoing Email Is Working
Reference #: 260916.100.0034
Administration then Email / SMTP Test reports the outgoing mail settings the system will actually use, the server, the port, the from address, whether a secure connection is in use, whether credentials are being sent and whether mail is configured at all, then sends a real message to an address you type and reports either that it was sent or the reason it was not. It sends through the same sender the notification engine uses, so a message that arrives proves that alerts, task reminders, approval invitations and password resets can arrive too, and a failure separates a mail server problem from a notification configuration problem without anybody reading a log. The send button stays unavailable while the settings are incomplete, so the screen says what is missing rather than failing on the attempt.
Version 22.7 had no way to test outgoing mail from inside the application: the only way to prove mail was going out was to make the application send a real one and wait to hear whether it arrived. The screen is worth running on the day of an upgrade and whenever mail settings change.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
Issue a New API Client Secret Without Changing the Client Id
Reference #: 260916.520.0004
A row action on API Clients issues a fresh secret for an existing client while keeping the same client id. It confirms first, names the application, records who did it, and reopens the client with the new secret revealed so it can be copied into the integration. In version 22.7 the only way to replace a leaked secret was to delete the client and create a new one, which also changed the client id and so broke the very integration the operation was meant to rescue.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen. Administrators can rotate a credential after a leak, or on a schedule, without reconfiguring the integration that uses it.
CORE SYSTEM
ENHANCEMENTS
One Record Screen That Opens Read Only, With an Edit Button
Reference #: 260916.100.0100
A record now opens as a details sheet with labels and plain values rather than as a page full of input boxes. The page header carries the record's own name, for example the contract title, with the record type and identifier beneath it, so it is clear which record is on screen when several are open in different tabs. Edit switches the same screen into editing and Save or Cancel returns to the details view; each field group also carries a pencil that opens just that group, in which case the main button reads Edit All. Version 22.7 used two separate screens, one to view a record and another to edit it. New records, and records created from a document with VISDOM, open directly in edit mode. Leaving a record that has unsaved changes now asks first, offering to stay on the page or to leave without saving, and closing the browser tab raises the browser's own equivalent warning; the question is asked only when a value has actually been changed, so reading a record never produces a prompt.
Reading a record now answers what is empty and what is missing. A field with no value shows a dash instead of nothing at all, which previously could not be told apart from a field still loading or one the user has no permission to see; a required field with no value reads Required, not set; numbers line up in columns, and a hyperlink shows its site name with the full address on the tooltip and on copy. Any value on a record being read can be copied by double clicking it, with a short Copied confirmation at the pointer; it works on the values on the form, on the identifying values under the record title and on the summary panel's header and tag values, while a single click never triggers it and selecting text with the mouse behaves as usual.
How will this affect users?
Everyone gets a clear read view of a record, can move into editing in one click, and is far less likely to change a value by accident while reading.
A Summary Panel on Every Record, With Quick Actions and Section Links
Reference #: 260916.100.0110
Every record carries a right hand panel showing the header fields and tag values configured for that record type, with drop-down values resolved to their labels, and when the record was last updated. Quick actions cover Print, which uses a print layout without the application chrome, New record of the same type, Back and Delete. A Sections list jumps straight to any part of the record and marks any section that still owes a required field.
The summary reads cleanly: a date drops its midnight time, an unresolved lookup shows a quiet dash rather than a raw zero, and people and companies remain links with their hover cards. The record's end date carries a countdown that stays silent beyond 180 days, turns amber inside 180 days, red inside 30 and filled red once the date has passed. The line under the record's title leads with the identifying values configured for that type, and the audit note reads relatively, for example Updated 3 days ago by, with the exact date and time on its tooltip. Which values appear in the summary is configured per record type on the Tab Details Setup screen.
How will this affect users?
Anyone working on a contract, request, solicitation, vendor, purchase order or employee record can see its key values and reach its common actions without scrolling.
Record Forms Size and Align Their Fields, and Show the Help an Administrator Wrote
Reference #: 260916.100.0111
Fields on a record form lay out in whole, aligned columns: three across on a wide screen, two when the record summary panel is open or the window is narrower, and one on a small screen. Every field takes a full column so the left edges line up all the way down the form, and only memo and rich text fields take the whole row. Dates, numbers and checkboxes keep a narrower input box so they do not read as a title field, and a four digit year no longer occupies the same space as a contract title. Where a form previously gave every field a row of its own, a wide screen now fits three, so a run of date fields that used to stack vertically renders three to a row. Reading a record arranges the values the same way as editing it, so a form that fits on one screen while editing also fits while reading.
Guidance an administrator has already written is now visible. Where a field carries a description, its label shows a question mark that displays the text on hover and pins it above the control when clicked; in earlier versions this help existed only as a hover tooltip with nothing to indicate it was there and nothing reachable on a touch device. Numeric fields carry a format hint such as Amount in dollars, to 2 decimals, date fields show the expected pattern as their placeholder, and input masks and thousands separators configured in Field Management are applied as the field is filled in. A long text field opens at a height suited to its limit, grows as you type and shows how many characters are left once you pass three quarters of the limit, where earlier versions gave every long text field three rows and simply stopped accepting keystrokes at the cap. The standing line printed under every currency, decimal and whole number field is now a tooltip on the box itself.
How will this affect users?
Everyone entering or reading record data; forms are shorter, need much less scrolling and carry their guidance where it is needed.
Required Fields and Validation Messages Appear Where the Problem Is
Reference #: 260916.100.0112
When a save is blocked, the reason now appears under the field it belongs to and clears as soon as that field is corrected, rather than appearing only as one long sentence at the top of the form naming fields that may be off screen or inside a collapsed section. The summary at the top still names what is missing and scrolls itself into view, so pressing Save from the bottom of a long record no longer looks as though nothing happened. The form moves to the first gap, and every section that still owes a required field is marked with a red exclamation in the section tab strip and in the sidebar Sections list, with each mark clearing as its field is filled. Per field messages and section marks stay off until the first blocked save, so a new record does not open covered in red before anything has been typed.
A long record can also be reduced to the work that is holding the save up. A control reading, for example, 12 required with an eye beside it sits at the end of the record's tab strip, in each section heading and on each stage of an add form; turning it on hides everything except the fields that must be answered, so on a record type carrying several hundred fields the outstanding work can be seen and completed without scrolling past everything already done, and turning it off brings the whole form back. A section with no required fields says so, and offers to show all fields again, rather than disappearing while the filter is on.
A mistyped year, or a number too large for the field behind it, used to reach the database and come back as a data type conversion or arithmetic overflow message. The form now checks the value first and explains the problem in the same place and the same style as the required field and format messages. Nothing that was previously accepted is now refused.
How will this affect users?
Everyone completing record forms, particularly long forms with required fields spread across several sections.
Searchable Pickers for Long Drop-Down Lists
Reference #: 260916.100.0113
Lookup fields, multi-select list fields, date fields and numeric fields on record forms use pickers you can type into. A drop-down backed by a long list, such as an employee field, previously rendered every option into the page; the picker now loads a small set and queries as you type, from exactly the same configured option set as before, and stored values are unchanged in format so saved data and audit history are identical. The same picker is used on workflow alert recipients, template signature step assignees, merged document assignees, task delegation, security question answers, My Pending Files, mass process job settings, process start, aggregator recipients and the purchasing shop and catalog screens. Supplier and employee lists holding tens of thousands of entries were confirmed fully reachable in testing on a full size database. Plain text, long text, checkbox, password, rich text and hyperlink fields are unchanged.
Employee pickers also read better. Employee records with no name sort to the bottom and are labeled Employee followed by their identifier instead of showing a blank line, and where two people would otherwise look identical the detail line falls back to the email address and appends the record number. Separately, the plus button beside a drop-down, which opens the lookup list's own add form and selects the new value when you save it, is now offered while editing an existing record as well as while creating one, and on dependent drop-downs such as Vendor, Department and Commodity, which never offered it before. Contracts, employees, system values such as Yes and No, and supplied reference lists such as languages and phone country codes remain excluded, an administrator can still switch the button off per field, and a user without permission to create in the target list sees it disabled with the reason.
How will this affect users?
Everyone who edits records, especially on forms with employee, vendor or other large lookup lists.
Related Parties and Related Records on the Record
Reference #: 260916.100.0116
Assigning companies, employees, departments and locations to a contract is done in four sections of a single Related Parties tab on the record instead of four separate screens, and contract requests carry the same tab for their companies. The picker opens on a browsable first page of candidates, the first fifty in alphabetical order excluding anything already assigned, and narrows as you type, rather than showing nothing until you guess a name; rows are check boxes so several parties are assigned in one step. A +Company button creates a company that is not yet on file and assigns it to the record in the same step, writing only the name, with the company's own record linked from the assigned list for the rest of the detail. Each section honors its own system setting, the record's update permission and legal hold, and an empty section says what it holds and carries its Add action inside it.
Records also carry a Related Records card linking across to the records they are connected to, for example a purchase order to its company and its request, or a company to its purchase orders and requests. A link that opens a list opens it already narrowed to the current record, with a labeled filter chip that can be cleared to see everything, and a link is hidden unless you have permission to the target record type and it is licensed. Each linked records panel carries a Link action in its own toolbar, opening the same search and link dialog used everywhere else; in that dialog a date range now includes the whole of its final day, decimal and key fields offer a number range, a checkbox field is searched by Yes or No, and any field with a value list offers the value picker rather than a text match.
How will this affect users?
Anyone assigning counterparties, colleagues, departments or locations, and anyone moving between connected records.
Record Stage Panel, and Time in Status on the Status History
Reference #: 260916.100.0128
Records show a Current record stage card on the right with the numbered current stage and the previous and next stage names. An All stages toggle opens the full pipeline, marking completed stages with the date they were completed, the current stage, and those still to come, with each stage expandable to see which statuses belong to it. The same card is used by every record view and falls back to a neutral display where the record's status maps to no stage, and the task progress bar is drawn only when the record actually has tasks instead of showing an empty bar at zero of zero. Record Stages are configured per record area and record type under Administration, including which statuses map to each stage, reordering, and add, edit and delete.
The status history on a record has a second view, Time in status, showing how long the record has spent in each status in total, how many times it has been in that status and the average, longest first with a bar, followed by each individual stretch with its dates. The stretch the record is in now is marked as such because it is still counting up, statuses read the way they were named at the time of the change, and a period where the status was cleared is labeled rather than left blank. The previous version offered this only as a dashboard tile that had to be added and expanded. It is available on contracts, requests, solicitations and purchase orders, which are the records whose status changes are logged.
How will this affect users?
Anyone following a record through its lifecycle or tracking how long records sit in each status.
Audit History in Plain English, With Links to the People Named
Reference #: 260916.100.0129
The history page writes each entry the way a person would say it, so a field update reads, for example, Contract Amount changed to 52800.0000 (was 40000.0000), and a workflow entry reads Workflow started rather than carrying a raw condition and a long standing spelling error. Anything the application does not recognize prints exactly as it always did. The Who column links to the employee record where the actor is a member of staff. The screen shows four columns rather than seven, because the record identifier, the table name and the raw actor identifier are the same on every line of one record's history.
The page shows the most recent 5,000 entries and says so where a record has more, naming the full count. The complete trail is downloaded from the screen as Excel, CSV or PDF, subject to the same permission as the screen itself, so a record's history can be handed to an auditor or produced for a dispute without copying it off the screen. The downloaded files are deliberately unchanged and still carry every line, so exported evidence remains exactly what it was.
How will this affect users?
Anyone reading a record's history, and anyone who has to produce a complete audit trail.
Records Open in About a Second, Including Record Types With Hundreds of Fields
Reference #: 260916.100.0101
Opening a heavily configured record type, for example one with several hundred fields, over a hundred drop-down lists and dozens of child grids, now takes about a second instead of over a minute when measured on a full size database. Field, drop-down and permission configuration is held in memory and the independent parts of the page load together. When a record is opened to read, only the labels of the values actually stored are looked up; the full drop-down lists load when Edit is pressed, which shows a brief spinner on the button.
Sub-tables benefit in the same way. The counts shown on each sub-table tab are gathered in one query rather than one query per tab, a sub-table with no rows renders as a light No records yet card with an Add button instead of an empty grid, and sub-tables with rows load a page at a time under the same sorting, searching, filtering and permission rules as the main lists. Measured on a heavily configured contract on a full size database, opening the sub-tables area dropped from around eighteen seconds to around four. The information shown is the same in every case.
How will this affect users?
Every user opening records sees the improvement, most noticeably on large and heavily configured record types.
Record Lists Load One Page of Rows at a Time
Reference #: 260916.100.0102
List screens now fetch a single page of rows from the database each time you page, sort, search or filter, instead of loading every permitted row up front. Paging, column sorting, the toolbar Search and the per-column filter menu all run against the database, and the row count shown is the true total. Row level permissions, deleted record filtering and view or relate filters behave exactly as before.
Supporting indexes ship with this release, each chosen by measuring the actual screens rather than by accepting an automatic recommendation. The largest single improvement is the data behind what a task changes when it is answered, which, measured on a full size database, went from about 3.5 seconds to under thirty milliseconds; the employee, vendor, purchase order and external request task lists, and the contracts by vendor lookup, all improve as well.
How will this affect users?
Everyone who works with large record lists, with the largest gains on databases holding tens of thousands of records.
One Grid Standard Behind Every List in Contract Insight
Reference #: 260916.100.0103
Every list in the application now uses the same grid. Columns sort, including on more than one column at a time, and can be resized and dragged into a different order. Each column has its own filter, offered as a tick list of that column's values on smaller lists and as an operator and value box on the large record lists, which is the practical choice where a column can hold tens of thousands of distinct values. A search box narrows the list, the column headings stay in place while the rows scroll, a page size picker sets how many rows are shown, and filtering and sorting work on the value displayed, so filtering on a type or status name finds the right rows. A soft fade at the right edge shows when there are more columns to scroll to, and a count badge beside the title says how many records the current view holds. While a list is narrowed by a search, a sort or any column filter, a Clear control appears beside the search box and returns the list to every row in one action, which matters when the filter making a record look missing sits on a column scrolled out of sight. Right clicking a column heading offers sort ascending and descending, and fits that column, or every column, to the text actually in it, which is the quickest way to read a list of long contract titles. A row that has just been added or saved lands with a brief highlight, so it can be found without reading the whole list.
Lists that each carried their own separate table were moved onto this grid, including record and audit history, administration lists, project ticket and idea lists, the e-signature list, relationship lists, and import templates and results. Every row now carries its actions in one column at the start of the row: the main action with an icon and a label, up to three more as icon buttons, and anything beyond that under a single overflow button. An action a user is not permitted is shown disabled with the reason rather than removed, so the row never changes shape from one line to the next, and icon only actions draw their button outline on hover instead of painting a bordered box on every row, which gives the contracts list room for two more columns of data. Where a column has no display name configured, the heading now reads as words, for example Contract End Date rather than the run-together stored name.
How will this affect users?
Every user, on every list screen in the application.
Your List Layout Is Saved to Your Account
Reference #: 260916.100.0105
The columns you choose on a list, the rows per page and the quick filter view you star are stored against your user account rather than in the browser. Sign in on another machine and your lists show the same columns and the same page size, and clearing browser data no longer resets them; a column layout saved in the browser by an earlier version is carried across the first time you open that list. Each list is remembered separately, so contracts and requests can open at different page sizes. Starring one of a list's quick filter views makes that list open on the starred view every time, although a link that names a view explicitly still wins. The width you drag a column to is also remembered, on the machine you dragged it on. Reset to default in the Fields dialog clears the saved widths along with the column choices, and anyone who has never changed a list still sees the standard layout.
How will this affect users?
Everyone who uses more than one machine or browser keeps the columns and page size they set up.
Deadline Dates Are Marked on Every List
Reference #: 260916.100.0305
Date columns that hold a deadline are tinted on record lists: red once the date has passed, and amber while the date falls inside the expiration warning period your organization already uses to raise its expiration warning calendar entries and alerts, so the list and the warnings agree rather than using two different windows. A date of today is never shown as past, because it can still be acted on.
A column counts as a deadline by what it is called, covering expiration, expiry, due, deadline, end and renewal dates, and deliberately not entered, created, updated, start, effective or signed dates, which record when something happened rather than when something must be done. The tint is presentation only: the stored value, the sort order, the column filter and the exported file are all unchanged, and where no warning period is configured, only the red on a past date is shown.
How will this affect users?
Everyone who works from a list of contracts, tasks, requests or any other record type carrying a deadline column.
One Library for Shared Documents and Images
Reference #: 260916.100.0122
The Document Library and the Image Manager are one Library screen with two tabs, each with its own address so a particular view can be bookmarked or sent to a colleague. Documents are listed in a sortable, filterable grid and open in a side panel holding the title, description, visibility for internal, gateway or public use, the active flag, and the full version history, with open, download, rename, publish and archive on each version plus upload a new version; publishing a version archives the previously published one. Everyone can read the library, only administrators can upload, edit, version or delete, and users who are not administrators see only active documents. The Images tab is for administrators and is a card gallery with per area chips carrying counts, a title and file name search, and a checkerboard backing so transparent images read properly.
How will this affect users?
Everyone who reads shared reference documents, and administrators maintaining document versions and the image assets screens and templates draw on.
One Panel for Importing From and Copying To Cloud Drives
Reference #: 260916.100.0123
Import from cloud on a record's Files tab covers every connected drive in one panel, with a tab per drive and a breadcrumb for the folder you are in, so changing drive or going up a level costs nothing, and a drive you have not signed into shows a Connect tile instead. Copying a file out is a separate tile per drive, named so you can see where the copy is going. Large files are uploaded in parts, so big documents no longer fail, and where a drive already holds a file of that name the application tells you the name the file was actually saved under.
How will this affect users?
Anyone moving documents between Contract Insight and OneDrive or Google Drive.
Virus Scanning on Uploads, Downloads and Files Arriving by Email
Reference #: 260916.100.0127
Files are scanned on upload from the drag and drop handler, record attachments and the document library, and again on download, with an infected file refused and the same message as before. Where no scanning server is configured or reachable, files are accepted as before so that environments without one keep working, and a time limit has been added so a scanning server that stops responding no longer leaves the upload or download waiting indefinitely; it is treated as not scanned. Attachments that arrive on an inbound email used to be written straight to the record, which made them the one upload path in the product that was neither virus scanned nor eligible for cloud file storage. They now go through the same upload path as every other file, so the same scanning, storage settings and legal hold rules apply; a file that fails a scan or is blocked by a hold is skipped and recorded, and the record still receives the message it arrived with.
How will this affect users?
Everyone who uploads or downloads files, and in particular customers using inbound email with virus scanning or cloud file storage turned on.
Interface Translation Applies Without Reloading the Page
Reference #: 260916.100.0132
Choosing a language from the account menu switches the interface into it in place, with no page reload, and panels, dialogs, later grid pages and tabs opened afterwards are translated as they appear. Sixty three languages are offered, and each phrase is remembered after the first translation so repeat use is immediate. Because translating a screen for the first time is not instant, a Translating indicator appears while the text is being changed. Record data stays in the language it was entered in and what you type into a field is never altered, and labels an administrator has written take precedence over machine translation. The same picker sets the user's account language, so curated field labels take over from the next screen onwards. The control is hidden where machine translation is switched off for the organization.
How will this affect users?
Users who work in a language other than the one the system is configured in.
A Collapsible Navigation Menu, Automatic Menu Icons and a Workspace Switcher
Reference #: 260916.100.0133
The navigation menu can be narrowed to icons by pressing the brand at the top of the rail, giving the page the full width, and each section then opens as a flyout when the pointer rests on its icon. Hovering an item in the collapsed menu opens a labeled panel showing the item's name, what it is for where the menu carries a description, and the reason it is unavailable when it is disabled; keyboard focus shows the same information. Administrators can set a workspace to open narrowed by default, and where the organization is configured to show its menu across the top instead of down the side, that layout is honored, giving way to a slide in drawer at about 1000 pixels and below. Administration always sits at the foot of the rail above a divider, so it is in the same place however long the menu is, and Create with VISDOM sits directly under Home with an AI tag at the end of the row. Menu icons are now chosen automatically from the destination of each entry, with a section falling back to its first child, so an inherited menu shows recognizable icons instead of rows of identical default glyphs; the icon picker remains as an override and defaults to Automatic.
Change Workspace in the account menu says which navigation menu you are in and moves you to another one you have been assigned. The menu rebuilds in place with no page reload, the choice is remembered between sessions and re-checked against current assignments at each sign in, and a user whose access to a chosen workspace is withdrawn is moved back to one they are entitled to. In the previous version a person assigned to several menus only ever saw one of them. The entry is shown even to users with a single workspace, so the question of which menu they are on always has an answer on screen, and it is removed only where an administrator has switched workspaces off for the whole system. The workspaces themselves are maintained on the navigation menu's administration screen, under a second tab covering the workspaces and who sees them, where one is created, renamed, copied from another workspace's menu, switched on or off and deleted, and employees are assigned to it through a searchable picker.
How will this affect users?
Everyone sees the navigation change, and users assigned to more than one menu can reach every menu they were given.
Refreshed Visual Design Across Every Screen
Reference #: 260916.100.0134
The interface has been brought onto one visual system. Corner rounding, panel borders and shadows follow a single scale instead of each screen choosing its own, cards and panels sit flat on the page separated by a fine hairline, and a real shadow is reserved for things that genuinely float over the page such as menus, drawers, dialogs and messages. Cards and tiles no longer jump upward when the pointer passes over them. Screens that had built their own tab strips, including asset tracking, purchasing catalogs, Risk, the Library, multi-factor settings, My Pending Files and Field Management, now use the same tabs; sections that fold open and shut use one indicator everywhere; buttons are the same height as the controls beside them; and the short description under every page title was rewritten so it leads with what the screen holds and fits on one line. Every icon is drawn from a single set on one specification, so the same idea uses the same glyph wherever it appears and icons take the color of the text around them, which is what lets them work in both light and dark modes; the mixture of images, character glyphs and font icons that appeared at different sizes on different screens is gone, and administrators can browse the complete set from the Administration area.
Screens with nothing to show now use one empty state in three sizes, each with a headline naming what is missing, sized for a dashboard widget, a panel or a full page. A list distinguishes an empty module, which offers its Add action, from a list filtered down to nothing, which offers a working Clear filters button and no Add. This has been applied across the record surface, drafts, the document library, links, recent searches, the calendar, My Assignments, projects and the process console.
How will this affect users?
Everyone sees a cleaner and more consistent application, with less visual noise in front of the data.
The Application Shows When a Click Is Still Working
Reference #: 260916.100.0136
A click that does not get an immediate answer now shows a pressed state and a waiting cursor, and a second press on the same unanswered control is ignored, which on a save is not merely cosmetic; a click that answers normally is never flagged. Lists, forms, record tabs and dashboard widgets show a shaped placeholder of the content that is coming while their data arrives, instead of the word Loading or an empty area: grids show a header and rows, forms show label and field pairs, and panels show lines of text. Where a section is waiting on the user rather than on data, the outline is shown without the shimmer so it does not read as a stalled request. Created, saved, deleted and copied confirmations, and the failures of those actions, appear as a short notice at the foot of the screen rather than a banner that pushes the page content down, and a notice raised just before moving to another page is still shown on arrival. Field validation messages and load errors stay on the form where they belong.
How will this affect users?
Everyone, most noticeably on slower connections and on actions that take a moment to save.
Visible Keyboard Focus, Reduced Motion and Correct Pointer Shapes
Reference #: 260916.100.0137
Every link, button and navigation item draws a clear focus ring in the accent color when reached with the keyboard, including controls that previously gave no focus indication at all. Menus, dialogs, drawers and the search and command dialogs are operable from the keyboard, with Escape to close and arrow keys to move through lists, and popovers, menus and dialogs carry the roles and labels assistive technology needs to announce them. Where the operating system or browser is set to reduce motion, the application drops moving effects while keeping the information they carried: menus and dialogs fade in without sliding, the working indicator becomes a steady line instead of a sweep, and placeholders hold still.
Pointer shapes were measured on live screens and corrected throughout the application. A drop-down that cannot be typed into shows a pointer rather than a text cursor, disabled buttons and switches show the not allowed shape whatever their size, drag handles show the grab and grabbing pair, dashboard resize grips show the directions they actually resize, and a button that starts a long save shows the progress shape rather than the one that means the application has stopped responding.
How will this affect users?
Users who navigate by keyboard or with a screen reader, anyone sensitive to motion, and anyone who wants a control to indicate what it will do before clicking it.
Redesigned Application Header and Account Menu
Reference #: 260916.100.0139
The top bar is grouped into three zones: the create action, the utility icons and your account. The + Add button is filled in the accent color and creates a record in any area you have permission for, the five utility icons for notifications, announcements, guided tutorials, help and the confidentiality notice sit together as one quiet toolbar and fill in solid while their panel is open, and the announcements count is a neutral color so red in the header means one thing only, that something is waiting on you. A single account menu holds your own settings, and each queue in it shows how many items are waiting: My Assignments, My Pending Files, My Surveys and My Drafts. Counts load when the menu opens, and a count that cannot be read shows no badge rather than a wrong number. My Links, your own list of web addresses with a name you choose for each, is in the same menu and is visible only to you. My Assignments has also been added to the Approvals and Signatures section of the navigation, and saved navigation menus pick it up on upgrade. Help and training links that previously appeared only in the older sidebar, including the CobbleStone University entries, are now in the Help menu, which states at the foot of its panel the Contract Insight release the system is running, with the build revision on its tooltip, which is the first thing a support call asks for. A logo uploaded under Administration, Branding appears in the top bar beside the search control, steps down in size on narrow screens and is dropped below roughly 700 pixels so it never crowds the controls; nothing appears until a logo is uploaded.
How will this affect users?
Everyone gets a clearer header where the create action and the alerts stand out, and can see outstanding work without opening each page in turn.
One Searchable Application Settings Screen, With the Right Editor for Every Setting
Reference #: 260916.100.0200
Administration, Application Settings now holds every system setting on one screen, grouped under their own categories and groups, with a single search box that spans a setting's name, key, description, group and category and shows a hit count against each category. Each setting is edited with the control its type calls for: a switch for a yes or no setting, a number box, its own list of choices, a color picker, a rich text panel, a multi-line box or a set-only password box. Every row carries its description and a line saying who last changed it and when. You can change any number of settings across the screen and save or discard them together, with a notice naming what is pending, an undo on each row, and one confirmation for the whole batch. Settings that do more than store a value now carry out their related updates on every save, so switching off online check-in and check-out releases files left checked out, and turning off the ability to change a contract's type locks that field on the record. Settings that are locked on hosted sites remain locked.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to these settings.
One Field Management Workbench for Fields, Record Types, Input Masks and Calculated Fields
Reference #: 260916.100.0201
Administration, Field Management brings field configuration into one screen. Choose a table and work in tabs. Fields gives the per-table list as a grid with paging and a drag handle on every row, together with a full editor for display name, field type, group and tab, order, required, visibility, uniqueness, show on e-mail, AI field extraction, add inline, default value, help text, description, input mask and separators, plus adding and deleting fields, authoring a drop-down's options with a live preview, and authoring the show and hide conditions. By Record Type assigns fields to a type, copies the field set from another type and sets required and unique per type; Input Masks maintains the mask catalog; and a Sub-tables tab controls which child lists can be filled in while a record is being created, showing the ones that cannot be offered as disabled with the reason. The sets of pre-filled rows offered when several related rows are added at once are maintained here as well, on the Area setup tab beneath the setting that turns bulk adding on, where a set is named, offered or withheld, duplicated and deleted, and the bulk add picker offers a blank sheet or one of those saved sets, so the separate screen that used to hold them is no longer needed.
Calculated fields can now be created in seven kinds, covering money, decimal and whole number arithmetic, joined text, date arithmetic and the time between two dates, with the area's usable columns offered as clickable chips. A Try it button runs the expression against real records and reports what it would produce, and nothing is created until it has run. Deleting a field is still refused when it is a system field, is in use, or is referenced by a calculated column, and a check that cannot be completed now refuses the delete rather than allowing it. The field editor also shows a field's own change history, including changes made before the upgrade, so it is clear who altered a field and when, it links straight to that field's translations, and a field can be added to, or removed from, every record type at once, with the number of record types affected stated in the confirmation.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators and holders of the field management permission have access to this screen.
Administration Tools Are Now Reachable by Named Permission
Reference #: 260916.100.0207
Nine administration screens are governed by what they actually enforce rather than by the system administrator flag: Field Management, Document Templates, Approval & Signing Processes, Mass Process Jobs, Mergeable Clauses, Roles, Cloud Drives, Merged Documents and Master Reference Data. Administration now evaluates each entry against that requirement, so somebody granted a permission such as Manage Custom Fields sees Administration in the left navigation, in the Administration hub and in the command palette. Previously the whole branch was hidden from anyone without the administrator flag, so granting one of these permissions did nothing unless the person already knew the address of the screen. Master Reference Data is gated list by list rather than as a page: 13 of its 18 lookup lists are not administrator-only, and its tab strip now shows exactly the lists a person is permitted to edit, so a grant on Categories or Contract Types is usable. Editing the clause library is likewise accepted from either update access to contract clauses or the Manage Contract Clauses permission, where only the first was accepted before.
How will this affect users?
Users holding a named administration permission can now reach the tools they were granted; nobody gains access that had not already been granted to them.
Initial Setup, With License Validation and a Seat Overview
Reference #: 260916.100.0231
Initial Setup is its own screen again under Administration. It groups the values chosen when a system is first configured, validates a new license or activation key before it is written, and refuses the whole save if any key fails validation, so a bad key cannot ride along with good changes. It reports activation expiry, including perpetual activations, the account number, whether the license is concurrent or named, seat usage against each level's cap, and what the key includes. The two long license keys are shown as "Set, N characters" behind a Replace key action rather than sitting open on the page, and signed-in sessions are cleared after a license key change, as before. The Launchpad carries a matching step that reports license validity, activation expiry and any seat overrun and links here, and the site address is maintained on this screen.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
Session Manager and License Usage Measured per License Type
Reference #: 260916.100.0232
Session Manager shows everyone signed in at this moment and lets an administrator sign a person out. A separate License & Session Usage screen shows seats in use right now, peak usage and seat time broken down by license type, together with a sign-in history, so an organization can see whether it is buying the right number of seats. Concurrency is now recorded for each session individually, so peak usage is reported per license type rather than as a single whole-system figure repeated against every type, and earlier usage has been reconstructed from the sign-in history so the screens carry figures from the start of that history immediately, with any period that was reconstructed rather than measured marked as an estimate. Re-authentications from a saved browser session are counted separately as resumes rather than as sign-ins, so one browser no longer looks like dozens of arrivals, and peak concurrency is never reported as zero for a period in which nothing was observed, because that is not the same as nobody being signed in. Every sign-in and every chosen sign-out now writes its own audit entry, and an automatic sign-out after inactivity writes a distinct entry naming it as such, where a timed-out session previously usually left no record; the wording of the sign-in and sign-out entries is unchanged, so a system's sign-in history continues unbroken across the upgrade.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to these screens.
Master Reference Data and the Drop-Down Lists Editor
Reference #: 260916.100.0237
Administration, Master Reference Data puts the standard reference lists on one screen as tabs, one click apart and individually linkable, opening on the first list rather than on an empty picker; each list is still a normal record list, so it keeps permissions, deleted-record filtering, label translation, exports, paging and its column picker. Contract Statuses, Record Types, Contract Categories, Contract Occurrences, Locations, File Categories, Rating Types and Product and Service Codes are all editable with add, edit and delete, and because Record Types is the single registry behind contracts, requests, solicitations and vendor and customer records, it carries quick filter views showing just the types for one of those areas. A reference list with no configured columns falls back to showing all of its columns so it is still usable. Administration, Drop-Down Lists creates and edits the lists that feed form fields, covering fixed value lists, lists driven by a query, cascading parent lists, autocomplete and the split between the values people may add and the values they may only choose, and a Preview options button runs the definition you are editing, before it is saved, through the same engine users see. Every change is recorded in the audit trail.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators and holders of the matching reference list permissions have access to these screens.
Ad-Hoc Report Designer on a Single Screen, With a Live Preview
Reference #: 260916.100.0203
Designing an ad-hoc report is now one screen instead of a seven step wizard. A rail down the side carries Details, Tables, Fields, Filter, Sort order, Sharing and Email schedule with live status on each, and the workspace changes as you move between them. A preview beneath the workspace actually runs the report as you build it, re-runs itself shortly after a structural change and can be re-run on demand, showing as many rows as the report's width allows rather than a fixed 25. Changes save as you go. Conditions can be nested in groups, a filter value can be picked from the field's own list instead of typed, the field explorer has both a search box and a table filter, chosen fields show the underlying field name and data type beneath your report heading, columns are reordered by dragging, and a report built on a database view can select columns at all, which was not possible before. The controls that open a field's date options or a lookup's related fields are now labeled buttons reading Date options and Lookup fields, where they were previously a gray arrow that appeared only on hover. Sharing lists candidate roles, groups and people straight away instead of requiring a search term first. A report can also be set to run and email itself, starting on a date you choose and repeating every so many days, weeks, months or years, with the next run time shown beside the setting; the result goes as a spreadsheet attachment to everyone the report is shared with who has email enabled on their share, and one schedule is held per report. Open it from Reports, then Design on a report row.
How will this affect users?
Report designers see real rows while they build and no longer lose their place moving between a report's settings; the designer remains restricted to administrators.
One Reports List Covering Every Report You Can Run
Reference #: 260916.100.0205
The Reports screen shows every report you can run in a single list grouped by folder, whether it was built in the ad-hoc designer or with the older reporting approach, where these were three separate screens before. The list sorts, filters, searches and pages, reports can be starred as favorites and moved between folders, a toggle switches to the print-ready page by page reports, and row actions change to suit the kind of report the row is, with unavailable ones explaining why. Report folders can also be filed inside one another and an existing folder moved, a move into a folder's own descendants is refused with the reason given, a folder whose parent no longer exists is listed at the top level rather than disappearing with everything in it, and folder labels carry the full path so two folders of the same name in different places cannot be confused. Graphical reports and dashboards have their own tab here and on the Dashboards page, each tab carrying a count, and every graphical dashboard or report authored in an earlier version opens, runs and saves as it did, including the ones shown on a record.
How will this affect users?
Every reporting user, who no longer has to know which reporting engine a report was built with before they can find it.
Spend Analysis Groups the Contract Portfolio and Exports in Three Formats
Reference #: 260916.100.0412
Insights, Spend Analysis groups contracts by one field, or by two nested fields, and reports the average, smallest, largest, total, count and spread of a chosen money field for each group. It is the screen that Quick Stats opened in version 22.7, and it is still reached from a contract as Run Spend Analysis on the Actions menu, which arrives with that contract's own type, department and amount already chosen. Results are shown in the same result view the reports screens use, so the table can be switched to a chart and exported to Excel, CSV or PDF, where the previous version offered a fixed grid and one Excel link, and result columns carry the display formats set for those fields.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen, which is the access it had before.
Company and Employee Compliance Review on One Screen
Reference #: 260916.100.0400
Insights, Compliance Review covers companies and employees on one screen with a switcher between the two populations, where these were two separate screens. The list pages through every company or employee on the system, filters by screening feed, shows a match count beside each record's status so potential matches are visible without opening a row, and exports the filtered list to Excel, CSV or PDF. Opening a row shows that record's identity and address beside its screening results across the Dun & Bradstreet, OFAC and SAM.gov feeds, with a tab for each feed, and each suggested match is confirmed or dismissed from there.
A switch on each feed tab now enrolls a company, vendor or employee for screening from the same screen that reports it is not enrolled, subject to permission to update that record, where the screen could previously only advise the reviewer to open the record's own details and set it there; the record's own fields remain reachable from the row and from the preview. Switching screening on here does not queue an immediate run, which matches how the setting behaved when it was set on the record, and a bulk action from the list enrolls or removes a chosen population in one step. Screening itself continues to run as a scheduled job against the feeds your license covers.
How will this affect users?
Compliance and vendor management staff who screen counterparties and employees work from one screen, and can enroll a record without leaving it.
Risk Warnings and the Risk Register on the Record, and Risk Across Every Record
Reference #: 260916.100.0401
A record's side panel carries its risk in two parts. Risk warnings lists the warnings that currently fire for that record, each with its wording and, where the warning is set to show it, the comparison figure and the number of records it was measured across. Beneath it the Risk register lists the risks recorded against the record with their category, exposure, probability and mitigating control, plotted on an exposure against probability grid so the serious ones stand out, and risks are added and removed there rather than on a separate screen. Risk applies to contracts, requests, solicitations and companies, which are the record types that carried it before, and a warning that is misconfigured is skipped rather than being allowed to stop the record opening.
Administration, Risk Warnings lists every warning with the area it applies to and whether it is switched on, and a warning is written on one form: what it applies to, the field or expression it watches, the comparison and the value, an optional stored statistic, whether it reads as a risk or as information, its priority, the title and message shown on the record, whether the comparison figure is shown there, and whether it is enabled. Version 22.7 spread the same work across a list screen and a stepped wizard of table and field, conditions, filters, statistics and review. An analyze panel runs the warnings against one record you name and shows exactly what would fire, or says that nothing fired, so a threshold can be checked before it is left running against every record of a type; the comparison itself is unchanged, so a record scores as it did. Insights, Risk rolls the register up across records rather than listing the risks on one record at a time, bringing the highest scoring risks from every record type together, banded high, medium and low, with a heat map of exposure against probability, and the risk categories are maintained alongside it.
How will this affect users?
Anyone who records or reviews risk against a contract or a counterparty, and the administrators who author risk warnings.
Workflow Manager Rebuilt for Systems With Hundreds of Workflows
Reference #: 260916.100.0206
Administration, Workflows groups workflows by record type, keeps each group closed until you open it and shows the first twenty five with the rest on request, so a system carrying hundreds of workflows stays responsive. Search reaches inside a workflow, matching task names, task type, assignee, role and the fields and values its conditions test, and filters cover record type, whether it is switched on and whether it runs on edit, with the on and off switch on the row itself. A workflow opens in place with Overview, Conditions, Tasks, Alerts and Settings tabs, so it no longer pushes the next one off the screen. Overview states the whole rule as a sentence with its conditions written in plain English and record types under their proper names, and Duplicate, Delete and the active switch sit in Settings so a stray click while scrolling cannot stop a live process.
A workflow can now be created directly on this screen, where the only route to a new one was previously to duplicate an existing workflow, and the create form asks only for the name, the record type, whether it is active and whether it runs on edit. Conditions can be written three ways, a single field test, a stacked builder, or the raw expression, which remains the only way to express a test such as a status being one of several values. The task editor is a drawer grouped as Who, What, When, Notify and How it finishes, and covers settings that previously had no screen at all, including time elapse support, allowing multiple open tasks, and copying the record's company contacts on the task's notification e-mails. A task's responsible role can be one you pick, or, where the record type carries a drop-down field whose values are roles, the role held in that field, so one workflow can route its task to whichever team the record itself names; a task assigned that way now states which field the assignment follows wherever tasks are listed, where the role was previously left blank with nothing on screen to say where it came from. Each workflow also carries a Workflow Flow diagram drawing its starter, its combined condition, the tasks it raises and the workflows that could run next, which pans, zooms, fits to the screen and exports as an image. On the record itself, a Notices & Alerts card shows the alerts whose conditions currently match, and hides itself when there is nothing to say.
How will this affect users?
Administrators can find, read, build and change a workflow without scrolling through all of them; end users see workflow alerts on the records they apply to.
Notifications Screen Rebuilt With Grouping, Filters, Search and Paging
Reference #: 260916.100.0215
The Notifications screen is grouped by day, Today, Yesterday, then weekday and date, and marks unread items with a dot and heavier text rather than a colored band. It adds scope chips with live counts, an area filter built from the areas your own notifications actually came from, a search box and a Show more button, and each row names the record it points at and the area it belongs to, with the whole row linking straight to that record. It loads a page at a time instead of every notification you have ever received, which on a busy account can run to many thousands of rows, and Mark as unread is new; previously a notification could only ever be acknowledged.
The alert icon in the top bar carries a count of unread alerts and opens a panel with two views: New, which is what the count is based on, and Everything, which lists the alerts already cleared alongside the unread ones, so one acknowledged last week can still be found. Each row shows its severity, its subject and how long ago it arrived, and opens the record it is about; each unread alert carries its own dismiss, so clearing the one you have dealt with no longer throws away the ones you have not, and mark all as read leaves the panel open so you can see that it worked. Opening a notification, from the panel or from the Notifications screen, now marks it read, where acting on one previously left the row unread so the count went on claiming that something needed attention. Where the system setting that shows the alert icon is turned off, the icon is not shown at all, exactly as before.
How will this affect users?
Every user, particularly those with large notification histories, gets a screen that opens quickly and can be filtered and searched.
Notification Templates and Themes: Create, Delete, Edit and Reach Every Setting
Reference #: 260916.100.0216
The notification template editor now carries the settings that were spread across separate screens and had no home here: the list of addresses notified on change, the workflow note switch and its content, and the theme the message is wrapped in, filtered to the right kind of layout so a message cannot lose half its content. An on-change address list or a workflow note already set on a template could not be seen from this screen at all before. Templates can now be created and deleted from this screen, which was previously not possible, and a template that a workflow job points at can no longer be deactivated or deleted, with the screen saying why.
Administration, Notification Themes manages the themes outbound messages are wrapped in: pick one of the shipped layouts, set the header, body, button, link, sub-header, task name and footer colors and the width, preview the result and save it under a name. Themes can now be edited, where previously they could only be created and deleted, and a theme cannot be deleted while it is one of the built-in ones, while a template still names it, or while it is set as a default. Defaults for standard and task e-mails are set as before. The wording of a mention message now comes from its own template per record type, so mention e-mails can be reworded, or switched off for a record type while the in-application notification continues.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to these screens, although everyone who receives system e-mail sees the result.
Merge Fields, Rules and Placeholder Insertion on a Notification Template
Reference #: 260916.100.0217
Choosing which fields a message may use, and setting the conditions under which it is sent, are now tabs on the template itself, in the order they depend on each other, instead of separate screens reached from a side menu. Fields are chosen with a picker that filters as you type, in place of two transfer boxes that could only be scrolled; the name in the list is the placeholder itself, date fields carry a format picker showing today's date rendered in each option, and the per-field settings sit on the chosen fields table beneath. Adding a placeholder to the subject or body used to copy it to the clipboard and ask you to paste it, with the list of placeholders collapsed below the message. That list is now an always-open searchable rail beside the message, a click inserts at the cursor in whichever field you last typed in, and typing an opening brace opens a filtered list right at the cursor with keyboard selection. Placeholders already in the text are highlighted by kind, with any the merge does not recognize shown in red and counted in a sentence above the box, so a mistyped placeholder is caught before it reaches anyone's inbox. A real fault is fixed alongside: a template that gained its first fields on the fields screen merged nothing into its messages until somebody happened to re-save the body. The body can be switched to a formatting editor, while plain markup remains the default so opening a template never rewrites hand-tuned e-mail markup, and conditions saved before the upgrade still run and are shown as they are.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
Run Now Reports What the Job Actually Did, and History Records Every Outcome
Reference #: 260916.100.0221
Forcing a job used to report only that it had finished, which read the same whether it sent everything, sent nothing because nothing was due, or could not send at all. The confirmation now carries a one sentence summary saying how many were sent, that none were due, or the specific reason none could be, and the same summary is written into the job's history so a forced run can be reviewed later. Summaries are in place for date alerts, all six task reminder families, all six task escalation families, calendar invites, workflow alert emails, scheduled report emails, survey emails, signing reminders and document generation, including three cases that previously reported success in silence: no outgoing mail configured, signing reminders switched off, and a connector that is not licensed. The History panel on each job now reads the service activity log and shows each run's message, date and a result indicator, green for success and red for failure, where it previously read a log that by design never recorded clean runs, so a healthy job could appear to have done nothing for weeks. A forced run is also recorded as having been run by hand, together with the name of the person who ran it, so a run that did not happen on schedule can be accounted for afterward. A run that fails on one item continues with the rest and is reported as completed with errors rather than as a clean success.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
Task Escalations Run Hourly Instead of Once a Day
Reference #: 260916.100.0222
Task escalations for all six record families now run on their own schedule, taken from each family's escalation interval setting, which is sixty minutes by default, rather than on a fixed once a day sweep. An escalation raised in the morning therefore reaches the person it escalates to the same morning. Running more often is safe because the same task is never escalated twice. Alert, reminder and escalation runs also write a history line on every outcome, including when nothing was due and when a run failed part way through, instead of leaving no trace at all for some families.
How will this affect users?
Anyone whose tasks escalate to a manager or alternate owner when they run late now hears about it within the hour rather than the next day.
My Tasks and the Home Tasks Widget Now Load in Under a Tenth of a Second
Reference #: 260916.100.0224
The five queries behind My Tasks and the Home page tasks widget filtered on a date that was wrapped in a conversion, so every task row had to be read before the date could be compared. Measured on a full size database holding more than ten million task rows, the default widget view took about 6.5 seconds; it now takes 59 milliseconds. The rows returned are identical, checked in our own testing across a hundred parameter combinations per query. On the same database Home itself draws in about half a second and each widget loads independently, so no single slow widget holds up the page. The widget also reads as an agenda now, with a due date chip, the task, its status, who holds it and how late it is in words such as eighteen days late, and it opens on a window either side of today so overdue work is visible; its counts come from the same source as the tiles above it, so the two can never disagree.
How will this affect users?
Every user opening the Home page or My Tasks, most noticeably on large databases.
Record Flows: Automatic Record Creation, Updates and Alerts on One Workbench
Reference #: 260916.100.0228
Administration, Record Flows lists the standing rules that act automatically on one record when another changes, with a single page per rule covering its settings, the fields that trigger it, its condition, what it does, which attachments are carried across with their category, type and name filters, and the values forced onto the record it creates. The page reads in the order the feature works: what it watches, when it runs, what it does. The list flags a rule that is switched on but cannot do anything, showing "No conditions" or "Nothing to create" in place of On, and the field picker searches across everything, including fields on related records grouped under the names people use for them, rather than presenting several hundred check boxes at once. Rules still run on record create, on record save and on a request status change, and conditions authored in the previous version keep running untouched and are shown as they are, with the offer to build a new set.
A flow's action is now one of three things rather than one. Create another record works exactly as it always has. Set values on the record that matched writes the action's fields and values straight onto the record that triggered the flow, creating nothing new, and the screen warns when one of those fields is also tested by the flow's own conditions, since the flow would otherwise keep matching its own change. Email someone sends the addresses named a short message with a link to the record, through the same sender and styling as every other notification. An update deliberately does not raise further flows or field update rules, and the rule that a flow acts only once for a record applies to creation only. Nothing configured today starts behaving differently, because every action configured in the previous version creates a record.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen; the rules themselves continue to run exactly as they did.
Record Conversion Mapping Now Covers Related Rows, Options and Gateway Maps
Reference #: 260916.100.0229
Administration, Record Conversion Mapping is now four tabs over one source to target pairing: Fields, Related rows with each pairing's own field maps, whether all rows copy or the person chooses, and both row filters, Options for the two standing conversion conditions, and Gateway for vendor gateway maps. All four are authorable and all four are read when a conversion runs. The two row filters that decide which related rows a conversion copies are built with the same visual rule builder used for quick search conditions, mass process jobs, permission rules and the document template screens, rather than typed as a query fragment, and drop-down fields offer their real choices so a rule reads "Status is Pending" instead of requiring somebody to know the stored number. An existing filter the builder cannot represent is shown as text, left in force and never rewritten, with an explicit action to rebuild it as rules.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen; existing conversions continue to behave exactly as they did.
Data Import: an Import History, and a Warning When a Template Can Only Add Records
Reference #: 260916.100.0225
A template with no identifying column can only add rows, which is how importing has always worked, so re-importing a file exported from the same table quietly created a second copy of every row. Before you choose a file, the run screen now states that every row will be added and links to the mapping screen so an identifying column can be marked, and once a file is loaded the button reads "Add N new record(s)" instead of a neutral "Process N rows". The import itself is unchanged.
An Import history screen, reached from the Data Import header or filtered to a single template from that template's run screen, lists every uploaded file with its target table, import mode and upload time. Each row offers the per row results of that run, a full history, Run this file now for a file that was uploaded but never processed, and Delete this file, the last two closed off once a file has completed, and statuses are spelled out as words such as Imported, Imported with errors and Not imported yet rather than as icons. The fields ticked on a template keep the order you added them and can be moved up and down, which drives both the blank starting file and the guidance on what belongs in each column, and that blank file can now be downloaded from the templates list as well as from the run screen. The scheduled import job handles each file on its own, so a problem with one file no longer abandons the rest of that run, and it reports completed with errors when any row in any file failed instead of always reporting success.
How will this affect users?
Everyone who imports data, especially anyone re-importing a file that was exported from the same table.
Transfer Records Is One Screen, With a Preview of Exactly What Will Change
Reference #: 260916.100.0226
Transferring contracts and transferring tasks were two separate screens; they are now one, Administration, Transfer Records, with an area picker at the top. The three operations are unchanged: reassign one person's records to another, replace one field value everywhere, and hand every record carrying a given field value to one person. As soon as you choose what to transfer from, the screen tells you what that would do, for example "1,204 contracts would change", and names the first several affected records, all before anything is pressed; the confirmation repeats the count and the named list, and the result reports what actually changed. Version 22.7 spread this across two screens with five process buttons, each of which ran the update immediately and reported only that it was complete. The person and field pickers filter as you type, which matters where an employee list runs to many thousands of people and a contract carries hundreds of fields, the picker and the confirmation sentence draw from the same list so they cannot disagree, and employee entries with no name sort to the bottom rather than filling the top. Records on legal hold are excluded as before.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
Temporary System Lockout, With a Banner While It Is Running
Reference #: 260916.100.0227
Administration, Temporary System Lockout takes the application away from everyone but system administrators for a bounded window, with an internal reason, a message the locked out user sees at sign-in, and an end time no sooner than now and no later than seven days out, defaulting to an hour. Starting a lockout signs everybody else out immediately rather than at their next check-in, and it applies to the sign-in form, single sign-on and multi-factor sign-in alike. New in this release, a strip across the top of every screen tells the administrators who can still work that a lockout is running, because the application otherwise looks entirely normal to them and it is easy to leave one in place. The message shown on the sign-in page is displayed as plain text, so anything typed into that box appears exactly as written. The screen appears only where the matching system setting allows lockouts.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen, although every user is signed out while a lockout is running.
Legal Hold Configuration on One Screen, With the Per-Area Exceptions Applied
Reference #: 260916.100.0230
Administration, Legal Hold Configuration opens on a summary of all six record areas at once, showing attach files, new documents, run workflow and the number of sub-table exceptions for each, instead of making you open a tab per area to answer a single question. The attach files, new documents and sub-table exceptions are now applied by the application, so a site that allows attachments onto a held vendor or employee record gets exactly that, while removing rows from a held record stays blocked whatever the add exceptions say; run workflow is marked on the screen as having no effect, because workflow runs on a held record either way. The list of people who may place or release a hold is drawn from each person's own active flag rather than from the security group's, which is a different set of people, and it now shows holders whose account has been deactivated, tagged as such, so the permission can be taken away from them rather than being held by somebody who has dropped off the list. Exception entries naming sub-tables an area no longer has are preserved rather than quietly dropped.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen; legal and compliance staff placing holds see the exceptions their site configured actually take effect.
System Standard Dashboards: Assign, Copy and Take Over a Dashboard
Reference #: 260916.100.0233
Administration, System Standard Dashboards lists every shared dashboard with how many people it is assigned to, where it appears and whether its layout has been arranged, with Layout, Assign, Edit info, Copy and Delete on each row; Delete is disabled with the reason while anyone is still assigned. A second tab lists every person's own dashboard and can take one over as a system dashboard, keeping it available to the person who built it and emailing them to say so. Assignment covers individual employees, employee role groups, security groups, and for a gateway dashboard individual vendors or every vendor, and saving one kind of assignment can no longer wipe another. The employee and vendor pickers are a searchable tick list that shows already assigned entries first and states how many further matches are held back, in place of the two transfer boxes that were the slowest part of the screen on systems with tens of thousands of employees. Graphical and record level dashboards gained the Assign action and an assignment count as well, and the System Dashboards menu entry now opens this screen rather than the graphical designer.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
Survey Building: One Builder, a Reusable Question Library and Due Date Reminders
Reference #: 260916.100.0238
A survey template is built on a single Survey Builder screen showing its ordered sections, the questions in each one and each question's answer options and scoring, together with per-answer scores, conditional score rules and good or bad thresholds. Questions can be added from the Question Library or written new and linked in the same step, and removing one from a section unlinks it rather than deleting it, so the same question can be scored differently in another survey; the Question Library itself holds questions in nesting banks, with a question's wording, its answer options and its file, line item and sub-table settings edited in a side panel. The required employee role for a section is chosen when the section is added and can be changed later, showing as a chip on the section. A Reminders card above the sections lists each rule by days before the due date and whether it applies only to respondents who have not finished, longest lead time first; adding a rule also queues that reminder against surveys already sent from the template whose due date is still ahead, and deleting one removes the reminders it had queued but not yet sent. Invitations and reminders resolve merge fields against the record the survey belongs to and are wrapped in the configured e-mail theme. Responding runs as one continuous flow, the welcome message, then the sections one after another, then the attestation, with answers saved and scored as the respondent moves between sections.
How will this affect users?
Administrators who build surveys work on one screen, and respondents complete a survey in one flow.
Mass Process Jobs: One Results Screen for Merge, Signing and Acknowledgement
Reference #: 260916.100.0239
Mass Process Jobs merges a document template across many records in one job, and where the resulting documents go out for signature the signature fields are placed once on the template and apply to every document the job produces. Monitoring a job is now a single results screen covering merge, signing and acknowledgement jobs, where version 22.7 split them across two, and it offers the same Complete and Finalize actions plus Excel, CSV and PDF export. Each document appears once; previously a job with a dozen documents could list them dozens of times.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
Decision Matrices Are Built as a Diagram and Answered From the Account Menu
Reference #: 260916.100.0402
Decision matrices, under Surveys in the navigation, are the branching question sets that lead a person to a recommended response. The builder draws the whole matrix as a diagram: the opening question, its answers, and each answer leading either to a follow-up question or to an ending response. Select a box to rename it, add an answer together with its follow-up, reorder or delete answers, or drag a line from an answer onto another question to change where that answer leads; a line drawn the other way round is read as the same intent rather than being dropped. Boxes are positioned and sized by hand and the arrangement is saved with the matrix, so it opens the way you left it instead of laying itself out afresh every time, with auto arrange for anyone who would rather have it done for them, gridlines, snapping and export as an image. The same matrix is also editable as a nested list, which is faster for bulk work.
Try it out walks the matrix exactly as a respondent sees it, showing the answers chosen as a trail and recording nothing. Respondents are assigned on the matrix itself, and each person opens My Decision Matrices from the account menu to answer the ones available to them. An ending response is written with full formatting, including lists, tables and links.
How will this affect users?
Administrators who author decision matrices, and any employee assigned one.
Record Tabs and Panels Are Laid Out on Tab Details Setup, With a Visual Designer
Reference #: 260916.100.0405
Administration, Tab Details Setup decides, for each area and record type, which tabs a record shows, which panels sit on each tab and the order both appear in. A tab can be added, renamed, reordered and deleted, and a panel can be added, edited, reordered, set to open collapsed or removed, with Reset to default putting a record type back to the layout it shipped with, after a confirmation. A record type with no layout of its own can start from a copy of another type's whole layout in one step. Panels are chosen from a single alphabetical list under the names the application uses, with each of the area's related lists offered directly rather than behind the container entry that used to host them; a panel that shows a single related list now asks which list it is for and names the tab after it, where the panel could previously be placed but never told, so the tab reported that nothing was available and the option looked broken. A panel that shows one field group picks the group and sub area from filterable lists instead of asking for a name to be typed exactly, changing a panel's type clears the value entered for the previous type, and saving is refused until a panel has something to show. The same screen holds the headers and tags for the area's side panel, and the conditions that fold a field group when a record meets a rule, written as a sentence from a field, an operator and a value, with a rule saved in an earlier version read back into the same builder.
An Advanced designer opens the same layout drawn the way the record page itself reads: the tabs as a strip across the top, the open tab's panels as cards beneath, and a palette at the side holding everything that can be placed, covering all fields, a single field group, all related lists, a single related list, and the panels catalog, which includes tasks, notes, files, documents, obligations, surveys, hierarchy, related parties, respondents, linked record lists, insights and timeline, together with a notifications panel and a free text block. One click adds a panel, dragging or the arrow keys reorders, names are edited in place, and any panel can be set to start collapsed. A tab can show a dashboard instead of panels, chosen from your dashboards by name rather than by entering an identifier. Both views write the same layout and hand the chosen area and record type to each other, so an administrator can move between them at any point. A record type with no layout configured continues to show its field groups as tabs, so nothing has to be arranged before the upgrade.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen, although everyone sees the result on every record they open.
Public Holidays Can Be Added to the Nonworking Days Calendar a Region at a Time
Reference #: 260916.100.0409
Administration, Nonworking Days holds the days your organization is closed, which the system skips when it counts working days, so it reaches task due dates, alerts and workflow timing across the product. The screen still sets the recurring weekly closed days and lists the dated closures, each tagged to a region or to all regions, added, edited and deleted one at a time, and it now carries an Add a holiday set panel. Choose one of the supplied sets, United States federal holidays, Canada national statutory holidays, or United Kingdom England and Wales bank holidays, give a first and last year and the region the days belong to, then press Preview.
The preview lists every date with its day of the week and the name of the holiday, and says for each one whether it will be added or is already in your calendar. Nothing is written until the add button is pressed, and the number of days it will add is on the button itself. Days already in the calendar are left alone, and where a set observes a holiday on the nearest weekday it is that observed date that is generated. Sub national days are deliberately not included, so a regional day or a company shutdown is still added by hand, nothing is added automatically, and none of it is applied at upgrade. The same date can no longer be stored twice for one region, and the closures are shaded and named on the Calendar screen.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen, although everyone whose due dates are counted in working days is affected by what it holds.
Sign In, Password Reset and Multi-Factor Screens Share One Design
Reference #: 260916.100.0413
The sign-in, multi-factor, password reset, reset confirmation, sign-out and single sign-on screens share one card, one set of fields and buttons and the product's own typeface, and they follow the light or dark appearance saved on the account. Sign in relabels and disables its button while it works and ignores repeated presses, so a slow sign-in cannot be submitted twice, and a reveal control sits inside the password box on sign in and on both boxes of the reset form.
The sign-in page links to a self service password reset, which emails a link valid for twenty minutes and applies the site's own password rules. For safety the first step reports the same outcome whether or not the address belongs to an account, so the form cannot be used to find out who holds one, where version 22.7 said plainly when an address was not found. Links on these screens resolve correctly on sites installed under a sub folder.
How will this affect users?
Everyone, on the first screen they meet.
Integration Marketplace, With Microsoft Word and Outlook Add-Ins
Reference #: 260916.520.0001
Administration now has an Integration Marketplace where the out of the box integrations are found, set up and managed from one page. It includes a Microsoft Word add-in that brings linked records, clause tools and VISDOM into Word so a document can be worked on without leaving it, and an Outlook add-in that looks up and acts on records from inside an email. Each one carries its own setup page with the installation steps, the download for organizations that do not deploy from Microsoft AppSource, and the link to deploy it centrally.
Each add-in also has an organization wide availability setting, held under Administration, Application Settings in the General System group as Word Add-In Enabled and Outlook Add-In Enabled. Both arrive switched on, so nothing changes for an organization already using them. Turned off, that add-in stops working for everyone in the organization, which is a way to withdraw an add-in without waiting for it to be removed from every person's copy of Word or Outlook.
How will this affect users?
Administrators can see what is available to connect and set it up from one page; end users can work on contract documents in Word and act on records from Outlook.
Microsoft Word and Outlook Add-Ins Keep Working Without Being Reinstalled
Reference #: 260916.520.0002
The configuration the Word and Outlook add-ins read before anyone signs in, which tells them how the installation authenticates, where its services are and what it is licensed for, is served from the same address as before with the same names and values, so existing add-in installations continue to work after the upgrade without being republished or reconfigured. The version it reports is now the release your database has actually been upgraded to. Some installed clients, including the add-ins and the mobile client, build web addresses that contain a doubled slash; Contract Insight now treats a repeated slash in the path as a single slash and serves the page, so those clients keep working unchanged. Query strings are left untouched, so a web address passed as a parameter is unaffected.
How will this affect users?
Customers using the Microsoft Word or Outlook add-ins continue to use them after the upgrade with nothing to reinstall.
API Clients on One Site Wide Screen, Naming the Account Each Credential Acts As
Reference #: 260916.520.0003
API Clients under Administration manages the client id and secret pairs an integration signs in with, and the allowed callback addresses on a second tab of the same screen. The list is site wide and names the account each pair acts as, where in version 22.7 an administrator saw only the credentials they had created themselves, so auditing what could call the service, or cleaning up after somebody who had left, meant signing in as each of them in turn. When a credential is created, an Acts as picker sets the account it acts for, defaulting to the administrator creating it, so a credential can be minted for a service account or a departing person's integration handed to somebody else; the system administrator flag on the credential follows the account chosen rather than the person doing the creating, so a credential assigned to a non administrator is not silently given administrator rights. Secrets are shown in the list as their last four characters only, with the full value in the row's detail panel behind a Show toggle and a Copy button beside it, rather than every secret on the site being readable in a single screenshot. Creating, updating, regenerating and deleting a client, and changes to its callback addresses, are all written to the audit history. The screen warns that a client whose owner is inactive will switch itself off again the next time that person's record is saved, and marks an inactive owner beside their name. The screen remains restricted to System Administrators.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to this screen.
One Place to Authorize and Review Connected Applications
Reference #: 260916.520.0005
A Connect an App picker and an OAuth Authorizations list under Administration handle connecting Contract Insight to DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign, signNow and VISDOM through one shared authorization flow instead of a separate route for each provider, and the list names each connected application and the account it acts as, so access can be reviewed and withdrawn during a security review. Tiles link directly to the provider rather than passing through an intermediate step. Re-authorizing VISDOM Services or Adobe Acrobat Sign retires the previous authorization as it stores the new one, so one connection cleanly replaces another instead of old authorizations accumulating in the list; for VISDOM this also removes a case where a re-authorization could appear to fail because an expired authorization was still being picked up. Where the VISDOM services connection can no longer renew itself, because it was revoked or its renewal window has passed, features that use it report clearly that the connection needs to be re-authorized instead of each one independently retrying a call that cannot succeed, and the message clears itself as soon as an administrator re-authorizes it. The older style of connection used only by the QuickBooks connection, already deprecated before this release, is not carried forward.
How will this affect users?
End users are not affected as only System Administrators have access to these screens, except that features relying on VISDOM services will say when the connection needs an administrator's attention rather than failing repeatedly.
Government Clause Monitoring on One Screen
Reference #: 260916.520.0008
Administration, Automation & Data, Government Clause Monitoring replaces three separate screens with one. Clauses are picked out of the repository to follow, including retired ones where you want them; the followed list is worked through with Check for update, Read this clause and Stop following this clause; and the people emailed when a clause changes are chosen on the same screen with Choose who is told when it changes. Clause text is read only because it belongs to the issuing agency, so following a clause means Contract Insight keeps its copy current and tells you when it changed. The nightly update and a manual refresh now take exactly the same path, so a scheduled update and a refresh by hand cannot produce different results.
How will this affect users?
Organizations tracking federal clause libraries manage subscriptions, updates and notification recipients from one screen instead of three.