Managing contract-files is certainly not the most exciting task. Legal teams, procurement departments and other business units encounter tedious manual file-handling processes that invariably leads to chaotic contract repositories. Unnecessarily tedious processes result in poor version control, missing contract schedules, mismanaged e-signed documents and scattered document storage.
It doesn’t have to be this frustrating or unattractive. By centralising contract storage and streamlining collaboration, organisations can transform what has historically been a person-dependent process into one that is efficient, secure and effortless. This is what Weagree’s advanced SharePoint integration delivers. Watch it yourself!
By integrating SharePoint with Weagree, contracts and related files are stored in a secure, accessible location, streamlining document management while providing full transparency, security and control. This integration is not anything you need, but you will want it.
Why integrate SharePoint with Weagree?
There are three primary reasons why integrating SharePoint with Weagree can greatly enhance your contract management process:
1. Flexibility between workspaces
Users have great flexibility – they choose which one of two workplaces is most convenient:
- Work within Weagree: A central workspace for all contracting work, providing a single point of access for the end-users.
- Work in SharePoint: For end-users who engage in a broader range of activities beyond contracting, SharePoint remains available for other business purposes, allowing them to continue using it as their primary platform.
2. Edit directly – no downloading or uploading hassles
End-users can open their Weagree-managed contracts and related-files directly from Weagree, allowing them to edit these files in either SharePoint’s online environment or through Microsoft Word installed on their laptop.
This eliminates the need for cumbersome downloading and re-uploading of files:
- No need to download files to a local folder before opening.
- No need to manually re-upload files after editing.
As changes are made and saved (whether manually or through auto-save), documents are automatically updated in real-time on SharePoint.
This ensures that the most current version is always available. Whether users work in Word Online or Word on their laptop, both options are fully integrated and intuitive.
Note: For other file types such as PDFs, opening these documents directly within the browser can often be more convenient.
3. IT security
For all IT security aspects of accessing your contract files, leveraging the security framework of Microsoft’s SharePoint is highly advantageous. Contracts often contain an organisation’s most valuable and confidential information, and SharePoint provides industry-leading security measures to protect these assets.
Weagree’s SharePoint integration ensures that:
- All contracts, negotiation versions and all transaction-related files are automatically and securely stored in the right place.
- Every type of user finds their way intuitively, whether on SharePoint or through Weagree.
- Document handling, including opening and editing files, is made secure and super easy.
How does the SharePoint integration work?
Effective handling of contract versions and related files is crucial for any organisation aiming to streamline contract workflows.
Weagree’s SharePoint integration facilitates this through two primary aspects:
- Who may determine the storage location?
- How can storage be kept consistent, robust, and intuitive?
1. Who determines the storage location?
As an enterprise-grade solution, Weagree provides configurable options for managing where contracts and related-files are stored or accessed. In Weagree’s user management, organisations can define user permissions for controlling storage and access within SharePoint.
For every user role and profile, administrators can specify:
- the SharePoint Site designated for contract storage,
- the folder path on the chosen SharePoint Site.
This flexibility empowers organisations to adapt their storage structure according to their specific needs, ensuring both security and ease of use.
2. Determining the SharePoint site
It may seem so simple – yet getting your contract files into the right SharePoint site, keeping the process intuitive, and managing them with minimum effort, is what Weagree does. Here’s how:
- Template-level configuration: For each Weagree template, administrators can set a default SharePoint Site:
(a) If an end-user is not authorised, contracts and related-files are automatically stored on the default SharePoint Site configured by the administrator for that template.
(b) If authorised, however, end-user have the flexibility to select or modify the SharePoint Site. If they do not specify one, the admin-defined default setting will apply.Note: Authorisations can be configured in Weagree’s user management: simply enable or disable this for the end-users with the User profile or User role.
General portal settings: If a SharePoint site or folder path has not been configured for a particular template by the admin, then Weagree’s portal settings serve as a fallback. This can be helpful in cases where contracts are to be stored on the same SharePoint site using a universal naming structure for all. For example, think of corporate guarantees, powers of attorney or NDAs — could be stored on a universal SharePoint site using a standardised folder structure.
API connection
The SharePoint site can also be specified through an API connection. If contracts are initiated from systems like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the applicable SharePoint Site can be automatically determined by these external applications, overriding the admin-defined default setting if necessary.
For any reasons, if Weagree fails to export a contract or related-file to SharePoint (such as an unauthorised SharePoint site), it flags the contract entry in the overview to ensure easy follow-up.
3. Determining the folder path structure
User permissions for defining folder paths can be configured in Weagree (in user management), ensuring that contract files are stored according to the organisation’s predefined structure. It’s possible to specify both, the SharePoint site and its subfolder independently, depending on user needs.
A few additional remarks:
- Administrators can set folder paths and sub-folders, and determine the default storage folder path based on abstract parameters, which can be nested (subfolder in subfolder) and include Party information (other party name, own party name, or jurisdiction), Contract information (template name, contract title, contract owner, or contract number), Q&A metadata tags for a CLM or Q&A-questionnaire question etc.
- Authorised end-user can adjust the default folder paths by navigating the existing folder structure on the selected SharePoint site. End-users can also create new folders when needed, like the experience of browsing sub-folders in Windows Explorer. This ensures that users engage with actual folders rather than abstract parameters, making the process straightforward and intuitive.
- In larger transactions involving multiple contracts, Weagree allows both SharePoint site and folder path settings to be configured at the project level. This way, all transaction or project-related files are organised seamlessly (and fully automatically), while still allowing for individual contract storage within project-specific subfolders, using the same abstract parameters.
Finally, when contracts are initiated through an API, such as from an external CRM, the necessary folder path can also be automatically defined, ensuring smooth file management from start to finish.
DMS actions: file naming, SharePoint-syncing
Weagree’s integration with SharePoint supports versatile document management options, allowing end-users to maintain a clear and organised contract repository. This includes several options for customising how contracts and contract-files are named and organised (file-naming, renaming), file synchronisation, flexible document storage between pre-signature and post-signature stages, and various other DMS actions.
Watch it yourself:
Here’s how Weagree enables flexibility and consistency:
- File-naming and renaming: Administrators can enforce their own naming conventions, ensuring contract-files are stored with clear, identifiable names.
- Version indicators: Every contract version is logged, enabling end-users to see the latest document while keeping an accurate count of previous versions.
- Description of the file content: End-users can add a summary to each file for quick recognition and reference.
- File classification: End-users can add file classification indicators, making it easy to filter and retrieve documents based on type or purpose.
- File visibility and accessibility: User authorisation settings control file visibility, ensuring only authorised team members (or selected end-users) have access to files.
These features simplify the entire document management (DMS) process, making contract-file handling both intuitive and compliant with organisational standards
1. How to synchronise files across platforms
Weagree accommodates both users who work within SharePoint and those who work directly on the Weagree platform, making it easy to synchronise files seamlessly between both systems and keep contract information up-to-date.
- For SharePoint-only users: End-users working on files in SharePoint must ensure that files created or uploaded on SharePoint-side are synced with Weagree’s contract lifecycle management (CLM) system to keep records updated.
- For Weagree-only users: Files created or updated from within Weagree will automatically be stored in the predefined SharePoint site and folder path. Users may need to manually confirm synchronisation in Weagree, though the process is easy and user-friendly.
- Restricted access handling: If an end-user is not yet authorised to access the SharePoint site or if the site hasn’t been established, files will remain securely stored within Weagree. Until the SharePoint site is configured and files are synchronised, Weagree flags any unsynced files clearly within the contract entry, ensuring easy tracking and updating storage status once access is granted.
2. How to correct misplaced files
If a file is accidentally saved to the wrong SharePoint location, Weagree provides a quick way to correct this:
- Select the misplaced file within Weagree.
- Click “Move” and choose the appropriate folder.
- Create a new subfolder if needed.
It is that easy!
3. Managing pre-contractual and post-signing file storage
In Weagree, by default, contract files are stored in the same location both before and after e-signing. However, once a contract moves into the CLM, an alternate storage location may be applied. This means that all the signed contract and related-files in that contract entry’s repository will automatically be transferred into the storage location defined for the CLM.
This enables flexibility: organisations can utilise SharePoint for the precontractual stage and shift to another repository or document management system (DMS) post-signing, as needed. Additionally, with integrations like DocuSign, Adobe Sign, or any other e-signing platform, Weagree automatically saves the final signed documents to the designated SharePoint Site and folder path. This ensures a complete, consistent and accurate file storage across stages.
Entity management and SharePoint
Managing legal entities often requires a different approach to file organisation as compared to contracts. Weagree’s SharePoint integration for entity management has been built to address this need, providing a structured and consistent system for categorising and storing entity-related documents.
Here’s how:
- Contextually relevant file storage: All entity-related files are stored in the locations where they hold the most relevance. For instance, a deed certifying a parent’s shareholding in Subsidiary B would ideally be housed in the folder designated for the Subsidiary B rather than the parent entity’s folder.
- Structured folder organisation for entity-specific files: To maintain clarity and facilitate ease of access, Weagree’s SharePoint integration allows for the segregation of different file types into distinct subfolders. For instance, your subfolders (in a folder named after the relevant legal entity), could be named as:
- 01 – Deed of incorporation, articles of association, amendments
- 02 – Shareholders’ register and deeds of issue or transfer
- 03 – Bylaws and shareholders’ agreements
… and so on.
IT-security of Weagree vs. SharePoint
Weagree adheres strictly to the access restrictions established by Microsoft for SharePoint. This means that end-users must have the necessary authorisation (from your organisation) to access a SharePoint site. Weagree uses the end-user’s (personal) access right to store and manage all contract files.
Should an end-user lose their access rights to SharePoint, Weagree cannot serve as a ‘secret backdoor’ to circumvent this. For organisation requiring higher level of security for accessing SharePoint-stored files, Weagree is well-equipped to support. This is particularly relevant when transaction-related files are not stored in the standard Documents area of SharePoint but in a so-called Library. On SharePoint, access rights and user-authorisations can be managed through a Library to store all files instead of in the Documents folder, as Libraries offer greater customisation options.
Implementing SharePoint integration
For integrating SharePoint with Weagree, our detailed admin tutorials will guide you through each step of the process. Here’s a quick overview of the setup and configuration to help you start efficiently.
- Setting up the connection
(a) Activating the plugin: Start by enabling the SharePoint plugin in Weagree’s API connection settings.
(b) Creating an Enterprise app: An Enterprise App must be created in Microsoft Azure or Entra ID, which is where you (as an admin) configure access and modification rights for end-users. Weagree will operate based on the authorisations assigned to each user, utilising their own Microsoft “Key” to perform tasks on SharePoint. - Configuring the integration
(a) Define default (portal-wide) SharePoint sites and folder paths that Weagree can use as a fallback.
(b) For each template, including project template, set up any template-specific SharePoint site or folder path parameters.
(c) For entity management, under the Entity Management section on the Administrator page, users can configure specific folder names and link them to relevant document types for an organised repository of entity-related files. - Syncing legacy contract files
Syncing legacy contract files is straightforward. Click on the Sync buttons and choose your preferred SharePoint site and folder path, and Weagree will handle the rest, ensuring all legacy files are securely stored and easily accessible.
Integrations with other DMSs
Weagree’s integration capabilities extend beyond SharePoint, supporting connections with other third-party DMS platforms. While each DMS may have unique requirements, our integrations operate consistently across different systems. Leveraging the ISO standard for the CMIS protocol, as adopted by many DMS solutions, Weagree can seamlessly connect with a variety of DMS platforms, ensuring smooth, reliable DMS integration.
For step-by-step guidance on implementing and configuring your SharePoint connection with Weagree, visit our admin tutorials.
