Once your template outline is complete, it is time to start with Q&A creation. Before you begin, it is important to have a basic understanding of how questionnaires (Q&As) are generated and of what types of questions (and combinations thereof) are available.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. Q&A generation
B. Question types

A. Q&A GENERATION

In short, a contract template generates a dynamic Q&A on the basis of three variables:

a. which questions in the template are triggered;
b. the order in which they are triggered; and
c. their distribution across (global) building blocks, definitions and schedules and annexes.

Questions will often exist in a template as independent variables, which will always be triggered and therefore appear in the Q&A. However, the Template Creation Tool allows for the creation of both structures within a template and direct connections between questions to create dependencies. Whether one question is triggered may come to depend on the answer to another question – or even on the answers to multiple questions. As a result, the Q&A which a contract template generates may vary significantly depending on the user’s input.

Interdependencies between questions will obviously determine the order in which they appear in the Q&A. However, this order is determined first and foremost by where questions are located within the template outline. The Q&A essentially moves from top to bottom, triggering questions in a linear fashion. It starts with the first building block and moves down the outline, ending at the last schedule or annex. If a building block contains three different questions, the Q&A will list them in the same order as they appear in the building block’s body text.

Finally, the triggered questions in a Q&A are usually spread out across multiple pages. Again, this is determined by their location within the template outline. A single Q&A page is generated for:

a. each individual building block;
b. the full list of definitions; and
c. either all schedules and annexes together or each of them individually (depending on the template’s settings),

in each case on the condition that there are any questions at all. If a building block contains no questions, for example, it will not produce a Q&A page.

So-called ‘global questions’ form the exception to this rule. Global questions exist in a library outside a contract template and are ‘reusable’, both inside a single template and across multiple templates. Usually, they relate to key variables that must effect multiple changes within a single document. Global questions only need to be answered once per Q&A to produce those changes. By default, all global questions in the template (definitions, schedules and annexes included) are collected on a single page at the start of the Q&A. It is possible, however, to ‘postpone’ a global question’s appearance until the Q&A gets to the building block where it is first used.

Advanced administrators can use the above to optimise and streamline Q&As. By intelligently grouping questions together and making use of the unique properties of global questions, the number of Q&A pages can be reduced (or expanded, if certain pages would otherwise become too long) and questions can be ordered logically and consistently.

B. QUESTION TYPES

The Weagree Wizard supports a variety of question types:

  • Editable: simple input fields, allowing the user to type in any answer. The fields may be configured to only accept numbers (and decimals).
  • Date: text fields with pop-up calendars, enabling the user to select a date.
  • Choice: questions with multiple predefined answers. The fields may be configured to allow for the selection of multiple answers.
  • Country: a specialised version of the choice question, specifically for selecting a country (or state) from a complete list of jurisdictions.
  • Clause inclusion: a specialised version of the choice question, determining whether a building block or contract clause will be included or not.
  • Lookup: another specialised version of the choice question, which uses a ‘lookup table’ (spreadsheet) to create a list of options and output based on the user’s selection.
  • Global: a question stored not inside the contract template as such, but in the global questions library. It can be used in any number of places within a template simultaneously, while being available for other templates as well. In the questionnaire, it only needs to be answered once regardless of how many times it is triggered in the template. A global question can be any of the above types.

Various configuration options are available for each type of question. Three that are available for each and very generally useful are the explanation field (enabling user guidance in the Q&A), the default value (standard answer) and a placeholder for the event the question has not been answered yet (helpful when checking if a generated document is complete).

Questions can be combined in various ways, too. The answer to a choice question (clause inclusions and lookup questions included) may produce a foll0w-up question, which may be of any type. The user’s answer to one question can be incorporated into the formulation of another question or in any answer option to a choice question. Two or more values provided by the user (such as a product price and amount or a date and frequency) allow for automatically calculating other values (such as the total price or payment dates).

Advanced admins may also make use of special features of the Template Creation Tool to, for example, create if/else mechanisms for decision trees (where not selecting one or more particular answers also results in a follow-up question) or replicate questions (for example to provide X input fields for additional product descriptions).

As should be obvious from the above, smart use of different question types therefore improves the quality and security of the Q&A.

Subsequent articles in this Knowledge base will provide in-depth explanations of each of the various question types.