The Weagree Wizard’s contract automation functionalities do not consist only of the ability to create new contract entries, answer their questionnaires and generate documents. They also cover several additional features and file storage. These settings are available on the Administrator page, under the Configuration subitem of Contract automation. This was briefly mentioned in the Basic contract automation configuration tutorial, but will be covered in detail below.
Note: always click Save after making any changes.
1. Access to model contracts
When switched on, the Model contracts button will appear on the New contract page for authorised users. These will ordinarily be accounts with full user rights, typically reserved for (senior) lawyers. The button will link to the contract know-how platform indicated on the Model contracts subtab. By default, it will redirect users to Weagree’s own dedicated website https://weagree.com/model-contracts/. You may of course insert the URL of any other website. If you insert a description in the second field, that will appear as a tooltip when the mouse cursor is left to hover over the Model contracts button.
Access to such resources may be useful for legal experts who can be trusted to edit individual contracts to suit specific needs, which the template’s questionnaire does not (yet) provide for. Model contracts can even be used to freely draft new contracts that the users wishes to manage in the Weagree Wizard, of course.
Note: for the purposes of the Weagree Wizard, there is little reason to grant access to model contracts unless the authorised users are also able to use the questionnaire’s realtime editor (via the WYSIWYG view) to directly edit the contract’s text. That functionality is governed by general access rights, which are configured under the Users and licence item of the Administrator page. For further information, click here.
2. Generate contract number
The Weagree Wizard can automatically generate contract numbers. These contract numbers will be visible on the contract properties page and in any contract in Weagree’s CLM. External contracts that are imported into Weagree will also receive a contract number. Enabling this functionality will produce a separate Contract number subtab with several buttons and fields. At the bottom, next to Example, you will see what numbering format your chosen configuration will produce.
a. Only number generated documents
Enable Only number generated documents to ensure that contracts will only be numbered once a Word document or PDF is actually generated. This may be practical if any approval workflows have been configured and these can result in certain drafts being wholly rejected. It is not uncommon for some drafts to be otherwise discarded or forgotten. When all these have been numbered, then, undesirable gaps may arise in the numbers of contracts that do end up being signed and managed.
b. Restart each calendar year
Enable Restart each calendar year to reset the counter each 1 January (so the number will be something like “2021_289” for the last contract of 2021, but “2022_001” for the first contract of 2022). This will make it easier to track how many contracts have been created in any given year. When switched off, numbering will simply continue (so that in the previous example the number would go from “2021_289” for 2021’s last contract, to “2022_290” for 2022’s first contract). Enabling this also makes it possible to change the starting number for the new year (so the first contract for 2022 could also be numbered “2022_1001”, for example).
c. Date prefix
The contract number can begin with a date, which is recommended in particular when Restart each calendar year is enabled. The prefix can either consist of the year, month and day (e.g. “20210924” for 24 September 2021) on which the contract number is generated, or the year and month, or only the year.
d. Text prefix
One or more characters can be inserted after the date prefix (if applicable) and before the actual number of the contract. For example, adding a single underscore would be helpful to make the number more legible (e.g. “202109240148” would become “20210924_0148”). Letters may also be used, of course. Do not use characters that are inappropriate for filenames or would ordinarily be used for generating website addresses, such as punctuation marks (dashes/hyphens and underscores excepted), exclamation (!) or question (?) marks, forward (/) or backward (\) slashes, ampersands (&), and so on.
e. Starting number
Ordinarily, the starting number will of course be “1”. This might need changing, however, to account for contracts that did not originate from the Weagree Wizard. If contracts created in Weagree should continue on from the last one that was not created in Weagree, then you may insert the following number in this field (e.g. “3177” if the last one was numbered “3176”). It is also possible to change the starting number after one or more contract numbers have been generated in Weagree, but the change will only take effect – next 1 January – if Restart each calendar year is enabled.
f. Total digits
This determines how many digits should be available for the contract number. If 4 digits are available, for example, the contract number can range from “0001” to “9999”. Especially if Restart each calendar year is disabled, a high number of digits is recommended to avoid running out of numbering “space” for additional contracts.
3. Feedback by users
If enabled, the contract automation questionnaire will allow users to send feedback to a template administrator. Such feedback may concern the basic text of the template, but also such elements as question phrasing and choice options. This functionality is independent from users’ ability to discuss any aspect of an individual contract with other users. For further information on user feedback and template administrators, click here.
4. Party type in contract overview
This dropdown menu determines what party name (if any) will appear on the overview generated on the My wizard page. By default, Other party is selected. Alternatively, you may choose to display Own party (which might be useful if your organisation encompasses numerous companies), or show none at all.
5. Enable the clause library.
When switched on, authorised users will have access to the Clause library button on the New contract page, as well as the clause library buttons in the questionnaire. The buttons in the questionnaire let the user add or remove global building blocks or global contract clauses (as available in the Weagree Wizard’s clause library) to an individual contract. The inclusion of global building blocks or contract clauses will also activate any questions they might contain, thus expanding the questionnaire. The Clause library button makes it possible to draft an entirely new contract (and assemble a questionnaire) in the Weagree Wizard via the clause library, rather than a pre-existing contract automation template. The clause library functionalities are available exclusively for accounts with full user rights, i.e. users with a lawyer licence.
These functionalities may be useful for legal experts who can be trusted to edit individual contracts to suit specific needs, which the template does not (yet) provide for. In this respect they are very similar to model contracts access as described above, but less freeform due to the nature of the clause library: it is the administrator who decides what components may be used and what degree of variability they should have, not the end-user. It is possible to restrict the use of global building blocks and global contract clauses to particular user groups in order to further control users’ freedom in drafting a complete contract. For further information on user groups, click here.
Note: as with access to model contracts, users with access to the clause library may also be permitted to use the questionnaire’s realtime editor (in the WYSIWYG view), allowing for even greater versatility when tailoring a draft or constructing it from scratch.
6. Projects (sets of contracts).
This switch shows or hides buttons for the creation of brand-new projects and links to project templates. A Weagree Wizard project is essentially a collection of multiple regular contract automation templates, linked together by their questionnaires. Answers in one template’s questionnaires are matched with related answers in another’s. As a result, the user will not have to (fully) answer both questionnaires, but only one of them. By sharing relevant information in this fashion between templates, it is possible to very quickly generate large numbers of various documents with consistent data. This functionality is not available for super-light users.
7. Document storage.
If any external storage solution is available, such as SharePoint, you may choose between Weagree and said medium for storing all files generated by and uploaded to the Weagree Wizard. External storage solutions are set up under the API integrations subitem of Configuration Weagree Wizard. For further information, see the API integrations section of this knowledge base.
