Contracts User Guide
Purpose: This document is intended to provide a high level overview and functionality of Contract Module within the Levelpath Platform.
What is the Contracts Module?
Contract is a repository for your supplier Contract - metadata, key contacts, and supporting documents (Contracts, Terms, etc.) The repository is a great way to track renewal timelines and manage your supplier Contract all in one place.
How do I access Contracts?
You can access contracts via the “Contract” icon along the menu bar on the left hand side of the Levelpath platform:
In order to access the Contract repository, a user must have one of the following roles active within User Management.
Contract Managers have unrestricted access to any contract.
Contract Viewers have “View Only” access to any contract.
Business Owners have “View Only” access to a specific contract as they are added individually within a contract. Business Owners are the internal point of contact for that specific contract. This is selected via drop down upon creation of the contract record.
Contract Owner is the point of contact responsible for the management of the contract upkeep and renewal. This is selected via drop down upon creation of the contract record.
If you need updated permissions to view Contracts, reach out to your company’s Levelpath Organization Administrators. They have access to update permissions directly within the Admin - User Management page.
What do I see in the Contract repository?
At a glance, the Contract repository shows key information such as contract name, the supplier associated with the record, the type of contract, business owner, contract owner, contract termination notice date, and whether or not the contract auto renews. You may also use the contract calendar and the contract filters to narrow down your view:
The calendar view will allow you to view upcoming renewals. The blue icons under the calendar dates indicate one or more Contract entering into the termination notice period on that date.
By selecting a specific date, your list of Contract will update to reflect the specific Contract entering the termination notice period on that date. You may continue utilizing the filters during this process to better organize and prioritize your projects.
What information will I see within a contract record?
By selecting a record, you will be presented with the contract details:
- Contract Record Name: Title of the contract record. If the record is created via upload, the contract title will be the file name by default. The name is editable by the user. If the record is created manually by the “+ new record” the user will type in the name.
- Contract Tabs: Contract Managers will be able to select to view the projects associated with the contract record (i.e. renewals), the supplier information associated with the contract record, and a log of all of the activity that has taken place with the contract. They can also use AI Assistant for a variety of tasks, such as asking questions about the contract.
- Document Viewer: The document viewer presents the uploaded document for contract managers to review. NOTE: The document shown will be the first uploaded document.
- Termination Notice Countdown: Contract managers will be able to clearly see the countdown to the contract termination notice. This is based on the Notice of termination section of the Contract Terms and can be edited within Contract Terms. If Notice of termination is set to 0, the counter will show days until End date.
- Contract Terms: This section highlights critical metadata such as the Contract name, the Contract Owner as well as the Business Owner and the Supplier that is associated with the contract, along with the other key aspects of the contract
NOTE: Termination Period value is counted in Days. For example, if the notice of termination is in 3 months, input 90 days.
How do I create a new Contract Record?
There are two ways to create a contract record.
- From the Contracts Module.
Document upload: The user can utilize the bulk upload function located at the top right corner of the page. This icon looks like a cloud.
Once the files are bulk uploaded, contract records will be created under the ‘Needs review’ tab:
When uploading multiple files, it is important to note that each file uploaded will create its own contract record.
b. "+ New Contract": The user can create a single contract by clicking this blue button.
The user will then give the contract a name, select a contract type, select a contract owner, and upload the contract. After clicking "Add contract" the user will be taken to the draft record.
From there, OCR will read the document and populate the metadata it picks up. While the OCR is reading the document, users will see the blue "Scanning" text. The fields that OCR is looking for will have the icon pictured below displayed next to them.
Once complete, the green icon pictured below indicates that OCR was successful. Users can Re-run OCR by clicking the blue “Re-run OCR” button pictured below.
Find where each piece of metadata came from by clicking into the fields with the blue OCR rectangle next to them. For instance, in the image below, Contract type and Select a supplier indicate that they were filled by OCR. OCR will highlight where it found the information in the document when a user clicks into the field.
Users can also set renewal reminders in the metadata for that contract. Click into the “Renewal Reminder Date” field to set the Renewal Reminder or select “Do not notify”.
Once the user is done adding any additional metadata, they can hit Save Record in the top right hand corner.
Once the information is added, the status is moved to “Active”, and the record is saved, the Contract record will move out of the ‘Needs review’ tab and be added to the repository.
End Date and Evergreen Contracts
The End Date field defines when the contract will expire.
If you select “Evergreen” in the End Date field, the contract will no longer require an end date and will not expire. This setting is used for agreements that automatically continue until they are actively terminated.
2. From a Project
The ability to create a contract from an existing Project allows for a more streamlined experience. All of the collaborative work is done within the confines of the Project.
To have this experience implemented in your Levelpath instance, please reach out to the Levelpath Support Team.
When in an active project that includes this contract experience, the user will see a rectangular “Contract” step within the path.
Note: Users can initiate the contract at any time, but to be sent for signature the previous steps in the workflow need to be completed.
There are two ways to enter a Contract view, from within the step or on the top right hand corner of the project (pictured below).
Once a user arrives in Contract view, four options to initiate a contract will appear (below).
Option 1: Upload one or more documents. If the contract has not been uploaded in the project, the user can upload one or more documents from outside of the platform.
Option 2: Select a project document. To use a document that has already been attached in the project, select "the right hand “Documents” toolbar.
Option 3: I don’t have a document. The user can proceed without a document and create a blank contract record.
Option 4: Mark as not needed.
Choosing one of the options above triggers the Contract process. Please note that in order to proceed to the next step within the Contract stage, users will need to complete each step.
- OCR scan + inputting metadata
- Approvals
- Send for Signature
- OCR scan + inputting metadata for signatures (if using Docusign integration)
- Final Records
- OCR scan + inputting metadata. This step is the first step in the process, labeled with the title of the document the user uploaded. During this step, OCR scans the document and extracts in the metadata and applies it to the relevant fields. Once the metadata is extracted, the user can review and input any relevant field that is left blank. Note: If the user chooses to manually input metadata in a field, the OCR functionality will not overwrite the user’s input.
Once reviewed, the record needs to be “marked as final” in order to allow for approvals to be made (step 2).
2. Approvals. Once the contract is final, users should click “Ready for approval”. Approvals are configured in Project Configuration. They are customizable and multiple approvals can be added. If approvals are not needed, we can set it up so that there is no approval as part of the contract upload process.
At this stage, users can also replace the document if necessary (see the right side of the image below).
3. Send for signature. Step 3 allows the contract to be sent off for signature through our Docusign integration (note: .docx and .pdf are supported to be sent to Docusign). Or, users can click “Save record from final files” to create the final contract. This also saves it to the Contract page repository.
Once sent, a “Created” flag will show within the Docusign option. Once signed, the flag will turn green and say “Completed”.
4. OCR scan + inputting metadata. If using the Docusign integration, once the signed contract is brought back into Levelpath, OCR will be kicked off again to update the metadata fields for Supplier Execution Date and Company Execution Date. Note: If the user chooses to manually input metadata in a field, the OCR functionality will not overwrite the user’s input.
5. Final records. The last step in the process confirms that the contract has been executed and final records created. Think of it as a confirmation page.
How do I edit a Contract Record?
Contracts will need to be edited within the Contract module, not within the workflow itself. Editing the information is very simple, the Contract Manager can select the edit icon and update all contract information:
How do I add Collaborators to a Contract?
When viewing the contract you’d like to add a collaborator to, select the “Team” option on the right toolbar. Then select “Add a collaborator” to add them to the team.
The person you added will be given viewer permissions. If you’d like to change or remove the permissions for a user, select the three dots next to their name.
How do I terminate a contract?
To terminate a contract, or supersede with a new version, click the "Contract actions" blue button in the top right corner. Clicking that will bring up the menu below:
How do I add supporting documentation?
When in a Contract Record, select the ‘Documents’. From here, users can upload by dragging and dropping, or browsing your computer.
NOTE: Please be aware that the file types accepted by Levelpath are: csv, doc, docx, jpeg, jpg, png, pdf, ppt, pptx, xls, xlsx. With a size limit of 500mb per file.
Where can I create an amendment for a contract?
Users can create a contract amendment directly from the contract record, or link an existing contract as an amendment either from the contract record or from a project’s Contract step.
Contract Record
Option 1: Contract Actions
*For contract amendments that have not yet been created
- Open the contract record
- In the top-right corner, select Contract Actions
- Select the tile Add an Amendment.
After selecting “Next” a new Contract project type will be kicked off. From there, your team can review the amendment details, move it through the required steps, submit it for approvals, and complete the project. Once complete, the amendment will appear as a new contract record in your account.
On the contract records, users will find a new label of “Being Superseded” on the original contract as well as a label of “Superseded” on the new contract.
Original Contract
New Amended Contract
Option 2: Relate a contract
*For contract amendments that have already been created
- Open the contract record and navigate to the Related contracts tab
- Ensure the toggles “Card View” and “Show Direct Relationships” are selected
- Select the blue “Relate a contract” button under the Contract card(s)
- Select a contract(s) within the required “Select one or more contracts” dropdown
- Select the tile “Add an Amendment”
- Select the blue “Relate contracts” button
Once related a ‘Superseded” label will be added to the contract record that was amended and the relationship will be shown within the “Related contracts” tab
Contract Step within a Project
If a project includes a Contract step, users can also link a new contract amendment to an existing contract directly from the step.
- Open the Contract step and select the contract record
- Go to the Related contracts tab
- Ensure the toggle is on “Card View” and “Show Direct Relationship”
- Under the contract card, click the blue “Relate a contract” button
- In Select one or more contracts, choose the contract(s) your team would like to relate
- Select “Add an Amendment”
- Click “Relate contracts” to finish
Step 2
Step 5
Completed
Where can I view the projects related to a contract record?
To view all projects associated with a contract select the “Projects” button on the right hand toolbar:
NOTE: To view any renewal projects within Contracts, the user needs to either be the Contract Owner or the Business Owner for the Contract Record. Click Here to view the Contract Renewals Guide.
What is Contract Discovery and how can I use it?
Contract Discovery is Levelpath’s AI Assistant for the contract repository. Leveraging Levelpath’s Hyperbridge AI, contract administrators and organization administrators can query any document stored within the contract repository.
To access Contract Discovery, contract administrators and organization administrators should select the "Discovery" button located in the upper right corner of the Contract Repository.
With Contract Discovery, users have the ability to query across all documents within the contract repository. Since the AI reviews every document within the repository to find matches for the query, this process can be time-consuming. To streamline this process, users are able to customize which contracts they would like to query through filters.
Users can significantly reduce the processing time for the report by utilizing the filter section to tailor the contracts queried by the Contract Discovery tool. This filtering can be done based on contract type, status, category, department, region, and legal entity.
Additionally, users can manage contract data to review only primary documents, or to query only a subset of contracts by searching for specific contracts within the repository.
Once a user has submitted a request, they can leave Contract Discovery while the AI tool generates the report. To check the report's status, download the results as a CSV, or review previous requests and outcomes, simply return to the Contract Discovery page and select History in the upper right corner.