Creating Contract Templates Tasks

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to configure contract workspace template tasks.

Contract Workspace Template Tasks

In SAP Ariba, workspaces are used to create and manage contracts. Workspace creation follows the same general principles as sourcing project workspaces, and they share many common elements, such as Overview, Team, and Tasks.

However, contract workspaces include additional capabilities. For example, a signature task is available as a task option, and certain tasks behave differently in the context of a contract.

This lesson focuses specifically on the tasks and behaviors relevant to contract workspaces. To learn more about tasks available across the SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite, access the Managing Project Templates course on learning.sap.com.

In a contract workspace, most tasks are document driven. As a result, tasks are more commonly created from the Documents section rather than directly from the Tasks section.

Before you add tasks to the template, remember that any tasks inherited from the template into the contract workspace cannot be deleted. When you add tasks, they are set as ‘required’ by default. Required tasks are a good control mechanism to ensure that the proper approvals are obtained before a contract is finalized. All required tasks must be completed in a contract workspace. You can change the default setting of a task in the template so that it is optional. Optional tasks may be cancelled by the contract workspace owner or task owner. When a task is cancelled, it is still visible and can be reinstated at anytime so it can be completed.

The following tasks are available in contract workspaces templates:

To Do Tasks
Document Tasks
Review Tasks
Approval Tasks
Signature Task
Negotiation Tasks
Notification Tasks

Signature Tasks

Signature tasks enable you to collect electronic signatures from internal and external signers for a document in an SAP Ariba Contracts workspace. Signatures are collected either through external providers, DocuSign and Adobe Sign, or by uploading an image of the signed paper.

Electronic Signatures

An electronically-signed contract can designate a specific version as the official, agreed-upon version, understood by all parties to be the version that is in effect. After a document has been electronically signed, no one can modify the document without invalidating the electronic signature. If a signed document is modified, it must be re-signed by all required signers.

Administrators can configure a contract workspace template to restrict users from changing the signature provider and dictate the use of certain signature types for DocuSign.

The Adobe Sign signature service is supported with a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to add fields for signatures, initials, user data and more. Adobe Sign also supports Signer Identity Verification, a second form of authentication that requires a password to be entered.

The DocuSign pass-through interface enables you to configure signatures at the DocuSign website. The drag-and-drop interface of DocuSign website allows you to easily add tags for signatures, initials, and data.

Depending on internal processes and business needs, administrators select the signature provider that best fits their organization.

Note

To configure electronic signatures, you must access the Administration→Project Manager→Signature Providers menu and choose the desired option.

View of a Signature Task

Paper Signatures

The paper signature option allows signature task owners to manually complete a signature task by uploading an image of the signed document. To complete a paper signature task, users can submit a file with an electronic image of a "wet" signature (an image of a signature originally stroked on a paper document, using wet or pen ink).

You can use the Paper Signature option when:

You initially create a signature task.
A signature task was created using an electronic signature provider, but the signers do not use the electronic signature provider and instead provide a document signed with wet ink. In this case, the task owner completes an electronic signature task with a paper signature.

Task Fields in Contract Templates

Task fields determine the behavior of tasks within a workspace. Some are present only for tasks in workspace templates and differ when creating tasks in a contract template instead of in a contract workspace.

For example, when creating a review, approval, or negotiation task in a template, the behavior for the Owner field differs from the behavior in a project. You must specify a project group for the Owner field in a template. Every user in the specified group for the Owner field in a template is an original task owner. Only original task owners can submit the task in a project. Any of the original task owners can process reviews in a project and act as a task owner, but the task does not appear in the My Tasks area or To Do lists of the original task owners.

The default value for the Owner field is the Project Owner group.

Additional Task Fields in Project Templates

The pages for creating tasks in a template contain the following fields that are not present when creating these tasks in projects:

Should Auto-Start Schedule
Allow auto approval
Repeat for Each Document Draft
Extend Repeat Option to Unpublished Drafts
Milestone and Requires Due Date
Field Setting

Play the video to explore the task fields in a contract workspace tasks.

Repeatable Tasks

During contract creation, documents go through many drafts and may require multiple rounds of review, negotiation, and approval before they are finalized. To support this need, templates have settings for tasks that indicate they should be repeated for each draft of a document. Tasks are automatically triggered when a new version of the document is created, routing it again for review, negotiation, or approval.

For example, let’s say you are working on a contract workspace which contains an approval task on the Main Agreement, which is currently at version v2. When the main agreement is approved, the status of the approval task changes to Approved. Later, you make a change and advance the main agreement to draft v3. If the approval task was set up to repeat upon each new draft, the status of the approval task would automatically change to Not Started, requiring you to submit round 2 of the task.

The Repeat for each Document Draft feature only works on objects that are version controlled, such as documents and the entire contract workspace. Since folders are not version controlled, this parameter will not appear on a task associated with a folder.

If you set up the approval task on the entire contract workspace, the approval task would be re-fired only if the contract workspace itself changed versions, such as when you amend the contract workspace after it was published. This applies to all amendments which change the workspace status to Draft of Draft Amendment, such as for Amendment, Renewal, or Termination amendments.

Note

The exceptions are administrative amendments and price update amendments, since the contract remains published.

View of the Repeat after Each Document Draft option

Note

Tasks associated with the entire workspace can be made repeatable for amendments. The workspace changes versions during the amendment process, which means the approval task repeats for each new version.

Lesson Summary

Contract workspaces include unique tasks, such as signature tasks, which can collect electronic or paper-based signatures.
Most tasks are document-related and created within the Documents section rather than the Tasks section.
Tasks added from templates default as required. Required tasks must be completed before finalizing a contract.
DocuSign and Adobe Sign allow electronic signatures, ensuring authenticity and preventing unauthorized document modifications.
Paper signatures involve uploading an image of wet ink signatures when electronic signatures are unavailable.

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