Using the Business Applications

A Legal Transaction is a business object that is used to manage the lifecycle of legal content as part of a business transaction or a business scenario.

A legal transaction is created based on a legal contract request and is used to manage the legal content through its lifecycle. For this, the legal transaction collects all the information and material that is connected with the legal content: the parties involved in the creation of the legal content internally as well as externally, the deadlines that need to be observed and the documents that need to be generated in the process or are linked to the legal transaction. 

The scope of the output of a legal transaction can be just one document, for example a Non-Disclosure Agreement for one specific use case. But the scope can also be broader and require the creation of several legal documents which can be managed in one legal transaction, or in several legal transactions that are managed individually and linked to the main legal transaction.

The creation of legal transaction is triggered by a legal contract request that can be entered by any employee who has authorized access to the Request Legal Contract app. Profiles and contexts facilitate the request of legal content and the management of a legal transaction. They cover specific business scenarios and provide predefined values that can be mandatory, or a recommendation that can be changed or removed. They give a framework that can be enhanced and, partly, altered depending on the needs of the individual content.

You can use various filter options to find the certain Legal Transactions.

In general there are six Legal Transaction Statuses:

• Open Issues - Required fields and/or documents are missing.
• Pending - All required fields are maintained but there are still required documents which are not in status accepted yet.
• On Track - Legal Transaction is complete and the contract is effective.
• Expired - This status is set automatically when the Legal Transaction has reached the end date.
• Cancelled - Legal Transaction has been cancelled by a user since it is no longer required. (This is normally done when a contract is not yet signed.)
• Terminated - This status is relevant when a contract is actively terminated. (This is normally done when a signed contract is closed before the end date.)

• The Contract Manager is the role responsible for the maintenance of the Legal Transaction. Who gets the role of the Contract Manager may differ per company, industry, department, contract scenario etc.
• Usually there is a requester who needs a contract or any other legal content and requests it from another department (can be the Legal Department, or a Contract Management Department etc.)
• After the creation of the legal contract, a workflow as defined in the context can be started, after all reviews have been completed and approvals have been received the signing process can start (if required).
• When the legal contract is fully executed, the document gets status accepted and the status of the Legal Transaction is 'On Track'.
• It is possible to link one Legal Transaction to another (or several others) if they are related.

Follow the same steps described in the figure for the Internal and External Contacts.

Define relationships between multiple legal transactions. You can view all mandatory documents specified in the related transactions in the sub-facet 'Related Mandatory Documents'. If configured, you can view Notifications when the status of related legal transactions is synchronized.

In the Linked Object Facet users can link a Legal Transaction to other objects such as, Purchase Contracts, RFQ's, Sales Contracts, Real Estate Contracts and other customizable objects. It is possible to navigate to the Purchase contract in S/4HANA directly from the Legal Transaction.

• Active renewal: the transaction needs to be renewed manually. Therefore there are two reminders: 1. to terminate a contract. 2. to renew a contract
• Auto-renewal: the transaction will be renewed automatically. To end the contract, you need to terminate it. Therefore there is 1 reminder for the termination.

In this section, users maintain the reminders for the legal transaction. Reminders are emails sent to the specified recipient on the specified date to inform the recipient about, for example, the resubmission or termination date of a contract that is managed as part of the legal transaction. The reminders are based on preconfigured email templates.

After uploading your Framework Agreement, setting the virtual document to status 'Final', and generating a word document, continue the steps below.

• A Workflow is defined in a Context.
• In the Workflow you can define processes such as a simple release or approve process, or more complex processes that involve several people or roles who have to execute tasks in a specific sequence.
• When you create a Legal Transaction based on this context, you generate the workflow steps based on this information by choosing Start Default Workflow.
• In the Legal Transaction you can start the workflow, but cannot apply any changes to it.
• A Workflow is relevant for the entire Legal Transaction.
• Workflows are usually started after the legal contract has been created/drafted and uploaded in the Legal Transaction.

The Notes facet provides a field to provide notes about the legal transaction object. You can also reply to the notes added by the other users and view other replies as well.

The character limit for a note is 5000 characters.

Benefit: Transparency on related communication (no hidden information in user's emails).

For the setup of phases, please see the 'Manage Contexts' learning content. The phase will change it's status to 'In Progress and will only be completed if the predefined completion criteria are fulfilled.

All of the obligations related to the documents within a legal transaction are displayed under the 'Obligations facet'. Obligations can be created on legal document level, not on legal transaction level.

Each 'Agent' gets a notification of his task in the order as defined in the workflow.

Clicking on the linked Task will take users to the 'My Inbox' app, where the approval task can be reviewed. Users can open the document directly from here or alternatively users can open the Legal Transaction and open the document from there.

You can copy a legal transaction by selecting the required attributes, facets and documents. You can use this functionality when you have to create a legal transaction for a specific purpose and you want particular attributes, facets and documents in the copy transaction.

As soon as you click on 'Ok' a new Legal transaction gets generated.

• A system administrator can use the 'Situation Handling' app to identify situations, where status synchronizations of Legal Transactions have failed. Then they can also take corrective actions to ensure proper status synchronization.
• Two situations are possible: 'status synchronization failed' and 'Triggering status synchronization failed'
• You can define the recipient(s) of the notifications
• status synchronization means the synchronization of multiple Legal Transactions which are in relation to each other e. g. parent and several child Legal Transactions. Example: The transaction manager could terminate a Legal Transaction for a Framework Agreement, which would automatically terminate all contracts that are related to this Framework Agreement.

An e-Signature Envelope will be assigned.

1. The document creation and deletion will be shown in the history log of a legal transaction.
2. The history log is accessible via the history button in a Legal Transaction.

Relationship definition: The relationships represent the dependencies between a legal transaction and one or more other legal transactions or linked objects. Detailed information about the Relationships can be found here: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_CLOUD/ff01156df84f470cb46483b8a0ba0b79/6f4ce045b73c48cdb4c717ad349ecde3.html?locale=en-US#relationships

You define relationships between multiple legal transactions. You can view all mandatory documents specified in the related transactions in the sub-facet 'Related Mandatory Documents'. If configured, you can view Notifications when the status of related legal transactions is synchronized.

The Relationship Type defines the type of the relationship between the legal transactions. If you have, for example, a legal transaction for a new purchasing contract for Spain, this legal transaction can have a relationship (type Related To) with several other legal transactions that cover the single documents belonging to the purchasing contract.

The relationship between the legal transactions has an effect on the legal transactions document. The effect depends on the selected relationship type.

In the notification, it shows the status of synchronization between the linked legal transactions.

In the Related Required Documents facet, it displays information of the document that is required in the linked legal transaction.

1. This is the parent Legal Transaction.
2. It has three relationships to other legal transactions - each one of them is a parent-child relationship. The relationship between legal transactions effects the documents stored in the legal transactions as well.
3. All related documents are listed under the 'Related Required Documents' facet.

1. This legal transactions is the child of the legal transaction from the previous figure.
2. The parent legal transaction and the relationship type are mentioned in the 'Relationships' facet.
3. The relationship type has an influence on the status of the child legal transaction.

Linked objects are business objects that are connected to a legal transaction. The connection is represented by a link. You can even link to business objects that are present in an external system, to a legal transaction.

Example objects that can be linked are: Purchase Order, Purchase Contract, Sales Order, Sales Contract, Sales Quotation, Request for Quotation, Real Estate Contract, and Central Purchase Contract.

There is a Legal Transaction facet in the following objects to display the link to a legal transaction: Request for Quotation, Purchase Contract, and Sales Contract.

Benefits:

• Improved management of business objects
• Time saving for end users, due to enhanced navigation
• Enrich Legal Transactions with additional information

Detailed information about the Linked Objects can be found here: Legal Transactions | SAP Help Portal

In the Linked Object Facet users can link a Legal Transaction to other objects such as, Purchase Contracts, RFQ's, Sales Contracts, Real Estate Contracts, and other customizable objects. It is possible to navigate to the Purchase contract in SAP S/4HANA directly from the Legal Transaction.

You can also link to contracts that are stored in external systems, to internet pages or SharePoint. To do so you have to extend the BADI. Please refer to the respective Setup guides for more information.

Definition: In the Renewal and Termination sub-facet you can define the renewal and termination clauses for a legal transaction. Furthermore, when you define the dates for renewal and termination of legal transactions they will be displayed in the All Dates sub-facet. By default, the date types 'start' and 'end date' are provided. Notification emails are sent automatically to the defined recipient.

Benefits:

• System supported auto-renewal of legal transactions saves user from manual work when the expiration dates needs to be extended.
• Automatic reminders help Transaction Managers to manage their legal transactions and take required actions to ensure that important dates are not missed.

Detailed information about Renewals and Terminations can be found here: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_CLOUD/ff01156df84f470cb46483b8a0ba0b79/6f4ce045b73c48cdb4c717ad349ecde3.html?locale=en-US&q=renewal%20termination#life-cycle

1. Select Active Renewal
2. Select Renewal Clause
3. Enter Renewal Reminder
4. Enter Renewal Period
5. Select Renewal Reminder Recipient
6. Select the Termination Clause
7. Enter Termination Reminder Days
8. Select Termination Reminder Recipient
9. Hit Save

If the user does not take any actions the contract will be expire.

1. Select Auto Renewal
2. Select Renewal Period
3. Select the Termination Clause
4. Enter Termination Reminder Days
5. Select Termination Reminder Recipient
6. Hit Save

If the contract is not manually terminated the contract will be renewed automatically.

Create and manage phases of a legal transaction in this app. Phases govern the compliance of legal transactions. You can create or remove a phase.

You can create a phase by choosing the Create button in the Phases facet of a context. This facet has two sub-facets and you need to provide the details in both the sub-facets.

Benefits:

• This feature will allow an enterprise to define their own project phases as required to track contract management related information and documentation per phase.
• Effectively manage legal transactions like well-planned projects.

Name: Enter a suitable name for the phase

Starting Condition: Select an appropriate condition based on which a phase must be triggered. There are two conditions - Parallel and Sequential. Parallel condition triggers multiple phases parallel and sequential condition triggers the phases in a sequence.

Sequence Number: This is a read-only field where the system assigns a sequence number to each phase created.

Type: Select the required phase type, either Discrete or Negotiation. You can also configure your own phase type by using the Define Phase Types configuration step. For more information, refer to best practices.

Completion Criteria: Under this sub-facet, you need to specify the criteria that the legal document needs to fulfill to be able to pass a phase successfully. The following values need to be provided:

Content Type: Select the required content type such as Amendment.

State: Select the required state in which the legal document needs to be, to pass a phase successfully. The two states are Accepted or Content Exists.

Stamp: Select the stamp that needs to be assigned to the legal document, to pass the phase successfully. For example, E-signed, Approved, Published, Reviewed, Reviewed Externally, and Signed.

Detailed information about the Phases can be found here: Contexts | SAP Help Portal

Situation Handling is a framework that helps you increase the quality and the efficiency of your business processes by signaling exceptional circumstances and by providing heads-up information. Inform users proactively about issues requiring their attention

Benefits:

• Inform users proactively about issues requiring their attention
• Get insight into the life cycle of situations
• Optimize business processes

Detailed information about the Phases can be found here: Situation Handling | SAP Help Portal

Definition: Instance of legal contract which is tailored to a specific transaction or activity in a certain business context.

Documents are either created from a template (when using Icertis integration) or created outside Enterprise Contract Management and uploaded as a static file. The file type of an attachment corresponds to the file type of the application with which the file was created outside Enterprise Contract Management, for example .docx or .pdf. The purpose of a document is specified in the content type that is assigned to the document. Documents are created in versions and can have additional attributes.

You access the Documents object page from the Documents section on the Legal Transaction object page. You can download a document for editing, uploading files, creating versions of the documents, assigning stamps, assigning a status and managing the document attributes.

You can also search for the documents from the Enterprise Search by choosing the Search icon given in the shell bar of the Fiori Launchpad. Use fuzzy search to filter documents by the legal transaction title, file name, document description, legal transaction ID and document ID. You can also use the Filter By pane to filter the documents based on, but not restricted to, the following parameters: Document status, Content type, Document Type, System Stamp name, User stamp name, Stamps added by.

• When you start the Manage Legal Transactions App, a list of existing legal transactions is displayed together with the filter bar that allows the user to either select a predefined filter set, a so-called variant, or to filter the list by using the search or the individual filter fields in the filter bar.
• After making your selection it opens the legal transaction and you can start to review and edit the data. Click on the tab Documents.
• Legal Transactions offer the possibility to attach documents created in office applications.

Documents facet in Legal Transactions offers the possibility to attach and manage documents created in office applications.

There are 2 ways to enter a document:

1. Click on Add to create a new legal document for the entry currently serving as a placeholder.
2. Click on Create Document then select Upload File to upload a document in the Legal Transaction and add the content type. This function will create a new document line.

Clicking on an existing document object line navigates to the document object page, where you can edit all relevant information, e.g. name, reference number, description, stamps, obligations, etc.

• When you start the Manage Legal Documents App, a list of existing documents is displayed together with the filter bar that allows the user to either select a predefined filter set, a so-called variant, or to filter the list by using the search or the individual filter fields in the filter bar.
• The following functions are provided in the table toolbar:
• Download documents: You can select a document and download it to your computer
• Delete documents: You can select a document and delete it directly from the list. Please note that a document can be deleted only if it is in the following status: Created / In process / To be archived.
• Export all documents as an Excel table: You can export all of the active documents as an Excel sheet by using this button: .
• Personalization of the table settings can be done in the settings, for example: displaying additional columns and rearranging the order of the displayed columns.

In general there are five Document Statuses:

• To be Archived
• Accepted (manual assignment- document object cannot be edited anymore)
• In Process (manual assignment)
• Checked Out (the document in temporarily blocked for other users to edit)
• New (If the document still needs to be created)

• If a required document is not created yet, it has the document status New.
• As soon as you click on 'Add', a pop-up opens and you can fill it with all relevant information. It now has the document status In Process. From this point the document can manually either:
• be edited and checked out again (Status: Checked Out)
• be set to accepted (Status: Accepted)
• be Archived (Status: Archived)

Stamps: A stamp indicates an action that has been performed on a document, such as "approved" or "signed". Users can select the stamp you want to apply from a dropdown list of preconfigured stamps.

Stamps can also be automatically added to documents via a workflow step. Stamps will be set at the completion of the entire workflow and not the completion of the step.

Use Check Out and Check In for editing documents or uploading a new version of a document.

History: Once you navigate to the object page of a legal document, you can choose the History button to view a log of the document. The log pop up displays information about the user who made a change, the date and time of the change, and the content of the change. You can search for a particular change in the document and even alter the view settings.

Edit legal documents

• After choosing a legal document you can change its Name, Content Type, and Status. Additionally, you can create new Stamps and add template information.
• You can Check Out a document to make changes within the document
• If you check in or upload as a new version, you can see the details of document version in the Version History facet. You can download a specific version of the document from this facet.
  Note

  To edit a document that is in To be Archived status, choose the Reopen button.
• You can also copy the document using the Copy to New Version option or Download a Copy.

• With this feature, you can choose the 'Discard Content' button to delete documents that are uploaded in a document object, without deleting the object.
• It is possible to keep the attributes and the template of a document.

The Document Structure tab displays the variables used in the document. When you select a variable in this tab, the focus moves to the selected field in the document.

The main benefit comes from the improved user experience.

The integration to DocuSign to send documents for e-Signature offers two options:

• Fully- automated: Select Template, click on 'Next' and choose recipient(s).
• Semi- automated: Select Template, click on 'Create as Draft'.

Detailed information about the DocuSign Solution can be found here: https://support.docusign.com/

• Automatic envelope creation: Legal documents like agreements need to be signed by concerned authorities as part of the approval process. The e-Signature Envelopes facet display a list of documents sent for e-Signature.
• Automatic status updates: Status of the e-Signature process will be updated automatically
• Link to the envelope: Each envelope has an ID that link to the envelope
• Automatic upload of signed document(s) including the e-signature summary

To use the e-signature function via the 'Send for e-Sign' button, a user would first need to set it up in DocuSign.

Fully-Automatic e-Signature sends out the e-Signature envelope directly without after entering the recipients.

Benefit There is no additional manual effort and everything is predefined.

Semi-automatic e-Signature allows the user to flexibly define the e-signing in DocuSign.

Please note that there are two options: with or without template.

Every recipient receives an email from DocuSign with a link to the document allowing him to perform the action assigned to his user.

The first time a recipients is asked to e-sign in DocuSign, they can define what their signature should look like: choose a style provided by the system, draw their signature in the tool or upload a scanned signature.

When all signers have signed and the envelope status is 'Completed' every recipient in the signing workflow will receive an email with a copy of the signed document(s) and the e-Signature summary.

The 'e-Signed' stamp is automatically added when the e-signature process is complete.