Approving Clauses

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to approve clauses for the Clause Library and document authoring.

Clause Approval

In SAP Ariba Contracts, it is often desirable for the inclusion of a clause to trigger a specific approval. For example, if a business case requires a particular member of the Legal team to be added to the contract workspace to approve a clause substitution, you can implement this using clause level approvals.

SAP Ariba provides the following clause level approval fields:

  • Changes Require Approval By
  • Use Requires Approval By
  • Delete Requires Approval By

Adding a user or group to a clause level approval field results in different actions depending on whether the clause is in the Clause Library or in a contract document created within a contract project.

If a clause is changed, used, or deleted in a contract document in a workspace, all users or groups specified in the corresponding clause level approval field are added as approvers to any approval task that involves that clause. These users are added in parallel to the entire approval flow.

An approval task at clause-level in a project can impact:

  • Documents - an approval task on the contract document that contains the clause
  • Folders - an approval task on a folder containing the contract document that contains the clause
  • Projects - an approval task on an entire contract workspace that contains the contract document that contains the clause

Essentially, those who need to approve an action performed on a clause will be notified whenever the clause is used in any form in a contract workspace. To add an approver or a group at clause level you will first have to select the clause and then choose Edit Attributes from the menu.

Screenshot of the Edit Attributes page highlighting the clause level approval fields.

Changes Require Approval by Field

Adding a user or group to the Changes Require Approval By field has different implications depending on whether the clause is in the Clause Library or in a contract workspace containing the clause.

Changes Require Approval in the Clause Library

When a user or group is added to the Changes Require Approval By field in the Clause Library, every new version of that clause must be approved before it can be published or used by a contract author. Approval is required if a user edits the clause in Microsoft Word or modifies it manually through the Clause Library user interface.

Note

  • A task created for clause-level approval in the Clause Library is a required task and cannot be optional.
  • The first time a clause is edited, if there is no existing approval task that includes that clause, a new approval task is automatically created on the Tasks tab of the Clause Library.
  • There is no limit to the number of users, either individually or via groups, that can be added to the Changes Require Approval By field on a clause.

Changes Require Approval in a Contract Workspace

Adding a user or group to the Changes Require Approval By field for a clause means that if any of the following actions are performed on that clause inside a Contract Workspace, approval is required by that user:

  • The clause is manually edited by any user in Microsoft Word.
  • The clause is manually edited through the Outline View.

If a change is made to the clause in a contract document, all users specified in the Changes Require Approval By field for that clause are added to any existing approval task including that clause. Any of the following are examples of approval tasks that would have approval flows appended by this action:

  • An approval task on the contract document that contains the clause
  • An approval task on a folder containing the contract document that contains the clause
  • An approval task on an entire contract workspace that contains the contract document that contains the clause

Note

No approval tasks are ever created in a contract workspace for clause approval. Users can only be added to the approval flow of existing approval tasks.

Use Requires Approval by Field

Use Requires Approval By in the Clause Library

Adding a user or groups to the Use Requires Approval By field on a clause has no effect when working on a clause in the Clause Library.

Use Require Approval By in a Contract Workspace

Users or groups in the Use Requires Approval By field must approve the following actions for the clause in a workspace:

  • The clause is added as a new clause to a contract document in a workspace.
  • The clause is added as a substitute for another clause in a contract document in a workspace.

The Use Requires Approval By field has no effect if a clause is included in a contract document within a contract workspace by default (the clause is inherited from the template document).

Delete Requires Approval By Field

Delete Requires Approval in the Clause Library

Adding a user or groups to the Delete Requires Approval By field on a clause has no effect on clauses deleted from the Clause Library.

Delete Require Approval in a Contract Workspace

Users or groups in the Delete Requires Approval By field must approve the deletion of the clause in a workspace document. These users and groups are either added to an existing approval task that includes the clause or assigned to a new approval task.

Lesson Summary

  • Clause level approvals in SAP Ariba Contracts trigger specific approvals for clause changes, uses, or deletions in workspaces.
  • Changes Require Approval By field applies in both Clause Library and contract workspaces and impacts approval task flows.
  • Use Requires Approval By field requires approval for adding or substituting clauses in contract documents within workspaces.
  • Delete Requires Approval By field mandates approval for clause deletion within contract workspace documents.

Learning

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