Creating Clauses

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to set up the Clause Library.

Clause Creation

There are multiple ways to add clauses to the Clause Library:

Using the SAP Ariba Contracts UI: The simplest way to add clauses to the Clause Library is to add them one at a time using the user interface. This process is useful for adding only one or two clauses to the Clause Library.
Importing a Microsoft Word document: You can add a single, or a few clauses by importing a Word document containing the clause directly into the Clause Library. This is the common method when adding a small number of clauses to an established Clause Library.
By using a Contract Workspace template: To add multiple clauses to the Clause Library, it is recommended to upload the clauses through a single Microsoft Word document into a workspace template as the Main Agreement. This is the preferred method for setting up a brand-new Clause Library.
Mass uploading clauses via a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet: Admin users in SAP Ariba Contracts can bulk upload the clauses and the associated content into a Clause Library via a document containing the clauses and the set of associated rules/information in a Microsoft Excel document.

Individual Clauses

Depending on the business scenario, the number of Legal resources, and the maturity of internal policies, customers can choose different ways of leveraging the Clause Library functionality. Administrators might choose not to load every clause their company uses and instead opt to add clauses that:

Contract authors will use more than once.
They want to report usage data for (a clause must be in the Clause Library to provide usage data for reporting).

In such cases, adding a few individual clauses might be the best approach. When loading individual clauses to the Clause Library, the document name (excluding the .docx file extension) is used as the clause name. For example, if you load the document WarrantyUS.docx as a clause, the clause is named WarrantyUS.

SAP Ariba recommends giving unique, short, descriptive names to each clause to make them easy to identify and use properly. Documents loaded as individual clauses to the Clause Library cannot contain the following special characters in their names: \ / : ? " < > | # + % &

Procedure

To create individual clauses in the Clause Library, follow the steps below.

Create a MS Word Document containing text for a single clause. The text should not be formatted.
Navigate to the Clause Library.
Select Actions→Create Clause from the Clauses tab.
Upload the MS Word document.
Enter a description of the clause.
Choose clause type: Preferred, Alternate, or Fallback.
Set approval level.
Publish the clause for use.

It is recommended that clear and detailed descriptions be added for each clause. The Description field can be used to provide short descriptions of proper clause usage for users. The clause description is viewable in the Clause Library. It is also available as a tooltip when viewing the agreement in the Outline View of a contract workspace.

Note

New clauses are in Draft status and are not immediately available for use in templates or as a substitute for clauses in existing contract workspaces. Clauses must be published before they can be used.

Play the video to learn how to add individual clauses to the Clause Library.

Multiple Clauses

It is more efficient to load multiple clauses into the Clause Library at once. The preferred method is to add them to a contract workspace template first. You must load a Microsoft Word document containing the clauses into a contract project template as the Main Agreement or Contract Addendum. Then you can select the clauses from the workspace template and publish them individually to the Clause Library.

To use this method, users must load the contract document into a project template before loading the clauses into the Clause Library. Therefore, users must have the ability to add documents to a project template (such as members of the Template Creators group and members of the template's team) to use this method. Additionally, users must belong to the Clause Library Team group at the Clause Library level.

Note

This method is especially useful to start a new Clause Library or add an extensive collection of clauses, for example pertaining to a new line of business or new type of contract.

The template used for this purpose is one of two types:

A template that is typically used to create contract workspaces. This template contains a contract document (Main Agreement or Contract Addendum) that includes clauses that you want to add to the library.
A template that is used only for the purpose of loading clauses into the Clause Library. You might name it Clause Loading Template so its purpose is clear.

Note

SAP Ariba recommends removing the duplicates and limiting the clause and section count to less than 10,000 in the template to achieve optimum performance.

Procedure

To add multiple clauses to the Clause Library follow the steps below.

Prepare a document to be loaded as a Main Agreement or Contract Addendum.
Open a project template in Draft status.
Load the document as a Main Agreement or Contract Addendum in the template.
Open the document in the Outline View. For each clause you want to publish to the Clause Library, choose Actions→Publish to Clause Library.
The New Clause window opens.
Enter information about the clause.
Choose Save.

Play the video to learn how to add multiple clauses via a template document to the Clause Library.

Lesson Summary

Add clauses individually using the SAP Ariba UI or import via a Word document for small updates.
Use Microsoft Excel for bulk uploads, to optimize the Clause Library's efficiency and performance.
Load clauses into a contract workspace template for extensive updates; ensuring that users have appropriate permissions.
Publish new clauses after entering descriptions and choosing Clause Type; descriptions guide proper clause usage.
Remove duplicates and keep the total number of clauses under 10,000 for optimal performance in templates.

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