You can set up a Contracts Approval process in GEMS to ensure that each contract is reviewed and approved by designated users and/or departments before being signed off on. The main difference between Contract Approvals and the standard Entity Approvals process is that a new contract is saved to the database once the record has been created, whereas Entity records are not saved to the database until they have been approved.
The contract approvals settings and selections are configured in the Admin > GEMS Settings > System Management > Options > General > Contracts Approvals section.
When Contract Approvals have been enabled, the number of new contracts that are awaiting approval will be displayed in the Awaiting Approval tile on the Contracts Homepage. Clicking on this tile displays a list of all contracts that have been submitted and which are either:
Assigned to the logged-in user;
Unassigned and therefore could be approved by the logged-in user.
Please note: If you are using a version of GEMS older than 9.3, contracts that have been submitted for approval are displayed in the Manage Change Requests panel on the Approvers’ homepages.
When you create a new contract with Contracts Approvals enabled, the following two sections in the Add a Contract Wizard are mandatory:
Contract Approvers - When you have set up your contract details in the Add a New Contract Wizard, you must then go to the Approvers section and add one or more person records that will act as approvers for this contract. The Approvers can be people from departments or user roles in the system as required by the Contracts Approvals settings in System Management.
Add Documents - When an approvals process is in place, you must use the Add Documents screen as part of the approvals and contract setup process. When you click the "Add Documents" checkbox, you then browse the document on your system and attach it to the contract. For more information, see Adding a New Contract Record.
Contract Approvals Process
The contract approval process is dependent on the role of the contract author and the approvers that have been set up. With Contract Approvals enabled, when you create a contract using the Add a Contract Wizard and reach the final screen, you will have the option to submit the contract for approval using the Submit CR button.
The Contract Change Request (CR) is then displayed on the Awaiting Approval tile on the Approver’s Contracts Hub.
Please note: If you are using a version of GEMS older than 9.3, contracts that have been submitted for approval are displayed in the Manage Change Requests panel on the Approvers’ homepages.
If the Approver rejects the CR, it will appear in the Rejected tab within the author’s Change Requests panel. When the author re-submits the Change Request, the contract status will be updated to "Revised."
If the CR is accepted by all Approvers, it will still appear in the Submitted tab on the author’s Change Requests panel, and the Contract Status is marked as "Pending Finalization." It will only be added to the database after the Author has performed the final signoff on the contract using the Finalize button. For more information, see the Finalize Contract section.
When an Approver opens the link to the Contract CR from the Awaiting Approvals tile on the Contracts Hub, the Contract is opened in Snapshot format with an approvals section displayed above the Contract Basics. The approvals section on the Snapshot is displayed with different fields depending on the role(s) of the user viewing it, as described in the next sections.
Contract Author
Having created the contract and submitted it for approval, when you open the contract record from your Change Requests panel, the following screen is displayed.
As the Contract Author, you can see the list of Approvers that have been set up for the Contract and whether they have approved the contract in the Approval Status column.
Contract Author, Approver
If you are an Approver for the contract, you will see the following screen when opening the contract record.
As well as the list of approvers displayed above the Basics panel, you can see the Approver section at the top of the screen. This section enables you to add your acceptance or rejection of the contract to the Approval process. You can also add another Approver if the case requires it. If you choose "Reject" from the "Approval Status" drop-down list, you must add a reason for rejection in the "Comments" field before clicking Save.
Finalize Contract
When all the approvers have accepted the Change Request for the new contract, the final signoff must be provided by the contract Author. The Change Request is not marked as Approved until the Author has completed the final steps as follows:
Open the Contract Snapshot view, which will now contain the Finalize button.
Select the "Final document attached" checkbox and then click Finalize.
When the Author clicks Finalize, the contract status is then marked as "Active" and the record and Document are locked. The only person that can make any changes after the contract has been finalized is the Contracts Administrator.