Product Area: Approvals, Condition builder

 Impact of Change: Allow setting up of conditions for approvals based on entity

 Roles Impacted: Admins

Details

Entity-specific approvals earlier required to be set separately for each and every entity, this lead to duplicated effort at times requiring users to update the approvals. In the new approvals system we had replaced the entities-specific approval functionality by supporting entities as a variable on which conditions can be set, similar to all the other variables supported in condition builder.

How to Enable:This feature is supported out-of-box on the new approvals system (AKA Approvals V5)

 Product Area: Approvals, Condition builder

 Impact of Change: Allow setting up of more complex conditions for approvals & reduce the no. of conditional approvals by combining conditions

 Roles Impacted: Admins

Details

~70% of approvals setup on workflows are conditional approvals but our current condition builder supports only simple combinations of conditions like -

• Condition A AND Condition B
• Condition A OR Condition B

Complicated combinations of condition like below were not supported

• [ Condition A AND Condition B ] OR [ Condition C AND Condition D ]

With the Advanced mode for condition builder users can write directly write formulas similar to Excel/Google Sheets as conditions, thus allowing the support for much more complicated & nested conditions.

This update will also help reduce the no. of approvals that are set at workflow level because conditions can be nested wherever relevant.

How to Enable: This feature is only available on the new approvals system. We can enable it for workspaces on demand.

Relevant Resources:

•  Supported Functions in Advanced Condition Builder 
•  Using Advanced Mode in Conditions Builder  

 Product Area: Repository

 Impact of Change: New functionality + Quality of life

 Roles Impacted: All users

Details

Selecting multiple facets to filter your contracts is now easier than ever!

We’ve heard of many different cases where users find it cumbersome to select all the possible values of a Business User, or a contract metadata field while they’re trying to filter for contracts. We’ve gone ahead and made it seamless for users to select multiple values using a new Select All button (see screenshot).

How does it work?

• For any filter facet where you can select multiple options (Contract type, contract users, metadata, etc.), either search for a term in the facet list or leave the search bar empty.
• Click on the new Select All <count> button. This will select all the visible options (or all options if the search is empty).
• To clear the selected list hit Clear All.

Example use cases

There are a lot of use-cases this tiny yet impactful change unlocks:

• Users don’t have to click through all the available options if there are duplicates. Especially useful for counterparties, and free text metadata. Imagine Acme Inc. and Acme Pvt. Ltd. are two counterparties. Simply type “Acme” in the counterparty filter list and hit Select All. Job done.
• Users can now theoretically find all contracts that have any value for a metadata. Simply hit Select all. The filtered list will have all contracts that have a value for that metadata, filtering out those contracts that have a blank entry for that metadata. :sunglasses:
• Users can now find all contracts that don’t have a certain value. For example, if I want to find all contracts where the post execution status is not Active, I can hit Select All and then deselect Active. Done!

How to Enable: This feature is now live for all workspaces.

 Product Area: Security

 Impact of Change: Added security to workspace access

 Roles Impacted: Everyone, if toggled on.

Details

Admins can now control access to SpotDraft by whitelisting specific IP addresses.

This feature allows admins to define a set of IPs from which users are permitted to access the app. If a user attempts to log in or access SpotDraft from a non-whitelisted IP, they will be shown a blocking warning indicating that access is restricted until they connect from an allowed IP. This enhancement helps improve security and ensures that access is restricted to trusted networks only.

How to Enable: We will be rolling out this feature to all customers over the coming weeks. If you would like to have it enabled sooner, please contact your CSM.

Relevant Resources: Help Center Documentation 

 Product Area: Saved Views & Recurring Reports

 Impact of Change: New functionality

 Roles Impacted: All Recurring Report users

Details

We’ve listened to user feedback and made some major improvements to recurring report scheduling, giving you more flexibility collaboration options.

What’s new?

(1) More frequency options: We’ve expanded the frequency options to address user requests for more granular control. Users can now pick from the following options (See screenshot)

• Daily: Receive the report every day.
• Every [Number] Weeks on [Day]: Receive the report every two, three, or four weeks on the selected day.
• Every Month on the [First/Last] [Day]: Receive the report on the first or last Calendar Day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. of each month.

(2) Ability to add Cc recipients: We’ve finally overcome the limitation of only being able to send reports to the scheduler. Users can now share these reports with other collaborators by adding cc recipients. To add a cc recipient, simply select from the list of existing workspace users or enter a new email address.

Very important note: 
Since these are cc recipients, they will be copied to the email which also means they will be able to see the generated report as the scheduler sees it. However, their in-app access is still limited by their specific permissions. This is very clearly called out in the product (See screenshot).

How to Enable: These features are now live for all workspaces
Access control: Only users with the permission to Share Recurring Reports can add cc recipients. This is to ensure any potential spam is controlled. 

   Relevant Resources:  Help Center Documentation 

 Product Area: Approvals

 Impact of Change: New Functionalities

 Roles Impacted: Admins, Approvers

Details

We’re excited to launch of our new approvals system, designed to streamline and improve your contract workflows. This update brings greater flexibility, control, and efficiency to how approvals are managed. Below, we outline what’s new and what are the other changes for you in the new approvals system.

What's New in the Approvals System:

• Automatic Recollection of Approvals: Now, when changes are made to a contract—like uploading a new version or making edits in the document—the system automatically recollects approvals. This ensures that any updates are fully reviewed without needing manual follow-ups, perfect for contracts going through multiple revisions.
• Redlining Approvals: When template-generated contracts are edited (redlined), they lose their pre-approved legal structure. This situation might require additional approvals, ensuring that any unapproved changes are caught. Redlining Approvals are ideal for making sure no crucial modifications are overlooked when a template contract is altered.
• Granular Approval Control : You can now control who can skip approvals and block actions like sending or downloading a contract while approvals are in progress. Unlike before, these restrictions can be set at an individual approval level, offering more precision and security in managing the approval process.
• Ad-Hoc Approvals at Any Stage: Previously, ad-hoc approvals were only possible after all ongoing approvals were completed. Now, you can add ad-hoc approvals at any point in the negotiation process, providing more flexibility to incorporate additional input when needed.
• Pausing Approvals Collection: You can now pause the approval process to wait for external actions, such as counterparty reviews. This ensures that internal approvals don’t move forward prematurely, giving you more control over the contracting process.

Other changes:

• Contracts in Progress vs. New Contracts : Contracts that are currently in progress will not be affected by the migration to the new approvals system. Only contracts created after the workflow is migrated will use the new approvals process, ensuring ongoing contracts remain stable while new ones benefit from the enhanced features.
• Changes to Approval Preferences : Previously, changes to approval preferences were applied retrospectively to all existing contracts, which was the only setting in the workflow manager with this behavior. Now, approval preferences will apply only to new contracts, making the behavior consistent with other workflow settings.
• Approval Preferences on Ad-hoc Approvals : Previously, approval preferences were applied uniformly across all approvals, including ad-hoc ones. In the new system, these preferences are set at the approval level in the workflow manager. Since ad-hoc approvals are not at the workflow level therefore the approval preferences are not applicable to them, so it can be skipped, & the contract can be downloaded, or sent to the counterparty while in progress. We plan to reintroduce preferences for ad-hoc approvals in future updates.
• Uploading an Executed Version of the Contract : Previously, if a user couldn’t mark a contract for execution while approvals were pending, they also couldn’t upload the executed version. With the new approvals system, users can upload the executed version anytime, and pending approvals will be skipped, with notifications sent to approvers.
• Merging of Approval Lists : Pre-send and pre-sign approvals, as well as entity-specific approvals, will now be merged into a single list. Entity-specific approvals will be converted into conditional approvals based on entity variables, maintaining consistent approval behavior while simplifying the setup.
• Approvals in Upload-Sign Workflow:Previously only pre-sign approvals set in the TPP workflow would be collected for upload-sign contracts. Now all approvals in the TPP workflow will also apply to upload-sign contracts, ensuring that no approvals are missed during any part of the process.
• Collect Approvals Modal: The previous form of the modal used for adding notes and requesting approvals has been removed but will reintroduced with improvements later.

Deprecation of Certain Features

• Suggesting Changes: The option to suggest changes to approvals has been merged with the reject action to simplify the process.
• Bulk Skipping: The ability to skip approvals in bulk is being deprecated to ensure each approval is given individual attention.
• Blocking Version Uploads: The feature that blocked version uploads during approvals has been deprecated. Now, users can configure approvals to reset when a new version is uploaded, making the need for blocking unnecessary.
• Blocking Mark for Execution: Explicitly blocking 'Mark for execution' action is now deprecated. In the new approvals system, this action will remain disabled by default until all required approvals are collected, ensuring full compliance before execution.

How to Enable: We will be rolling out this feature to all customers over the coming weeks. If you would like to have it enabled sooner, please contact your CSM.

Relevant Resources: Help Center Documentation 

 Product Area: SpotDraft Email Plugins (Gmail + Outlook)

 Impact of Change: Streamlines contract management by allowing seamless uploads of executed contracts directly from email.

 Roles Impacted: Sales & Legal users using the Email plugins

Details

We have introduced support for the Upload Executed Contracts workflow in both Gmail and Outlook email plugins. This feature enables users to easily upload upto 5 executed contracts at a time, directly from their email interface. It simplifies the process of organizing older contracts, providing a more streamlined and integrated contract management experience within the email ecosystem. This enhancement minimizes the need to switch between platforms, ensuring that contract workflows are more efficient and centralized.

How to Enable: Enabled by default for all users using SpotDraft email plugins in Gmail and Outlook.

Relevant Resources:

•        Gmail Plugin Guide 
•    Outlook Addin Guide 

 Product Area: VerifAI

 Impact of Change: Reliability, Accuracy

 Roles Impacted:All users of VerifAI

Details

In contracts, the name of the party and how they will be referred to is defined at the top (preamble). And in all subsequent sections, the parties are referred to by these references and roles. Playbooks could also have any of these references or party name.

VerifAI used to be agnostic of this and didn't know who is reviewing the contract. So the responses were sometimes unfavourable or just wrong.

Now, users will be able to select their party and get suggestions which are favourable for them.

This party information has improved overall accuracy by ~5% in our evaluation dataset.

How to Enable:This is available to all VerifAI users.

Relevant Resources: No resources at this time

 Product Area: Contract Analytics

 Impact of Change:Feature enhancement

 Roles Impacted: All contract analytics users

Details

It’s been a few months since we’ve rolled out Analytics to everyone. While we’re receiving a steady stream of feedback and working towards better and better experiences and metrics, one of the biggest things we heard from a lot of customers is that they wanted to do additional analysis on top of the data available. In order to enable customers to do this, we’ve now added the ability for users to download the data they see directly from the UI!

This downloaded data will be available in the form of a CSV.

Users can download two forms of this data:

• Download (as it is): If there are any global filters appleid on the dashboard, the resulting csv will contain a filtered list
• Download without filters: Regardless of any global filters applied, the resulting csv will contain all the data visible in the absence of filters

Note:

• Anyone who has access to contract analytics via access control can download the data
• The data is WYSIWYG, meaning only the data that is visible in the dashboards can be downloaded, and all visible data can be downloaded.

Proposed use cases

Following are a couple of use-cases we’ve heard, where downloading the data is a potential solution (workaround or otherwise)

• “I want to create more charts based on this data”: download, and create using excel
• “I want to see this in the context of contract metadata”: download, and join with the contract report from the repository using the contract link in excel.

How to Enable:Enabled for all workspaces. 

Relevant Resources:  Relevant article updated. See screenshot below on how to download, and sample CSV.

 Product Area: Native E-Sign, Summary Page, Get Link

 Impact of Change:Simplifies the sharing of signing links across various channels due to shorter URLs.

 Roles Impacted:BU, Editors and Admins

Details

When a contract is sent out for signature, users can also share a signing link via Get Link feature through the summary page to share across other channels such as Whatsapp, SMS, etc. Previously, this link was long and cumbersome, making it difficult for users to share via channels like email, SMS, or WhatsApp.

What's New:

We've shortened the shareable signing link from a lengthy URL like:

 https://app.spotdraft.com/auth/contract-invite-v2?source=dashboard_view&action... 

to a concise format like:

 sdraft.io/hXbY 

This streamlined link makes it easier to share signing links across different platforms

How to Enable:Enabled for all all workspaces where Get Link feature is enabled

Relevant Resources: No resources at this time