Contract Negotiation

Definition

When the external party is presented with a fully negotiable, authored or received contract for review, the external party sends the contract back with changes. The internal and external parties negotiate the changed conditions, terms, lines, and other items in the contract for which changes are suggested.

Negotiation actions for internal party

An internal party presents a contract to the external party for negotiation. After the external party sends the contract back, the internal party must review the changes.

The internal user with the Negotiate Contract task can accept or reject the changes. Additionally, the internal user that has the appropriate permissions and who holds the contract lock can also modify the contract.

You must send the contract to the external party after you make any more changes.

Negotiation actions for external party

An external party can change the language of a fully negotiable authored or received contract. After changing the items, you must send the contract back to the internal party.

If the contract is not fully negotiable, you can only accept or reject the contract.

When a contract is presented, the user with the Negotiate Contract task or the user who holds the contract lock can accept or reject the changes.

Negotiable items

When a contract is modified by a party, the changes are marked in the contract for the other party.

For outstanding negotiable items that require acceptance, contract execution is disabled.

The following items are negotiable.

• System terms: Properties of system terms can be modified. The changes are not tracked, but the changes must still be accepted in the clauses.
• Header and footer: Changes to the header and footer are tracked but no acceptance is required.
• Contract title, clauses, lines, terms, attachments: Changes are tracked and need acceptance from the other party.

Acceptance and rejection of items

Users can accept the changes that are made by the users of their own party.

Changes can be rejected by other parties. Any rejection causes an item to be reverted to its previous state. A new revision is created for that item. Each rejected line clause is renumbered and is restored to its last restored revision number.

Rejection of line clauses or attachments does not require any acceptance from the other party. Rejection of any other items requires acceptance from the other party. System terms cannot be rejected.

Contract execution

If no changes are made after a contract is presented, or if all changed items are accepted, either of the party can execute the contract.

An internal party can also execute a contract by accepting all changes that are made by the internal party, and changes that are made by the external party may not be checked.

If a contract cannot be executed, the internal party can withdraw it and the external party can decline the contract. Withdrawal or declining can be initiated by the user who holds the contract lock and even when outstanding changes require acceptance.