Agreement Configuration
Agreement Configuration is the switch. A screen does not offer a signed agreement until a line on this screen says it should, names the template to use, and says how hard the rule bites. Adding a screen to the agreement engine is a line here, not a change to the software.
What it is for
The agreement engine can hang a signed document off any entry form in the product. What it cannot do is guess which forms should have one. That is what this screen says.
One record belongs to the client. Inside it, one line per document: which template produces it, whether an unsigned document stops the record going further, and which screens the document applies to. The presence of the line is the switch. Remove the line and the agreement panel disappears from those screens again.
A single line can serve more than one screen. An employment undertaking might apply to Employee Basic Information and to Offer. Rather than writing the same rule twice and letting the two copies drift apart, one line names the template once and lists its screens underneath, and each screen says which of its own fields carries the other party's number, name, mobile and email.
The same screen may appear on more than one line, because a screen can carry more than one document - an employment agreement and a confidentiality undertaking, for example. What it may not do is carry the same template twice, which would produce two documents nobody could tell apart.
Every field, in plain words
Header
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Client | The client these document rules belong to. | The client code of the installation you are configuring | Required. There is one configuration record per client. |
| Client Name | Fills itself from the client you pick. Leave it. |
Documents
One line per document the client wants the engine to produce.
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Entity | The company this rule applies to. Leave it blank to apply the rule to every company in the client. | Blank, or Ravi Textile Mills (Pvt) Ltd | |
| Screen | The screen this document hangs off. | Employee Basic Information | Required. If the document also applies to other screens, add them in Screens rather than creating a second line. |
| Screens | Opens the list of further screens this same document applies to. | Click it after the line is saved | See the Screens table below. |
| Screen Name | Fills itself from the screen you pick. Leave it. | ||
| Document Template | The template that produces the document. | Employment undertaking | Required. The template must already exist and be active, or the save is refused. |
| Block Until Signed | Stops the record being approved or released until every required signer has signed. Saving the record as a draft still works. | Tick it for anything legal. Leave it off while the client is still testing. | |
| Mandatory | Makes the document one that has to exist on the record, not one the user may skip. | Tick it for an employment agreement. | |
| Allow SKU Level Discounts | Allows the document to carry discounts against individual items. | Leave it off for anything that has no items, which includes every employee document. | |
| Party No Field | Which field on that screen holds the number of the other party. | employeeno on an employee screen | Required. Pick it from that screen's own field list rather than typing it. |
| Party Name Field | Which field on that screen holds the name of the other party, so the document can be labelled with it. | employeestxt on an employee screen | Required. A wrong choice here produces documents with a blank counterparty, which is noticed only after the letters have gone out. |
| Active | Whether the line is in force. | Fills itself as active when you add the line. Untick it to suspend the document without losing the setup. |
Screens
Opened from the Screens link on a document line. One line per further screen that produces this same document.
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | The screen this document also applies to. | Offer | Required. |
| Screen Name | Fills itself from the screen you pick. Leave it. | ||
| Party No Field | Which field on that screen holds the other party's number. | applicantno on a recruitment screen | Required. Filled for you from the screen you picked, into any cell you left empty. Check it before saving. |
| Party Name Field | Which field holds the other party's name. | applicantstxt | Filled for you from the screen you picked. |
| Default Mobile Field | Which field holds the mobile number, so the first signer's number is already there. | mobileno | Optional. Filled for you where the screen has an obvious candidate. |
| Email Field | Which field holds the email address. | email | Optional. Filled for you where the screen has an obvious candidate. |
| Active | Whether this screen line is in force. | Fills itself as active when you add the line. |
How to configure it
- Build the templates first on Agreement Template, and make sure each one is active. A rule that names a template that is not active will be refused.
- Open Agreement Configuration and create the record for the client. There is one per client, so if it already exists, edit it.
- Add a line in Documents.
- Leave Legal Entity blank if the rule applies to every company, or pick one company if only that company signs this document.
- Pick the Screen the document hangs off, for example Employee Basic Information.
- Pick the Document Template, for example Employment undertaking.
- Pick the Party No Field and the Party Name Field from that screen's field list. These are what put the employee's number and name on the document.
- Decide how hard the rule bites. Tick Mandatory if the document must exist. Tick Block Until Signed if an unsigned document should stop approval and release.
- Leave Allow SKU Level Discounts off for employee documents.
- If the same document also belongs on another screen, click Screens on the line and add that screen, checking the field names the screen fills in for you.
- Save. Open one of the named screens on a real record and confirm the agreement panel is there.
Scenarios
"Every new permanent employee has to sign an undertaking before they are confirmed"
One line. Screen is Employee Basic Information, Document Template is the undertaking, Mandatory ticked and Block Until Signed ticked. Until every required signer has signed, the record cannot be approved or released, but HR can still save it as a draft and come back to it.
"We want the agreement recorded, but nobody should be held up waiting for a signature"
Same line, Mandatory ticked and Block Until Signed left off. The document is created and tracked, and the record moves on without it.
"The confidentiality undertaking applies to staff and to contractors, and the two are on different screens"
One line, not two. Name the first screen on the line, then open Screens and add the second. Each screen line says which of its own fields carries the counterparty number and name, so a staff record uses the employee number and a contractor record uses the vendor number, from the same rule and the same template.
"Two companies in the group, and only one of them uses the bond"
Put the company in Legal Entity on that line. A line with Legal Entity blank applies to all of them.
What it is connected to
- Needs Agreement Template first. The template must exist and be active before a line can name it.
- What you configure here is what makes the agreement panel appear on the named screens.
- Removing a line takes the panel off those screens. Agreements already produced stay where they are.
- The signing link and receipt lifetimes are not asked here. They belong to the whole company and are set on Legal Entity.
If something looks wrong
- "The save says the document template does not exist or is not active" - the template was never created, or it was created and then made inactive. A rule naming a dead template would save silently and then produce nothing, so the save is refused instead.
- "The save says this screen and template pair is already configured" - the same document is on two lines for the same screen. Delete one.
- "The save says Party No Field and Party Name Field are required" - the line names a screen but not the two fields that identify the other party. Pick them from that screen's field list.
- "The save says a configuration with no document rows switches nothing on" - the client record was created with no lines. Add at least one.
- "The agreement panel does not appear on the screen" - either there is no line for that screen, or the line is not active, or the line is restricted to a company other than the one the user is in.
- "The document comes out with a blank counterparty name" - Party Name Field points at the wrong field on that screen.