With the release of the Manage Terms Box Preset Administration area, you now have the ability to make the following configurations to UCM’s default Terms Box:

  • Starting Term Type on Entry (will default to Fixed if untouched)
  • Which Term Types display as selectable options to Users
  • Which Term Types Cancelled On Date appears for
  • In-Container Display name of the different Term Types
  • In-Container Display name of Start & End Date
  • Required Status of different Term Fields
  • Adding Custom Fields to the Terms Box for Display & Entry
  • Ability to configure on a per Contract Type basis if needed

 

Note: All systems will be configured with settings where the ONLY CHANGE to how things have always been, is that the Terms will now START on Fixed as opposed to None, which will prompt your User for a Start Date. 

None can still be selected as a Term Type of course if the Terms of the Contract are unknown, and if you want your system to Default back to None, you can make that change from the Admin area.

 

Editing the Default Preset

Upon release of the new Administration options, every system that uses Terms will now have the Manage Terms Box Preset Configuration section of Contracts Administration. In that area, you will see a grid with a Default Term Preset already there.


 

This Preset will begin the same for every system, is already applied to all Contract Types in the system, and can also not be deleted. The configurations in this area are set exactly how the Terms Box has worked since its release, with the only change being that the Starting Term Type is now Fixed, when it used to default to None.


 

When you open the Default Preset, you will see everything configured like the screenshot above, where the Starting Term Type is Fixed, every Term Type & Cancelled on Date is Enabled, there are no aliased or required Term Types or Dates, and no custom data Fields are added to the Terms Box.

 

Please note, any edits you make to this Preset (Default) will be automatically applied to all Contracts in the system, unless you have already created and applied new Presets to other Contract Types. For example, if you make the Start Date required here, any Contracts currently missing a Start Date will be asked for one when you next edit the Terms of a Contract.

 

Configuration Options of Terms Box Preset

Whether you are updating the Default Preset, updating a Custom Preset, or creating a New Preset, the configuration options will always be the same. 

Any edits you make that may conflict with existing Term Data in the system will be left untouched, but will also be flagged so the next time the Terms are updated in the Container, the User must enter allowed Terms based on the updates.


 

The Name (A) of the Preset only appears here, in the Presets grid, and from the Contract Type dropdown selection. This name does not display anywhere for End-Users.

 

The Starting Term Type (B) will be set to Fixed by default, but can be adjusted to any other Term Type. The list here will also reflect the available Term Types from the checkboxes below. Users will still be able to choose their Term Type per Contract, this just helps them to no longer default to None simply because it is the first in the list.

 

From the checkboxes below, you can select which Term Types are available for selection (C). We see this being used most often to turn off Rolling, or Evergreen Contracts, as many organizations are trying to move away from these types of Contracts. We also see this being used to disable None for the organizations that do their pre-screening work outside UCM and only Contract’s whose Terms are known are entered.

 

Underneath, you have a mirrored list of checkboxes, but these are to determine which Term Types have Cancelled On Date appear for them (D). Originally Cancelled On Date was only on Recurring Term Types, then we added it to all Term Types, and now we’ve given you the ability to choose. For more information on the Cancelled On date and what it’s function is, CLICK HERE.

 

The option to Alias the Term Types (E) immediately below the checkboxes, as well as the option to Alias the Start & End Dates (G) underneath the next banner, apply solely to the Contract Container at time of release. That means that while any re-naming you do here will affect the options and labels your Users see in a Contract and on Entry/Updating of Term Data, your Views will still be using the default system labels for both headers and filter criteria. This works similarly to the Primary/Secondary/Tertiary Responsible Parties, but will also be updated in the future to reflect in all areas of the system.

 

You now also have the ability to add Custom Fields to the Terms Box (F), much like a Field Group. It should be noted that we recommend you only add a handful of Fields to the Terms Box, and only those that really do apply to the overall Terms, like the Signed On Date, Supporting Document Expiration Dates, or the Renewal-Termination Multiline Field that many of you have. When you add Custom Fields to the Terms Box, they will all be added below the Terms Fields themselves, but you can rearrange the exact order of your custom Fields by dragging and dropping from the right side panel.

We also do not view this new option as a full replacement for any of your Field Groups, simply a way to keep all your Term information, both custom and system configured, in one location in the Container. Any Fields you add here that are also in a Feld Group will mirror and duplicate it’s values within the Container itself.

 

Finally, you can now adjust the required status (H) of most of the different Term Date Fields. We see required being used most commonly for Start and/or End Date, however since not all Term Types have an End Date, we added the different Term Type options. 

  • Start Date will apply to all Term Types 
  • End Date will only apply to Fixed.
  • Review Date & Occurrence would require your Users to always enter a Review Date for your Rolling Terms 
  • Renewal Period & Timeframe will always require a Renewal Date for your Recurring Terms.
  • Notify By will apply to both Fixed & Recurring, but should only be used if ALL of your Contracts ALWAYS require advanced written notice.
  • And finally, Initial Period will only apply to Recurring, and similar to Notify By, should only be enabled if all your Recurring Contracts begin with a different initial period.

Any requirements you make back here will apply to all future AND existing Contracts, but Users will only be required to enter Terms Dates to existing Contracts if/when they go to update the Terms Box.


Applying Term Presets to Contract Types

Now that we've reviewed the configuration options available and how they will affect your Term Boxes, let’s discuss how different Term Presets can be created and applied for different situations. This is a completely optional feature, and we do anticipate many organizations having just the Default Preset.

 

Under the Contract Type Administration area, there is a new configurable option for each Contract Type called Terms Box Preset. This will be set to Default for all systems to begin with, however this is also where you can apply any additional Term Box Presets you may create.


The purpose of this feature, is so that for example, you do not want there to be the Rolling Term Type option for the majority of your Contracts, since it is never a Term Type you work with. However, you have a Contract Type or two that may ALWAYS be Rolling, like NDA’s or BAA’s.

 

In this scenario, you could adjust your Default Preset to no longer have Rolling as an option, then create a new Term Type where the ONLY selection is Rolling (see image below). By coming back to the Contract Types and applying the Rolling Only Preset to your NDA and BAA Contract Types (see image above) allows for your system to still track all the Terms it needs, but help guide your Users to ensure all NDA’s and BAA’s are set to Rolling, and a Recurring/Auto-Renewal Contract is never accidentally marked as a Rolling.


 

The last thing to note here about the Contract Type set-up, is that unlike the other items configured on Contract Type that can be adjusted from inside the Container itself, like adding or removing Field Groups or using Workflow Override to change the entire Workflow, the Terms Box Preset is ONLY able to be adjusted by Contract Type, and will ALWAYS apply to any of that Type. For example, using the scenario above, we would not be able to mark our NDA’s or BAA’s as anything but Rolling (see image below). 



Only use custom Terms Box Presets if the scenarios you are configuring for happen 100% of the time. 


For any questions, please reach out to UCM Support.