When building workflows in Workflow Designer, you can choose which party’s document will serve as the starting point for your contracts: your company’s paper, the counterparty’s paper, or both. This choice determines how documents are uploaded, tagged, and tracked throughout the workflow.
To ensure your document renders correctly, we recommend downloading the corresponding font to your operating system or browser before opening it in Workflow Designer. This article explains how each paper source works and what to expect at different stages of the workflow.
Use Case
Classics Inc. often negotiates vendor contracts. For lower-value deals, they prefer to use their own standardized templates to streamline review and reduce risk. In Workflow Designer, their legal team sets the Paper Source to My Company’s Paper, uploads the approved template, and tags key properties so business users can easily launch workflows.
However, when negotiating with large suppliers who insist on using their own agreements, Classics Inc. uses the Counterparty’s Paper option. This allows business users to upload the counterparty’s draft directly at launch. By configuring the workflow to support both paper sources, Classics Inc. ensures flexibility: users can choose the right starting point for each deal, while the legal team maintains visibility and control over the process.
Permissions
| Features | Workflow Designer |
| Permissions | Admin role OR Workflow Designer = Ability to create and edit all workflow configurations |
What is Paper Source?
The Paper Source in Workflow Designer determines which party’s document serves as the foundation for a contract. You can configure a workflow to start with:
- My Company’s Paper: your organization’s pre-approved template.
- Counterparty’s Paper: the other party’s document, uploaded at launch.
- Both: giving requesters the flexibility to choose either option when starting a workflow.
Your selection shapes how documents are uploaded, tagged, reviewed, and signed throughout the workflow, as well as how contracts are categorized in the Repository.
My Company’s Paper
If you select My Company’s Paper, you’ll upload your organization’s document and use it as the starting point for building your workflow configuration. This approach ensures that contracts begin with your company’s standard, pre-approved template.
When you upload a template in Workflow Designer, comments and tracked changes are automatically removed from the template. This eliminates the need to return to Word to manually accept or reject changes before using the template.
A message banner displays if the template has been modified during upload. You can then choose to proceed with the automatically cleaned version or revert and manage the changes in Word yourself.
Counterparty Paper
If you select Counterparty’s Paper, the workflow starts with the counterparty’s document instead of your organization’s template. When using this option, the Launch Form automatically includes a question asking your contract requestor to upload the document.
My Company’s Paper and Counterparty Paper
If you select both My Company’s Paper and Counterparty’s Paper:
- You are prompted to upload a document for your company’s paper section.
- The form builder includes a question asking “Will you be using our paper or the counterparty’s paper?” at the top of the Launch Form. You can edit this question and the option labels, but you cannot add or remove options.
- A conditional question is added to provide your counterparty with the opportunity to upload their document.
Paper Source in Different Workflow Stages
The Paper Source you select affects how documents are handled throughout each stage of a workflow.
From uploading and tagging in Workflow Designer to collecting signatures and storing records in the Repository, different tabs and steps respond to whether you’re using your company’s paper, the counterparty’s paper, or both.
The following explains how Paper Source behaves at each stage of the workflow:
Document Tab (Workflow Designer)
In the Document tab, you can update an existing workflow configuration that uses your company’s paper. Click the three stacked dots located in the top right corner, and then click Manage Paper Source.
Note: When a condition includes a Paper Source, that condition set doesn't appear as an option in the Add condition dropdown when you tag templates in the Document tab. The Paper Source is implicitly assumed to be Our Paper by default. Consequently, adding a Paper Source check makes the condition set ineligible for document tagging.
To keep your conditions available in the tagging dropdown, avoid including Paper Source in any conditions you intend on using for document tagging. Instead, rely on the template's Paper Source.
Create Tab (Workflow Designer)
When you select both Counterparty’s Paper and My Company’s Paper, the launch form includes two additional questions:
- A question asking Will you be using our paper or the counterparty’s paper? at the top. You can edit this question and the option labels, but you cannot add or remove options.
- A conditional question is added to provide your counterparty the opportunity to upload their document.
Review Step (Active Workflow)
If you want to update your document, you must upload a document that is the same file type. For example, if you upload a PDF as your counterparty paper, you can only replace that paper with another PDF.
In the workflow, click the Upload button located in the top right corner. You can then select whether you want to add an additional document or replace the existing document.
Note: The Paper Source selection cannot be adjusted once the workflow is launched. This can only be changed in the workflow configuration.
Sign Step (Active Workflow)
Whether you select Counterparty’s Paper or Our Paper, the Sign step prompts you to enter the signers’ information.
By default, Require Approval to Send Out for Signature is enabled, meaning your signature coordinator must review and send the contract for signatures.
To learn more about sending documents for signature, refer to Collect Signatures Online, and for details on the signature coordinator role, refer to Signature Coordinator Role.
Repository View on the Dashboard
All workflows have a property called Paper Source. The Paper Source’s value is Our Paper or Counterparty’s paper.
You can use this property to distinguish between workflows that were completed using your paper or your counterparty’s paper.
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