This article will walk you through counterparty invitation permissions in Workflow Designer.
NOTE
We’re investing in improvements to the Activity Feed, and as part of this, we are retiring Ironclad Connect on October 1, 2024.
What’s coming next?
Over the next few months, we will be evolving the Activity Feed to help you collaborate on contracts more easily with your team. These features will highlight what’s new since you last checked a workflow, and make it easier to navigate between messages, replies, emails, and events.
We also know how important collaborating with your counterparty is. There will be no change to counterparty forms or the ability to email documents from Ironclad. We will also improve the discoverability of the feature that allows you to copy an email address for a workflow, which in turn makes it easy to forward emails to the Activity Feed.
What will happen to in flight workflows?
As part of this change, we are sunsetting the ability to invite and message a counterparty directly from Activity Feed. Internal collaboration will not be affected.
It will be easier for users to immediately add a comment to the Activity Feed, instead of needing to navigate to the ‘Internal’ tab, and they will also benefit from being able to search events and comment all in the same place.
No existing events in your Activity Feed will be lost. Events in the ‘External’ tab are already visible in the ‘All’ tab of the Activity Feed, which is the default tab when viewing the Activity Feed, so the transition should feel familiar and simple. Users will still be able to search for existing messages and activity, and External events will continue to include a globe icon to distinguish them from Internal events.
Finally, counterparties that have previously leveraged Connect will still be able to access their documents.
What is the best way to communicate and share documents with counterparties?
We encourage you to continue leveraging features such as:
- Counterparty Forms, which enable you to collect information from the counterparty;
- Email Document, which allows you to send documents directly from Ironclad, with replies automatically captured in the Activity Feed; and
- Copy Workflow Email Address, which allows you to get an email address for the workflow, so you can then forward emails to the Activity Feed.
Key dates
Here is the timeline for the sunset.
- August 14th, 2024: the ability to invite new counterparties will be discontinued.
- October 1st, 2024: the ability to send external messages on workflows already leveraging Connect will be discontinued.
For more information, or to disable Connect before October 1, 2024, please submit a ticket.
You can set group or user permissions to determine who can invite a counterparty to securely collaborate with your team using Ironclad Connect. When you invite a counterparty to work directly with you within Ironclad Connect, you can streamline your external conversations and feedback in one place.
Permissions only apply to workflows launched AFTER you configure the permissions.
Just like with Share and Download document permissions, changing workflow template permissions for counterparty invitations does not impact in-progress, completed, or archived workflows.
When you create a new workflow, you must adjust the permissions you want to be applied to the new workflow. The default is Basic Permissions. This mean that everyone at your company can invite counterparties.
Configure Counterparty Invitation Permissions
Counterparty permissions cannot be retroactively applied to workflows that have already been launched. Once configured for the workflow template, the permissions you configured are applied to newly launched workflows.
- In Ironclad, click Workflow Designer and select the workflow configuration you want to update.
- Click the Review tab, and then Settings.
- The default setting is Basic invite/share permissions > Everyone can always invite counterparties. To restrict this capability to admins, click the pencil icon the change this to No one except company admins can invite counterparties.
- To restrict invite permissions by group, select Group invite/share permissions > Add invite permission. Add a group for “Who can invite?” and then select Always, Never, or Only if certain approvals are completed.
- If you select Only if certain approvals are completed, you are prompted to identify Which approvals need to be completed? Select the approvals that need to be completed prior to the identified group being able to invite a counterparty to a workflow. If multiple approvals are specified, they must all be approved in order for the identified group(s) and user(s) to invite a counterparty.
- Once you complete conditional setups for your groups, you can create rules for all other groups and users. Without this, the default behavior is that groups or users for which no rule is created do not have permission to invite a counterparty.
What Happens When a Counterparty is Invited to Ironclad?
When you send a counterparty invite, you are enabling your counterparty to sign up for a free, separate, Ironclad Connect account. Counterparty users on Ironclad are never added to your Ironclad account. We maintain separate accounts and workflows to keep each company’s information private and confidential. This ensures each team has a shared place to collaborate, loop in the right stakeholders, send internal or external messages, and access the contract's external audit trail and activity history.
From their Ironclad Connect account, your counterparty will ONLY be able to see information, messages, documents, etc. that you elect to share with them. Then, they can take action using Ironclad features like Ironclad Editor, commenting, version comparison, etc.
From their portal, your counterparty workflow participants can easily stay informed on their workflows’ progress and status. This helps prevent lost or misplaced document versions and missed updates or action items. Real-time notifications and the Activity Feed ensure that everyone involved in the process has the most current information.
Counterparties can see the following properties on their own, secure workflow page:
- Counterparty Name [You, the Ironclad Customer's, Name]
- Counterparty Contact Name [the workflow’s Workflow Owner]
- Counterparty Contact Email
- Contract Type
- Ready for Signature
- Workflow Complete
- Signer Name [External/Counterparty's Signer Name]
- Signer Email
- Paper Source
- Agreement Date [available at the Sign step]
- Draft
- Sent Signature Packet [available at the Sign step]
- Signed PDF [available at the Sign step]