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Versions (major versus minor)

Ariana Kemp
  • Updated

A Contract Version is just what it sounds like: after you've Published a Contract, you can make changes in a new Version of that same Contract. Your users see the Published Version until you publish a new Version. 


When you open your list of Contracts, you can create a new version by clicking the New Version button. If you make changes to the Contract (including uploading a new PDF, if it's a PDF Contract), you can:

  • Click Save to keep the changes and come back to them later.

  • Click Publish to replace the version of the Contract that Signers see. If the Contract is public, then new version of the Contract appears immediately in your Legal Center. 

  • Choose Delete from the menu (...) to abandon any changes and delete the new version. The old versions remain in PactSafe. 

Major and minor versions

Some changes you make to a Contract are minor in nature. You probably do want to publish the latest-and-greatest to your Legal Center when you make changes like fixing typos, small wording adjustments, and formatting changes; however, those little fixes don't really justify making everyone who's already accepted the Contract look at it again. Minor changes aren't pertinent to major legal risks. 

The feature to identify a version as Major or Minor in PactSafe gives you the freedom to publish changes without forcing Signers to accept a new version of terms every time they log on to your website or app. This feature is particularly relevant if you use the clickwrap management platform because PactSafe prompts your users to accept updated terms when the terms change over time.

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Inside your Contract editor (see your Contracts here) you can now disable "Major Version" to set a version as a minor change.


When you create your new Version, you can toggle the Major Version switch to specify whether the change is important enough to require Signers to re-accept the terms. When you Publish the Version, the system prompts Signers to re-accept the terms if you left the Major Version switch on. The switch is on by default. 


A few important things to note for Major versions:

  • All Signers who have not accepted terms previously will be presented (and will agree to) the latest published version. Major and minor versions make no difference in this situation because the Signer simply accepts the latest published Contract.

  • If your Signer has already accepted the last major version of your terms, every time you check for acceptance (or our JavaScript library automagically checks) our system will treat them as being on the latest version and we will not press the point of accepting updated terms. (Of course, Signers could find the latest published Version, complete with minor revisions, in the Legal Center, if they wanted to.)

  • If you publish a new major version of terms, all Signers who have previously accepted your Contract before will need to re-accept terms when they log in to your site, app, etc.


Dot notation for minor versions

When published, minor versions have a "dot notation" in our system that allows you to easily differentiate minor versions from major versions. For example, if version 3 was the last major versions, the subsequent minor versions would be numbered 3.1.

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On the Contract Details page, version numbers can now easily indicate to you which is a minor version and a major version.

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On the Legal Center, versions will also be noted accordingly. Optionally, you can contact us to get this dropdown hidden on your Legal Center.

Do I need to do anything special in my code to check for Major or Minor versions?

Nope! We do all the heavy lifting with our JavaScript library and Activity API to give you the info you need.


More questions? Start up a chat session or email us at help@pactsafe.com. 

  

    

  

 

 

 

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