Restructure Your Lifecycle Data

We recommend adding the the Lifecycle Preset to all of your workflow configurations to accurately and consistently track contract lifecycle and obligation data. If you do not add the Lifecycle Preset to your configurations, you risk having inconsistent and unreliable lifecycle and obligation data.

1. In Ironclad, navigate to Workflow Designer.

2. Select an existing configuration (published or unpublished).

3. In the left hand metadata panel, click Add Lifecycle Preset.

   

4. If you have conflicted properties, in the modal that appears, click Replace conflicts & add lifecycle preset.

   NOTE
   Conflicted properties refer to properties that already exist in the configuration that have the same names and types as those contained in the preset. These will be accounted for in the following steps.

   

5. If you had any conflicted properties with associated form questions prior to adding the preset, those questions will be retained. However, upon adding the preset, a new launch form question will be automatically generated, associated with that same property. To remove unnecessary duplicate questions, choose from the following options:

   • Delete the original question
   • Delete the newly generated question in the Contract Lifecycle section of the launch form

6. If you had any conflicted properties that contained formulas, those formulas will be retained. However, Ironclad will show an error for that property, since the preset automatically adds a launch form question associated with that property, and formula properties cannot be referenced in forms. To resolve, choose from the following options:

   • Remove the formula from the property
   • Delete the associated launch form question

7. Upon adding the Lifecycle Preset, within the Create tab, a new section is added to the launch form titled “Contract Lifecycle.”
   This section functions just like any other section form.* Edit the section and its questions to your liking, including:

   • Changing its name and description,
   • Displaying it in either Both Create and Review or just Review,
   • Moving the section up and down the form to reorder it among other sections,
   • Reordering the questions within the section,
   • Editing questions and help text within the section,
   • Adding default values to questions,
   • Locking questions
   • Adding additional questions to the section that were not part of the default preset that you consider lifecycle-related data and want to categorize it as such

   NOTE
   The exception to this rule is the Renewal Type question in the Contract Lifecycle section. This question’s options cannot be edited, nor removed. However, you can set a default value and lock the question, if that value will be the same for all of the contracts generated from the workflow configuration.

8. If desired, delete any properties, questions, and conditions that will never be applicable from the configuration entirely. For example, if the contracts generated from this configuration will never expire or renew (in other words, their Renewal Type is always Evergreen), you may choose to delete the following:

   Item	Type(s)
   Other Renewal Type	Form Question
   Initial Term Length	Property; Form Question
   Expiration Date	Property; Form Question
   Renewal Term Length	Property; Form Question
   Renewals Allowed	Property; Form Question
   Renewal Opt Out Period	Property; Form Question
   Renewal Type is Auto-Renew	Condition
   Renewal Type is	Optional
   Extension	Condition
   Renewal Type is	Auto-Renew OR
   Optional Extension	Condition
   Renewal Type is None	Condition
   Renewal Type is not Evergreen	Condition
   Renewal Type is Other	Condition

   NOTE
   In this particular scenario, you may also choose to set the Renewal Type question’s default value as Evergreen and lock it. Or, you may choose to remove the Renewal Type question from the launch form altogether and instead add “Evergreen” as a hardcoded value for the Renewal Type property with a formula.

9. Please refer to Use the Lifecycle Preset in Workflow Designer to verify which properties should never be removed from a configuration in order for lifecycle tracking mechanisms in Ironclad to function properly. If needed, add deleted properties or conditions back to the configuration by clicking Add property back to preset.

   

10. Replace any properties in the configuration that are functionally the same with their corresponding preset properties. Use this template to track these changes to facilitate future data restructuring tasks in this guide. For example, if you currently use a Term Length property in your configuration, replace it with the preset’s Initial Term Length property in all of the places it could be in the configuration, including:

    1. in the left-hand metadata panel,
    2. on the document,
    3. in forms in the Create tab,
    4. within conditions,
    5. within formulas of other properties,
    6. in custom emails, and
    7. in the Archive tab beneath Additional record properties.
11. When ready, save and publish the workflow configuration to begin tracking standard lifecycle data points.

12. Repeat steps 2-10 for any additional workflow configurations in your account.

Merge custom properties that are functionally the same with their corresponding standard, preset properties to ensure lifecycle and obligation data is tracked in a consistent, standardized format. You can only merge properties of the same data type with Data Manager. Proceed to Step 3 on page 11 to learn how to merge properties of different types.

1. In a tab or window, open the spreadsheet where you tracked property configuration replacements.

2. In a separate tab or window, navigate to Company settings > Data Manager.

3. Set the Visibility filter to All, so that the Type, Usages, and Visibility filters are all set to All.

   

4. Add the System generated column to the view. This will differentiate standard (System generated = Yes) and custom (System generated = No) properties.

   

5. Click the System generated column to sort the properties by System generated = No, so that the properties at the beginning of the list are those you are able to merge with others. Note: You can only merge custom properties with 0 published workflow configuration usages. You cannot merge system-generated (“standard”) properties, and you cannot merge properties with more than 0 usages of published workflow configurations.

6. Using your spreadsheet as a guide, locate the custom properties that should merge with standard preset properties of the same data type. Refer to the list below of common custom properties that are functionally the same as preset properties of the same type:

   Common Custom Properties	Corresponding Standard Preset Property
   Start Date Agreement Effective Date Subscription Start Date	Effective Date (date)
   End Date Agreement Expiration Date Subscription End Date	Expiration Date (date)
   Term Length Contract Term Contract Term Length Term Order Form Term	Initial Term Length (duration)

   NOTE
   Notice the example custom properties listed above are all of the same type as their corresponding standard properties (e.g. date, duration). This is because you can only merge properties of the same data type with Data Manager. To merge properties of different types (e.g. a custom boolean property called “Auto-Renew” with the standard text property called “Renewal Type” with the value “Auto-Renew”), refer to Step 3.

7. Once you locate the custom property, click it. In the right hand panel, under Usage, verify that published configurations is 0. If the published configuration usage is greater than 0, click the download icon to export a spreadsheet of links to the configurations that contain that property. You will have to manually replace the property in those configurations and republish them.

   

8. Click the pencil icon in the upper right corner.

9. Scroll to the bottom of the panel, then click Merge.

   

10. In the modal that appears, click the With dropdown, then select the standard preset property you wish to merge the custom property into.

    

11. Click Merge.

12. If desired, locate and select the standard property you merged the custom property into.

13. Scroll down to Schema, then select the View next to Retired properties. In the modal that appears, you should see the custom property listed.

    

14. Repeat steps 6-13 for any additional custom properties you need to merge with standard preset properties.

Merge custom properties that are functionally the same with their corresponding standard, preset properties to ensure lifecycle and obligation data is tracked in a consistent, standardized format. However, merging properties of different data types requires tooling outside of Data Manager, namely Metadata Import and Bulk Actions in the Repository.

1. In a tab or window, open the spreadsheet where you tracked property configuration replacements (step 9 on page 7). Refer to the list below of common custom properties that are functionally the same as preset properties of different data types:

   Common Custom Properties	Corresponding Standard Preset Property
   Term Length (number) & Term Length Unit (text)	Initial Term Length (duration)
   Auto-Renew = True/Yes (boolean)	Renewal Type = “Auto-Renew” (text/string)
   Optional Extension = True/Yes (boolean)	Renewal Type = “Optional Extension” (text/string)

2. In Ironclad, navigate to the Repository. Ensure you are in the All records view.

   

3. Using your spreadsheet as a guide, add the preset properties into which you will merge your custom properties as columns to the view.

   

4. Click Save View to save this view as a custom view with your desired name.

   

5. In the upper right corner, click the three stacked dots > Export metadata.

   

6. In the modal that appears, in the Data column dropdown, ensure Visible columns is selected. Then, click Export.

   

7. Within a few moments, you will receive an email from Ironclad with a link to download the exported .csv file. Open the file in your spreadsheet application of choice (in this guide, Excel will be the example). Do not remove the Record ID column from the spreadsheet.

8. Use Excel formulas like the following to transform boolean (true/false) Auto-Renew and Optional Extension values into the singular Renewal Type column: (=IF(C2=TRUE, "Auto-Renew", IF(B2=TRUE, "Optional Extension", "None")))

   NOTE
   The values in the Renewal Type property are extremely important, as they govern how the Ironclad system will track key contract lifecycle, renewal, and expiration dates. To review what each Renewal Type value means, refer to Use the Lifecycle Preset in Workflow Designer in the Help Center.

9. To transform text/string data types into the duration data type, input the time durations in the ISO 8601 duration format in the Initial Term Length, Renewal Term Length, Renewal Opt Out Period, and/or Termination Notice Period columns, as needed. For example: 1 year and 6 months = P1Y6M; 2 years = P2Y; 30 Days = P30D, etc.

10. Ensure all columns with the “old” properties you are replacing are left blank.

11. When your spreadsheet is complete, save it to your desktop or device as desired.

12. In Ironclad, navigate to the Repository, then open the view you previously saved.

13. Click the three dots in the upper right corner > Metadata Imports.

    

14. On the following page, click New Import. Then, upload your spreadsheet.

15. On the Map CSV headers to property names page, ensure the headers in your spreadsheet are properly aligned to the standard, Lifecycle properties in your account. 16. At the bottom of the page, Match records on Record ID.

    

16. Click Next: Preview.

17. Click Start Import. If Ironclad detected any errors with your spreadsheet, they will be flagged on this page. You must resolve any errors and reupload the file to proceed successfully.

18. After the import is complete, navigate to the saved view in the Repository. Verify the standard Lifecycle properties contain their proper values from the import.

19. Select the checkbox to the left of the headers (property names) to select all of the records in the view.

20. Click Edit properties in the upper right corner to use Bulk Actions to remove the “old,” unused properties from those records.

21. In the modal that appears, select Remove and add the unused properties.

    

22. Then, click Remove.
    After this exercise, the “old” properties that you have replaced with their corresponding Lifecycle Preset properties should no longer have any record usages. If you followed the instructions in Step 1, they also should not have any workflow configuration usages. However, it is possible that these properties still have active workflow usages. This means that these properties cannot be deleted with Data Manager until those workflows are completed and the workflow usage becomes 0.

You can delete properties and record types that you no longer use. This ensures that your data stays up-to-date and free of data points you no longer use.

You can only delete custom properties with 0 usages in your account. You cannot delete system-generated (“standard”) properties, and you cannot delete custom properties with any usages in published workflow configurations.

Workflow Configuration usage refers to published configuration versions. This means, if you add a property to a workflow configuration, but have not published that version of the configuration containing the property, the property will be logged in Data Manager, but it will show 0 for configuration usage. If you delete a such property in Data Manager, any configurations containing that property will show an error message for that property.

1. In Ironclad, navigate to Company settings > Data Manager.
2. Add the System generated column to the view. This will differentiate standard (System generated = Yes) and custom (System generated = No) properties.
3. Click the System generated column to sort the properties by System generated = No, so that the properties at the beginning of the list are those you are able to delete.
4. Click the Usages filter, then deselect All usages. This will show properties with 0 usages in your account.
5. Select a property you want to delete, then click the pencil icon in the upper right corner of the right hand panel.
6. Scroll to the bottom of the panel, then click Delete.