Recipe: Build a Basic NDA Workflow

Instructions

To build a basic NDA:

Create a New Workflow

1. Click on Workflow Designer on the top navigation bar and create a new internal workflow.
2. Name your workflow “NDA Workflow”.
3. Click Save in the top right corner.

Upload Contract Document(s)

1. Select My company’s paper and upload the Sample NDA attached to this article. To access this, scroll to the bottom of the article and download the SampleNDA.pdf.
2. Click Save paper source.

Adjust the Lifecycle Presets, if needed

Best practices and common Lifecycle Preset configurations.

• If you don't expect business users to know the information to these Lifecycle Preset questions, move the Lifecycle Preset section to Review only so that business users don’t see it in the launch form. This will still allow Legal to fill out and gather the lifecycle information.

  

• Move Effective Date and Term Length questions out of the Lifecycle Preset section and hide Lifecycle Preset section to Review only.
• If you delete a Lifecycle Preset question, you should also delete the property associated with that question from the workflow configuration. You'll receive a warning that the property isn't being used anywhere in the workflow. 

Option for Configuring the Lifecycle Presets in this workflow configuration:

1. Locate the question associated with the Effective Date property, then enable “Default to launch date?”

   • *Note: If you decide to do this, skip the step “Add question What is the effective date?” in the Configure the Create Step section below.

   

2. Delete the questions associated with the following properties from the launch form:
   • Termination Notice Period
   • Renewals Allowed
   • Renewal Opt Out Period
   • Renewal Opt Out Date
3. Delete the properties referenced above from the workflow configuration.
    

Configure the Create Step

Navigate to the Create tab and configure the launch form with the following:

Edit the Counterparty Information Section

1. Edit the Counterparty Information Section.
2. Remove the Entities question (this question is added by default).
   1. Click on the Who is the counterparty question.
   2. Click Delete question.
      
3. Leave the following questions:
   1. Counterparty Name
   2. Counterparty Signer Name
   3. Counterparty Signer Email

Create a New Section for Contract Information and Add Questions

1. Click Add section to form and title it Contract Information.
   
2. Add question What is the effective date?. *Note: Skip this step if you used the Lifecycle Preset question.
   1. Select Add question to section > select Date field.
      
   2. Add question: What is the effective date?.
   3. Click on Select property and map it to Effective Date property.
      
3. Add Competitor question.
   1. Select Add question to section > select Yes/No field.
   2. Add question: Is this counterparty a competitor?.

   3. Click on Select property and map it to Competitor property.

      NOTE
      You may need to create a custom property for Competitor.
4. Add a term length question.
   1. Select Add question to section > select Duration field.
   2. Add question: What is the initial term of the agreement?.
   3. Click on Select property and map it to Initial Term Length property.
5. Add Governing Law question:
   1. Select Add question to section > select Multiple Choice field.
   2. Add question: Which governing law will apply to this contract?
   3. Add to description: California is recommended.
   4. Add options: California, New York, and Delaware.
   5. Click on Select property and map it to Governing Law property.
      

Create a 'If the Counterparty is a Competitor' Condition for a Section

1. Create a new condition:
   1. Select the plus sign on the left side bar > select Condition.
      
   2. Title the condition name “Competitor = Yes”.
   3. Select Competitor from the IF dropdown, and select is equal to Yes.
      
   4. Click Save.
2. Apply Competitor condition to the document.
   1. Navigate to the Document tab apply it to the highlighted text in the “Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality” clause.
      1. Select the text and select Add Condition from the menu that appears, then select “Competitor = Yes”.

Tag Properties on Your Document

1. Select the pre-highlighted yellow text for “Effective Date” > click Add property from the menu that appears. Select Effective Date to tag property.
   
2. Repeat for the following:
   1. Counterparty Name
   2. Governing Law
   3. Initial Term Length
   4. Signature block
      1. Counterparty Name
      2. Counterparty Signer Signature
      3. Counterparty Signer Name

      4. Counterparty Signer Date Field

         NOTE
         The internal company signer tags will only show up if you have an internal signer added under the Sign step.
      5. Company Signer Signature
      6. Company Signer Name
      7. Company Signer Date Field

Configure the Review Step

1. Navigate to the Review tab.
2. Change first approver from Legal to Workflow Owner and always giving initial approval.
   1. Change Who Can Approve to Workflow Owner.
3. Add Legal group as second approver.
   1. Select Add next approver.
   2. Change Approver title to Legal.
   3. Create a new condition titled Redlines = Yes.
      1. Set condition to IF Draft Documents is equal to not generated from template.
      2. Click Save.
         
   4. Set When is initial approval required? to Redlines = Yes.
   5. Add Legal group to Who Can Approve.

Configure the Sign Step

1. Navigate to the Sign tab.
2. Assign Legal as the company signer.

Configure the Archive Step

1. Navigate to the Archive tab.

2. Under Record Type, select Static Record Type > select NDA from the dropdown as the Record Type.

   NOTE
   You may need to create a new Record Type for NDA.
3. Set Auto-archive to Never.
4. Assign Legal as Archiver.

Test and Publish Workflow

Be mindful of properties associated with your workflow - as soon as you hit publish, any new contract properties, record types, or additional properties that you created will also automatically be pushed to the repository.

1. Verify all errors and warnings have been resolved.
2. Click Preview to test launch form inputs.
3. Click Publish when ready.

Result

A Basic NDA workflow is created in Ironclad and is ready for your business users to launch. They’ll start the process by filling out a Launch Form where they’ll provide the following details:

• Counterparty Name
• Counterparty Signer Name
• Counterparty Signer Email
• Effective Date
• If the counterparty is a competitor
• Initial Terms
• Governing Law

Conditional language will appear on the contract if the business user indicates that they are a competitor. The contract will always need to be approved the workflow owner and Legal only needs to review if there are redlines.

Tips & Variations

• For low-stakes agreements, like unilateral, standard NDAs, you can streamline the process by using Public Workflows. In Ironclad, Public Workflows are used to enable self-serve contracting for standardized, low-risk agreements—like NDAs, vendor intake forms, or event agreements. They allow users across the organization (even outside the legal team) to launch workflows from a shared URL.
• This low-touch approach allows business users to launch and complete contracts without legal involvement—helping your team move faster while maintaining consistency and control.
• Visit the Build a Low Touch NDA Using a Public Workflow recipe to learn how to build this configuration.