How do I use Precisely’s contract versioning?

To support collaboration and negotiation, Precisely offers contract versioning for project documents.

Document Statuses

Project documents can have two statuses:

- Draft – Can be edited
- Published – Finalised and cannot be edited; this version is sent for review or signing

Draft Versions

Draft versions allow you to refine documents before publishing and sharing them for review.

Draft Subversions

You can create draft subversions from existing versions to make edits to the document.

A new draft subversion is created when:

You click Create new from this version
- Subversions are labelled with a version and revision number (e.g., V1-R1)
An external reviewer uploads a reviewed Word document
- External uploads are labelled with an E (e.g., V1-E2)

A nested subversion is created when a .docx file is uploaded to a published revision

This creates a child external revision under that revision
It is labeled with version, revision, and external indicators (e.g., V1-R1-E1)

Main Document Versions

A new main version is created when:

A user redrafts the document from a template
A version is imported on the project page

Publishing Versions

Admins and Managers can always publish document versions
Members can request publishing if they don’t have permission
Publishing permissions can be enabled by an admin on the organization settings page
External versions cannot be published

Accepting and Rejecting Suggestions

Admins and Managers can accept or reject suggestions in:
- Published versions
- Draft subversions
  (This does not apply to externally imported Word versions.)
To manage suggestions in an externally imported Word version:
- Open the document in View mode
- Click Edit in copied version
Members must create a new version before they can accept or reject any suggestions

Note: To allow members to finalize drafts before requesting publishing, they are able to accept or deny suggestions in draft documents. Apart from this, user roles and access policies apply when working with draft versions. For example, members are not able to free-text edit documents.

Redrafting from a Template

Redrafting allows you to update answers in the questionnaire and generate a new document version.

To redraft a document:

Click Redraft from template in the Questionnaire answer versions section of the project overview
Go through the drafting process
Update answers as needed

Notes:

Changes may update the project’s metadata tags
The user must have access to the template used to generate the document

Requesting Publishing as a Member

Once your draft is ready, you can request publishing from an admin or manager.

To request publishing:

Click Request to publish next to the draft version
Select an admin or manager to send the request to

Comparing Document Versions

Compare versions to easily identify changes between documents.

How it works:

Added content appears in green
Removed content appears in red with strikethrough

To compare versions:

Click Compare next to a document version
Select the versions to compare from the top menu

What are Manual Edits?

A document version is labeled with a Manual edits tag when:

Edits have been made in the document
The document version has been imported into the project using the Import version button

Note: The manual edits tag ensures that you know which document to create a new version from if you want to retain the edits that have been made. Redrafting from the template will create a new version of the document that removes any of the manual edits made to other versions.

You can prevent losing manual edits by enabling a warning message for users redrafting from the template. Simply,

Go to the template you wish to enable the warning message for,
Switch on the 'Display a warning' toggle under References

When this setting is enabled, users will be unable to select the 'Redraft from template' button when working on projects in Draft & Sign. Instead, users will have the option to select the 'I still want to redraft from the template' button under the warning message: