If you’re reading this, you’re probably tired of chasing signatures and herding cats to get contracts approved. You want the approvals to happen fast, with as little manual work as possible, and you don’t want to babysit the process. This guide is for in-house legal teams, contract managers, operations folks—anyone who has to wrangle contracts and wants to automate approval workflows in Agiloft without the hand-wavy nonsense.
Let’s walk through the steps, call out what’s actually useful, and point out where you can skip the fluff.
Step 1: Map Out Your Approval Process Before You Touch Agiloft
First, don’t open Agiloft yet. Seriously. The biggest mistake people make is jumping into the software before they’ve nailed down how their workflow should actually work.
Ask yourself: - Who needs to approve contracts? (By role, not by name. “Legal,” “Finance,” “VP of Sales,” etc.) - Which contracts need which approvals? (Are NDAs different from MSAs? Do high-value deals need extra eyes?) - In what order do approvals happen? (Sequential? Parallel?) - What triggers the approval process? (Contract value, type, counterparty, etc.)
Pro tip:
Draw it on a whiteboard or a napkin. If you can’t explain your process simply, you’ll never automate it cleanly.
What to skip:
Don’t waste time building edge cases for things that never happen. Start with the 80% case and add exceptions later.
Step 2: Set Up User Roles and Teams in Agiloft
Automation only works if Agiloft knows who’s who. Get your user roles and teams set up before you build workflows.
In Agiloft: - Go to Setup → Access → Teams and Roles. - Create teams for each group that approves contracts (e.g., Legal, Finance, Sales). - Set up user roles to match their real-world responsibilities. - Assign users to their teams and roles.
Honest take:
Don’t overcomplicate this with dozens of roles. If “Legal” is just two people, keep it simple. You can always add more granularity later.
Step 3: Define Approval Rules Using Contract Fields
You probably don’t want every contract going through the same approval slog. Use Agiloft’s contract fields (like contract type, value, region) to set rules for who needs to approve what.
How to do it: - Go to your Contracts table in Agiloft. - Identify which fields drive approvals (e.g., “Contract Value,” “Contract Type”). - For each approval level, decide the logic. For example: - If contract value > $100k, require CFO approval. - If contract type = “NDA,” skip Legal review. - If counterparty is outside the US, add Compliance.
Pro tip:
Start basic. You can use “if-then” statements or business rules. Don’t get lost in the weeds with complex nested conditions at first.
Step 4: Build the Workflow in Agiloft
Now the fun part—actually automating. Agiloft uses “Workflow” objects and “Action Buttons” to move contracts through stages.
Set it up:
1. Create a Workflow:
- Go to Setup → Workflow.
- Create a new workflow for the Contracts table.
- Define each stage (e.g., Draft → Pending Legal Review → Pending Finance Review → Approved → Signed).
2. Map Transitions:
- Set what triggers a contract to move from one stage to the next (manual button click, field change, etc.).
- For approvals, require that a specific field (like “Legal Approved”) is set to “Yes” before moving forward.
3. Add Action Buttons:
- These let users approve or reject directly from the contract record.
- Go to Setup → Tables → Contracts → Action Buttons.
- Create buttons like “Approve,” “Reject,” or “Request Changes,” tied to status changes and notifications.
What works:
Building clear, simple workflows with obvious transitions. Test each stage before adding more.
What to avoid:
Don’t try to automate every notification or status change right away. Manual intervention is fine early on—add automation as you see where the bottlenecks are.
Step 5: Automate Notifications and Reminders
People ignore emails. But you still need to nudge approvers. Agiloft lets you automate notifications—just don’t go overboard.
To set up notifications: - Go to Setup → Rules. - Create rules that trigger emails or in-app notifications when: - A contract enters a new workflow stage (“Pending Legal Review”). - An approval is overdue (e.g., 48 hours with no action). - A contract is rejected or returned for changes.
Pro tips: - Start with key touchpoints: “You’ve got a contract to approve,” and “This is overdue.” - Don’t spam everyone every time a contract moves a step. - Use clear subject lines (“Action required: Contract approval needed”) so people don’t miss the emails.
What to ignore:
Fancy escalation chains for now. If someone’s not responding, a manual follow-up is still the fastest fix in most orgs.
Step 6: Test the Workflow (With Real Users)
You will find bugs. There’s no shame in that—Agiloft is powerful, but it’s not magic.
How to test: - Grab a test contract and walk it through the workflow as different users (Legal, Finance, etc.). - Confirm that approvals trigger at the right time, and only the right people can approve. - Check that notifications go to the right people, and that rejected contracts don’t sneak through. - Try breaking it—what happens if someone ignores a step, or rejects a contract?
Honest take:
Testing with real users is the only way to know if your workflow actually works. Don’t rely on just your admin account—it often has more permissions than most people.
Step 7: Train Your Team—But Keep It Simple
Most people don’t care about the backend. They just want to know where to click to approve or reject a contract.
What to do: - Create a 1-pager or a quick screen-recording showing how to approve, reject, or request changes. - Show the team where to find the “Approve” button and what happens next. - Explain what to do if they get stuck (who to call, where to escalate).
Pro tip:
Keep training practical. Don’t make people sit through a 45-minute demo unless they’re actually building workflows.
Step 8: Review, Refine, and Iterate
The first version won’t be perfect. That’s normal.
After a few weeks: - Check how many contracts are stuck in approval. - Ask users what’s annoying or confusing. - Tweak rules and notifications based on real feedback.
What works:
Iterating in small steps. If you try to design the “perfect” workflow upfront, you’ll just frustrate everyone (including yourself).
What Actually Matters (And What Doesn’t)
After setting up a bunch of these, here’s what’s worth your energy:
Focus on: - Keeping workflows as simple as possible. - Only automating what’s actually slowing you down. - Making sure every step is necessary—no busywork.
Ignore: - Automating every edge case from day one. - Over-customizing notifications. - Fancy dashboards you’ll never use.
Wrapping Up
Automating contract approvals in Agiloft isn’t rocket science, but it does take a bit of upfront planning and a willingness to keep things simple. Start with your real-world process, build out the basics, and improve as you go. Don’t chase perfection—chase less busywork and fewer headaches. You’ll thank yourself later.