5 Ways To Expedite Approval Workflow With Salesforce Contract Management

For any enterprise or organization to bring its dealings to fruition, they need a seamless contracting process. As legal agreements are a large part of business partnerships, contract disruptions can translate to lost deals and revenue. Hence, every stage of the procedure, from generation to evaluation and execution, merits close attention.

Companies adopt any tool or strategy to accelerate overall contract management, especially approval workflow. Fortunately, Salesforce’s integration with CMS (Contract Management Software) offers organizations the unique opportunity to harness the power of both platforms to facilitate the sales and contracting process. You will learn everything there is to know about contract approval workflow in this blog post, including how to build one up effectively with Salesforce contract management. 

What are contract approval workflows? 

A contract approval process is an integral part of contract management, during which relevant stakeholders review and assess the content of a legal document. Before a legal document gets to the execution stage, the approvers go through it to ensure its validity, efficiency, and compliance. A meticulous evaluation process improves the chances of signing. 

Multiple reviewers are usually involved in the approval process. And keeping track of all these invested parties is a tough job, particularly when organizations have hundreds of contracts in the pipeline. Hence, businesses mostly prefer systematic approval workflows offered by contract management software.  

A contract approval workflow automates the entire process to perpetuate efficiency. The contract managers can initiate the workflow within CMS and assign relevant approvers to the task. With a centralized system, there is no scope for miscommunication or loss of version control. 

Why are contract approval workflows crucial? 

The contract approval workflow ensures that the legal document complies with the organization’s standards and stipulations. Having major decision-makers review and approve the legal agreement reduces the risk of errors. Whether for quality assurance or legal compliance, a contract workflow adds credibility and accountability to the process. Some of the other benefits of approval workflows in contract management include: 

• Eliminate hurdles 

The usual approvers for a contract approval workflow are counterparties, legal counsel, financial team, etc. During the review and assessment process, they provide necessary suggestions to optimize the contract content. Moreover, with a robust contract approval workflow, it is easy to flag disputed content. Consequently, the contracting team must take care of hindrances straightway. The contract approval process in contract management does not allow the legal document to progress to the next stage without complete validation.  

• Speed up the contract lifecycle 

A manual contract approval process means long-drawn-out tasks. But a structured and automated approval workflow through CMS reduces avoidable bottlenecks and delays in the contracting process. When the approval process takes place without any hiccups, it is easier for the contracting team to get the contract across the line. As a result, the entire contract lifecycle moves faster.  

• Compliant contracts 

Ineffective and unfit legal agreements can cost a business. It severely affects the integrity and standing of an organization. That is why it is essential to ensure that the final contract that reaches the counterparty is of optimal quality. A thorough and systematic contract approval workflow enables companies to ensure the standard and compliance of legal documents they send out.   

• Enhance customer experience 

The contract approval process empowers the stakeholders to work together, evaluate, and examine the legal document. With suggestions and input from the approvers, the contract managers can create a client-focused contract. Hence, prospective customers are much more likely to sign the sales agreement. Also, streamlining the contract approval process provides a swift and positive customer experience. 

Now that you know the value of a contract approval process, here is how to set up a component system using Salesforce contract management.  

How to streamline the contract approval process? 

Sending a contract for approval is a task, but it is a process that businesses cannot ignore. Contract review and negotiation are drawn-out because each invested party tries to minimize the financial and legal risk. Organizations need a consistent approval workflow to ensure that only compliant contracts make it to signing. Salesforce for contract management CRM makes it easier for organizations to carry out contract approval workflow.  

1. Instill data accuracy 

The quality of a legal document decides the duration and ease of the approval process. Finalized legal documents must be free from mistakes and ambiguities. If the agreement is accurate and conformable, your work is half done. When you integrate Salesforce CRM with contract management software, you will gain the expertise to create efficient and complaints contracts.  

The integrated solution enables users to access pre-approved templates and clauses to generate competent legal documents. Moreover, the sales team can directly upload customer data to create self-service contracts. Apart from actionable insights, two-way data sharing between CRM and CMS establishes error-free content. Consequently, the Salesforce contract flies through approval, and the salespeople can close deals faster.  

     2. Improve transparency 

Salesforce contract management improves the visibility of the entire contracting process. Users will be able to monitor the progress of the contract through the approval workflow. Real-time document status enables users to act in case of unnecessary delays or disruptions. 

The CMS-integrated Salesforce system provides timely updates for the contract review process. Who sent the contract for approval, to whom, when, and all the information is readily available. A higher-level overview of approval requests and process enables users to identify glitches. It eliminates the scope of miscommunication and establishes that all the invested parties are on the same page. Hence, the sales team will never lose track of approval deadlines. Complete transparency throughout the contract lifecycle ensures that complaint Salesforce contracts turn out right on schedule.   

      3. Centralized platform 

A Salesforce contract management system provides a centralized location to store and organize all the relevant legal agreements. When all the stakeholders involved in the contracting process have access to the finalized document, the approval workflow moves forward seamlessly. A centralized platform enables the contracting team to ensure that all the stakeholders are on the same page.   

The approval procedure takes half the time when all parties involved have real-time access to a contract. Consequently, the invested parties get instant access to the latest agreement to review and approve. Lack of coordination and miscommunication can cause a delay in the contract negotiation and approval process. The integrated system eliminates bottlenecks and redundancy from the contract approval workflow. Moreover, a central database for Salesforce contracts improves data security. Organizations can make sure unauthorized personnel are not accessing the customer and contract information.

       4. Constructive communication 

The purpose of a contract approval workflow is to produce efficient and standardized legal documents. Hence, it is vital that the process runs smoothly without any miscommunication or misunderstanding. When an organization depends on multiple platforms to carry out its contracting process, there are bound to be some discrepancies in the result.  

Fortunately, Salesforce for contract management offers salespeople a single platform to create, share, and approve contracts. The invested parties can collaborate and contribute from within the Salesforce platform. There is no back and forth between platforms or emails. Users can utilize CMS’ redlining feature to highlight the changes or important parts in the legal document. Consequently, the contract approval process flows smoothly with productive communication through the integrated system.  

      5. Tailored workflows  

A seamless end-to-end approval workflow automates the process and keeps the document moving through the cycle. But an automated workflow must address an organization’s distinct requirements. When assigning the various duties in a contract approval workflow, the contracting managers must be specific and concise. Organizations can set approval rules and stipulations to ensure contract standards.

Thanks to the CMS-integrated Salesforce platform, businesses can create tailored workflows to delegate relevant tasks to selected approvers. Customized workflows automatically route documents through the appropriate approvers to hasten internal approvals. With integrated systems, companies can set up user permissions and notifications suited to their specific needs. Every participant in the process is informed of their upcoming assignment and its deadline thanks to custom alerts. Also, with tailored workflows, companies can eliminate irrelevant tasks and processes.  

Bottom line 

A quick and seamless approval process means more deals and satisfied customers for businesses. Utilizing Salesforce for contract management facilitates users to monitor and enhance contract approval workflow. The invested parties have all the contract-related information available on a single platform.  

Users can leverage the features of both platforms to ensure that the approvers can review, assess, and approve legal documents without hiccups. A centralized system for requesting and tracking contract approvals improves the timeliness and productivity of a business considerably. Moreover, with the integrated system, the salespeople can get the approved Salesforce contracts directly to the customers for faster deals.  
Schedule a live demo today to experience the many benefits of contract management software.