Leveraging ClauseBuddy Smart Templates in Clause9

If you have access to both ClauseBuddy and Clause9, then you have the ability to upgrade your ClauseBuddy Smart Templates with some of Clause9's rich automation magic.

Introduction

ClauseBuddy and Clause9, while distinct software applications, offer synergistic opportunities that enable users to leverage Smart Templates with heightened efficiency.

Of course, not every kind of automation magic is available for both Clause9 and ClauseBuddy. So what additions can Clause9 make? And how do you make them? Find out below!

Preparing your Smart Template in ClauseBuddy

If you're reading this, you probably already have built a first Smart Template in ClauseBuddy, complete with the necessary cyan highlights.

Afterward, you could create the Q&A in ClauseBuddy. However, what you can do instead is to upload the pre-prepared document into Clause9 to start leveraging that additional flexibility.

Import the prepared document into Clause9

You can import documents you prepared in ClauseBuddy (highlighted in cyan) into Clause9. Do note that this only means the automated document, not the questionnaire. This will have to be (re)constructed in Clause9 if you decide to make the jump.

To import your prepared document, go to Clause9 and open the document in “Assemble document” by clicking on the “+” icon and select “New document (docx based)”. Then upload your highlighted document.

Additional flexibility: Assemble document mode

Already, a few additional elements of flexibility become available:

• Language versions: in the ClauseBuddy-only workflow, you have to create separate automated documents for each different language version. In the Clause9-enhanced workflow, you can upload multiple documents to the same Q&A and allow users to switch at the click of a button. To do so, upload each language version under the "Document" pane

  
• Styling: the Smart Template you uploaded contains a style within the docx file. This cannot be altered anymore. Unfortunately, by having created this document in ClauseBuddy first, you have lost the ability to leverage Clause9's centralized styling. Fortunately, some styling flexibility still remains under the "Style" pane. Under "Locale" styling, for example, you decide how numbers, dates, decimals, etc. are formatted. You could even set this up so that, depending on the language the document is drafted in, different notations are used. For example: "1 January 2024" in German, but "January 1st 2024" in English.

• Binders: instead of just uploading one document to Clause9, you can upload multiple of them and collect them all in a Binder. While ClauseBuddy only allows you to automate a single document (without any annexes or schedules), in the Clause9-enhanced workflow, you can upload a Smart Template of the main agreement with any annexes to the same questionnaire.

Additional flexibility: Design Q&A mode

When you have saved the document in your library in Clause9, you can transfer it to "Design Q&A mode" to start building the questionnaire by using the “+ icon” on the righthand side. After that, you can see that we have our ClauseBuddy highlighted document on the left and our Q&A design menu on the right:

Changes

Changes offer an additional method to tailor your questionnaire to specific needs. Popular applications of changes include:

• Make it so that exporting is only possible when all mandatory questions have been filled out.

• Automatically switch the language of the questions if the language of the document changes.

• Protect a document with your password of choice so that any Docx documents exported via the platform cannot be altered without your permission.

More info about changes can be found here.

Spreadbases

Spreadbases cater to the unique needs of Clause9 users by efficiently managing medium-size data sets that are cumbersome for Concepts or Q&A Questions but do not warrant the complexity of an external database.

Do note that the admin first has to create a spreadbase before they can be used.

Popular applications include:

• Automatically filling out the right data for each company in a group.

• Choosing the right signatory from a list of available people, depending on the matter at hand.

• Allowing a user to select the right person in the legal department to send a document to or to designate them as the responsible person for a specific file.

More information about spreadbases can be found here.

Document language as a question option

This determines which language will be used in the resulting document. So it is possible to show cards & questions in a certain language (e.g., French), while producing a contract in a different language (e.g., English). More information can be found here.

Language of the questions

Aside from the text of the document, Clause9 also allows you to switch between languages for the questions and even to automatically translate them. Useful if you work in a multi-lingual team where not everyone speaks the same languages but still needs access to the same documents.

What you cannot do with a ClauseBuddy Smart Template in Clause9

Some flexibility, unfortunately, is unavailable to documents that started in ClauseBuddy. For example:

• Centralized styling: ClauseBuddy Smart Templates are irrevocably tied to the style of the Docx file. They do not adhere to the rules defined on the central Admin level when it comes to styling and have very limited flexibility to change the styling in Clause9.

• Centralized clauses: You cannot add centrally updating clauses to a Smart Template. This is a unique feature of Clause9 documents.

• Different language versions of a document within the same export: while Clause9 does allow you to upload different language versions of the same document (see above), it does not allow you to generate one exported document that contains each clause neatly next to the other one for an easy comparison of the language versions. This is a unique benefit of the clause-based approach to automation that Clause9 exclusively offers.

• Conjugations: Clause9's powerful grammar engine makes it so that you don't have to fully write out conditions for conjugations (e.g.: "if the employee is a male, singular, then return the word "Employee" / if the employee is female, plural, then return the Word "Employees", etc.). This, however, is an integral part of Clause9's clause-based approach to automation and therefore not available in a Smart Template.

Other features within the Q&A of Clause9

For a complete overview of everything you can do within the Q&A feature of Clause9, see our help page here.