The Workflow
The Workflow is Contracts 365's monthly newsletter, offering timely insights on contract efficiency, automation, and AI-powered CLM. To help you harness the power of contracts, every day.
Did You Know?
Smarter Forms For Better Contracts
Role-aware fields, adaptive sections, and the power of Entra ID.
Forms are more than a place to collect data, they’re your first chance to make the contract lifecycle fast, accurate, and delightful. In Contracts 365 we’ve continued to evolve Forms, so they behave more like a smart assistant than a static questionnaire.
Here are a few features and quick tips that can immediately reduce friction and cut maintenance for your teams.
Show the right fields to the right people
Did you know you can display sections and fields based on someone’s role?
Instead of one giant form that everyone must wade through, Forms can conditionally surface only the sections and fields that matter for a user’s role (for example, Legal, Sales, Procurement, or Contract Manager). That makes forms shorter, reduces errors, and speeds completion.
Forms that adapt as users fill them out
Forms don’t have to be static. You can configure fields and sections to optimize dynamically as a user completes the form. Think progressive disclosure: When the user selects a certain answer, the Form reveals a specific follow-up section…or hides optional fields once a condition is met. This keeps the experience focused and lowers cognitive load for submitters.
This leads to practical quick wins. Fewer abandoned forms, fewer incorrect entries, and reduced back-and-forth during intake.
Entra ID = Automatic user data and smarter workflows
If your organization manages user profiles in Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), Contracts 365 can automatically extract commonly maintained attributes—manager, department, location, title, and more—and use them in forms and workflows.
This enables:
- Pre-populated fields (name, title, department) so users don’t need to enter basic info.
- Automatic routing to the right approver (for example, route to the submitter’s manager).
- Accurate organizational values without manual maintenance across multiple systems.
The net effect: Less manual data upkeep, fewer stale records, and approvals that follow your real org structure.
Why this matters
- Faster form completion – Fewer irrelevant questions for each user.
- Fewer errors – Prefilled and role-appropriate fields reduce manual mistakes.
- Lower admin burden – Entra ID sync means fewer fields to manage manually.
- Smarter routing & compliance – approvals follow your actual org hierarchy, improving audit-ability.
Best practices to get the most from Forms
- Start small. Use role-based visibility for a few high-impact sections, then expand.
- Use progressive disclosure. Only show follow-up fields when they’re needed.
- Map Entra attributes intentionally. Decide which attributes (manager, department, title) will be trusted and used for routing or prefill.
- Keep required fields minimal. Ask only what you truly need up front.
- Test with real users. Role testing and a quick pilot will reveal edge cases before full rollout.
- Monitor & iterate. Watch completion rates and support tickets to fine-tune visibility rules.
Real-world use cases
Whether it's automated approvals that route contracts to the submitter’s manager automatically, pre-filling organizational info (and show only the supplier-specific fields) to speed onboarding and supplier intake—or role-specific legal intake so Legal reviewers get clause selection and risk controls up front, and Sales gets pricing and customer data—Contracts 365 is designed to make Form completion as simple (and error-free) as possible.
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