Some Documents Don't Need the Legal Department's Check

Wednesday, May 18, 2011
If you have experience with seal/signature/approval processes, you'll know that only a few approvals require the legal department's check. For instance, contracts that only clarify transaction costs, documents to be submitted to authorities, etc., can be sped up by bypassing the legal check.

Let's take the workflows from "Keep At Least the Process of Agreement Drafting Online" and "Should A Contract Be Approved On Printed Paper By Presitent?
and make a new one that can omit the legal check.

<Tasks>
1. Draft Agreement, 2. Check Draft, 3. Revise, 4. Legal Check, 5. Print & Sign, 5b. President's Approval, 6. Record Follow-up


[Signing <Skip legal>: "5b. President's Approval" screen]




<Process Data Items>
  • title
<<Agreement info>>
  • Agreement file (file)
  • Agreement with (string: text box 2 lines)
  • Summary of Agreement (string: text box 3 lines)
<<Approval check>>
  • Supervisor (user)
  • President (select: Necessory / Unnecessary)
  • Legal (select: Necessory / Unnecessary)
  • Supervisor check (select: OK / No)
  • Legal check (select: OK / No)
  • President check (select: OK / No)
  • Conclusion On (date)
  • Correspondence (discussion)
The fastest route is 1-2-5-6, which only engages the direct supervisor and general affairs.

Incidentally, for this type of workflow, which may be looped over and over again, it's often good to give someone the authority to withdraw. In the below sample, the supervisor can easily terminate the process whenever he chooses.

<Tasks>
1. Draft Agreement, 2. Check Draft, 3. Revise, 4. Legal Check, 5. Print & Sign, 5b. President's Approval, 6. Record Follow-up