Overview
During contract review, some clauses may deviate from your standard terms and require approval from CXOs or other key stakeholders. Clause Approval lets you capture these deviations, explain their impact, and route them to the right decision-makers for structured, sequential approvals. The full approval trail is tracked and downloadable once all approvals are complete.
Step 1: Open Your Contract
Go to the Repository and open the contract you want to review.
Click on Edit Draft and select OnlyOffice.
Step 2: Open Clause Approval
On the left-hand side of the editor, click on Review Hub.
Click on Clause Approval.
Step 3: Add Clause Details
Fill in the following fields:
Clause No -- the clause number as it appears in the contract
Reminder -- set a reminder frequency for approvers
Clause -- paste the clause text
Summary -- add a short summary of the clause, or click Auto Summarize to generate one automatically
Implications of Deviation -- describe the legal or business impact of accepting this deviation
Multiple legal users can add clauses to the same contract, and each clause can have its own independent approval flow.
Step 4: Add Approvers and Submit
Search for and add team members as approvers.
Create approval levels (Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and so on). Approvers do not need to be contract followers.
You can add multiple approvers at each level.
Click Submit to create the clause approval request.
Step 5: Start the Approval Workflow
After submission, click Start Approval Workflow.
Level 1 approvers will receive an email with the contract name, clause details, and a direct link to the clause approval page. The email now uses a lavender card-based design with clear contract and clause details and a prominent call-to-action button.
Approvers can then approve or reject each clause.
Sequential Approval Logic
Legistify enforces strict sequential approvals:
Level 1 must complete approvals for all clauses before Level 2 is notified.
Level 2 must complete their approvals before Level 3 is notified.
Each approver can approve a clause with optional comments, or reject it with a mandatory reason. If a clause is rejected, the clause creator is notified by email. The legal user can then edit the clause, update the summary or implication notes, and resubmit. Resubmissions restart the sequence from Level 1.
Email Notifications and Reminders
Approvers receive one consolidated email per contract summarising all clauses pending their action.
The email includes a link to the My Pending Approvals dashboard.
Auto reminders are sent based on the frequency configured in Step 3.
Every reminder email also goes to a configured escalation email address. The subject line includes the reminder count (for example, "2nd Reminder").
Manual reminders can be sent at any time by the clause creator or contract owner.
All clause-related emails — including the approval request, reminder, level completed, workflow completed, and rejection emails — have been updated to a new lavender card-based design. Each email now displays clearer contract and clause details with consistent call-to-action buttons, making it easier for approvers to identify the contract and take action directly from their inbox.
Approver Dashboard: My Pending Approvals
Approvers are directed to the clause approval page when they click the link in the notification email. The page has been redesigned with a cleaner layout — a sidebar on the left lists all pending clauses grouped by contract, and a single-clause detail view on the right shows the full clause text, implications of deviation, and summary. An Open full document link is available to preview the contract inline. Approvers can approve or reject each clause directly on this page using the Approve and Reject buttons, with a rationale field that is mandatory on rejection.
Final Approval and Reporting
Once all clauses are approved across all assigned levels, Legistify automatically generates a Clause Approval Matrix (Excel file) containing:
Clause details
Approvers per level
Approval decisions
Timestamps
This file is downloadable from within the platform and is automatically sent during the e-signing process to company signatories and key stakeholders. An AI-generated Cover Sheet summarising the deviation context is also attached for reference.
After final approval, the Clause Approval Sheet is also emailed to the legal team and the contract requestor.
Audit Trail and Visibility
Legistify maintains full traceability of all actions:
Approvals Tab -- visible to all contract followers, showing the current state of each clause
MIS Timeline -- shows when requests were initiated, approved, rejected, or escalated
Audit Logs -- every user action is timestamped with user identity for compliance purposes
Conclusion
The Clause Deviation Workflow gives legal teams a structured way to handle non-standard clauses without losing visibility or accountability. Sequential approval levels ensure that decisions follow the right order, and the auto-generated approval matrix means there is always a complete record once the process is complete. Reach out to support if you need help configuring approval levels or setting up escalation addresses.