Rounds and Finalization

A negotiation is rarely one pass. You send a marked-up draft, the counterparty sends one back, and a few exchanges later you need to know what changed at each step and which version is current. The Rounds tab in the Word plugin records each exchange against the contract so that history is kept for you, and the Finalize action closes the negotiation once everyone has agreed.

This guide covers recording a sent or received round, acknowledging the changes the plugin detects between rounds, and finalizing (and undoing finalization) from Word.

Rounds live on a playbook contract you have already linked or created in the plugin. A couple of conditions gate the Rounds tab:

• Confirm the playbook first. A brand-new contract that has not been initialized shows “You have to confirm the playbook before creating a round.” Open the Playbook tab and confirm the playbook before the New round button becomes available.
• An active contract. Rounds cannot be created on a contract that has been aborted or terminated. A terminated contract shows “This contract has been terminated” instead of the round actions.

If you have not signed in to the plugin yet, do that first. See Signing in to Pactly for credentials, SSO, and access.

Every round records one direction of the exchange. You choose the direction when you create the round:

Recording the direction keeps the back-and-forth in order on the contract record. The plugin also uses it to compare versions: it checks the current document against the last sent round and flags any positions whose clauses changed, so you can see what moved.

1. Open the contract in the Word plugin and go to the Rounds tab.
2. Click New round.
3. Set Round direction to I am sending this draft or I have received this draft.
4. Choose the Sender / Recipient. Pick External party for the counterparty, or the relevant internal group if your organization has more than one.
5. Set the Date the draft was sent or received. The date defaults to today and cannot be set in the future.
6. Click Create.

The new round appears at the bottom of the round list with its direction label (Sent or Received) and date. You can edit a round’s date later by clicking it in the list.

If you reopen a contract and the document differs from the last sent round, the plugin shows a notice at the top of the panel: “Looks like content has changed from the last sent round, is this a new version of the contract? If so please set a new received round for it.”

This is the prompt to record a received round, the version that just came back to you. Click New round and record it as received. If the change was something you do not want to track as a new round, click Hide to dismiss the notice.

Once a contract has two or more rounds, the review switches from a one-position-at-a-time questionnaire into a comparison view. Positions whose clauses changed since the previous round are flagged so you can focus only on what moved instead of re-reading the whole contract.

A flagged position carries a Changes detected marker. Open the position and, on its Evidence tab, you will see “There have been changes in the clause(s) from this position” with an Acknowledge button.

1. Open a position marked Changes detected.
2. Read the changed clause text under the position’s evidence.
3. Click Acknowledge to confirm you have reviewed the change.

Acknowledged positions switch to “All changes have been acknowledged” and show a confirmation icon in the list. If you acknowledge something by mistake, click Undo in the same place to mark it as unreviewed again.

Acknowledging only tracks review. It does not edit the document or change a compliance status, so the next reviewer can skip clauses you have already cleared.

When all parties, internal and external, have agreed on the draft, finalize it. Finalizing records the agreed document as the final round and moves the contract forward out of negotiation.

1. On the Rounds tab, click Finalize.
2. Read the confirmation: “You will not be able to make further changes after a document has been finalized. You should only proceed if all parties (internal and external) have agreed to this draft.”
3. Click Confirm.

The plugin uploads the current Word document as the final version and the panel shows “This contract has been finalized.”

If you finalized too early or the deal reopens, you can undo it from the same tab while the contract is still finalized.

1. On the Rounds tab of a finalized contract, click Undo.
2. Confirm in the Undo Finalization dialog. It explains that this removes the final round, resets the finalization date, and moves the contract back to its negotiation status.

The contract returns to negotiation and you can create rounds and edit again.

• Pactly Word Plugin overview
• Running a playbook review
• Link a document to a contract
• Signing in to Pactly