Overview
Contract Signing Approval workflows ensure that contracts are reviewed and authorised before being sent for e-signing. By setting up approval rules on a contract template, you can define who needs to approve the contract for signing, in what order, and under what conditions. This improves compliance and maintains governance across your contract signing process.
How to Access Contract Signing Approval
Click on Settings from the left-hand navigation bar.
On the Settings page, click on Contract Signing Approval.
This opens the Contract Signing Approval list, which shows all existing approval workflows with the following details: Contract Template, Created On, Modified On, Created By, and Actions.
Use the Search by template name bar to quickly find a specific workflow.
Managing Existing Approval Workflows
From the list, you can take the following actions on any existing workflow:
Edit: update the workflow's configuration
Duplicate: create a copy of the workflow to use as a starting point for a new one
Toggle: switch the workflow on or off
Creating a New Approval Workflow
Click the Add E-Sign Approval button at the top right of the page. This opens the Create New Approval Workflow page.
Step 1: Select Contract Template and Type
Select Contract Template: choose the contract template to which this approval workflow will apply
Select Contract Type: choose the relevant contract type
Step 2: Configure the Block E-Signing Setting
Enable the Block E-Signing until Approvals Workflow is completed toggle if you want to prevent the contract from being sent for e-signature until all approvers have given their approval.
Step 3: Configure Approval Workflow Levels
The Approval Workflow Levels section defines the approval hierarchy. Approval requests are sent to users in the order of levels configured.
For each level, configure the following:
All / Either:
All: every approver assigned to this level must approve before the workflow moves forward
Either: any one of the assigned approvers can approve to move the workflow forward
Remind in: set how frequently approvers should be reminded of the pending approval (e.g. 1 Day)
This level can be skipped?: toggle this on if the level can be bypassed when an approver at a higher level has already approved. If off, approvals must follow the defined level order strictly.
Search team members: select the team members who will act as approvers at this level
Document types for this level: specify document types that approvers are required to upload at this level. Enable the Block approval until mandatory docs uploaded toggle to prevent the approval from proceeding until all mandatory documents have been uploaded. Click + Add document type to add the required document types.
Step 4: Add Additional Levels (Optional)
Click Add Level to add more approval levels. Each level can have its own approvers, reminder settings, skip settings, and document requirements.
Step 5: Submit and Activate
Click Submit to save the workflow. Once submitted, return to the Contract Signing Approval list and toggle the workflow On to activate it.
Starting the Approval Workflow
Once a contract is finalised and ready for signing, initiate the approval process directly from the contract page:
Navigate to the relevant contract.
Click on the Approvals tab.
Go to the Esigning Approval Workflow section.
Click Start Approval Workflow. The designated approvers will be notified to review and give their final sign-off before the contract is sent for e-signature.
Conditional Workflow in E-Signing Approval
The e-signing approval workflow supports conditional logic. You can configure conditions based on document type, so that specific approval levels are triggered only when certain contract conditions are met. This allows for more flexible, rule-based approval routing without needing separate workflows for every scenario.
When setting up a workflow level, use the document type conditions to define when that level should apply. Levels without conditions will always be triggered as part of the standard flow.
Approval Workflow Behaviour After Rejection
By default, when a signing approval is rejected at any level and the requestor resubmits it, the workflow resumes from the level at which the rejection occurred.
You can change this behaviour using the Restart Approval From First Level On Reject setting under Org Wise Permission. When enabled for your organisation, a rejected workflow will restart from Level 1 upon resubmission, ensuring all approvers review the latest version of the draft before it proceeds further.
This setting is disabled by default for all organisations. Contact your Legistify account team to have it enabled for your organisation.
Conclusion
Setting up signing approval workflows ensures that no contract is sent for e-signature without the right sign-off in place. Multi-level approvals with document requirements add an additional layer of control for high-value or sensitive agreements. Keeping these workflows active and accurately configured reduces the risk of contracts being signed prematurely or without proper authorisation.