Background
A review is your chance to check a document before it goes any further. You can read it, mark it up, ask Plexus AI to redline it for you, compare it against earlier versions, and then send it on or send it back.
When a review happens
A document can land with you at one of two points:
On upload, if the document's workflow includes a review stage.
Later in the workflow, if someone in the approve or sign stage has asked for a change and sent the document back for review.
Who reviews a document
Reviewers are set in the platform through your user roles or delegation rules. There are two kinds:
Default reviewers: anyone with the Reviewer role on their account.
Assigned reviewers: someone put on the review stage specifically, through a delegation rule or an edit to the workflow.
Starting your review
When a document is ready for you, an email lands in your inbox. Click Review in that email to jump straight in, or open the file from Recent notifications on your dashboard.
Step 1. From the workflow timeline, click Mark in review.
This tells the document's author you've picked it up, and timestamps the workflow with the date and time. From here, read the document in the preview pane below the Review workflow tile, and start marking it up.
Redlining with Plexus AI
If your organisation has Word Online and AI features turned on, you'll see a Redline option the moment you mark the document in review. It's the fastest way through a review.
Plexus reads the full contract, weighs it against the precedents in your company Knowledge, and comes back with suggested changes. Each one arrives as a card showing the current wording, the proposed wording, and the reason behind it. You then:
Accept a suggestion to apply it as a tracked change.
Reject it to discard it.
Refine it with a short instruction, such as "two months only", if it's close but not quite there.
Nothing touches the document until you accept it, and your pending suggestions stay private to you until you do. Once accepted, they behave like any other tracked change, so your colleagues can see and consolidate them as normal.
You can also skip the full review and just ask a question about the document, highlight a section for a targeted redline, or drop in a comment.
For the full walkthrough, including first-time setup, see reviewing and redlining your document with Plexus AI.
Editing the document yourself
Prefer to make the changes by hand? Click Edit document and work through your changes in Plexus. You may also need to accept or reject tracked changes from other collaborators.
For more on the Word Online editor, see editing a document in Microsoft Word Online.
Reviewing outside the platform
Working offline, or just more comfortable in Word Desktop? Click Download to save the file to your device.
The Plexus for Word add-in brings Review & Redline into Word Desktop, so you get the same AI suggestions without leaving the app you're already in. Open the Review & Redline panel to get started. You can also use whichever editor you prefer.
When you're done, upload the amended file as a new version as part of your review.
Comparing versions
As changes stack up, you can put any two versions side by side. Tick the checkboxes against the two versions you want and click Run comparison.
Viewing previous versions
Pick an earlier version from the Version dropdown to view it temporarily.
Adding comments
Leave a note for the rest of the team in the comments section of the activity feed.
Comments marked internal are hidden from counterparties, whilst External makes those same comments visible to the other party.
Finishing your review
When you're happy, Accept or Decline the document.
Either way, you can add a comment to the activity feed with your response. The nominated owner and the author will both be notified.
Unresolved tracked changes won't stop you moving the document to an approval stage.
If the next stage is sign, you'll be prompted to resolve them first so the document is clean and ready.
What happens next
Accept and the document moves to the next stage in the workflow timeline.
Decline and the owner and author are notified. They can restart the workflow and Send for review again once the changes are made.
Questions about the review stage of your workflow? Chat with us in the live chat or email [email protected].