Plexus is a Contract Management platform that is trusted globally by teams of all sizes.
If you have received a request to approve or sign a document using our eSignature platform, and you do not have an account, you will use the Counterparty Portal for viewing documents.
We have a collection of articles to help you through the process:
Top tip! If a document has been signed by another party, you will be able to preview those signatures in DocuSign once clicking Sign.
Accessing a document as an external party
As a contracting party without a Plexus account, you will receive an email with a link to access the document. This link will become your single point of access to the document in Plexus!
Click the link in the email to open a secure portal to view the document and collaborate with the other party in real time.
Documents to approve or sign
Where multiple documents have been sent as part of a signing pack, you can click to view the different files before approving or signing.
Adding comments
You can also Add comments to facilitate discussions with the other party. You will be notified of any new comments and any replies via email.
Other actions: Editing the document in our default editor
For files with an editable format, you will have the option to Edit the document. If you would like to request changes, click Other actions. If your screen shows a button to Edit document, then keep reading for more details.
Alternatively, if your screen shows a button to Edit in Microsoft Word for Web, then click here to continue reading at a later point in this guide.
Your editing screen will open in a new tab. Any edits made on this screen will be automatically tracked.
If the other party has made changes on the document, you will be able to accept or reject them. To accept the other party's changes, navigate to a specific tracked change and click the tick / cross icon.
You can also use the pop up box to toggle between different changes cited on the document. Click the Accept or Reject buttons to resolve changes in bulk.
Quick tip! You will not be able to accept your own tracked changes with our default editor.
Once you are finished making changes to the document, Close the tab to save your changes. The other party will be notified of your edits via email.
You will be unable to Approve or Sign the document until any tracked changes are accepted internally.
Other actions: Editing the document in Microsoft Word for Web
If the organisation that you are contracting with uses Microsoft Word for Web, you will see a button to Edit in Microsoft Word for Web.
Your editing screen will open in a new tab. Please click into Reviewing mode to create tracked changes on your document.
If a document has been sent to you with tracked changes, you will have the option to approve or reject the changes. Hover over a redlined change and Click to view suggestions.
Click the Tick to accept your change. The change will turn green and consolidate within the document as regular text.
Alternatively, click the Cross to reject your change. The change will be striked out and removed from the document.
Top tip! To verify that your changes have successfully saved, check that the right hand corner of the screen says Saved to Plexus.
Warning! If the top left hand corner says Saving... please wait as closing the window pre-maturely may result in a loss of your latest edits.
Once the changes are saved, you may close the tab to finish editing and to return to the previous screen. The other party will be notified of your edits via email.
Other actions: Uploading an amended document
From the Other actions menu, you can upload a new version of the document from your computer. The other party will be notified of this change via email.
Switching versions
From the bottom of the screen, you can toggle between the different versions of work that have been shared with you.
Comparing documents
From the bottom of the screen, you can Compare versions of documents side by side by selecting two available versions to view. This functionality is only available for the versions of work that are shared with you.
Any text that's removed from a previous version will show in red, whilst any additions to the new version are shown in green.
Click Back to document at the bottom of the screen to return to the counterparty portal after comparing versions.
Actioning the document as an external party
Approve
If the document has been sent to you during the approve stage of a workflow, then you can click the green button to Approve the document, provided that there are no tracked changes on the file.
Decline
From the Other actions menu, you can also Decline to approve or sign the document. For the signing stage, it is recommended that you Discuss terms first. Declining a request will send an automatic email notification to the other party.
Sign
If the document has been sent during the signing stage of a workflow, you can click the green button to Sign the document, provided that there are no tracked changes on the file.
Clicking Sign sends the document through to DocuSign for e-signature. If you would prefer to wet-sign the document, please click Sign then follow these steps.
You can find more information on digitally signing work via DocuSign here.
For any questions, get in touch with our team via the live chat or e-mail [email protected]