Information and purchase
1. Get started with SmartCon
To start using SmartCon you must first sign-up with your company details (if your company is not known to us).
Once your company is registered, you will then be able to purchase the SmartCon package that suits your company. This can be done from My Account under SmartCon.
If your company is not registered yet, you can sign-up here.
Here is a video on SmartCon
When you have purchased SmartCon (or setup new users) a "Get started" invite will be send from Microsoft by email.
Going through this email will register your login for SmartCon, and after a synchronization period of up to 30 min. you should be ready to create your first contract.
For new users we recommend this training video that will show you the main features of SmartCon in 35 min:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNhrmDxISVY&t=980s
There is a one-time start-up fee when the company first purchase the account. Afterwards there is 2 options available:
- Pay-as-you-go; gives you temporally access that depends on the contract(s) purchased with 1 final included (between 45 and 365 days depending on the type of contract)
- Subscription; gives you access to all documents for 1 year
- Finals will be charged once you reach the amount setup for your company (the default is 100 EUR), this is for subscriptions only. If you don’t reach this amount within 6 months, the system will create an invoice for the amount you have used.
The cost for the different pricing options can be found here:
https://www.bimco.org/contracts-and-clauses/create-a-contract/smartcon/smartcon-information-and-available-contracts
Note: that there is a price for members and non-members
Depending on how your own setup is it may work, however group emails is not recommended nor supported, and for some it doesn’t work with Azure.
Note: We only support setting one user up per login.
The minimum requirements can be viewed at this link:
https://www.bimco.org/contracts-and-clauses/create-a-contract/smartcon/smartcon-access-requirements
Basic use
First login to www.bimco.org and go to My Account and then SmartCon. From here you have 2 options.
- Download the Add-in and start you contract directly from Word. More on this under Add-in.
- Or download your contract from the website, under "SmartCon basic management" select "NEW CONTRACT".
Once you create a new contract you will download it and you need to save it locally on your computer.
Note: Don't save the contract as anything else besides DOCX file. If saved as a DOC or anything else that will corrupt the contract and you will need to start a new contract.
Here is some points to go through 1-by-1 to be able to open a contract (both saved and new):
Here is a support video if you can't open your contracts
1. Make sure that the file is stored locally on your computer and not in the cloud.
2. When you get the permission message, try to press Add Account/Change user and press to add a new (don't press your login that will be shown). Now login with your email and password setup (you may need to try a few times).
3. If the above doesn’t work, then try to install Azure information protection; Azure Information Protection Client
Note: Choose the file AzInfoProtection.exe to install.
Here is a video on how to reset Azure Information Protection (AIP)
4. Check if you can login here: https://login.microsoftonline.com (if you can’t that may be because you need to change/update your password). If you have just changed your password, you will need to login to: https://smartcon.bimco.org/
5. If everything else fails, close all Microsoft programs (including Skype etc.). Open a blank Word document and sign out of Word. Then go to “File” and “Account” and “Sign out” (keep signing out until it ask you to sign-in). Now try to open your SmartCon contract before opening anything else.
Here is a video on how to do the above in number 5
8. How to use OneDrive as storage
If you want to use OneDrive to store your SmartCon contracts, you will need to change one setting for OneDrive.
- Locate and right click the OneDrive icon in the taskbar.
- Select "Settings", and then "Office".
- In "File collaboration" unthick the box "Use Office applications to sync Office files that I open".
Note: This is an information on how to make it work with OneDrive. You might want to check with your IT admin whether it has other implications to your work.
By design the contracts are secured and restricted using Microsoft Azure Information Protection.
If you check under “View Permissions…” you will see that you can’t “Print”, “Copy” and “Export” directly from the contract. For printing and exporting, please check further down under “Send as PDF”. In short you will need to change your Word file to a PDF through SmartCon.
The copy option has been limited to protect our copyright of these documents.
You will also not be able to use Font and Paragraph etc. and we have locked track changes, so you won’t be able to accept and reject changes in the document.
The documents you have in IDEA can’t be transferred directly unfortunately, as the documents are setup differently. However we have made a new feature in IDEA to enable easier conversion to SmartCon.
- From the “Print and email as PDF” in IDEA you will have a new thick box called “Get docx with user added text”.
- If this box is selected and you print a Working copy in IDEA, you will get a non-protected Word file with all your user added text from the clauses part (all the red text).
- This way you should be able to go through your “Working copy” from IDEA and insert all your user text parts into a SmartCon document.
- You can then create a new proforma in SmartCon, that you start to amend for different negotiations using "Save as" function in Word.
UPDATE: For all companies that have purchased SmartCon, we would like to offer your IDEA Document History as a batch solution.
This means that we will provide you with link to a zip file with the complete folder structure and a PDF file for each of your contracts from IDEA. From these PDFs you can copy so you can reuse the text in a SmartCon contract.
We have switched off line numbers, so it wouldn’t confuse anyone. However should you wish to add line numbers in your contract, you can use Words own feature to get them in.
Place your cursor in the clauses section. Then go to “Layout” select “Line Numbers” and then “continuous”. You should now have line numbers in your contract.
Note: These are dynamic line numbers.
Update: We have made some of the older forms with fixed line numbers. If you still prefer the fixed line numbers. Look for the contract version with the words: "fixed line numbers" after the name.
Here is a video about line numbers in SmartCon
You can add your own paragraphs and clause anywhere you want in a contract. The easiest way to do it, is to either use enter or return to make a hard return. Or to use SHIFT+ENTER to only drop to a new line. After one of the above paste in your copied text. We recommend doing it with a right click and then choose the option "Keep text Only (T)", but if you are sure that your copied text doesn't have a lot formatting, you can use CTRL + V directly.
In SmartCon you can both insert pictures and tables. Both is a normal Word feature that can be found under “Insert”. You can also use the newer "Draw" feature in Word (also known as Ink). But it is presented as a Picture, and needs to follow our rules for pictures.
Note: Pictures can only be inline with text, and not overlapping or be in front of text. And the total email with your file when getting the PDF can’t be over 4 MB, then you will need get it from your "Document History" instead.
The header and footer can't be amended. If a change is made to the header or footer, SmartCon will always reject the change and insert the standard header and footer.
The "DRAFT" will be removed from the header when a PDF is created. More on that under "Send as PDF" further down.
You can strikeout text by selecting the text and press backspace or delete. You can’t delete text that includes a content controls (those boxes with green text), you would instead have delete the in front and behind the content control.
If your text seems to be deleted instead of strikeout, it is because you have set your tracking to “Simple Markup”. To change this go to “Review” and then change to “All Markup” under tracking to see your contract with full track changes.
If your text still doesn't appear with track changes, click "Show Markup" and then "Balloons". From here set the option to "Show All Revisions Inline".
Here is a video on track changes in Word
If you want to change the way your tracking is shown. You can do that under the Review option, by selecting the small arrow (change traking options) in the bottom right corner of the “tracking” option.
Then select “Advanced options” and you should be able to change how your inserts and deletions are displayed in Word.
Note: that this is a change within Word on your computer, the Word document might look different for other users, and will look the usual way in the PDFs.
If you have deleted parts of the original text or another user have added some text, you can reverse it back to original text if you have the SmartCon Add-in installed. Mark the text you want to reverse and right click it to choose whether to "Reverse selection now" or "Add to reverse list".
- Option 1: Reverse selection now: will reverse your text immediately and re-open the document.
- Option 2: Add to reverse list: will add a marker in the list revisions/changes, and you can now go to the next part you want to reverse or reverse what you have in the list.
Clicking on one of your markers will show you what will be changed when you do reverse the changes. Double clicking a marker will remove it from the list and it will no longer be reversed with the rest of your changes.
Once ready to reverse there are 2 ways of doing it,
1. When working with versions, click the 3 dots next to "Output file", give it a new name (can be same but with ex. v2) choose the location on your computer and press "Reverse selected changes".
You will now get a new version with all your changes in one go.
2. If you prefer only having one document to work in, thick the box "Reverse to current document" and then press "Reverse selected changes".
This close the document while reversing your changes and then open it again once ready. (If you want to use this second option, you will need version 2.1. or newer of the add-in).
If you have done a lot of formatting changes and you want to reverse it back to the original contract.
Then select the "Reverse document changes" option and go to "Settings" and select to "Include Format Revisions".
Here is a support video on reverse document changes
18. How can I take over the revisions in a document
Open the SmartCon add-in and select the option: "Set document changes author".
Here the add-in will by default select the name your are signed in with. If you choose this option and "Change authors". All revisions in the document will show as if you did them.
Note that this option would also make it easier to delete added text as a user can always delete they own text.
You can also use this feature if you have received a document through the "Exchange" option from another SmartCon company. This way the document will now look like you have done the changes and you can use if for other cases. Or in the event that you have been multiple users working on document, and you want to present the Word file in a nicer way to your counterpart. You can then change the author, either to reflect a specific user or reflect the name of your company if you want the revisions neutral.
With SmartCon we have made it very easy to share a contract with another SmartCon user from another company.
You need to be the Poweruser in a contract security group (more on that further down under "Administrator" and "What is the difference between a Poweruser, a User and a Guest in a CSG").
Login to bimco.org and go to My Account and SmartCon. Under “SmartCon CSG membership management” select the security group and select “ADD GUEST”.
If you enter an email from another user and set an end date (we don’t recommend more than a month, but you can set it to what you want), the system will tell you whether it is SmartCon login email you have entered. Once added, the guest can open and edit the documents of that security group, within a synchronization period of up to , however the guest will only see the documents you send/share with them.
20. How to exchange a contract with another SmartCon company
If your company are the owner of a contract (the one that created it from the website or add-in). You can transfer the ownership of a contract to another SmartCon company by using our "Exchange" feature. Under the Basic Management select "EXCHANGE", type in the login email of a user from the other company, and upload the contract file.
Once done this user (and only this user), will be able to approve the transfer from the "EXCHANGE" option, by adding the contract to a security group from their company. This copy and any saved as versions in the future will no belong under the new company. Where any previous version before the upload will still belong under the original owner of the contract.
21. How can I see the difference between 2 versions of the same contract
When sharing a document with colleagues or other SmartCon companies, you will get more versions of the same document. The compare function will make it easier to see the difference between 2 versions of the contract.
- First open the earliest version of the contract.
- Then select the “Compare to other SmartCon document” option from the Add-in.
- Now click the dots and find your second SmartCon file.
- Lastly give the compare a name and location.
You should now get a PDF that will only show you the difference between the 2 versions. Note that the compared PDF will not compare to the original document, only the difference between the 2 files.
Company templates
If you always start by changing the same text in your contract, you can setup a company template. This way all users within the company can start with the same pre-amended contract.
In order to create a company template, first open a new blank version of the contract you want to use. The make all the standard amendments that should be part of the template.
Afterwards login to bimco.org and go to My Account and then SmartCon. From under the SmartCon Basic Management, select Company templates and upload your contract(s).
The contract(s) should afterwards be available from the website or the add-in under the option to create new contract.
Company clauses
If you have your own clauses within your company, that you would like to make available to all users, here is how.
After login go to My Account and then SmartCon. Under SmartCon Basic Management select "Clauses".
Here is a list with all our stand alone clauses that you can also add to a contract. But if you scroll to the bottom, you will find an option to "Add New".
Type/paste in your header and clause text, and press create clause.
Now all users should be able to find it under the clause option on the website and through the SmartCon add-in.
In the Word format the function to print has been disabled, however to get a contract printed. You can send a contract as a PDF, and the PDF copies can be printed out on paper via your own printer. See how to send a contract as a PDF.
Send as PDF
Here is a video on how to send a contract as a PDF
When you are ready to send a contract for someone to view outside of the CSG (see under Contract Security Group). You can send a PDF copy. This can be done in places.
- Through the add-in for Word which can be download from My Account under SmartCon.
- Through the website, can be done same place as mentioned above.
You can use one of the two following options:
- Working Copy - the free of charge copy to be used for everything else besides the signature copy.
- Final - when you have done the deal and you are ready for the signature. This is the copy without the watermark and the one you will be charged for later.
25. PDF options
When you create a PDF you will get some options on how to present the PDF.
These are options available in both the working copy and final:
- Placement of revision bars; is the vertical line on the left hand side, that will be displayed for all lines with an amendment.
- Inserted text effect; is how you want to display your added text. The options are underline or bold and text added in the fill in boxes will always appear in bold black text.
- Add your own PDF at the end of the contract; This is simply an option to add your own PDF at the back end of the contract (max file size is 8 MB).
However if the combined PDF exceeds 4 MB we won't be able to send it via email, and you will need to get it from the "Document History" option. This option can be found in the add-in or through bimco.org under My Account and SmartCon, from the SmartCon Basic Management.
For the Finals we have 2 more options available.
- Tracked changes color; This is an option to get all text in black only. Please note that the inserted text will be underlined or bold, and deleted text will have a line through. But you won’t have the red and blue colors.
- External reference; is where you can add a ship/vessel name or client name or number, so you know what the final relates to when you get your invoices. This option can be set to mandatory by your company administrator. This is done from the SmartCon option at bimco.org, under Admin Management and then Settings.
Note: The invoice breakdown for usage invoices can be found from My Account under Invoices and then click the invoice number.
Subscription:
If you can’t produce any Finals it is likely because there is an overdue invoice, or you are still on the trial version.
Check under My Account and Invoices to make sure everything related to SmartCon has been paid.
Settling your invoices with a VISA or MasterCard, in the invoices section, will enable you to produce more Finals automatically within five minutes.
Pay-as-you-go:
1. If your time has expired, go to My Account and check under SmartCon. The only option should be to purchase another final of the wanted contract.
2. If the access hasn't run out. You can purchase more finals from My Account and then SmartCon.
- From here select "Admin Management" and then "Administration".
- Select the profile and choose whether to buy additional finals for a selected user, or to buy a new user with a final.
Clause reduction is an option to reduce some of the most standard BIMCO clauses to only include the header of the clause in the PDF. The clauses ticked will only show with the header.
SmartCon Add-in
Here is a video about the SmartCon Add-in
The add-in can be downloaded at www.bimco.org from My Account, under SmartCon.
After installation, open Word and go to “Add-ins” and select “Reload SmartCon add-in to open and use of the features of the add-in.
Since the add-in is one of the core features from SmartCon, you will also need to update the add-in occasionally. Just like when you downloaded it, you will also be able to update it to get the latest features. The add-in should have the “Update” available in the top if there is a new version.
Apart from the reverse document changes feature, you don’t need the Add-in to use SmartCon, however the Add-in is what makes SmartCon fast and easy to use, as you can almost do everything directly from within Word.
The following features are available from a SmartCon document (some features like Create new contract, are also available from a blank Word document):
- Create new contract; from this option choose your security group and select the contract to start a completely new contract.
Note: Needs to be stored locally on your computer and saved as a DOCX file. If saved as anything else the file will be corrupted and you will need to start a new contract.
Administrator
- Administrator is a user that can change and control other users and Contract Security Groups.
- Normal is what it says, a normal user that can work within SmartCon, but can’t change or control anything besides the contracts.
- Limited is a user that can’t use SmartCon at bimco.org nor use the SmartCon add-in. This user can only amend a contract received, and it is how Guest users are setup.
A Contract Security Group or CSG is the security layer that prevents others not in the specific CSG from opening a contract from that CSG.
Here is a video about contract security groups
- Poweruser is a user that can add other users to the CSG, but can’t change the CSG itself.
- Users can’t do anything administrative within a CSG, only work and use the contracts within that group.
- Guest is an invited user from another company, they can only receive and edit files. They can't use bimco.org and the Add-in on your behalf.
First you need to create a website login, this is done from My Account under “Staff details”.
- Then go to “SmartCon” and select “Admin management”.
- Under Administration select the company profile (most likely only a Default one).
- Select one of the users created in Staff details, and assign a Role to the user (see roles above).
- The last thing to do is to assign the new user(s) to one or more Contract Security Groups and select their role in the group (see Poweruser and Users above).
Note: The user will automatically be put in the Default security group once the user has been through the "Get Started" email from Microsoft.
Here is a video on how to setup new users
In order to delete or change a SmartCon user, login to the website and go to My Account and then SmartCon.
- From here select Admin Management (you need to an administrator to have this option), and then select USERS.
- Choose the user, and press DELETE. Within 10 min. the user will be removed.
- If you want to add another user afterwards, go to the number above this.
If you have purchased the Guest user package, you will have a set of 3 Guest users and they are connected to 1 specific CSG each. The users themselves work like a Limited user (see under “Roles”).
Before use the administrator has to follow 3 steps.
1. Setup/change the password for the Guest user login you want to use. This is done from My Account, under SmartCon and then Admin Management. From here select "USERS" and select the specific Guest user to set a password
2. Put the normal user that needs work with it, in that guest user contract security group (if not there already). This is done under SmartCon CSG membership management, and then select the specific group and add the user.
3. Reprotect the specific document to that security group. This is done under SmartCon Basic management and then REPROTECT.
You should now be able to send the Word file to your counterpart together with the guest login and password.
38. SmartCon Storage
This feature will be enabled by request for each company. SmartCon Storage offers a location (in our Azure Cloud storage) for any company to store their SmartCon contracts, so all users can access each other’s contracts.
If you want this feature enabled please send your request in an email to smartcon@bimco.org and we will enable it for your company.
How it works from a NEW contract:
When you create a completely new contract, you will have the option to store locally or in SmartCon storage. If you choose SmartCon storage, you need to give it name and select a storage folder.
How it works from another SmartCon Storage file:
When you want to start a new contract based on one of your saved contracts from SmartCon Storage. Then Select SmartCon Storage from the add-in and click “Browse / Admin”.
From here you will find 2 or 3 options (last option is for admins only).
- My Files is the tap you can see all the contracts that you have a version in your name.
- Browse Files is the tap where you can see all folders and documents from the other users within your company.
In order to reuse a file to start a new one, first find the file.
- If it is one of you own files select the file and press “Save as” and give it a new name.
- If it is another users file, either click the name of the file or double click anywhere on the line for that file. Now choose the option “Save version as new file” and give it a name.
IMPORTANT to note when using SmartCon Storage:
- The user will always make a local copy when editing a SmartCon file through the Storage option. This is needed as it doesn’t work directly in the Cloud. If more users works with the same contract they will save their individual version under a specific contract. The reason for this, is to prevent 2 users from working in the same document, at the same time, and continue to overwrite the file done by the other user.
Therefor, if you are working on the same contract, make sure that you always start from the latest amended version. This will become your version of this contract and have the latest amendments in it. When you then save it to storage and leave it, a colleague can then take your version and make it their own, and it will have your latest changes.
- AUTOSAVE; when you have a document open, you can always see the status if you go to the SmartCon Storage option through the add-in. If the autosave option is not ticked and the colour is orange, you will not save directly to Storage upon saving through Words saving features (CTRL + S and the save icon in the top left corner).
However if you enable “Autosave” the colour will turn green and every time you save through Words save options, it will automatically save to the SmartCon Storage file as well.
39. How to login to Hosted SmartCon
Hosted SmartCon is for those that either don’t have the minimum requirements to use SmartCon in the regular way, have strict security that you can't or won't change or if you are using a Mac and want to benefit from the same features as a Windows user. With Hosted SmartCon we account for everything, so the only thing you need is to allow access and have an up to date web browser like Google Chrome, Internet Explorer etc.
For Hosted SmartCon we will have to setup a login from our end. This will be with initials.Registrationnumber@bimcosmartcon.org.
First you need to login to bimco.org using the SmartCon option in the bottom right corner of the login or register page, using this new created credentials.
After login to bimco.org, then go to My Account and select SmartCon.
From here click on the “LAUNCH HOSTED SMARTCON” button. You will be asked to login twice (once for the remote session and one for SmartCon).
The very first time they will also be asked to sign in to Office.
All 3 should be done using the SmartCon credentials.
Once in SmartCon, the SmartCon Storage will appear, and if you have saved a contract, you can open it from here.
The first time you would need to create a new contract, so close down the Storage option go to the SmartCon pane on the right hand side.
From here select “New Contract” and find the contract you need.
When the contract is open you can start to edit it. And all the options you should need can be found in the SmartCon pane on the right hand side.
