Getting started:
1. Get started with SmartCon
2. How does the pricing work for SmartCon
3. What is the cost for SmartCon
4. Can we setup group emails as our login
5. What are the minimum requirements for SmartCon
How to use SmartCon:
6. How to create a contract
7. I can't open contracts
8. How to use OneDrive as storage
9. Why are my permissions restricted
10. How to convert an IDEA contract to a SmartCon contract
11. How to get line numbers in a contract
12. How to insert clauses in a contract
13. Can I insert pictures or tables
14. Header and Footer
15. How can I strikeout or delete text
16. How to change your tracking display in Word
17. How to reverse deleted text
18. How can I take over the revisions in a document
19. How to share a SmartCon contract
20. How to exchange a contract with another SmartCon company
21. How can I see the difference between 2 versions of the same contract
22. How to create a company template or company clause
23. How to print a copy of your contract
Send contract as PDF:
24. How to send a contract as a PDF
25. PDF options
26. I can’t produce any Finals
27. What is clause reduction
SmartCon add-in:
28. How to get the Add-in
29. How to update the Add-in
30. Do I need the Add-in
31. Features of the Add-in
Admin management:
32. What do the different “Roles” mean to a user
33. What is Contract Security Group (CSG)
34. What is the difference between a Poweruser, a User and a Guest in a CSG
35. How to setup more users from my company
36. How to delete/change users for SmartCon
37. Administrator "Settings"
38. Administrator "Statistics"
Storage and Hosted SmartCon:
39. SmartCon StorageElectronic signature
41. How to connect your DocuSign acocunt
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.
This short video is to all new users of SmartCon (not Hosted SmartCon).
It contains only the most important features required to create a contract:
https://youtu.be/hCdP0h8OaaE
There is a one-time start-up fee when the company first purchase the account. Afterwards there is 2 options available:
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
First login to www.bimco.org and go to My Account and then SmartCon. From here you have 2 options.
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 (not in the cloud or on a shared drive like OneDrive, Dropbox etc.).
2. Make sure that you are using the correct password.
a) If your login for SmartCon is connected to your own email, the password is your own Microsoft password (the password most uses to open their computer).
b) If you have been setup with a login from our end; yourinitials.registrationnumber@bimcosmartcon.org, the password is setup by us and is changed every 3 month.
3. There are 2 types of permission messages users normally get;
a) If the first option is "Change user", Click this option. If you then see your login don't click, but instead add an account in the bottom and manually sign in. Note: If it just loops back to "Change user", try a few times. If you still don't get in, it is most likely because you have more identities in Word. Go to "File" and then "Account" and sign out of all of them, and then try to open the contract again.
b) If the first option is "Add account", this is most likely because there is a firewall or antivirus program blocking the access to SmartCon. Please show point 2 from our access requirements to your IT admin.
3. If the above doesn’t work, then try to install Azure information protection; Azure Information Protection Client
Note: Choose the file AzInfoProtection.exe.
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/
Note: If you get the message that your account is locked, Please check whether there is unsettled invoice from here: https://www.bimco.org/my-account/invoices
If you want to use OneDrive to store your SmartCon contracts, you will need to change one setting for OneDrive.
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.
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.
For SmartCon documents with fixed line number, if you don’t want to strikethrough the line numbers during text deletion, you can delete text line by line with line numbers untouched.
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
Note: For SmartCon documents with fixed line number, if you don’t want to strikethrough the line numbers during text deletion, you can delete text line by line with line numbers untouched.
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".
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".
Open the SmartCon add-in and select the option: "Set document changes author".
Please enter the display name of the author that should be listed as the author of all revisions in the document. Please note that for Word to allow deleting inserted text using backspace or delete, the author name must match the exact display-name of the signed in Office account. This can be reviewed in the top right corner of Word or under file/account/user information.Imf 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.
This video will show how the set document changes author works.
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 20 min., however the guest will only see the documents you send/share with them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You can use one of the two following options:
If you don't receive your PDF in an email within 10 min. please download it from your Document History, either from the add-in or the website under My Account and SmartCon.
Note: If you get the error “The following errors are preventing your document from being finalized: You document has fewer sections,” it could have been caused by accidentally deleting section breaks in the document. Please send this document to smartcon@bimco.org or start a new contract.
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:
For the Finals we have 2 more options available.
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 is to purchase more months.
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 the type of contract and number of finals and go to shop and purchase.
Note: You will be able to check the final(s) if any by pressing “Show remaining finals”.
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.
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):
Finals; is the done contract you will charged for.
Working copies; are for review and feedback and are always free of charge.
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".
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
First you need to create a website login, this is done from My Account under “Staff details”.
Here is a video on how to setup users
In order to delete or change a SmartCon user, login to the website and go to My Account and then SmartCon.
The same video applies as for the above point.
In the "Statistics" tap the administrator of a SmartCon account can see all the users and which version of the add-in they have installed.
Note: that we always recommend to have the latest add-in installed, and update when the you see the "update" option in the SmartCon add-in.
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.
This video will explain how to save to SmartCon storage and make use of it.
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.
Hosted SmartCon users always work with SmartCon Storage as they work on our servers. However if you have a mix of Hosted and regular SmartCon users, they can still work together. But the regular users will have to use the SmartCon Storage in order to do this.
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.
Here is a video on how to login to your Hosted SmartCon account. Both the first time and in general.
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The first thing you need is to have a DocuSign account. This is setup between your company and DocuSign and has nothing to do with SmartCon or BIMCO.
Once you have a DocuSign account, there are 2 ways of connecting with your SmartCon account.
1. If you are setup as a single user, you are by default the admin, and we need to know your "User ID". Once you have logged in to your DocuSign account, go to "Admin" and then "API and Keys" to find your User ID, and send it to us.
2. If your company have an enterprise account with DocuSign, you will need to contact your DocuSign admin and get your “API username”. This can be found under “Users and Groups” and then the “Users” option.
Once we have the needed information, we will connect your DocuSign User ID to your SmartCon account and we will send back a consent link that you need to go through and accept. So you can start the DocuSign process directly from SmartCon.
Here is a video on how SmartCon works with DocuSign:
https://youtu.be/EnzXuLr0Vuc
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