Paper contracts create a 50-year legal retention nightmare — HR documents (employment contracts, amendments, addendums, DPAE) carry a 50-year retention obligation under French labor law, and paper folders rot in basements, get lost in moves, and cannot be retrieved within the 30-day legal deadline during a labor inspection. 25% of paper-stored contracts cannot be retrieved on time, and unsigned amendments create disputes that can cost 6 months of salary in damages.

The drafting angle is also painful: each amendment is re-typed from a Word template, the manager approves by email, and the employee signature is chased on paper — a 2-week cycle per document.

The HR document is created from a structured form with exact fields: document_type (select: Employment-contract/Amendment/Addendum/DPAE/End-of-contract), employee_id (lookup, auto-fills employee data), contract_reference (text, auto-generated), effective_date (date), clauses (array of {clause_code, clause_text}), salary_amount (number, for salary amendments), job_title (text), work_location (select), weekly_hours (number), signature_order (select: Employee-first/Employer-first/Parallel), retention_years (number, default 50).

The workflow is structured as a decision tree with 2 branches (simple-contract, complex-amendment) after Step 2, and 7 steps end-to-end. Every action is appended to the timeline_hrdoc audit subtable.

• Step 1 (Start — HR or manager): HR or the manager creates the document from a template with document_type and employee_id; the AI copilot pre-fills employee data, clauses and conditions from the HRIS.

• Step 2 (Routing): if document_type is Employment-contract or DPAE, route to the simple-contract branch (manager validation then signature). If document_type is Amendment or Addendum with clauses or salary_amount changes, route to the complex-amendment branch (HR legal review + manager validation + signature).

• Step 3 (Manager validation): the workflow routes the draft to the manager and HR for validation; the AI copilot flags missing clauses or policy inconsistencies.

• Step 4 (email — eIDAS signature request): the validated document is sent to the employee for eIDAS-qualified electronic signature via email; the workflow tracks signature status and sends reminder emails. Sub-branch: if signature not returned within 5 business days, escalation email to HR.

• Step 5 (Counter-signature): the legal representative counter-signs; the workflow records the full signature chain with timestamps.

• Step 6 (usePDF — contract): the signed document is finalized as an immutable PDF via usePDF with the signature evidence embedded.

• Step 7 (useArchive — encrypted 50yr): the PDF is archived encrypted via useArchive for retention_years (default 50), attached to the employee record and searchable by employee_id, document_type, effective_date.

Organizations deploying Utilyx HR document management achieve 100% retrieval within the 30-day legal deadline, cut the document cycle from 2 weeks to 2 days, and eliminate unsigned-amendment disputes thanks to the eIDAS signature chain.

The 50-year encrypted archiving via useArchive covers the full French labor-law retention obligation without manual filing, and the no-code visual designer lets HR adjust templates, validation chains and retention rules without developers.