Customer Contracts

Initiates the provision of contract services. You can modify the contract activation date in the Activate Contract dialog box, which opens. By default, the activation date is the date specified in the Activation Date box on the Summary tab (Contract Settings section). When the operation has completed successfully, the contract is assigned the Active status and an invoice is generated for contract items that have a prepaid recurring price specified. (The recurring price is billed in proportion to the services to be used.)

This button and command are available if the contract has the Pending Activation status. The status is assigned to a new contract when you click Set Up Contract.

Initiates the provision of contract services according to the new settings that you have specified when the contract status was Pending Upgrade. For details, see Contract Management: Contract Upgrade Process.

This button and command are available if the contract has the Pending Upgrade status.

Navigates to the Contract Usage (CT303000) form so that you can view the usage of the contract.

This command is available if the contract has the Active status.

Initiates contract renewal according to the type of the contract. For details, see Contract Management: Contract Renewal.

This button and command are available if the contract has the Active or Expired status.

Initiates the billing process for the contract according to the billing schedule. After the operation has completed, you can view and further process the generated invoice on the AR History tab of the current form.

This button and command are available if the contract has the Active or Pending Upgrade status. The Active status is assigned to a contract when you click Activate Contract or Set Up and Activate Contract. The Pending Upgrade status is assigned to a contract when you click Upgrade Contract.

Initiates contract setup and service provision on the same date. You can modify the contract setup and activation date in the Activate Contract dialog box, which opens. By default, this date is the date specified in the Activation Date box on the Summary tab (Contract Settings section).

This command is available if the contract has the Draft status. This status is assigned by default when you create a new contract.

Initiates contract setup. You can modify the contract setup date in the Activate Contract dialog box, which opens. By default, the contract setup date is the date specified in the Setup Date box on the Summary tab of this form (Contract Settings section). When the operation has completed successfully, the contract is assigned the Pending Activation status and an invoice is generated for the contract items that have a setup price specified.

This button and command are available if the contract has the Draft status. The status is assigned by default when you create a new contract.

Cancels the contract (the contract status is changed to Canceled); no services will be provided.

This command is available if the contract has the Active or Expired status.

Initiates the contract upgrade. The contract is given the Pending Upgrade status and contract details can be edited. If you run contract billing for these contracts, it is performed according to the settings of the previous contract.

This command is available if the contract has the Active status.

The unique identifier of a contract, which is specified in accordance with the configuration of the CONTRACT segmented key. The CONTRACT segmented key inherits its structure from the PROJECT segmented key.

You can select a contract of a customer whose settings permit the use of the branch, company, or a company group that contains the branch to which the user's role is assigned—that is, the Restrict Visibility To box on the Financial tab of the Customers (AR303000) form contains this branch, company, company group, or the box is empty.

The status of the contract.

The status can be one of the following:

• Draft: The contract has not been activated and cannot yet be used.
• Pending Activation: The contract is set up and needs to be activated so that you can start providing services and initiate recurring billing (if required).
• Active: The contract is activated and should be used as the basis for billing.
• Expired: The contract has expired and can be renewed within the grace period.
• Canceled: The contract has been canceled and is no longer used.
• Pending Upgrade: The contract is being prepared for upgrade and can be edited and billed. Contract billing is performed according to the settings of the previous contract.

The customer associated with the contract.

The description of the contract, which includes any related comments. By default, the system inserts the description specified for the selected template.

The contract setup date.

For contracts with the Draft status, in this box, you select the setup date, which will be displayed by default and can be changed in the Activate Contract dialog box (which opens when you click the Set Up Contract action). This box is read-only after the contract has been set up.

The contract activation date.

For contracts with the Draft or Pending Activation status, you use this box to select the date, which will be displayed by default and can be changed in the Activate Contract dialog box (which opens when you click the Activate Contract action). This box is read-only after the contract has been activated.

The period of time (in days) after the expiration date when the renewable contract can be renewed.

After the end of the grace period, when you click the Renew Contract button or command, you can only create a copy of this contract with the Draft status (that is, you cannot renew the same contract).

The currency to be used for contract billing.

This box appears on the form if the Multicurrency Accounting feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form. You can select a currency from the list of foreign currencies defined in the system. These currencies have the Active and Use for Accounting check boxes selected on the Currencies (CM202000) form.

If the Multiple Base Currencies feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form, you can change the currency for the selected contract if no contract item has been added in the table on the Details tab of the current form. You cannot change the currency for the selected contract if this currency differs from the currency of the contract items specified for the contract in the Item Code column of the table on the Details tab.

The type of billing schedule.

The type can be one of the following: Week, Month, Quarter, Half a Year, Year, Statement-Based, or On Demand.

The invoice date is calculated based on the selected option and the date when the billing schedule is started. The On Demand option means that billing is not scheduled and you can bill the contract on any date. The option cannot be used with contract items that have recurring pricing configured, except for items that are tied up with a deposit item or have a default quantity of zero. For details on deposit contract items, see Implementing the Contract Functionality: Deposit Contracts.

The setting that defines the customer account to be billed for a contract.

The following options are available:

• Parent Account: The account to be billed is the parent account of the customer account specified in the Customer box of the Summary area of this form.
• Customer Account: The account to be billed is the account specified in the Customer box of the Summary area.
• Specific Account: The account to be billed is the account specified in the Account box of the current section.

The specific account that is to be billed for contract services. This box is available only if the Specific Account option is selected in the Bill To box.

If the Multiple Base Currencies feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form, you can select a bill-to customer with the base currency different from the base currency of the contract customer if there is no contract usage recorded for this contract under the branch to which the contract customer is restricted.

A read-only box that specifies the shipping branch of the contract.

This value is copied from the customer's default branch specified in the Default Branch box on the Shipping tab of the Customers form.

The formula to be used to generate the description for each invoice based on this contract. These invoices are generated when a user viewing the contract clicks the appropriate commands on the Actions menu on the form toolbar of the current form.

The description specified in this box is inserted into the Description box of the Summary area of the Invoices and Memos (AR301000) form.

By default, this box contains the formula specified on the Contract Templates (CT202000) form for the contract template this contract is based on, which is specified in the Contract Template box in the Summary area of the current form.

This box is available (and you can override the invoice description formula that was specified for the contract template) only if the Enable Overriding Formulas in Contracts option is selected on the Contract Templates form for the contract template this contract is based on.

If you can override the formula specified for the template, to change the formula, click the magnifier icon to open the Formula Editor window. In the window that opens, you can use any of the following entities and values to define the specific formula for the selected contract:

• The following parameters:
  • ActionInvoice
    • Contract Activation
    • Contract Setup
    • Contract Upgrade
    • Contract Billing
    • Contract Renewal
    • Contract Termination
    • Activate/Renew
    • Setup
    • Setup Upgrade
    • Upgrade Activation
• All standard operations
• All standard functions (see Functions for details on the available functions)
• The following objects:
  • Contract
  • ContractTemplate
  • Customer
  • Location
  • ContractBillingSchedule
  • AccessInfo

The system generates the description in the language associated with the customer locale, which is specified in the Locale box on the General Info tab of the Customers (AR303000) form. (This box is displayed on the form if there are multiple active locales in the system.)

If the settings of the specific customer do not provide a locale, the system generates the description in the language associated with the locale of the user who runs contract billing on the Customer Contracts form to generate the invoice. The locale of a particular user is specified in the Format box on the Custom Locale Format tab of the User Profile (SM203010) form.

The formula to be used to generate the description for each line of each invoice based on this contract. These invoices are generated when a user viewing the contract selects the appropriate commands from the Actions menu on the form toolbar of the current form.

This description is inserted into each row of the Details tab of the Invoices and Memos form (in the Transaction Descr. column).

By default, this box contains the formula specified in the Line Description box of the Contract Templates form (in the Billing Settings section of the Summary tab) for the contract template this contract is based on, which is specified in the Contract Template box in the Summary area of the current form.

This box is available (and you can override the line description formula that was specified for the contract template) only if the Enable Overriding Formulas in Contracts option is selected on the Contract Templates form for the contract template this contract is based on.

If you can override the formula specified for the template, to change the formula, click the magnifier icon to open the Formula Editor window. In the window that opens, you can use any of the following entities and values to define the specific formula for the selected contract:

• The following parameters:
  • Prefix
    • Prepaid
    • Included
    • Overused
    • Included Usage
    • Prepaid Usage
  • ActionItem
    • Contract Activation
    • Contract Setup
    • Contract Upgrade
    • Contract Billing
    • Contract Renewal
    • Contract Termination
    • Activate/Renew
    • Setup
    • Setup Upgrade
    • Upgrade Activation
• Any standard operation
• Any standard function (see Functions for details on the available functions)
• Any of the following objects:
  • Contract
  • Customer
  • ContractItem
  • ContractDetail
  • InventoryItem
  • ContractBillingSchedule
  • PMTran
    Note: The PMTran object can be used only for contracts with the Detailed billing format; this format is specified on the Contract Templates form (Billing Settings section of the Summary area) of the template the contract is based on. If this object is used in a contract whose template has the Summary billing format selected, the formula will be ignored by the system.
  • UsageData
  • AccessInfo

The system generates the description in the language associated with the customer locale, which is specified in the Locale box on the General Info tab of the Customers form. (This box is displayed on this form if there are multiple active locales in the system.)

If the settings of the specific customer do not provide a locale, the system generates the description in the language associated with the locale of the user who runs contract billing on the Customer Contracts form to generate the invoice. The locale of a particular user is specified in the Format box on the Custom Locale Format tab of the User Profile form.

A non-stock item used for counting cases associated with the contract.

The default value is provided by the contract template used as a base for the contract.

You can select another non-stock item in the box if the following conditions are met:

• The Enable Template Item Override check box is selected for the contract template used as a base for the contract.
• The contract is in the Draft, Pending Activation, or Pending Upgrade status.

This box is available only if the Case Management feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form.

For details, see Contract Billing: To Bill a Support Contract by Case Usage.

The date when the contract was set up or upgraded.

When Upgrade Contract is clicked and the contract has the Pending Upgrade status, the system inserts the current expiration date of the contract into the box and makes the box available for editing. If you select a date during contract upgrade, it will be displayed in the Activate Contract dialog box, which opens when you click Activate Upgrade. You can also change the date in the dialog box.

A read-only box that displays information about setup fees.

One of the following options can be shown:

• If the contract status is Draft, the total of setup fees (item setup price multiplied by included quantity)
• If the contract status is Pending Upgrade, the total difference of setup fees before upgrade and during upgrade setup (the item setup price multiplied by the difference in quantity)

A read-only box that displays information about recurring fees.

One of the following options can be shown:

• If the contract status is Draft, the total of recurring fees (item recurring price multiplied by included quantity)
• If the contract status is Pending Upgrade, the total difference of recurring fees before upgrade and during upgrade setup (item recurring price multiplied by the difference in quantity)

The identifier of the contract item.

If the Multiple Base Currencies feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, you can add a contract item that has the same currency as the contract currency specified in the Currency box on the Summary tab. The currency of a contract item is selected in the Currency ID box (Price Options tab) of the Contract Items (CT201000) form.

The contract item quantity included by default. It can be overridden within the allowed limits. The system inserts into this column the quantity specified for the selected item in the Quantity column on the Details tab of the Contract Templates form.

If this line represents a recurring contract item and this is a retainer contract or contract that is billed on demand, we recommend that you enter 0 in this column for the line.

The identifier of any related contract.

The related contract is either derived from the current contract or served as a derivation for the current contract. The box is populated by the system during the renewal process. For details, see Contract Management: To Renew a Contract.

The reference number of the document.

By clicking the number, you can navigate to the Invoices and Memos form, where you can view the details of the document.