Creating and Managing Contracts

If you expect to have end-customers who will consume several different services or product packages you offer, you can create Contracts for these Accounts to meet either your general Accounts reporting requirements or to meet invoicing requirements for billing these Accounts on a Contract basis. When you create a Contract for an end customer Account, you can:

• Set the start and end dates and define the Contract period:
  • For Accounts reporting, can be used for auto-renewal of the customer’s Contract - for example on an annual renewal basis.
  • For Contract billing, can be used to limit any charges to the Contract period and exclude charges on the Account dated outside of the period.
• To enable Contract billing, you can link Account Plans attached to the Account to the Contract or Contracts you want to use to bill the Account.
  • If the Account is a Parent Account, you can add Account Plans or Account Plan Groups on Child Accounts to Parent Account Contracts.
• Add other entities associated with the Account to the Contract:
  • Prepayment/Commitments.
  • Balances and Balance Charges.
  • Charges
• Review Contract metadata for any Custom Fields or External Mappings created for the Contract.
• End date billing entities associated with the Account you’ve created the Contract for or end date the Contract itself. For more details, see End Dating Account Billing Entities.

This topic explains how to create and manage Contracts for your end-customer Accounts:

• Creating Contracts
• Adding Account Plans or Account Plan Groups to Contracts
• Adding Child Account Plans or Account Plan Groups to Parent Account Contract
• Adding Prepayments to a Contract
• Adding Balances to a Contract
• Editing and Deleting Contracts
• Reviewing Contract Metadata

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Creating Contracts

You can create Contracts for an end customer Account from the Accounts page. To create a Contract for an Account:

1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text of the Account for which you want to create a Contract. The Account page opens.
3. On the Account actions menu, select Contracts>Create contract:

Alternatively:

• Select the Contracts tab.
• On the Active and pending contracts panel, select Create contract.

The Create page opens.

4. Enter the Contract details:

• Name. Descriptive name for the Contract. (Required)
• Code. Unique identifier for the Contract. (Required)
• Start date (inclusive) and End date (exclusive). Use the popup calendars to select the start and end dates for the Contract. (Required)
  • Note that the End date is exclusive - if you want the contract to end at midnight on June 30th 2023, set the End date to July 1st 2023.
• Description. (Optional)
• Purchase order number. (Optional) Allows you to assign an order number to the Contract. For example, your financial systems might require this as a reference for clearing payments.

5. Enter Contract billing details. The Create page opens with default settings of Contract billing not enabled:

• These settings are optional and allow you to control Contract billing. If you want to implement billing based on a Contract, please see the following Setting Up Contract Billing topic.

6. If you are implementing Contract billing, you can add any required Usage filters. Define up to three filters to control the usage billed against the Account for the Contract:

• See the following Setting Up Contract Billing topic for details on how to add and configure Usage filters.

7. If required, add any Custom fields to the Contract:

• For more on Custom Fields, see Adding and Editing Custom Fields. We strongly recommend reviewing Working with Custom Fields before you create and use Custom Fields.

8. Select Create contract. You are returned to the Contracts tab, where the new Contract is listed on the Active and pending contracts panel:

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Adding Account Plans or Account Plan Groups to Contracts

You can add Account Plans or Account Plan Groups that you’ve attached to an end-customer Account to a Contract. To add attached Plans/Plan Groups to a Contract:

1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text of the Account for which you want to add attached Plans for a Contract. The Account page opens.
3. Select the Contracts tab.
4. On the Active and pending contracts panel, select the Name text of the Contract to which you want to add attached Plans. The Contract details page opens:

5. Scroll down the page to the Contract attached plans panel and select Add attached plans. A Select account plans dialog appears and lists the Account Plans/Account Plan Groups attached to the Account.

6. Use the check boxes to select the attached Account Plans/Account Plan Groups you want to add to the Contract, and select Confirm.
7. The dialog closes and you are returned to the Contract details page and the selected Account Plans/Account Plan Groups are listed in the Contracts attached plans panel:

8. If you now select the attached Plan Name hotlink text, the Plan attachment details page opens and the Contract is shown:

9. If you return to the Account page, on the Attached plans tab the Contract an attached Plan has been added to is also shown on the Active and pending attached plans panel:

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Adding Child Account Plans or Account Plan Groups to Parent Account Contract

If you want to add Account Plans or Account Plan Groups attached to a Child Account to a Contract on the Parent Account, you can do this from the Child Account’s Plan attachment page or Plan group attachment page. To add Child Account Plans/Plan Groups to a Parent Account Contract:

1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Search for and open the Child Account.
3. Select the Attached plans tab.
4. On the Active and pending attached plans panel, select the name text of the attached Account Plan that you want to add to the Parent Account Contract. The Plan attachment page opens
5. Under Plan attachment details, select Add to parent contract:

A Select one contract dialog opens and lists the Contracts on the Parent Account.

6. Select the Contract on the Parent Account that you want to attach the Child Account Plan to and select Confirm. A message appears confirming that the Child Account Plan has been successfully attached to the Parent Account Contract and the selected Contract is now shown for the Account Plan:

7. If you open the Contract details page for the Parent Contract, the Contract Plans panel will now show the Child Account Account Plan:

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Adding Prepayments to a Contract

You can add a Prepayment/Commitment amount you’ve created for an Account to a Contract. To add a Prepayment to a Contract:

1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text of the Account for which you want to add a Prepayment amount to a Contract. The Account page opens.
3. Select the Contracts tab.
4. On the Active and pending contracts panel, select the Name text of the Contract to which you want to add the Prepayment amount. The Contract details page opens.
5. On the Contract prepayments panel, select Add prepayments. A Select prepayments dialog appears and lists the Prepayment amounts created for the Account.

6. Use the check boxes to select the Prepayment amount you want to add to the Contract, and select Confirm.
7. The dialog closes and you are returned to the Contract details page and the selected Prepayment amount is listed in the Contracts prepayments panel:

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Adding Balances to a Contract

You can add a Balance you’ve created for an Account to a Contract. To add a Balance to a Contract:

1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text of the Account for which you want to add a Balance to a Contract. The Account page opens.
3. Select the Contracts tab.
4. On the Active and pending contracts panel, select the Name text of the Contract to which you want to add the Balance. The Contract details page opens.
5. On the Contract balances panel, select Add balances. A Select balances dialog appears and lists the Balances created for the Account.

6. Use the check boxes to select the Balance you want to add to the Contract, and select Confirm.
7. The dialog closes and you are returned to the Contract details page and the selected Balance is listed in the Contracts balances panel:

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Editing and Deleting Contracts

You can manage an existing Contract to edit or delete it from an Account from the Contracts tab. To edit or delete Account Contracts:

1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text of the Account for which you want to edit or delete. The Account page opens.
3. Select the Contracts tab.
4. If you want to edit a Contract, on the Active and pending contracts panel select the Edit icon:

The Edit page opens.

5. Make any required editing changes and select Update contract.
6. If you want to delete a Contract, select the Delete icon:

A confirmation dialog appears.

7. Select Delete to confirm.

• Note that if you attempt to delete a Contract that is linked to another entity associated with the Account, such as an Account Plan or Prepayment, you will not be able to and an error will show.

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Reviewing Contract Metadata

On the Contract details page, you can review Contract metadata:

• Custom Fields or External Mappings created for the Contract.
• Integration runs linked to the Contract.

To review Contract metadata:

1. Select Accounts. The Accounts page opens.
2. Select the Name text of the Account for which you want to review Contract metadata. The Account page opens.
3. Select the Contracts tab.
4. On the Active and pending contracts panel, select the Name text of the Contract you want to review metadata for. The Contract details page opens.
5. Scroll down the page to review the Contract’s metadata:

Custom fields. Any Custom fields created for the Contract are listed:

• You can Copy the String or Number value of a Custom Field to your clipboard. See Working with Custom Fields for more details.

External mappings. Any existing mappings created for the Contract are listed:

• The External system and External table mapped to are shown - such as NetSuite - Item in the above example. The External entity ID mapped to is also shown.
• If a listed External mapping is linked to an Integration, under Linked integration a hotlink text will be shown which you can use to open the Integration.
• Under Actions, you can edit or delete the External mapping.
• If the Contract has multiple External mappings created for it, you can use Search external mappings to search by External table and External entity ID and filter the list.
• You can commence a workflow to Create external mapping for the Contract directly - see Creating and Managing External Mappings for Accounts for an example.

Integration runs. If you’ve set up an integration that synchronizes the Contract data with an external system, the date/time and status of the Latest integration run are shown. You can use a text hotlink to open details of this latest run or View all runs. See Reviewing Integration Run Details.