Vendor contracts
A vendor contract maps liabilities to suppliers or manufacturers. The structure of vendor contracts is similar to purchase orders. The fields in the General FastTab contain information about the contract partner. For example, the supplier's contact person for this contract. The lines contain detailed information about the billing of the components of the contract.
On the Payment tab, you can specify a different payee (from the contract partner) in the Deviating payee field. Similar to purchase orders, this setting is used when creating the contract invoices.
Note
Contracts display on the FactBox pane for customers, vendors, and contacts. Choose the cue to open the corresponding overview.
Create a new vendor contract
Use the Contract action on the Vendors list page to create a new vendor contract. The action copies the relevant contact information to the contract. Alternatively, enter vendor contracts in the TellMe search (Alt+Q) and open the list of vendor contracts. Use the New action to create a new vendor contract.
The procedure for creating a new vendor contract is similar to that for customer contracts. The following steps are necessary to create a contract.
- Select the vendor.
- Select the contract type, and enter a short Description (both entries are optional). To learn more about contract types, go to Contract types.
- On the General FastTab, in the Assigned User ID field, choose the employee who's responsible for the contract. The field is hidden by default, so you might need to choose Show more.
- If needed, on the Invoice Details FastTab, change or fill in the Currency Code, Payment Terms Code and Payment Method Code fields. The details were copied from the vendor in step 1.
- If needed, on the Payment FastTab, in the Pay-to field, change the payee.
Assign service commitments to a vendor contract
To bill service commitments, they must be assigned to a contract. Use the Get Service Commitments action (under Process) to add new contract lines (service commitments) to the contract. The Services Commitments without Vendor Contract page opens. The page lists all service commitments for vendors that you invoice via a contract, but aren't assigned to a contract. When called in a contract, the contract number and the vendor are predefined in the service commitments (in the Assign to Contract No. and Vendor fields). When you transfer service commitments to a contract, Contract Lines are created. The lines reflect the content of the service commitments. Changes to the contract lines are reflected in the service commitments. The Quantity field displays the quantity of the related service object. Alternatively, the Services without Vendor Contracts page can also be accessed via the Role Center or via TellMe search (Alt+Q). In this case, the contract number and vendor are not predefined.
Note
You can only transfer service commitments that have the Vendor as Partner to vendor contracts. Because you can't store a vendor in the service object, you can assign vendor-side service commitments to any vendor contract.
Note
Service commitments are usually created automatically when the shipment is posted in the sales order. The prerequisite for this is a corresponding setup in the item used or the service commitment package.
Extend contract
If you want to extend a contract by an additional component, use the Extend Contract action. The action creates a service object and assigns the related service commitments to a customer and/or vendor contract.
The page is divided into three sections. In the first part, Vendor, use the Vendor Contract No. field to select the vendor contract that is to accommodate the (possible) vendor-side service commitments. The field is only editable if Extend Vendor Contract is active. The second part of the page, Customer, is similar. In the third part, in the Item No. field, specify the item that corresponds to the new contract element. You can use the Quantity and Provision Start Date fields to add more detail. The AssistEdit
on Additional Service Commitments allows you to specify optional service commitments for the selected item.
The page behaves slightly differently, depending on how it's called. Basically, the values of the last call are saved (per user). The settings are used to preset the next time the page is opened. When calling from a customer contract, the Customer part is predefined accordingly. The same applies to the Vendor part for the call from a vendor contract. In both cases, the contract extension runs when you choose OK.
Note
In addition to the Contract Card page, you can also open the page from the menu. In this case, the values of the last call are also used as default values. However, there isn't an OK button to run the action. Instead, use the Perform Extension action. This action isn't available when you open the page from a customer or vendor contract.
Invoice discounts
To learn more about mapping lump sum discounts for an entire contract, go to Invoice discounts.
Closed contract lines
If the service end date was entered for a contract line, or it was automatically updated in the Job queue, you can't bill the line. Therefore, ended lines won't display in the default view of the Contract Card page. However, the Closed Lines FastTab continues to show these lines. You can use the lines at a later date to reconstruct what was once part of the contract.
The fields on a terminated line aren't editable, except for Closed. If you clear the checkbox, the line is moved back to the Lines FastTab and you can edit it. Then, for example, you can adjust the service end date. If no change is made, the line moves back to the Closed Lines FastTab the next time Update Service Dates is called. To learn more about updating cancellation dates and deadlines and ending contract lines, go to Termination of contract components.
Merge contract lines
Over time, you might purchase similar or identical service commitments from a supplier. For example, when you buy additional users for an existing license. To invoice these service commitments together, you can use the Merge Contract Lines action in the line menu of the vendor contract to combine these service commitments.
Before you use the action, select the contract lines to merged. You can merge contract lines only if all lines meet the following criteria:
- Billing proposal lines don't exist for any of the service commitments.
- The dimensions are identical.
- The end user details are identical.
- The items of the service objects are identical.
- The customer references of the service objects are identical.
- Service objects aren't tracked by serial numbers.
- The next billing date is identical.
However, the following can't be identical:
- Service Objects
- Quantity
- Description
- Provision Start Date
- Provision End Date
- Service Commitments
- Description
- Service Start Date
- Cancellation possible until
- Term until
Note
You can't call the action for text lines.
Use the Select Vendor Contract line page to select the contract line on which to combine the selected lines. A new service object (as a copy of the service object of the selected contract line), including service commitments, is created with the total quantity. The service commitments to combine are closed, and the new service is added to the contract. In the old service objects, the Provision End Date field is set, if possible.
Create an invoice per contract
Typically, you create contract invoices through recurring billing. To learn more, go to Recurring billing. Recurring billing is designed to generate billing proposals in batches. In addition, there are several options for creating posting documents, such as collective invoices. To learn more, go to Posting documents.
Recurring billing can be useful for creating a contract invoice for a contract that you're working on, without first creating a billing proposal. In this scenario, use the Create contract invoice action on the Vendor Contracts or Vendor Contract Card page. You can specify the key date for billing (Billing Date) and, optionally, the date up to which billing is to take place (Billing To). In addition, you can also specify the Document Date and the Posting Date can be specified for the posting document. If the Open document checkbox is selected, the document opens immediately. Optionally, you an also choose Post document to post the created document directly. Except for the Billing To field, all fields are predefined with the workdate. The workdate is defined on the My Settings page.
Note
Creating a contract invoice as described here is only useful in individual cases.
Related information
You can access related information from a contract, and you can access all invoices and credit memos. You can view Contract Deferrals if the postings in the contract are deferred periodically.
Use the Contract Line action to display Billing Lines and Archived Billing Lines for the selected contract line. You can also open Archived Billing Lines in the posted invoice and credit memo.