Creating Contracts

Location: Contracts > Entering Contracts

When saving a contract, the basic data of the contract, the purchase invoices associated with the contract, and the data related to the processing of the contract are gathered.

1. The Basic Data tab:
   • Define a Company for whom the contract is being saved. If necessary, you can also define an organization unit.
   • Supervisor: The supervisor of the contract.
   • The contract number or its reference is entered into the Reference field. When a purchase invoice is attached to a contract, the data in the purchase invoice Order Ref. field is matched against the date in the contract Reference field.
   • Select the Supplier for the purchase invoices related to the contract
   • Contact Person: The contact person of the supplier. By default, the field is populated by the contact person whose information is saved in the data of the supplier for the contract.
   • Subject: Name or title of the contract.
   • Contract Date: Contract date.
   • Period of Validity: The first and last day of validity of the contract. Purchase invoices can only be assigned to a contract that is valid on the voucher date.
     Note: The expiration date must be left blank for contracts that are valid until further notice. When Generating a Purchase Invoice from a Contract has been selected in the Invoicing section on the Processing Rules tab, the end date of the contract must be determined.
   • Contract Value: Contract value in currency. The default currency of the contract is the company's home currency but you can change the currency code, if necessary. The contract value is of importance especially if the processors of this contract have a processing limit in force. On the basis of the contract value it is determined whether or not a processor’s processing limit allows him/her to approve a processing step. When purchase invoices are generated on the basis of the contract, the value of the contract is determined by the data in the Quantity of Invoices and Maximum Amount fields on the Processing Rules tab.
   • Contract Counter Value: Contract value in the company's home currency.
   • Additional Data: A description of the contract
2. Processing rules tab:
   • Invoicing: Select whether purchase invoices can be connected to a contract or whether purchase invoices are generated based on a contract.
     Note: The application will generate purchase invoices on the basis of a contract, when the following information has been saved for the contract invoice rows in the Posting function the contract has a next invoice date, the contract is in the approved state and the necessary selections regarding the generation of purchase invoices has been made in the Contract Settings.
   • Approval: Select whether the purchase invoice will be approved by the user or automatically. If the choice is User, the purchase invoices attached to the contract will be processed in workflow, as usual, according to the purchase invoice workflow steps. If the choice is Automatically, then the purchase invoices attached to the contract are automatically approved, if the relevant requirements are met. For more information, see Associating a Purchase Invoice with a Contract and Automatic Approval.
   • Quantity of Invoices: The maximum number of purchase invoices that are to be approved automatically based on the contract.
   • Maximum Amount: The maximum sum of a purchase invoice that is to be approved automatically based on the contract.
   • Processors: If a purchase invoice that is associated with the contract is not approved automatically, the processors that are listed here are the first ones to be added as the processors of this purchase invoice – if it is determined in the purchase invoice workflow steps. If no processors are defined, missing processors are searched for as a purchase invoice that is not associated with a contract. For additional information, see Workflow Steps of Transactions.
   By making the invoicing selection Generating a Purchase Invoice from a Contract, the following fields will be active:

   • Next invoice number: The invoice number of the invoice that will be generated next. The number consists of a fixed first part and a consecutive number as the second part.
   • Next invoice date: The invoice date of the invoice that will be generated next.
     • If the Next Invoice Date field is left blank, no invoices will be generated directly from the contract.
     • If you want to end a contract prematurely so that no more purchase invoices are generated from it, this is done by clearing the Next Invoice Date and entering a new End Date in the Validity field on the Basic Data tab.
   • Invoice Voucher Date: This selection is used to determine the voucher date and the delivery date of the purchase invoice that is generated from the contract.
     • By selecting Invoice Date the delivery date and the voucher date are the same as the purchase invoice invoicing date.
     • By selecting Due Date the delivery date and the voucher date are the same as the due date of the purchase invoice.
     • By selecting Month of the due date the delivery date and the voucher date will be the first date of the month of the purchase invoice due date.
   • Invoice due date: Due date for the generated purchase invoice. The due date for the purchase invoice is determined based on this setting.
     • With the option Payment time, days, the due date of the purchase invoice is determined by adding the payment time specified in the adjacent field to the invoice date.
     • With the option Invoice date month, the due date of the purchase invoice is determined by the month of the invoice date and the calendar day specified in the adjacent dropdown. The year is determined by the month.
     • With the option Invoice date month + 1 month, the due date of the purchase invoice is determined by the month following the invoice date and the calendar day specified in the adjacent dropdown. The year is determined by the month.
   • Payment Reference: Payment reference for the generated invoice. The reference can be defined as one fixed reference or, alternatively, an invoice date specific reference.
     Tip: The Finnish fixed reference can also be generated so that each purchase invoice has its own unique reference. For example, if you enter 11nnnnn11t, the first purchase invoice will have the reference 11000001111, the next one 1100002110, and so on. The letters n will be replaced by the invoice number's consecutive number part and the letter t with a checking mark.
   • Supplier Account: The supplier account of the purchase invoice being generated. This selection enables you to define the desired supplier account for the purchase invoice being generated. If No Selection is chosen, the supplier account used in the purchase invoice will be the supplier's default account.
   • BIC: The BIC code of the supplier's account number. The BIC code will be automatically displayed based on the supplier account, so it cannot be changed.
     Note: When a contract's period of validity, next invoicing date, and/or invoicing period is changed, the changes affect the quantities in the purchase invoices that are approved based on the contract as well as the contract value.
3. Additional Data tab:
   • Time Between Validation of Contract: The revision time frame for contracts that are valid until further notice. A person in charge is appointed for the contract for the Informative Flow step according to the revision time frame. This person receives a notification of the Informative Flow step via an automated e-mail message.
   • Notification Before End: Defines how many days before the ending of the contract a person in charge is appointed to the contract for the Informative Flow step. This person receives a notification of the Informative Flow step via an automated e-mail message.

If you want to add an attachment to the contract, click on the Add button to add an attachment file or click on the Scan button to scan the attachment with a scanner connected to your workstation. For more information, see Processing Transaction Attachments.

If processing steps have been defined in the contract workflow settings (Contracts > Workflow Steps), processors must be defined for each step (For example a checker and an approver). Processors can also be added by default to a contract from the organization structure, if this is determined in the contract workflow steps and if default contract processors are saved in the organization structure. For more information, see Defining Default Transaction Processors.

If no processing steps are defined for a contract, no processors are saved for this contract, but the contract is approved directly after its saving.