Creating Contracts for Accounts
You can create Contracts for your end-customer Accounts. If you expect to have end-customers who consume several different service or product packages you offer, you can then report on the total Contract values for these end-customer Accounts for accounting purposes. Creating Contracts for an Account has no effect on billing for the Account.
When you create a Contract for an end customer Account, you can:
Set the start and end dates of the Contract, which serves auto-renewal of the customer's Contract - for example on an annual renewal basis.
Add Account Plans or Account Plan Groups that you've attached to the Account to the Contract.
If the Account is a Parent Account, add Account Plans or Account Plan Groups on Child Accounts to the Parent Account Contract.
Add a Prepayment/Commitment amounts you've created for an Account to a Contract.
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
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.
Code. Unique identifier for the Contract.
Description. Optional attribute.
Purchase order number. Optional attribute, which allows you to assign an order number to the Contract. For example, your financial systems might require this as a reference for clearing payments.
Note: Contract Purchase Order Number and Account Purchase Order Number? These are entirely separate Purchase Order Numbers and are in no sense connected in the m3ter system.
Start date and End date. Use the popup calendars to select the start and end dates for the Contract. 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.
5. If required, add any Custom fields to the Contract:
Currently, you cannot create Custom Fields for Contracts at the Organization-level, and therefore you cannot reference the Custom Fields values you create for an individual Contract in your calculations
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.
6. Select Create contract. You are returned to the Contracts tab, where the new Contract is listed on the Active and pending contracts panel:
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:
Tip: Account Plans or Account Plans Groups Already Show? If you've already added an Account Plan or Account Plan Group to the Contract when you attached Plans/Plan Groups to the Account, these will show in the Contract plans panel. See Attaching Plans to an Account and Attaching Plan Groups to an Account.
5. On the Contract plans panel, select Add attached plans to contract. 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 plans panel:
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.
Tip: The following procedure explains how to add a Child Account Plan to a Parent Account Contract. To add a Child Account Plan Group to a Parent Account Contract, you can follow similar steps.
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:
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 amount 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.
Tip: Prepayment Already Shows? If you've already added a Prepayment to the Contract, this will show in the Contract prepayments panel. See Creating Prepayments for Accounts.
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:
Important: Prepayment Contract and Account Plan Contract must match! If you associate a Prepayment with a Contract you must ensure the Account Plan attached to the Account has the same Contract associated with it. If the Account Plan Contract and Prepayment Contract do not match, then at billing the Prepayment amount will not be drawn-down against
Reviewing Contract Metadata
On the Contract details page, you can review Contract metadata for any Custom Fields or External Mappings created for 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 the Contract metadata panel:
Custom fields. Any Custom fields created for the Contract are listed, and 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 Table mapped to are listed - such as NetSuite - Item in the above example.
The external entity ID mapped to is also shown and you can Copy this directly to your clipboard.
Note that you can start a Create external mapping workflow directly from here. See Creating and Managing External Mappings for Accounts for an example.
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