Contracts

Contract Creation

Contracts can be created by two methods:

1. Manually from Contract Card.
2. Using the Import from Excel feature.

Let's Create a Contract Manually. Search Contracts and open the Contracts page. To create a Contract click the "New" button.

This is the Contract Card, fill in the required fields.

General

Fields	Purpose
Customer No.	Specifies the Customer No.
Name	Specifies the Customer Name
Amount per Period (Active)	Specifies the total Amount per Period for active contract lines.
Annual Sales Amount (Active)	Specifies the total Annual Amount for active contract lines.
Status	Specifies whether the contract is locked, unlocked, or pending approval. You can only make changes to a contract that is unlocked. You can optionally configure a workflow to approve changes to contracts before they are locked. Only contracts that are locked are included in the billing.
Contract Status	Specifies the contract status to control whether the contract is active, on hold or cancelled. Only active contracts are included in the billing.
Effective Date	This date is used by the system to determine whether an automatic credit needs to be raised when a contract is changed. An automatic credit note is created if the effective date occurs within a period that has been billed and there are changes that affect the invoice values such as a different bill-to customer.
Next Billing Date - Active	This is the next billing date from the contract lines.
Last Billing Date - Active	This is the last billing date from the contract lines.
Default Invoice Period	Specifies the default invoice period that will be used on the lines.
Billing Period Validation	Specifies if the lines should have the same invoice periods and billing dates. Specify 'Invoice Period' to force all lines to have the same invoice period. Specify 'Invoice Period' and Dates to force all lines to have the same invoice period and billing date. Specify 'None' if you wish to have different invoice periods and/or billing dates.
Show Cancelled Lines	Specifies that cancelled contract lines should be displayed in addition to the active lines.

Lines

To Create a Contract line, Click on the "Contract Line Card" or "New Line" action button on Lines.

Fields	Purpose
Item No.	Specifies the value of Item No. field.
Description	Specifies the Description field.
Billing Start Date	Specifies the Billing Start Date field.
Billing End Date	Specifies the Billing End Date field.
Expected Contract Duration	Specifies the Expected Contract Duration field.
Expected Billing End Date	Specifies the Expected Billing End Date field.
No. of Remaining Periods	Shows the number of invoicing periods that are still remaining on this contract.
Last Billing Date	Specifies the Last Billing Date field.
Cancelled	Specifies if the line is Cancelled or not.
Date Cancelled	Specifies the date when the line Cancelled.
On Hold	Specifies if the line is on Hold or not.

Invoicing

Fields	Purpose
Customer No.	Specifies the Customer No. field.
Invoice Period	Specifies what should be the Invoice Period week, fortnightly, month, two months, quarter, half year or year.
Next Billing Date	Specifies the Next Billing Date field.
Contract Period Start Calc.	Specifies on what basis Contract Period Start Calc. will be calculated.
Deferral Start Date	Enter a value here if the related service commences in a future period.
Quantity	Specifies the Quantity field.
Unit Price Excl. VAT	Specifies the Unit Price field.
Line Discount %	Specifies the Line Discount % field.
Line Discount Amount Excl. VAT	Specifies the Line Discount Amount field.
Amount per Period	Specifies the Amount per Period field.
Amount Per Period Incl. VAT	Specifies the Amount per Period Incl. VAT field.

Price Increase

Fields	Purpose
Price Increase Code	Specifies the Price Increase Code field.
Price Increase %	Specifies the Price Increase % field.
Incr. Amount per Period	Specifies the Incr. Amount per Period field.
Price Increase Frequency	Specifies the Price Increase Frequency field.
Price Increase Date	Specifies the Price Increase Date field.

Previous changes on the line can be checked by clicking on the Versions action button.

Follow the below steps to create a Contract using the "Import from Excel" feature.

Search for "Excel Import Mapping List" and click new to create the mapping.

Select Contracts in Template type and then do mapping of the fields in the Field Mapping pane.

General

Field	Purpose
Template Type	Specifies the type of import.
Code	Specifies a code for the import template.
Description	Specifies a description for the import template.
First Data Row	Specifies the first row of data in the file. The default is row 2 assuming that the first row contains headings.
Row Filter	Specifies a row filter that the app uses to include or skip rows when importing. Click the assist edit action to update this value.

Field Mapping

Field	Purpose
Processing Order	Specifies the order in which fields get updated during the import. The processing order should typically be in the same sequence as what you would enter the values directly on the page in Business Central.
Excel Column ID	Specifies the Excel column from which the data will be imported. The same Excel column can be mapped to more than one field by adding multiple lines referencing the same column. Leave this field empty if you wish to map a constant value to this field.
Type	Here you specify the type of the column/field mapping. Choose "Field" to map to a field on the table, "Dimension" to map to a dimension value, "Related Field" to map to a field on a related table, and "Custom Value" for values not related to fields on the table. Note: "Custom Values" will only work if you extend Excel Importer using AL.
No.	Specify the field number, dimension, related field, or custom value to which the Excel column gets mapped.
Description	Specifies the description of the field or value.
Constant Value	This field specifies values that you want to assign to fields that cannot be mapped to an Excel Column but need to have a value. In some cases, this field gets used in conjunction with other fields on the mapping line.
Starting Position	Default is 1. Specify a different value if you do not wish to copy the first part of the Excel data. This is useful when copying a long description from Excel into two or more fields.
Length	Specify a value here if the value in Excel may exceed the maximum number of characters that the field can hold or if you do not wish to copy the entire value over.
Transformation Rule	Optionally specify a transformation rule to transform the date being imported. The transformation rule is applied before mapping (if applicable).
Mapping Template Code	Specifies the mapping template to use when the data in Excel has a different coding structure to Business Central. The mapping functionality can use a single text value from the Excel file to default a type, account and dimensions.
Mapping Type	Specifies if this is a parent line or a child line. A parent line must be mapped to a column in Excel. Child lines need to be specified to map additional values from the mapping to fields on the table.

Now click on the "Export Template" action button and export the Template.

This is the Template Excel file. Now fill in the value for the fields.

Now click on the "Import from Excel" action button under Home.

Select the Template Code, Excel File Name and Worksheet Name.

New Contract is created as per the details in the Excel file.

Create Contract Invoice

Lock the Contract by clicking the "Lock Contract" action button under Home.

Now create a Contract Invoice using the "Create Contract Invoice" action button under Invoicing.

From the Contract List page click on "Contract Invoices" under the Invoicing.

You will find the Invoice that is created.

See Also

tip

• Batch Processing
• Setup