Contract

Use the Contract command to maintain contract records to which related jobs can be assigned. Contract reports accumulate the transaction details entered for all jobs and phases associated with the contract so you can have an overall picture of the main contract or project. You can also specify budgets on a contract basis as well as, or instead of job budgets, if you have selected the Budgets on Headers option on the Set Options form.

You can only maintain contract records if the Use Contracts option is selected on the Set Options form.

The term 'contract' can be changed. You can use an alternative name by changing the entry in the Contract Description box on the System Preferences form in the System application. References to 'contracts' in this and other topics within the documentation assume the use of the default setting.

You can create new contract records on the basis of existing ones. Any existing contract record can be selected as a model for a new record; you then amend the details required for the new record.

Contracts and Sales Account

If you have the Costing application integrated with the Sales application, you can select a sales account record to identify the customer to whom the contract relates. All jobs and estimates assigned to this contract will take the account number you enter here as the default entry. When you post invoices or credit notes in the sales ledger, you can analyse them to job numbers, phases and cost codes. Revenue cost records are written to file as unallocated revenue records immediately the document is accepted. If you have the Invoicing or SOP applications, when entering sales orders, deliveries, invoices and credit notes, you can analyse each line to a job number, phase and cost code. Records in the Costing application are updated with unallocated revenue cost records when an invoice or credit note is posted to the sales ledger. The link also works from Costing to Invoicing or SOP applications; within the Costing application you can select cost items that are ready for invoicing and a document is generated for them in the Invoicing or SOP application. You can then progress that document within the Invoicing or SOP application. When the document is produced a revenue record is created in the Costing application and the cost records are automatically allocated against this revenue record. When a document is progressed to an invoice in the Invoicing or SOP application, the revenue record is update to include the invoice number.

Prerequisites

The following must be defined in the appropriate application before you can complete the corresponding boxes:

Box	Prerequisite
Project Leader	At least one individual must be defined using the People Profiles command in the System application and have the Project Leader option selected before you can select a person to complete this box.
Account	If you have the Costing application integrated with the Sales application, at least one customer record must be created using the Processing command in the Sales application before you can select one to complete this box.
Cost Rate	At least one cost rate must be created using the Cost Rates command on the Maintenance menu before you can select a default for the contract.
Budget and Revised	Before you can enter budgets or revised budgets for costs, write offs or revenue contract totals, you must select the Budgets on Headers option on the Set Options form.

View

Use the View command on the Action menu to display information concerning jobs assigned to the currently selected contract. Multiple levels of drill down are possible. You can 'zoom' on any jobs listed to see more details. First a cost code list appears for the selected job. You can then select a cost code to drill down and see the budgets for the selected record. Additional views are then available for status and transaction summary lines. For transaction summary lines you can zoom in to view full transaction details.

View Estimate

Use the View Estimate command on the Action menu to display information concerning estimates assigned to the currently selected contract. Multiple levels of drill down are possible. You can 'zoom' on any estimates listed to see more details. First a cost code list appears for the selected estimate. You can then select a cost code to drill down and see the budgets for the selected record.

Contract Entries

Box	Description
Account	A reference that identifies the customer. If the Costing application is integrated with the Sales application, you can select a sales ledger account code from a list. Customers are maintained using the Processing command in the Sales application.
Project Leader	A reference that identifies the project leader for the contract. You can select from a list. You can only select a record that has been defined using the People Profiles command on the Maintenance menu in the System application and for which the Project Leader option has been selected on the People form. If no project leaders have been identified, this box is unavailable. You can produce reports for project leaders showing details of all jobs and estimates belonging to them.
Description	The description for the contract.
Reference	A reference for the contract, such as a customer's contract or order number.
Cost Rate	A number that identifies the default cost rate for transactions associated with the contract. You can select from a list. Cost rates are defined using the Cost Rates command on the Maintenance menu.
Planned Start	The date on which the contract is planned to begin. You can use the date selector button alongside to pick from a pop-up calendar.
Planned Days	The planned number of days duration for the contract. The value is used to determine a default completion date.
Planned Completion	The date on which the contract is planned to end. You can use the date selector button alongside to pick from a pop-up calendar. If you entered a value in the Planned Days box, a default completion date appears, but you can change this; it will not make any retrospective change to the number of planned days.
Actual Start	The date on which the contract actually started. This might be different to the planned start date, so you can set this at any point before or after the planned date. You can use the date selector button alongside to pick from a pop-up calendar.
Actual Completion	The date on which the contract was actually completed. This is updated automatically when you use the Complete command on the Action menu associated with the Contract form.
Costs	The budgeted and revised costs for the contract. The Budget on Headers option on the Set Options form controls whether you can enter budgets for the contract here. If the Budget on Headers option is selected, you can enter budgets here, otherwise budgets must be entered at cost code level for the job records associated with the contract.
Write Off	The budgeted and revised write off costs for contract. The Budget on Headers option on the Set Options form controls whether you can enter budgets for the contract here. If the Budget on Headers option is selected, you can enter budgets here, otherwise budgets must be entered at cost code level for the job records associated with the contract.
Revenue	The budgeted and revised revenues for the contract. The Budget on Headers option on the Set Options form controls whether you can enter budgets for the contract here. If the Budget on Headers option is selected, you can enter budgets here, otherwise budgets must be entered at cost code level for the job records associated with the contract.

Complete

Use the Complete command on the Action menu to mark all jobs assigned to this contract as being complete. You will be prompted to enter the date the contract was completed. This appears in the actual completed date field on the screen and on all jobs associated with this contract. All timesheets must have been confirmed and if you have the PIR feature activated, there should be no outstanding commitments or unposted PIR invoices. Completing the contract will also complete its associated jobs. If you reselect the Complete command for a contract already marked as complete, you are given the opportunity to cancel the completion. This reinstates the contract and clears the content of the Actual Completion date box so it can be reset to a different date subsequently.