Creating Purchase Contracts

  • 08/09/2022
  • 14 minutes to read

Like Continia Document Capture and most other Continia solutions and modules, the Purchase Contracts module is integrated directly into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, where you can access it using the Search icon or from the Purchase Contracts Cue group on the Role Center. You can also use both of these access methods when you create purchase contracts, as described below.

Overall, you can create purchase contracts in the following two ways:

Which of these methods to use depends entirely on your personal preference and what page you're navigating from in any given context. Both methods are described in detail below.

To create a purchase contract from scratch

If you want to create a purchase contract from scratch without basing it on an existing purchase document (invoice or credit memo), follow these steps:

  1. Choose the Search icon, enter Purchase Contracts, and then choose the related link to open the Purchase Contracts page.

    Note

    You can also open this page from the Business Central Role Center: Under Purchase Contracts, select the All Cue to open it. Note that the page is called All when you access it this way, but in all other respects it's identical with the Purchase Contracts page.

  2. In the action bar, select New to open the Purchase Contract page.

  3. On the General FastTab, fill in the fields as needed. Some of the fields deserve special mention here, as they're particularly important to fill in and understand:


    FieldDescription
    Purchaser Code (Reviewer)In this field, you must enter or select the code of the person you want to review the contract that you're setting up.
    Price TypeThis field allows you to specify if the amounts of the contract lines must exactly match the amounts of related invoice/credit memo lines in order for the invoices/credit memos to be approved automatically (Fixed Amount), or if a certain amount variance is acceptable (Variable Amount).

    If you select Variable Amount, Document Capture will use the values entered under Max. Allowed Line Variance % for the relevant lines (on the Lines FastTab) to determine if the related invoice/credit memo line amounts are within the allowed variance. If you select Fixed Amount, Document Capture will disregard any values entered under Max. Allowed Line Variance %.
    Invoicing Period CodeUse this field to specify how often you expect invoices/credit memos relating to this contract to be sent by the vendor. Your selection is used for calculating the Yearly Amount for each line on the Lines FastTab, together with the Quantity and Unit Cost fields.

    Note

    You can create your own period codes. To do this, select the field to open the drop-down menu, and then select + New. On the page that opens, fill in the fields as required. Under Period Date Formula, your entry must be an integer followed by D (days), WD (weekdays), W (weeks), M (months), Q (quarters), or Y (years) – for example, 2W (two weeks).

    On the same page, you can also specify how often the contract must be reviewed, by editing the Review field. If you select Date Formula here, enter the formula under Review Date Formula, using the guidelines mentioned above. Whatever you enter in these two fields will be autofilled in the corresponding fields on the Review FastTab (see step 4 below).

    Auto Approve Within VarianceIn this field, select Yes if you want Document Capture to automatically approve invoices/credit memos when they've been registered, provided that the invoice/credit memo line amounts match the corresponding contract line amounts within the variance defined under Max. Allowed Line Variance % on the Lines FastTab.

    The following rules apply, depending on whether you select Yes or No:
    • Yes: If you've selected Fixed Amount under Price Type and/or entered no value under Max. Allowed Line Variance %, the invoice/credit memo line amounts must match the contract line amounts exactly in order for the invoices/credit memos to be automatically approved.
    • No: If you've selected Variable Amount under Price Type and/or entered a value under Max. Allowed Line Variance %, these settings will be disregarded entirely.

  4. On the Review FastTab, fill in the fields as needed:


    FieldDescription
    ReviewUse this field to specify how often the contract must be reviewed. The default option is Yearly, unless you've edited this in the Invoicing Period Code field in step 3 above – any changes you make to the Review and Review Date Formula fields under Invoicing Period Code will be autofilled here.

    Note

    If you select Date Formula, the Review Date Formula field appears. Here, you must enter a formula in the form of an integer followed by D (days), WD (weekdays), W (weeks), M (months), Q (quarters), or Y (years) – for example, 2W (two weeks). For more advanced formulas, you can also use the mathematical symbols + and –, or you can enter the letter C (current) as a prefix to any of the previously mentioned time units – for example, CM+10D (current month plus ten days).

    Next Review DateIn this field, you can specify when the contract should be reviewed next. The default value depends on what you selected above under Review. For example, if you selected Yearly, the default value will be the contract start date plus a year, minus one month.

  5. On the Lines FastTab, enter the lines that you expect to find in the invoices/credit memos you receive from the vendor, by filling in all fields as needed. The following fields deserve special mention:


    FieldDescription
    TypeIn this field, select the type of account that you want to be associated with this line.
    No.In this field, select the account number that you want to be associated with this line.
    Unit CostWhen you fill in this field, the Amount Excl. VAT and Yearly Amount fields (which are both uneditable) will be autofilled based on what you entered. Likewise, the two fields will be autofilled if you edit the Quantity field. The value of the Yearly Amount field is also based on your selection in the Invoicing Period Code field on the General FastTab.
    Max. Allowed Line Variance %If you enter a percentage here, invoice/credit memo line amounts will be be automatically approved if they match the contract line amounts within the entered variance percentage.

    Important

    This only applies if the following two settings have been set on the General FastTab: Price Type must be set to Variable Amount, and Auto Approve Within Variance must be set to Yes.

To create a purchase contract from a document

There are various ways to create purchase contracts based on a purchase document, and they all involve the Edit - Create Purchase Contract page. As these methods are virtually identical except from how you access that page, this article will focus on the method involving the document journal as a representative example.

You can create puchase contracts from a document in two ways: with line recognition either disabled or enabled in the relevant template. The two methods are very similar but have noticeably different results. No matter which of the methods you choose, the following two values will be automatically added to the Document Header section of the document journal when you finish the relevant guide:

  • In the Account Type field, the value Purchase Contract will be added.
  • In the Account No. field, the contract number will be added.

Both methods are described in more detail below:

With line recognition disabled

To create a purchase contract from the document journal with line recognition disabled, follow these steps:

  1. Choose the Search icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.
  2. Select the PURCHASE code to open the document journal.
  3. In the list of documents, select the invoice/credit memo that you want to use as a basis for your purchase contract.
  4. If there's no template associated with the invoice/credit memo, you must assign one by activating field recognition: In the action bar, select Process > Recognize Fields.
  5. In the action bar, select Purchase Contract > Create Purchase Contract to open the Edit - Create Purchase Contract page.

    Note

    The following fields on the page will be autofilled, mostly with data from the header of the selected invoice/credit memo:

    • Description will be autofilled with the Posting Description value.
    • Purchaser Code (Reviewer) will be autofilled with the Our Contact value.
    • Review will be autofilled with the default option Yearly.
  6. If necessary, edit the autofilled fields, and fill in the remaining fields as required.
  7. Optional: Under Default line details, fill in the two fields to create a single contract line with the total amount of the invoice/credit memo and the specified account type and number. This line can be edited later, if necessary.
  8. Select OK to close the page and create the contract.

This will open the contract on the Purchase Contracts page, where you can make any necessary changes and fill in additional fields. For a description of this process, see steps 3-5 in the guide above. You must use this method if you want to create contract invoices based on this contract.

With line recognition enabled

To create a purchase contract from the document journal with line recognition enabled, follow these steps:

  1. Choose the Search icon, enter Document Categories, and then choose the related link.
  2. Select the PURCHASE code to open the document journal.
  3. In the list of documents, select the invoice/credit memo that you want to use as a basis for your purchase contract.
  4. If there's no template associated with the invoice/credit memo, you must assign one by activating field recognition: In the action bar, select Process > Recognize Fields.
  5. In the action bar, select Purchase Contract > Create Purchase Contract to open the Edit - Create Purchase Contract page.

    Note

    The following fields on the page will be autofilled, mostly with data from the header of the selected invoice/credit memo:

    • Description will be autofilled with the Posting Description value.
    • Purchaser Code (Reviewer) will be autofilled with the Our Contact value.
    • Review will be autofilled with the default option Yearly.
  6. If necessary, edit the autofilled fields, and fill in the remaining fields as required.
  7. Select OK to close the page and create the contract.

This will open the contract on the Purchase Contracts page, where all the lines of the selected invoice/credit memo have been added to the Lines FastTab. If necessary, you can make changes and fill in additional fields. For a description of this process, see steps 3-5 in the guide above. You can't use this method if you want to create contract invoices based on this contract.

See also

Purchase Contract Reviews
Creating Contract Invoices
Approving Contract Invoices
Viewing the Purchase Contract Archive