This section covers issues related to the application of price lists in Contract Maintenance, the influence of contract currency, and the handling of credit issues in contracts.

Contract pricing differs from pricing for sales orders in one important way. In the case of a sales order, the item being sold normally has a price in Item Master Maintenance. If the system does not find a price on a price list, it uses the item master price and calculates discounts relative to item master prices.

In the case of contract line items, the equivalent of an item master price does not exist. The system handles this in two ways, depending on whether it finds a price on a price list for the coverage.

When the system finds a price on the line-item price list, it displays it in the Net Price field and sets a value for the List Price field, displayed in the item detail. From this point on, List Price cannot be changed. If you modify the net price, the modification displays in the Discount field as either a positive or negative discount, relative to the fixed list price. If you manually enter a discount percent, the system recalculates the net price based on this percentage and the fixed list price.

When the system cannot find a price for contract coverage, net price defaults to zero. In this case, what you enter in Net Price also becomes the List Price value. If you then specify a discount in the item detail, the system recalculates the net price based on this discount. The list price remains as specified.

So far, this seems to be the same as what happens when the system finds a price on a price list. However, when you change the Net Price value in this second scenario, the system resets List Price to the Net Price value and Discount % to zero. Reenter a discount if one is required. To alert you to the consequences of changing the price, the following message displays when the edit focus is in the Net Price field:

This message displays when a price has not been found on a price list. However, you are warned in both cases when the system has recalculated the net price based on a change to Discount %, and prompted to continue.