Renewing Contracts

Contracts always have start and end dates. To remain in effect, the contracts must be renewed. There are several ways to accomplish this:

2 Use Renew Single Contract (11.5.13.8) to renew a particular contract that is about to expire.

3 For contract lines with Auto Renew set to Yes, use Renewal Process/Report (11.5.13.10) to renew lines for selected ranges of contracts and end users.

4 Copy the existing contract to a new contract with Contract Copy to Contract (11.5.13.6). See Copying Contracts.

When you use either method 2 or 3, the system verifies that the contract has been fully billed before it can be renewed.

If the customer or end users associated with a contract require a purchase order, the system carries over the existing purchase order numbers when contracts are renewed. If a new PO applies to the renewed contract, change it manually.

Contracts cannot be renewed to the same number. The system retrieves the next available number from Contract Control, except in cases where a new number can be supplied.

There are several good business reasons for contracts to be renewed with new numbers.

• Renewing to the same number reinitializes the existing contract. This could easily leave a lapse in coverage at the end of the year between the time the contract was renewed and the beginning of the next year.

• Renewing to the same number also removes historical references to previous terms and agreements, which may be important in answering questions about contractual obligations.

• Finally, renewing to the same number invalidates any calls that may currently reference the contract. A call taken on December 31 should be serviced under the old terms and conditions—not the ones in effect on January 1.

If Contract Limits is Yes in SSM Accounting Control and contract coverage levels and limits are part of the contract, the contract renewal process accommodates the coverage records in two ways:

• You can copy limits for the new contract from the old contract with new effective dates.

• The system can retrieve limits from the service type and copy them into the new contract.

Which approach the system takes depends on Renew Limits From on the contract. Set the default for this field in SSM Accounting Control. If you renew contracts one at a time, you can modify this field. When you do batch renewal, the system uses the value associated with each contract being renewed.

If you have extensively customized limits in a contract, you probably want to copy them to the new contract. You can also set up limits on the service type using effective dates and then have the system apply the coverage records effective for the new contract duration by referencing the service type.

See Renewal and Contract Limits for more details.

When you renew a contract with a PM schedule, the system calculates a schedule for the next coverage period, just as it did when the contract was created. If Create PM Calls is Yes in Contract Control, the system creates the first call on the schedule. If you are renewing a large number of contracts, a corresponding large number of calls is added to the system.

Control the creation of calls by setting Create PM Calls to No and using the Call Generator (11.1.8) to create scheduled calls for specified time ranges.

See Creating PM Calls.

When you copy or renew individual contracts, you can specify a new service type to be used. If you do, the system loads the new value into the header of the new contract and into any lines that matched the header. If the service type on a line did not match the contract header, it is not changed. You can also copy limits from the new service type by specifying S in Renew Limits From. New lines added to the new contract will use the new service type by default.

You can update pricing during renewal. Use this option by itself or in combination with a changed service type. The price list for recalculating prices can be on the service type or on the source contract. The system uses the start date of the new contract when it searches for effective prices.