The Contract Types table is a background table used to populate the Contract Type field of a Contract record. Each Contract Type record holds a value displayed as a choice in the Contract Type field. The Contract Type also determines the default approval workflow for the Contract record, the default document template for auto-generation of draft contract documents, the default question set for supplier evaluation, the risk conditions used for risk analysis, and the Task creation method.

Use Case

Contract Types can be created and edited by admins and Contract Managers. The Contract Type, Contract Type ID, Has Document Template(s), Default Document Template ID, and Contract Type Default Workflow ID, Extra Fields to Show are pulled into the Contracts table as a link to selected fields from the Contract Type table.

Contract Type records contain selections for various defaults, such as the Default Cost Type, Default Workflow, Default Document Template, etc. These selections are used to set the values of various fields and linked sets in the Contract record when the Contract Type is selected. In most cases, these values can be manually changed by the user in the Contract record.

If the Has Document Template(s) field value is Yes, additional fields in the Contract record are visible: Document Template to Generate and Create and Attach (an action button).

The Self-serve Settings tab contains various options related to the self-serve workflow used in Contract Requests. For each Contract Type, one can determine whether self-serve is available. Setting it to "No" will require Contract Requesters to always submit Contract Requests for that Contract Type for review by the Contract Management Team. If it is set to "Yes", defaults for values related to the contract term, such as Renewal Type, can be selected. Additionally, one can choose to prevent changes to the default, so that Contract Requesters cannot change the provided values when using the self-serve workflow.

You can view all associated document templates, workflows, and risk conditions on the Related Records tab of a Contract Type record.

From here, you can use the related table action bar to Unlink a document template, workflow, or risk condition from the contract type record if necessary.

The availability of the Task tab and Task fields within the Contract record are controlled by the Uses Tasks field on the Contract Type tab. When Uses Tasks is set to Yes, the Tasks tab appears after the Document Templates and Workflows tab of the Contract Type record. The Contract Manager or Admin should then define the Task Generation Method and define if Ad Hoc Tasks can be added on the Contract.

The Task Generation Method field has three options:

The following sections describe how to use each of the Task Generation Method options:

Predefined Task Workflow

This method should be used when the tasks that need to be completed are standard for the current contract type. Enable Ad Hoc Tasks can be set to yes to allow the creation of unique tasks from the Contract record. To create a predefined task workflow:

  1. Ensure that Uses Tasks is set to Yes on the Contract Type tab.
  2. On the Tasks tab, click Create New Task Workflow. Refer to Task Workflow for more information. The new workflow appears.
  3. Define the Default Task Workflow Title.
  4. Once the Default Task Workflow Title is defined, the Task Templates for the selected workflow appear below. To edit these task templates, refer to the Task Template section.

User Selected Tasks

This Task Generation Method allows for the user to select the appropriate tasks from a multiple choice check box on the Contract before generating the tasks.

  1. Click Create New Task Template to create the associated tasks. 
  2. Define the User selectable for Contract Types field if it has not been set. Refer to the Task Template section for more information on creating task templates.

User Generated Ad Hoc Tasks

Select this Task Generation Method if there are no standard tasks associated with a contract type, and the user should be able to create tasks manually.

Obligations

A Contract Type can have one or more default Obligations associated with it. Setting the 'Has Default Obligations' choice field to 'Yes' allows the user to create or select default Obligations. Clicking the 'Create New Default Obligation' creates a new Task Template with Task Type set to Obligation. Most of the options are the same as we saw above with Tasks. There are a few additional fields:

The lookup icon on the Action Bar allows the user to select Obligation templates that are available for the current Contract Type.