Contract approval flow
A contract passes through various states from the time it is created until the time it is deleted. In most cases, the change of state is triggered by actions you take. Some state changes occur automatically. The approval state is optional.
In the diagram below, the actions that cause the state changes are shown on the lines connecting the contract states. Lines that are not labeled represent state changes that occur automatically. This diagram shows the possible states of one contract.
The following states are shown in the diagram:
- Initial
- This state represents the starting point of the contract lifecycle.
- Draft
- A draft contract is a newly created contract, a contract that has been imported from an external source as a draft contract, or a contract that has been created by duplicating an existing contract (Duplicating an existing contract is not shown in the diagram). A contract in draft state is incomplete and not ready to be submitted for approval. The sales manager or account representative decides when a draft contract is ready to submit for approval.
- Pending (approval)
- A contract in the pending (approval) state is a draft contract that is complete and has been submitted for approval. The sales manager or account representative decides when a draft contract is ready to submit for approval. The designated approvers for the contract must review the contract. Products cannot be purchased under a contract in this state.
- Approved
- If the designated approvers for the contract decides a contract is complete and acceptable, they can move the contract into the approved state. WebSphere Commerce will automatically attempt to deploy an approved contract.
- Rejected
- If the designated approver for a store decides a contract is not complete or is unacceptable, they can move the contract into the rejected state. A contract in the rejected state can be changed and re-submitted for approval, canceled, or marked for deletion.
- Deployment in progress
- A contract that is in deployment is an approved contract being published to the server. Purchases cannot be made against the contract. In XML files and the WebSphere Commerce database tables, this state appears as DeploymentInProgress.
- Active
- An active contract is one that was deployed successfully and purchases can be made against the contract. If the expiry date for a contract has passed, the contract still remains in the active state until it is canceled.
- Deployment failed
- If a contract cannot be published to the server, the contract is set to the deployment failed state. Check the error logs and attempt to correct the problem that prevented deployment of the contract and try to deploy the contract again. In XML files and the WebSphere Commerce database tables, this state appears as DeploymentFailed.
- Closed
- An active, suspended, or approved contract goes to the closed state automatically when a new version of the contract has been approved. Creating a new version of a contract creates a copy of the contract and place the copy of the contract in the draft state.
- Suspended
- When a contract is suspended, purchases cannot be made against that contract. The contract cannot be changed, but it can be resumed making the contract active again.
- canceled
- A canceled contract is a contract that is no longer in use, but is left in the database for reference.
- Mark for delete
- A contract that is marked for delete can no longer be accessed using WebSphere Commerce. In XML files and the WebSphere Commerce database tables, this state appears as MarkForDelete.
Related concepts
Business relationship management
Related tasks
Approving or rejecting a draft contract
Approving or rejecting approval requests
Create a contract - - -