(Business processes) Create base contract

Process: Create base contract

Flow

Legend

Objective

To create a contract that has a shareable set of terms and conditions

Description

Certain industries or customer segments may have a common set of terms and conditions that are applicable to all contracts that are created for customers in those industries or segments. A Sales Manager can create a base contract that contains this common set of terms and conditions. Every contract that is created for customers in those industries can then refer to the base contract. This creates a contract that has all the terms and conditions from the customer contract, as well as all the terms and conditions from the base contract.

The base contract is not copied, but used by reference by each of the customer contracts. Therefore, if the base contract is changed, then all customer contracts that reference the base contract will immediately reflect the new terms and conditions.

Since the assumption is that a base contract is created and deployed by a Sales Manager, no approval is required for such a contract.

Contracts can be created or updated through two methods: using the Commerce Accelerator user interface, and by importing an XML document with the contract definition.

In some situations, it is more efficient or necessary to use contract XML import:

creating hundreds of contracts at the same time
the customer's prices and entitled products are loaded from an external system (for example, SAP)
modifying the store default contract
term and condition level Buyer participants
terms and conditions not supported by the Commerce Accelerator user interface (Right to buy, Obligation to buy, Fulfillment center)

Features

Contract terms and conditions
Contract life cycle

Customization

Additional terms and conditions may be added to a base contract.

Contract approval may be turned on or off for base contracts.

Edition

Enterprise

Subprocesses

Deploy contract

Tasks

Task Description Role

Import external contract data
In some situations, you may maintain your customers pricing and product information in an external system (for example, SAP). In this scenario, the contracts will refer to product sets and price list through business policies. An automated tool would be created to extract the product and pricing data from the external system, and populate the appropriate product sets and price lists in WebSphere Commerce.

Pricing data is imported into price lists referred to by a contract through a Price business policy. The prices are imported by massload or other means.

Product data is imported into product sets referred to by a contract through a Product Set business policy. The products are imported by massload or other means.
System

Mark contract approved
Approve a submitted contract when all terms and conditions and other details of the contract are acceptable.
Sales Manager

Set contract details
Set contract details such as:

start and end dates
contract description and remarks
contract attachments
can purchases under this contract be made using the business account credit line
Sales Manager

Set contract terms
Terms and conditions define how a contract is implemented for a customer organization. They define what is being sold under the contract, the price of the items being sold, how the items are shipped, how orders are paid for, how item returns are handled, how orders are approved, and where orders are shipped from.

Contract terms and conditions can also be referred to as contract terms or terms.

Many terms and conditions reference business policies because many aspects of a store's operation are defined by business policies. Terms and conditions provide some standard parameters for the business polices they reference. Providing parameters to the business policies allows you to modify the behavior of business policies for each contract. Terms and conditions that reference business policies are indicated on this page with an asterisk (*).

The Buyer is entitled to all the terms and conditions from this contract, any base contract of this contract, and from the Buyer's account. For each term and condition, the Buyer is entitled to a union of the specified terms in the contracts and account, except where noted below.

WebSphere Commerce supports the following terms and conditions:

Fulfillment center

This optional term allows you to specify the list of fulfillment centers from which orders placed under the contract must be filled. This list must be a subset of the fulfillment centers defined for the store. Fulfillment center precedence is defined by the store and cannot be overridden by the terms and conditions of a contract.

Order approval

This term specifies if orders must be approved by the customer organization before filling the orders. You can specify an optional amount, that includes taxes and shipping, that would allow orders with a value below the amount to be filled without approval from the customer organization. If an order total is over this amount, approval is required. If a Buyer is placing an order with order items under multiple contracts and one item in the order has a contract specifying this term, the entire order is subject to the order approval term that applies to the item.

Payment method

This optional term specifies the payment methods that will be accepted for orders made under the contract. The payment method could be as general as a payment type, such as a credit card type, or as specific as a credit card number to be used for payment. If no payment method term is specified in a contract, payment in all methods accepted by the store will be accepted for orders made under the contract. An optional billing address may be specified. The billing address may be specified as specific addresses from the business account organization's address book, or the Buyer can select an address from the following address books (using the Address Book term and condition): their personal address book, their parent organization's address book, or their business account organization's address book.

Pricing terms and conditions

Pricing terms and conditions define what products are available under a contract and what prices the customer will pay for the products. At least one pricing term is required in a contract. The following pricing terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce:

-- Master catalog with filtering

You can use the WebSphere Commerce catalog filtering features to restrict or limit the view of the catalog to a specific set of users within a hosted store. You can also use the Catalog Filter to exclude any of the products or categories in the master catalog that you do not want to sell under a contract.

The Catalog Filter presents the master catalog as an aggregated tree view of all products and categories available for sale from the store. The Catalog Filter consists of three parts:

---- The catalog tree, which you can use to include the catalog, categories, and products; exclude categories and products and apply percentage price adjustments to the entire catalog.
---- The Include dialog, which displays when you include either the entire catalog, category, or product. The Include dialog allows you to set the percentage price adjustment for the catalog, category, or product that you are including for sale in the store. You can set a fixed price for a product.
---- The Set Price Adjustment dialog, which displays when you choose to change the percentage price adjustment for the catalog, a category, or a product, or fixed price adjustment for a product.

The current settings from this contract and any base contract are displayed.

This term and condition replaces the rest of the pricing and product terms mentioned below, except for the Customized price list. If there are multiple price lists available in a store, the Account Representative chooses which price list should be used for the basis of price adjustments in this contract. Examples of types of price list can include list, cost, and others. If the contract refers to a base contract, then the filter must use the same price list as is used in the catalog filter in the base contract.

-- Dynamic kit component pricing

This term offers a dynamic kit for sale and specifies the adjusted prices of components within the dynamic kit. The adjustment can be specified as a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) or as a fixed price. The price of the dynamic kit is the sum of the adjusted component prices.

-- Customized price list

This term specifies that both the list of products for sale and their prices are customized for sale in a contract and their price is customized. Items are not limited to a section of the store catalog they can be from anywhere in the store catalog.

-- Entire catalog with adjustment*

This term offers all of the products available in a store catalog for sale with a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) from the base price as defined in the store catalog. If no adjustment is specified, items are sold at the base price.

-- Price list with adjustment*

This term offers all of the products available in a price list for sale with a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) from the base price as defined in the store catalog. If no adjustment is specified, items are sold at the base price.

-- Price list with selective adjustment*

This term is similar to price list with adjustment except the adjustment is not applied to the entire price list. The adjustment is made on a subset of the price list. The subset of the price list may either be a product set business policy or a customized product set.

Product constraint terms and conditions

Product constraint terms and conditions control what products are included or excluded for sale under a contract. Product constraint terms are optional. If no product constraint terms and conditions are specified in a contract, all products specified in the contract's price terms and conditions are available for sale under the contract. The following product constraint terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce:

-- Customized product set exclusion

This term states the items in a customized product set are not for sale in a contract.

-- Customized product set inclusion

This term states that items in a customized product set are for sale in a contract.

-- Product set exclusion*

This term states the items in a product set business policy are not for sale in a contract.

-- Product set inclusion*

This term states that items in a product set business policy are for sale in a contract.

Exclusion terms have precedence over inclusion terms. This means that if a product appears both an inclusion term and an exclusion term in the contract, the product could not be purchased under the contract.

Returns terms and conditions

Returns terms and conditions specify how returns are handled under this contract. If no returns terms and conditions are specified then returns can not be created. If returns terms and conditions are specified they should only be one set that applies to the entire contract. The following returns terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce:

-- Refund payment method*

This term specifies the payment method used to pay refunds to a customer. If a return charge term is specified, at least one refund payment method term must be specified as well. This term may not be specified if returns are not allowed under the contract.

-- Return charge*

This term specifies how returns are automatically approved and any deductions from the refund made for handling the return (for example, restocking charges).

Right to buy amount

This term places a limit on the combined value of all orders, including taxes and shipping, placed under a contract. The value of all orders made under the contract must be less or equal to a specified amount. If this limit is exceeded when placing an order, payment authorization for the order will fail.

Shipping terms and conditions

Shipping terms and conditions specify how orders will be shipped, where they will be shipped to and who will pay for the shipping. The following shipping terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce:

-- Shipping mode*

This optional term defines how orders created under a contract are shipped. If this term is not specified in a contract, orders can be shipped by any mode available in a store. A shipping mode is also known as a shipping provider. A shipping provider is the combination of a shipping carrier and its shipping service. For example, "XYZ Courier, Overnight" is a shipping provider.

-- Ship-to address

This optional term specifies where products purchased under a contract are shipped. Specifying this term and condition allows you to limit the locations where orders can be shipped. If the ship-to address term and condition is not specified, a ship-to address must be specified each time an order is made under a contract. If this term is specified, the Buyer can not specify a new ship-to address when placing an order, but must select a ship-to address from a list of ship-to addresses. The ship-to address may be specified as specific addresses from the business account organization's address book, or the Buyer can select an address from the following address books (using the Address Book term and condition): their personal address book, their parent organization's address book, or their business account organization's address book.

-- Shipping charge type*

This term defines who pays for shipping orders. The following types of shipping charges are supported:

---- No shipping charge
---- Shipping charges are paid by the Buyer to the Seller. The Seller calculates the shipping charges when the order is captured and the shipping costs become part of the order total.
---- Shipping charges are paid by the Buyer to the shipping carrier. The carrier calculates the shipping cost and assumes the responsibility of collecting payment from the Buyer. Shipping costs are not calculated when the order is captured.

The order of precedence is the customer contract, if not defined there, then the Buyer's account, and if not defined there, then in the base contract.

-- Shipping adjustment

This optional term specifies the adjusted shipping charges to be applied to the customer's order. Adjustments can be specified to be applicable on individual products, categories, or the entire catalog. The adjustment can be specified as a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) or as a fixed price.

-- Address book

This term allows you to specify the address books from which the customer can choose the shipping and billing addresses for an order. When completing the checkout process for an order, the customer can select an address from the following address books: their personal address book, their parent organization's address book, or their business account organization's address book.
Sales Manager

Submit contract
Submit a contract for approval when the contract modifications have been completed.
Sales Manager

Business artifacts

Active contract
Approved contract
Business account
Contract attachment
Draft contract
Industry segmentation plan
Pending contract

Feedback

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Task	Description	Role
Import external contract data	In some situations, you may maintain your customers pricing and product information in an external system (for example, SAP). In this scenario, the contracts will refer to product sets and price list through business policies. An automated tool would be created to extract the product and pricing data from the external system, and populate the appropriate product sets and price lists in WebSphere Commerce. Pricing data is imported into price lists referred to by a contract through a Price business policy. The prices are imported by massload or other means. Product data is imported into product sets referred to by a contract through a Product Set business policy. The products are imported by massload or other means.	System
Mark contract approved	Approve a submitted contract when all terms and conditions and other details of the contract are acceptable.	Sales Manager
Set contract details	Set contract details such as: start and end dates contract description and remarks contract attachments can purchases under this contract be made using the business account credit line	Sales Manager
Set contract terms	Terms and conditions define how a contract is implemented for a customer organization. They define what is being sold under the contract, the price of the items being sold, how the items are shipped, how orders are paid for, how item returns are handled, how orders are approved, and where orders are shipped from. Contract terms and conditions can also be referred to as contract terms or terms. Many terms and conditions reference business policies because many aspects of a store's operation are defined by business policies. Terms and conditions provide some standard parameters for the business polices they reference. Providing parameters to the business policies allows you to modify the behavior of business policies for each contract. Terms and conditions that reference business policies are indicated on this page with an asterisk (). The Buyer is entitled to all the terms and conditions from this contract, any base contract of this contract, and from the Buyer's account. For each term and condition, the Buyer is entitled to a union of the specified terms in the contracts and account, except where noted below. WebSphere Commerce supports the following terms and conditions: Fulfillment center This optional term allows you to specify the list of fulfillment centers from which orders placed under the contract must be filled. This list must be a subset of the fulfillment centers defined for the store. Fulfillment center precedence is defined by the store and cannot be overridden by the terms and conditions of a contract. Order approval This term specifies if orders must be approved by the customer organization before filling the orders. You can specify an optional amount, that includes taxes and shipping, that would allow orders with a value below the amount to be filled without approval from the customer organization. If an order total is over this amount, approval is required. If a Buyer is placing an order with order items under multiple contracts and one item in the order has a contract specifying this term, the entire order is subject to the order approval term that applies to the item. Payment method This optional term specifies the payment methods that will be accepted for orders made under the contract. The payment method could be as general as a payment type, such as a credit card type, or as specific as a credit card number to be used for payment. If no payment method term is specified in a contract, payment in all methods accepted by the store will be accepted for orders made under the contract. An optional billing address may be specified. The billing address may be specified as specific addresses from the business account organization's address book, or the Buyer can select an address from the following address books (using the Address Book term and condition): their personal address book, their parent organization's address book, or their business account organization's address book. Pricing terms and conditions Pricing terms and conditions define what products are available under a contract and what prices the customer will pay for the products. At least one pricing term is required in a contract. The following pricing terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce: -- Master catalog with filtering You can use the WebSphere Commerce catalog filtering features to restrict or limit the view of the catalog to a specific set of users within a hosted store. You can also use the Catalog Filter to exclude any of the products or categories in the master catalog that you do not want to sell under a contract. The Catalog Filter presents the master catalog as an aggregated tree view of all products and categories available for sale from the store. The Catalog Filter consists of three parts: ---- The catalog tree, which you can use to include the catalog, categories, and products; exclude categories and products and apply percentage price adjustments to the entire catalog. ---- The Include dialog, which displays when you include either the entire catalog, category, or product. The Include dialog allows you to set the percentage price adjustment for the catalog, category, or product that you are including for sale in the store. You can set a fixed price for a product. ---- The Set Price Adjustment dialog, which displays when you choose to change the percentage price adjustment for the catalog, a category, or a product, or fixed price adjustment for a product. The current settings from this contract and any base contract are displayed. This term and condition replaces the rest of the pricing and product terms mentioned below, except for the Customized price list. If there are multiple price lists available in a store, the Account Representative chooses which price list should be used for the basis of price adjustments in this contract. Examples of types of price list can include list, cost, and others. If the contract refers to a base contract, then the filter must use the same price list as is used in the catalog filter in the base contract. -- Dynamic kit component pricing This term offers a dynamic kit for sale and specifies the adjusted prices of components within the dynamic kit. The adjustment can be specified as a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) or as a fixed price. The price of the dynamic kit is the sum of the adjusted component prices. -- Customized price list This term specifies that both the list of products for sale and their prices are customized for sale in a contract and their price is customized. Items are not limited to a section of the store catalog they can be from anywhere in the store catalog. -- Entire catalog with adjustment This term offers all of the products available in a store catalog for sale with a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) from the base price as defined in the store catalog. If no adjustment is specified, items are sold at the base price. -- Price list with adjustment* This term offers all of the products available in a price list for sale with a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) from the base price as defined in the store catalog. If no adjustment is specified, items are sold at the base price. -- Price list with selective adjustment* This term is similar to price list with adjustment except the adjustment is not applied to the entire price list. The adjustment is made on a subset of the price list. The subset of the price list may either be a product set business policy or a customized product set. Product constraint terms and conditions Product constraint terms and conditions control what products are included or excluded for sale under a contract. Product constraint terms are optional. If no product constraint terms and conditions are specified in a contract, all products specified in the contract's price terms and conditions are available for sale under the contract. The following product constraint terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce: -- Customized product set exclusion This term states the items in a customized product set are not for sale in a contract. -- Customized product set inclusion This term states that items in a customized product set are for sale in a contract. -- Product set exclusion* This term states the items in a product set business policy are not for sale in a contract. -- Product set inclusion* This term states that items in a product set business policy are for sale in a contract. Exclusion terms have precedence over inclusion terms. This means that if a product appears both an inclusion term and an exclusion term in the contract, the product could not be purchased under the contract. Returns terms and conditions Returns terms and conditions specify how returns are handled under this contract. If no returns terms and conditions are specified then returns can not be created. If returns terms and conditions are specified they should only be one set that applies to the entire contract. The following returns terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce: -- Refund payment method* This term specifies the payment method used to pay refunds to a customer. If a return charge term is specified, at least one refund payment method term must be specified as well. This term may not be specified if returns are not allowed under the contract. -- Return charge* This term specifies how returns are automatically approved and any deductions from the refund made for handling the return (for example, restocking charges). Right to buy amount This term places a limit on the combined value of all orders, including taxes and shipping, placed under a contract. The value of all orders made under the contract must be less or equal to a specified amount. If this limit is exceeded when placing an order, payment authorization for the order will fail. Shipping terms and conditions Shipping terms and conditions specify how orders will be shipped, where they will be shipped to and who will pay for the shipping. The following shipping terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce: -- Shipping mode* This optional term defines how orders created under a contract are shipped. If this term is not specified in a contract, orders can be shipped by any mode available in a store. A shipping mode is also known as a shipping provider. A shipping provider is the combination of a shipping carrier and its shipping service. For example, "XYZ Courier, Overnight" is a shipping provider. -- Ship-to address This optional term specifies where products purchased under a contract are shipped. Specifying this term and condition allows you to limit the locations where orders can be shipped. If the ship-to address term and condition is not specified, a ship-to address must be specified each time an order is made under a contract. If this term is specified, the Buyer can not specify a new ship-to address when placing an order, but must select a ship-to address from a list of ship-to addresses. The ship-to address may be specified as specific addresses from the business account organization's address book, or the Buyer can select an address from the following address books (using the Address Book term and condition): their personal address book, their parent organization's address book, or their business account organization's address book. -- Shipping charge type* This term defines who pays for shipping orders. The following types of shipping charges are supported: ---- No shipping charge ---- Shipping charges are paid by the Buyer to the Seller. The Seller calculates the shipping charges when the order is captured and the shipping costs become part of the order total. ---- Shipping charges are paid by the Buyer to the shipping carrier. The carrier calculates the shipping cost and assumes the responsibility of collecting payment from the Buyer. Shipping costs are not calculated when the order is captured. The order of precedence is the customer contract, if not defined there, then the Buyer's account, and if not defined there, then in the base contract. -- Shipping adjustment This optional term specifies the adjusted shipping charges to be applied to the customer's order. Adjustments can be specified to be applicable on individual products, categories, or the entire catalog. The adjustment can be specified as a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) or as a fixed price. -- Address book This term allows you to specify the address books from which the customer can choose the shipping and billing addresses for an order. When completing the checkout process for an order, the customer can select an address from the following address books: their personal address book, their parent organization's address book, or their business account organization's address book.	Sales Manager
Submit contract	Submit a contract for approval when the contract modifications have been completed.	Sales Manager