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Account terms and conditions

Terms and conditions define how a contract is implemented for a customer organization. When the same terms and conditions are being applied to each contract in an account, it makes more sense to define the terms and conditions at the account level, so they can be inherited by all of the contracts under the account.

Account terms and conditions can also be referred to as account 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 (*).

WebSphere Commerce supports the following account terms and conditions:

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.

Credit Line

A credit line is a payment method that provides the ability for a buyer to delay the payment settlement for all orders. The account holder is responsible for payment settlement on an outstanding balance on a credit line. If a credit line is used for payment, the seller debits the account for an order at the time of payment capture, and the account is credited during payment settlement.

Payment settlement for credit lines is handled outside of WebSphere Commerce. The system does not keep track of the payment settlement status.

Allow a credit line as a method of payment is configured as part of business account management. Purchase order numbers may be specified when paying for orders with credit lines, but a buyer is not required to use the credit line payment method when specifying a purchase order number. In order for a buyer to use a credit line as a method of payment, they must be authorized to use a contract, and the contract terms and conditions must specify that credit lines are allowed.

Credit lines can be removed any time after the account has been created. This is one way to stop the use of the credit line if an account becomes delinquent.

Invoices

An invoice is a document that notifies the account holder that an order has been released to fulfillment under their account and lists the following information for that order:

  • Items

  • Prices

  • Purchase order numbers

  • Ship charges

  • Total amount billed

A business account can record whether the invoice should be shipped by e-mail, regular mail or included with a shipment. If the business account is configured to have invoices sent by e-mail, the invoice will be sent automatically when the pick batch for the release is generated.

Only one invoice can be generated for a release.

The invoice terms and conditions specify the method for issuing the invoice. If the invoice is to be sent by e-mail, it is sent to the e-mail address of the buyer contact for the account. If the buyer contact does not include an e-mail address, the invoice is not sent. If the invoice is to be sent by regular mail or included with the shipment, use the generated XML data to print the invoices outside of WebSphere Commerce.

Refer to the tasks below for information about setting the invoice format as well as information about configuring the e-mail transport method and assigning it to the invoice message type.

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.

Price terms and conditions

Price 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:

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.

Deprecated feature:

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. For information about the differences between the types of product sets, see the related topic below.

Catalog with filtering *

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. This term also offers all of the products available in a category, or a list of specify products and items, for sale with a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) from the base price as defined in the price list referenced by this term. This term can also state which categories, products and items are for sale or are not for sale in a contract. Category product sets will behave as a product set business policy. Item product sets will be customized products sets.

Component price building block *

This term defines price adjustments which are only available or applicable to items purchased within a dynamic kit. That is, you can assign a price markdown, or markup, or even a completely different price if a particular item is included within a kit. Similarly, you can assign different prices to a single item depending on the kit in which it is included.

Purchase Orders

WebSphere Commerce provides the ability for you to track and authorize customer purchase order numbers. If a business account includes any purchase order terms and conditions and a contract specifies the use of that account, all purchases under the contract must specify a purchase order number defined with the account. A single purchase order number can then be used for payment authorization.

Purchase order numbers are specified when the customer places an order. Purchase order numbers can be specified for three different types of purchase orders:

Blanket purchase orders

Used for an unlimited number of orders. Blanket purchase order numbers that will be accepted when placing an order must be specified in the business account before buyers attempt to specify a blanket purchase order number.

Limited purchase orders

Used for orders where the total amount of all orders made specifying the limited purchase order number does not exceed a spending limit. The spending limit for a limited purchase order is recorded and used to validate orders that specify a limited purchase order number to ensure the spending limit is not exceeded. Limited purchase order numbers that will be accepted when placing an order must be specified in the business account before buyers attempt to specify a limited purchase order number.

Individual purchase orders

Used for one order and acceptable purchase order numbers are not predefined. You can specify that customers must use a unique purchase order number for each order placed on behalf of a business account. If you do not require a unique purchase order number for each order, customers may reuse purchase order numbers.

Blanket and limited purchase orders are also known as predefined purchase orders because purchase order numbers for these types of purchase order must be defined in the business account before buyers can use the purchase order numbers when making a purchase.

Purchase order numbers can be tracked and authorized for any payment method supported by WebSphere Commerce, including credit line.

Ship terms and conditions

Ship 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:

Ship 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 cannot specify a new ship-to address when placing an order, but must select a ship-to address from a list of ship-to addresses.

Ship charge type*

This term defines who pays for shipping orders. You can adjust the shipping charge using the Accounts or Contracts notebook in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator. Shipping charge adjustments can be a discount or increase in charge, and can be a fixed price or percentage adjustment. The following types of shipping charges are supported:

  • Ship 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.

  • Ship 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.

Ship charge adjustment *

This term contains specifies shipping discounts for the contract. These discounts specify an adjustment type (percent off or fixed cost), applicable shipping method, the adjustment amount, and the adjustment description.


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