Operate > WebSphere Commerce Accelerator > Business relationship management > Contracts
Contract referral
A customer contract can refer to a base contract to share the terms and conditions from the base contract. For example, contract A can refer to contract B. Thus, a buyer who is entitled to contract A will be entitled to all the terms and conditions from contract A, as well as to all the terms and conditions in contract B. Multiple customer contracts can refer to the same base contract so that all the customer contracts can share a set of terms and conditions.
Once you have specified that a contract should refer to another contract, you can change the reference, but not the fact that the contract refers to another contract.
There are no restrictions on what types of terms and conditions can be contained in either the base contract or the customer contract. Base contracts do not have to follow the set of contract minimum rules; that is:
- Base contracts do not need to have any participants specified
- Base contracts do not need to have any pricing terms specified
- Base contracts do not have to have a shipping charge type term
For the terms and conditions where there must be one and only one per contract (for example, in the case of an order approval term), the order approval term can be in either the base contract or the customer contract, but not in both.
A shipping charge term may be specified in both the base and customer contract, however the customer contract shipping charge term will override the base contract shipping charge term. The customer contract does not have to have a shipping charge term if there is one defined in either the base contract or the business account. The shipping charge term in the business account will also override a shipping charge term defined in the base contract.
For the terms and conditions where there must be at least one per contract (for example, one pricing term), the pricing term can be in either the base contract or the customer contract, or in both.
For a customer who is entitled to a customer contract, the customer is entitled to all the terms and conditions in the customer contract, as well as all the terms and conditions in the base contract.
The following are some examples:
- A base contract is created that specifies the entire catalog at 10% off. Nothing else is specified in the base contract.
- A contract is created for customer A that refers to the base contract. Add another term and condition that shirts are 20% off. Add the "Shipping is charged by the seller" term and condition
- A contract is created for customer B that refers to the base contract. Add another term and condition that "Pants" are 40% off. Add the "Shipping is charged by the seller" term and condition
In a Buyer organization, when an employee of customer A shops in the store, they are entitled to 10% off the entire catalog and 20% off shirts. When an employee of customer B shops in the store, they are entitled to 10% off the entire catalog and 40% off pants.