(Enterprise)Contract referral
A base contract is a contract that can be referred to by other contracts. For example, contract B refers to (base) contract A. Thus, a buyer who is entitled to the terms and conditions in contract B is also entitled to all the terms and conditions in contract A. Multiple customer contracts can refer to the same base contract so that all the customer contracts can share a set of terms and conditions. We can use the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool in Management Center to create price rules and catalog filters. Then, we can use WebSphere Commerce Accelerator to assign the price rules and catalog filters to contracts as extended terms and conditions. If the site also includes catalog filter and pricing terms and conditions that are not created with the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool in Management Center, the catalog filter and pricing extended terms and conditions that are created in Management Center have the higher priority and are respected. For more information about how contracts interact when using price rules and catalog filters that are created with the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool, see
After you specify that a contract refer to another contract, we 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. For example,
- Base contracts do not have to have any participants specified
- Base contracts do not have to have any pricing terms specified
- Base contracts do not have to have a shipping charge type term
A shipping charge term can be specified in both the base and customer contract. However, the shipping charge term in the customer contract overrides that of the base contract. The customer contract does not need 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 also overrides a shipping charge term that is 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.
Note: The pricing term conditions in both contracts are respected unless the pricing term conditions for a particular category > catalogEntry include different markdown or markup pricing term conditions. If there are different markdown or markup price term conditions, the price term condition with the lowest price is used. In these pricing situations, neither contract overrides the other contract by default, nor are the contracts accumulated.
For a customer who is entitled to a customer contract, the customer is entitled to all the terms and conditions in the customer contract. The customer is also entitled to 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 off 20%. 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 off 40%. 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.