Contract Management in 4 Steps

In the Contract Management module, you can centrally manage all types of contracts—from maintenance and framework agreements to lease agreements and service contracts. You maintain an overview of contract terms, notice periods, contract values, and events. All forms you need for preparatory work can be found in the System Control panel and require the appropriate permissions.

Preparatory Activities

Determine the intended use

• 
  To start, it makes sense to clarify which contract types you want to map in the system and what level of detail you aim for in contract management. Depending on the outcome, individual setup steps can be adjusted or skipped.
  
  Examples of possible usage scenarios:
  
  Pure contract management with term monitoring and deadline management
  Full contract management including contract values, account receivables, and financial accounting export
  Contract linking with properties, buildings, or objects
  Maintenance contracts in combination with the Maintenance module

Check Rights and Prerequisites

First, define the responsibilities within the team. From these responsibilities, you can then easily derive and assign the appropriate rights to the respective employees. You can find instructions for assigning rights here: 📄 Benutzern Rechte über die Rechtegruppe zuordnen IC1059

Once the respective responsibilities have been determined and the corresponding rights assigned, first check whether each employee can actually see and access all menu items relevant to them.

Note: Missing permissions often result in content being invisible or uneditable.

Additional data that must already exist in the system for the module to be put into operation:

Required:
- All relevant companies/contract partners must be entered in Company Management. See: 📄 Firmen & Adressen IC10189
- All relevant cost centers must already be entered in the cost center management. See: 📄 Kostenstellen IC1308

Optional:
- Properties/locations in Portfolio/BIM, if contracts are to be linked to locations. See: 📄 Das Standortformular IC1262
- Objects, if contracts are to be linked to objects. See: 📄 Aufbau des Objektformulars IC1145

1.) Enter basic master data in the System Control

Once the preparatory tasks are complete, you can begin the actual implementation of the Contract Management module.

Start by first storing all relevant master data—which will later be required by contract managers during day-to-day operations—in the system as fixed selection fields. This allows you to create a clean and standardized data foundation for all types of analyses.

The following preparatory master data should be created first:

The master data for Contract Management can be found under:

System Control → Basic Data → Contract Management

Note: It is advisable to use consistent terminology and avoid duplicates. The master data for contracts should be carefully coordinated in advance, as it forms the basis for future analyses and reports.

2.) Create Contracts in the Portal

You can now begin entering specific contracts into the system. It is advisable to first create a few contracts manually using the “New” form in Contract Management to gain a good overview of the system and its capabilities. In the future, you can also import your contract portfolio into the system via Excel.

You can find Contract Management under: Basic Data → Contract Management → Contracts

Minimum data requirements when creating a contract

In order for a contract to be saved and processed further in the system, the following required information must be entered:

• Company: Specifies the company for which the contract is valid. A contract cannot be created without this information.

• Company as: Determines the company’s role in the contractual relationship (e.g., client or contractor). The system automatically derives who is the client and who is the contractor from this—these two fields are populated by the system and cannot be edited manually.

• Contract Description: A descriptive name used to identify the contract and locate it in lists.

• Contract Type: Categorizes the contract (e.g., lease agreement, maintenance contract). The contract type is a key control parameter in the system and has far-reaching effects on other areas (see below).

Fields that affect other areas of the portal

In addition to the required fields, there are features that, while not mandatory, control important automated processes and functions within the portal:

• Contract Type + Contract Category → Workflow Responsibility: The combination of contract type and contract category determines which user group is authorized to process the contract within the workflow. If no entry exists in the responsible party list for a given combination, the workflow for this contract cannot be initiated.

• Contract Type + Company → G/L Account: Based on the G/L account assignment in the master data, the G/L account for debit entries is determined using the contract type and the company. Without this assignment, no postings can be generated.

• Payment Due Date: If no specific payment due date is specified in the contract, the system automatically uses the payment due date defined in the respective contract type. This characteristic is used in the generation of debit memos and the financial accounting export.

• Contract Status: Controls whether a contract appears in the active contract list and whether automatic processes (follow-ups, debit statements, reminders) are executed for this contract.

• In Tenant Balance: Indicates whether the contract is included in the calculation of the tenant balance. Relevant for financial analysis.

• Master Contract: This field allows a contract to be assigned to a parent contract. Subcontracts then appear in the "Subcontracts" section of the master contract.

3.) Contract Workflow: Terms, Reminders, and Contract Expiration

The contract form includes two information sections that control the entire lifecycle of a contract: “Term & Renewal” and “Termination & Resubmission.”

"Term & Renewal" Information Area

In this information section, you define the temporal parameters of the contract, including the minimum term, renewal options, and relevant dates.

• Contract Start Date: Date the contract was signed.

• Contract Start Date: Date on which the contract term begins.

• Minimum Term (Number + Time Unit): Enter the minimum term as a combination of a number and a time unit (e.g., 24 months or 2 years).

• Contract end of minimum term (required): The date on which the minimum term of the contract ends.

• Renewal (Number + Time Unit): Configure the period by which the contract is extended upon renewal.

• Contract end date after renewal: The date on which the contract ends following the current renewal. This is updated by the system during an automatic renewal or when an option is exercised.

• Extensions Performed: Automatically counts how many times the contract has already been extended.

Automatic Contract Extension: If an extension is triggered, the system calculates the new contract end date and the new expiration of the notice period based on the stored extension count and time unit, and increments the extension counter.

"Termination & Resubmission" Information Area

In this information area, you manage notice periods and dates as well as resubmission dates for the contract.

• Notice Period (Number + Time Unit): Enter the contractually agreed notice period as a combination of number and time unit (e.g., 3 months).

• Termination Period Expiration: The latest date by which the contract can be terminated. This is automatically calculated based on the contract end date and the termination period and is updated in the event of renewals.

• Terminated on: The date on which the contract was actually terminated.

• Written notice required?: Indicates whether written notice is required for this contract.

• Resubmission Date: The date on which the contract is automatically added back to the worklist. Use this to be reminded in a timely manner of renegotiations or renewals.

• Resubmission reason: Reason for resubmission (from master data). When an option is selected, the system automatically sets the resubmission reason to “KF” (notice period).

Selecting Options

In the "Options" information area, contract options can be managed and selected. When an option is selected, the system automatically performs the following updates:

1. The “Contract end date after extension” is extended by the number of years specified in the option.

2. The end of the notice period is recalculated.

3. The resubmission date is set to 4 months before the end of the new notice period.

4. The resubmission reason is automatically set to “KF” (notice period).

5. The option is marked as exercised.

Workflow

The "Workflow" information area displays the contract's workflow data. Whether a contract can be processed in the workflow depends on whether an entry exists in the list of responsible parties (Step 1, point e.) for its combination of contract category and contract type. When the workflow starts, a ticket is generated and assigned to the responsible user group.

4.) Contract Events and Contract Values

Contract Events

In the "Contract Events" information area, events can be documented that go beyond the regular termination dates—e.g., the end of a rent-free period, the date of a price negotiation, or other freely definable contract dates.

When using the "Automated Contract Resubmission" workflow (Product 5118), reminder emails are automatically sent for upcoming events, and the events are added to the service lists of the responsible persons. Without using the workflow, the list can be used to document contract events.

Fields of a contract event:

• Description: Name or description of the event.

• Code: Short code for identifying the event.

• Date: The time at which the event takes place.

• Remind on: The date on which a reminder for the event should be triggered.

• Completed: Indicates whether the event has already been completed.

• Responsible Group: The user group responsible for handling the event.

Contract Values

The "Contract Values" information area allows you to assign the relevant contract values to a contract, specifying the validity period.

Fields of a contract value:

• Net Value / Gross Value: The net and gross amounts of the contract value.

• VAT %: The applicable VAT rate.

• Value From / Value To: Validity period of the contract value.

• Reason for Change: Reason for a value change (e.g., price adjustment, indexation).

Contract Value Details

Detail values can be created for each contract value to break down the contract value in greater detail. In the detail values, general ledger accounts and cost centers can also be assigned.

Fields of a detail value:

• Description: Name of the item.

• Item: Item number.

• Net Amount: Net amount of the individual item.

• Start Date / End Date: Validity period of the item.

• G/L Account: Assigned G/L account for the posting.

• Cost Center: Assigned cost center for the entry.

• Comment: Free-text field for additional information.

Note: The detailed values do not automatically affect the total contract value. This must be entered manually in the contract value form. When copying contract values, both the values and the associated details are transferred.

Next Steps:

• Understanding the basics of contract management

• Report: Create a contract list

• Use the master list of contracts and current contract periods

• Troubleshooting contract management