| # Purchase Contracts Purchase contracts are used to register agreements with a buy-from business partner for the delivery of specific goods. These agreements can be registered at the following levels: Purchase contract lines In contract lines, the agreements with a business partner about the delivery of a particular item or group of items for a specified period of time are registered. These agreements are focused on total quantities, prices, and discounts. You can specify an effective period and indicate whether the minimum quantity to purchase is binding. Terms and conditions agreements In terms and conditions agreements, detailed terms and conditions regarding orders, planning, logistics, invoicing, and demand pegging regarding the sale, purchase, or transfer of goods, are registered. A purchase terms and conditions agreement must be linked to a normal purchase contract before you can use it. Contract types You can specify these contract types: Normal contracts Special contracts For each purchase business partner, you can close multiple special contracts in one period. In a specific period, you cannot specify more than one normal contract per item or price group for a buy-from business partner. Purchase contracts are used as the basis of purchase orders or purchase schedules. The data specified in the purchase contract serves as a parent of the data that you specify in the linked purchase order or purchase schedule. When creating planned purchase orders or purchase schedules from Enterprise Planning, during the supplier selection process, purchase business partners are searched for who can supply the required item. Based on the priority search levels specified on the Buy-from BP Search Schedules and Buy-from BP Search Orders tabs of the Purchase Contract Parameters (tdpur0100m300) session, purchase contracts can be used to search for these purchase business partners. If valid business partners are found, they are sent to and selected by Enterprise Planning. Specifying purchase contracts The normal purchase contract procedure includes the creation of a purchase contract header and purchase contract lines with purchase contract price revisions and logistic agreements. Corporate purchase contracts Corporate purchase contracts are used by multisite companies to negotiate contractual agreements with a buy-from business partner, after which price agreements are centrally specified (by purchase contract line), and logistic agreements are decentrally specified (by purchase contract line detail). Corporate purchase contracts allow you to make keen price agreements on a corporate level and to use these prices on site level. Retrieving purchase contracts How purchase contracts are retrieved depends on whether the contract must be linked to a purchase order or a purchase schedule. Discount schedules on contracts You can link one or more discount schedules to a purchase contract. Delivery contracts If you specify a contract and you know the time-phased delivery details, you can create a delivery contract instead of a purchase schedule. A delivery contract is not a real schedule, but a schedule solution to generate purchase orders on time. Copying purchase contracts You can copy existing purchase contracts to create purchase contracts. Evaluating purchase contracts If a purchase contract is used for a purchase order or a purchase schedule, you can evaluate the purchase contract during and after the purchase order or schedule procedure. During the contract's effectivity period, you can check if the deliveries take place as agreed in the contract. At the end of the contract's effectivity period, you can check if the agreed quantities were met. Material price information You can link material price information to a purchase contract line. As a result, the (document line) price on the purchase contract line includes material prices. Purchase contract additional processes You can use several additional processes in the purchase contract procedure, such as activating or deactivating a range of purchase contracts, printing purchase contract acknowledgements, copying quotations to purchase contracts, creating RFQs from purchase contracts, printing termination letters, terminating and deleting purchase contracts. |