| # Purchase contracts Purchase contracts are used to register specific agreements with a buy-from business partner that concern 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. Apart from specifying an effective period, you can also indicate whether the minimum quantity to be purchased is binding. Terms and conditions agreements In terms and conditions agreements, detailed terms and conditions regarding orders, planning, logistics, invoicing, allocation and hard pegging regarding the sale, purchase, or transfer of goods, are registered. A purchase terms and conditions agreement must be linked to a purchase contract before you can use it. Contract types You can create the following 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 define 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. If you use purchase schedules, you can also use purchase contracts to retrieve approved purchase business partners. Purchase schedules and terms and conditions agreements can only be linked to normal contracts and not to special contracts. Central contracts In a multicompany structure, you can define one central contract that can be used by various purchase offices from different logistic companies. The following are applicable to these contracts: The central purchase office maintains the purchase contract and purchase pricing. Each separate logistic company (site) purchases goods directly from suppliers, handles receipts, and pays invoices. The local purchase orders are based on the conditions, prices, and discounts laid down in the central contract. The local companies' purchased quantities are aggregated to the central contract. In the company that maintains the central contract, you cannot use delivery schedules to update planned inventory transactions, because the inventory is present in other companies. You can only use the delivery schedules to display information. LN records the supplier performance information in the local companies that issue the purchase orders. Note Before you can use central contracts, the companies must share the contract tables by means of logical table linking or by replication. For more information, refer to the following user's guides: User's Guide for Multicompany Structures (U9504 US) User's Guide for Multicompany Table Sharing (U9505 US) Purchase contract procedure To record the agreements that you made with a buy-from business partner, take the following steps: Step 1. Purchase Contract - Lines (tdpur3600m000) Use this session to define the following: Purchase contract header Define the general data for a purchase contract header. The information to be defined is mainly related to the purchase business partner to whom the contract relates. On the contract header, you can also link a terms and conditions agreement. The terms and conditions agreement can be linked as follows in this session: Manually, by selecting an agreement from the Terms and Conditions (tctrm1100m000) session. By generating an agreement from a template, which is automatically linked to the contract header. Click Generate Terms and Conditions from Template on the appropriate menu to start the Generate Terms and Conditions from Template (tctrm2200m000) session. Contract header data refers to the Purchase Contracts (tdpur3100m000) session. Purchase contract lines Define purchase contract lines, which include the agreements with a purchase business partner about a certain item during a period of time. Contract line data refers to the Purchase Contract Lines (tdpur3101m000) session. Purchase contract price revisions Record prices and discounts for the purchase contract line in a purchase contract price revision. Contract price revision data refers to the Purchase Contract Price Revisions (tdpur3103m000) session. The following can be linked to a contract: Both a terms and condtions agreement and contract lines. Only a terms and conditions agreement and no contract lines. Only contract lines and no terms and conditions agreement. For more information, refer to: Overview of terms and conditions To set up purchase contract price revisions To link discount schedule(s) to purchase contract price revision Step 2. Purchase Contract Line Logistic Data (tdpur3102m000) Use the Purchase Contract Line Logistic Data (tdpur3102m000) session if you want purchase schedules with external business partners to be linked to the contract line. If you only use purchase schedules with internal business partners, you need not define a contract. Therefore, the Purchase Contract Line Logistic Data (tdpur3102m000) session is not a mandatory session in the purchase contract procedure. The purchase contract line logistic data provides default values to the purchase schedule that is linked to the purchase contract line. If you do not define logistic data, you cannot create a purchase schedule for an external business partner. For more information, refer to To set up contract line logistic data. Step 3. Delivery Contract (tdpur3104m000) If you define a contract and you already know the time-phased delivery details, in the Delivery Contract (tdpur3104m000) session, 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 in time. For more information, refer to To set up a delivery contract. Note LN automatically links purchase orders and purchase schedules to contracts with the Active status, if available. When a purchase order is created, LN searches for the price and discounts on special contracts and then on normal contracts. If more special contracts are valid for the buy-from business partner/item(group)/date, a selection screen appears from which you must select a contract. When a purchase schedule is created, LN automatically links a normal contract to the purchase schedule. However, in the Purchase Schedules (tdpur3110m000) session, you can unlink the normal contract and link a special contract to the purchase schedule. To retrieve terms and conditions from an active contract for an order line, the contract need not be linked to the order line. As a result, the contract number is only filled on the order line if an active contract line is linked to the order line. For more information, refer to To retrieve terms and conditions. Purchase contract - additional processes You can: Print contract acknowledgments to send to the buy-from business partner in the Print Purchase Contract Acknowledgments (tdpur3405m000) session. Copy one purchase contract to another in the Copy Purchase Contracts (tdpur3801m000) session. Copy quotations to a purchase contract in the Convert Quotations to Contracts/Orders/Price Books (tdpur1202m000) session. Create requests for quotations based on purchase contracts in the Duplicate Contract Lines to RFQs (tdpur3201m000) session. Check whether the agreed quantities are met at the end of a contract's effective period in the Evaluate Purchase Contracts (tdpur3420m000) session. You can also monitor, by extrapolating, the contract's progress during the effective period. A report is printed that contains the deviations. An evaluation for the complete contract can be executed by not printing the separate contract lines. Small deviations are tolerated and are not printed. Send a letter to inform the purchase business partner about the closure/expiration of the contract in the Print Purchase Contract Termination Letters (tdpur3406m000) session. Terminate or delete purchase contracts that are no longer valid, or that have ended early in the Delete/Terminate Purchase Contracts (tdpur3203m000) session. Related topics Overview of terms and conditions To set up purchase contract price revisions To set up contract line logistic data To set up a delivery contract To copy purchase contracts Overview of purchase schedule handling Companies - setup |