Contracts Help and User Guide

1. Pre-Requisites

1.1. Considerations when Creating Product Groups for Contracts

A requirement for the module for contract items is that you set your product groups as product type Service/Labour.

We recommend ticking keep movement history.

Careful consideration should be giving to setting up product groups and whether you are looking to have different nominal codes based on different contract types or if all contracts, regardless of type, are posted to one nominal code.

These will be very much led by the reporting requirements of the company as to how they wish to report revenue and costs for different types of service contracts.

If you have multiple nominal codes for different types of contracts you should set up a stock product group for each of these contract types and associate the relevant nominal code (s) against each one.

If you are using separate p & l nominal codes for different contract types for reconciliation purposes, it is recommended having equal number of balance sheet codes, one for each contract type, this is highly recommended for reconciliation purposes, especially if you.

1.2. Maintenance Contract Tab on a Product Group

Only visible when the contracts module is installed, and all scripts enabled for the relevant user.

This area should be reviewed and configured before the module is set up, this is especially important when using the contracts module to manage deferred income and costs.

1.3. Deferred Nominals

If you are not using the contracts module to manage deferred income and or costs you do not need to enter any nominal codes within this tab at all and they should be left blank.

The nominal codes that are to be used during the month end movement from the balance sheet to  P&L nominal accounts.

It’s not uncommon where you supplying the service, that you only would be looking to manage deferred income only, so you would only need to populate the top two fields, leaving the bottom two blank

The first two fields are relevant to revenue:

– Profit & Loss revenue code: The Default P & L Account which will be credited
monthly

– Balance sheet deferred revenue codes: The Default balance sheet account which will
be debited monthly

The second two fields are relevant only if you are looking to manage deferred costs:

Profit & Loss cost code : The Default P & L Account which will be debited monthly

Balance sheet deferred cost codes : The Default balance sheet account which will be credited monthly

You can set default nominals for managing deferred at product group level or at stock record level

If managing deferred income through the module then the nominal code in the second field, the balance sheet deferred revenue codes is the one that should also be set on the sage standard analysis tab in the second field, as to where the sales order / invoice will be posted to initially

If not managing deferred income through contract manager then the revenue account code entered on the standard sage 200 analysis tab would normally be a p & l nominal revenue account

For advice on nominal codes and structure please refer to your Sage 200 Business Partner and/or accountant

If you are managing deferred income then it’s important that the balance sheet account that is debited during the monthly journal routine is the same balance sheet nominal account that the initial sale/sop invoice (or credit) is posted to

As such the balance sheet deferred nominal account is the one you will see on a sales order line where a service stock code is selected that is set as a maintenance contract item

In our example screen shot above during the contract period end journal routine the movements for the relevant deferred transactions would be as follows

• Revenue Movement Debit Balance Sheet code 29101 – Credit P & L Acc 36001
• Costs Movement Credit Balance Sheet code 19101 – Debit P & L Acc 46001

1.4. Contract Settings

At product group level or within contract manager settings you will see options as to how the module will treat the contract lines when added via a sales order. Options being:

• Always create a new contract for the customer (regardless of whether there is an existing contract for the sop customer) or
• When updating contracts from SOP, look for an existing contract for the customer, but always create a new contract line

If neither are ticked, then the system will look to match the customer, the service stock item, along with other line details such as bill cover from and to dates, pricing and if all matches at the point of the sales order being posted the linked/found contract line qty will be incremented.

In all cases when a contract / contract line is added directly onto a sales order within sop until the sales order is posted it is treated as a pending.

If neither of the options above are ticked , or just the 2^nd option is ticked ( look for an existing contract for the customer, but always create a new contract line) the pending line can be seen within the customers’ existing live contract  , by selecting the pending Radio button within the contract.

If the top option is selected (always create a new contract) , then initially when the sales order is saved a separate pending contract will be created starting with the number 999 , and can be visible on the contract list view over main contract screen selecting the contract status = Pending. Once the sales order is posted a new contract with the final contract number will be created.

If neither options are enabled, and there is no existing contract, if you create a new sales order for a customer that DOES NOT have an existing contract and where you add more than 1  contract line on to that new sales order, when you save the sales order for each contract line on that sales order you will see separate pending contracts.

Important Note: When you post the sales order for the new contract customer, you will see  separate contracts . This is because when line 1 is added on to sales order there is no existing contract , and when additional lines are added there is still no existing contract, because until you post the sales order the lines are pending.

If its important to you that there is only one contract , then you should consider your starting point to creating the contract first within the contract module itself rather than sales orders , thus  adding all the contract lines within one contract and generating through to sales orders and then adding any additional items such as stock.

Alternatively you could add a new sales order for a new contract customer, just adding one contract line, print and post so a contract does exist, create a 2^nd sales order so there is an existing contract and the lines will add to the existing contract. The recommended route would be to start within contract adding the multiple lines, as that way you will get one single sales order / invoice.

From within contracts manager to see what contracts / which contract lines are pending you can use the contract status ‘pending’ either within the contract’s maintenance view.

1.5. Default Contract Line Descriptions

Saves time if your contract lines have the same information on, such as period of cover dates.

This default descriptions can be set at product group or service stock item level.

If set at product group level, then on the service stock item you do not need to re-enter the default description at service stock item level.

The only time you would is if a specific service stock item does require a different default description.

Selecting Insert variable button shows the user all the fields that can be used, and when the required one is found in list simply can be selected by double clicking.

Note: If you do not set any defaults on either the product group or the service stock item, when adding a contract line on a sales order you can use the ‘Amend Description function’ as per our screen shot below it will pull through the Code and the period of covers.

If you do not set defaults at product group or service stock item level, or use the ‘amend description at sales order line then no dates will appear on the sales order / invoice

From our experience from a customer’s perspective they are more likely to pay an invoice if dates of the service being invoiced for are shown so we do recommend setting up defaults, or when adding a contract item on to a sales order using the ‘amend description’.

The other good reason why adding default contract line descriptions on to either the product group or on individual service stock item, is so that the information added pulls through on to the contract line itself.

The screen shot bellows shows a contract where Line one was from a product group that had no default contract line description added whereas Line 2 and three did.

If it does not matter when looking at the contract in this view, and you are not looking to use the facility to for example ‘send to excel’ and if you are happy to click on each line and view / edit to view the contract bill cover from: to dates then it’s not a problem but during project implementations that we have done although initially the customer may say it does not matter, further down the line it may be useful.

1.6. Product Group Details Tab - Nominal Code Recommendations

For reasons explained in previous sections If managing deferred income through the module then the nominal code in the second field, should be the same as the Balance Sheet revenue nominal as specified on the Maintenance contract Tab.

Standard Sage requires nominal codes in accrued receipts but these are not used by the contract module.

If you are using contracts to manage deferred costs there are limitations so we recommend you to review sections the section 5 within the Help and user guide titled ‘Contract Line Cost of Sale / Supplier Costs’ before you determine which nominal code to use in the ‘Stock field’ on this Details tab.

Other Considerations / Notes

Are you using Sicon Projects (previously known as Job Costing)

If the nominal code shown on the sage analysis tab in the revenue field is showing the balance sheet deferred nominal account correctly, but during testing before going live you spot the sales order was posted to another nominal code, you need to check (view) the sales order line to see which nominal code the sales order has picked up / is using

If the sales order was generated from within contracts the user cannot manually change the nominal code when either an order has been generated from contracts as we lock it down, however if it’s been manually added on a sales order a user can (shouldn’t but can) change the nominal code.

Furthermore, if Sicon Projects is installed and set to integrate, because projects is ‘king’ it may be that the project header that was set on the line, has overridden the nominal code, because the project header when created in projects during that modules set up has had a default nominal code set against it and is overriding the nominal set up on the stock record.

If this is the case you need to review the project header set up within Sicon projects and ‘Maintain Project Headers’.

It’s likely you have a project header specifically for contracts, if this is the case then make sure that the default nominal a/c is set to be the same as the stock record/analysis tab/revenue field nominal account

If you are using a generic project header, then make sure there is no default nominal code set on the project header, this way the sales order line will use the stock record nominal code

Using default CC & Dept’s on sales Ledger Accounts ?

Be aware that if you have default nominal codes, cc and dept’s set up on customers and within sales order processing settings / default accounts tab and you have ‘use same nominal code as ’customer account’ selected and ‘use same cost centre & dept as customer account’ selected, you may not see the results you expect when the sop orders / returns are posted.

This is because regardless of what is setup on the stock record as to where to post the revenue, the settings will override it.

1.7. SOP Settings and User Permissions

Option1: To avoid un necessary steps within sales orders, having to despatch free text/service lines after generating from the contracts module the contracts through to sop for invoicing we recommend within sop utilities – system set up – sop settings – order processing tab, that the service/labour order lines should be defaulted to confirmation not required.

Option 2:  If you do have non-contract line sales orders with service/labour items that do require users to confirm dispatch then leave as confirmed with goods despatched or confirm as service/free text, because the Sicon contracts module will override the step, just for service stock codes that are flagged as maintenance contract items.

Next step is to ensure the relevant contract users processing through to sales order have the relevant permissions set.

Within sop utilities – system setup – user permissions, those users using the contract module must have at least the override prices, override cost prices set to yes to ensure on a contract line they can amend the relevant prices.

2. Contracts Menu Structure

Within the Contract Module, users can (based on the users & role permissions):

• Maintain new and existing contracts
• For those users who are only need VIEW access no add or amend there is a View Contract Enquiry feature
• Manage deferred income and month end routines
• Print contract renewal notices (for contract lines that are NOT flagged as rolling contract lines)
• Print a purchase order for the contract lines where supplier details and costs have been entered (Does not post to POP, and is meant for internal purposes / reference only (i.e. for the contract person, to hand to finance team to make them aware that a supplier’s invoice is forthcoming in relation to a service contract being sub contracted out)
• Maintain cancellation and deletion reason codes (Can be used on custom reports)
• Maintain (add reasons codes) for naturally Expired contracts
• Configure & Enable the module
• Import Contracts & Default settings for service stock item records in relation to contract settings and where there is deferred income / costs associated with the records imported, generated the deferred income transactions which are stored and then used to generate the monthly deferred routine
• Import Service Stock Settings, where the Contracts Module have been added since stock was added it’s possible to add via csv relevant settings on to the Contracts Manager Tab

Contracts List: Selecting this will give you a Sage 200 List View of contracts from which you can select and edit / view.

3. Utilities - Settings

3.1. Contract Settings & Defaults

Prior to using the contracts module all the options within settings and all the tabs should be reviewed and configured accordingly.

If after using the module they need to be amended they can be, none of them are such that once set they can’t be changed, but noting that if changed you may see changes in appearances of the forms / screens and functionality.

Functionality

• Enable auto number:If enabled the system when a contract is added and it will be allocated a contract number based on the prefix and format setIf not enabled upon saving of a contract users will be able to manually enter a contract number using numbers and / or  letters of their choiceN.B. Where contract lines are being added via the SOP module and where the system is set to always create a new contract, regardless of whether there is an existing contract for the sop customer, then until the sales order is posted, a temporary pending contract number is issued.

• Allow user to amend contract copy: If enabled will allow the users to copy an existing  a contract as opposed to re-keying all the details.This works well for contracts that contains just one single contract line or where separate contracts for the same customer is your preferred use of the module, it does not work so well if you have multiple lines per contract because you would use the function to copy, and then potentially unless all details on lines are the same, you would need to edit each line and change details where necessary.

Allow contract customer change

Not recommended where managing deferred income and or costs as there is likely to be a requirement to adjust certain elements on the copied line, so the time saving would be minimal.

If you change the customer and then look on the contract ‘Sales orders generated from this contract’ pane’ – the sales order listed will not show they are for another account, so could cause confusion.

If you do enable this feature and please note that any previously linked sales orders generated from a contract, and deferred postings will not retrospectively change, so this option should be used with care and consideration.

Quantity format: On a contract line, by default 2 decimal places is set as 00, but where more required enter the number of decimal places here for example if 4 required enter 0000.

Attachment location: Default location for documents to be stored that are adding within the attachments tab, we recommend this is a location that is covered as part of your companies nightly backup routine.

Year-end Date: Year End date is purely used in connection with the feature, ‘Enable ‘New / Existing’ status’ as per the screen shot below which in turn could be used for custom reporting, to show whether within a 12-month period of invoice period the deferred transaction is class as ‘new’ within that period or ‘existing’.

This unusual feature was included for a customer who wanted to record within a given 12-month period (and not the same 12-month period as their sage 200 financial year) , whether it was a new contract/transaction or existing.

If the Enable ‘New / Existing’ status feature is enabled within optional settings, then when looking at the deferred transactions where a transaction is date after the year specified in the Year end date will be show as ‘existing’ whereas the ones prior to the date specified in Year end date will be shown as ‘new’.

Enable dismiss option on update contract lines screen: (Not recommended)

When sales orders that include a contract and / or lines are posted within sop, and the sop routine is complete an additional Sicon screen appears which is known as ‘Update Contracts’ (as per the screen shot below).

This second step / process show which contract(s) and which contract line(s)  will be either added, updated and deferred transactions created without having to manually go into contracts, contract processing and post invoice update to retrieve the update contracts step

By default, they are all ticked, and the user would select Process

If however, the ‘enable dismiss option’ is enabled, at the point of post sales orders, a user could choose to dismiss the creation of contracts, which in turn means the user would need to remember to go in to contracts \contract processing and post invoice update

With out this 2^nd step being run, the contract lines will not be added / updated from the sales order and where you are managing deferred income and costs the deferred transactions will not be generated

Options to determine how contracts are updated when added via SOP

As detailed against each setting the system will either when a contract \ contract line is added on to a sales order directly will: –

Always create a new separate contract regardless of whether a contract exists for that sales order customer account.

Or look for an existing contract for that sales order customer account and always add a new line.

If neither are ticked, then the system will look to match the customer, the service stock item, all the other details including price, intervals, frequency and dates and if all matches at the point of the sales order is posted an existing line qty will be incremented.

In all cases when a contract / contract line is added directly onto a sales order within sop until the sales order is posted it is treated as a pending.
If neither of the options above are ticked , or just the 2^nd option is ticked ( ( (look for an existing contract for the customer, but always create a new contract line) the pending line can be seen within the customers’ existing live contract  , by selecting the pending Radio button within the contract.

If the top option is selected (always create a new contract) , then initially when the sales order is saved a separate pending contract will be created starting with the number 999 , and can be visible on the contract list view over main contract screen selecting the contract status = Pending. Once the sales order is posted a new contract with the final contract number will be created.

If neither options are enabled, and there is no existing contract, if you create a new sales order for a customer that DOES NOT have an existing contract and where you add more than 1  contract line on to that new sales order, when you save the sales order for each contract line on that sales order you will see separate pending contracts.

Important Note: When you post the sales order for the new contract customer, you will see  separate contracts . This is because when line 1 is added on to sales order there is no existing contract , and when additional lines are added there is still no existing contract, because until you post the sales order the lines are pending.

If its important to you that there is only one contract , then you should consider your starting point to creating the contract first within the contract module itself rather than sales orders , thus  adding all the contract lines within one contract and generating through to sales orders and then adding any additional items such as stock.

Alternatively you could add a new sales order for a new contract customer, just adding one contract line, print and post so a contract does exist, create a 2^nd sales order so there is an existing contract and the lines will add to the existing contract. The recommended route would be to start within contract adding the multiple lines, as that way you will get one single sales order / invoice.

Maximise Edit Screen:  If not enabled when you first edit the contract the screen is minimised. If enabled, when selecting ‘Edit’ the Contract Details Screen will be in ‘full screen mode’. Whether this is enabled or not enabled is down to customers preferences. if not enabled when the form is open you can expand the form but would need to do this each time.

For Variable billing, reset bill value when sales orders are generated: Where using variable billing (contract values change each period due for invoicing), by ticking this option, after a sales order has been generated for a period, when next going into the ‘Update Variable Billing Prices menu item / routine the values within the ‘Next Invoice Unit Price’ column will be reset to zero.

Where your prices vary every month and you do not want to invoice the same value as last time in error this feature would be worth ticking. It does mean that you would need to go into each line within the Update Variable Billing Prices\Update price and enter the value to be billed this month.

Use Sicon CRM instead of SOP delivery addresses: Customers using Sicon CRM can choose to (by enabling this feature) link a contract line to a Sicon CRM record/contact rather than linking them to a Sage 200 SOP delivery.

You can choose to make the selection of either SOP delivery addresses or Sicon CRM contacts mandatory on a contract line by an additional setting which can be found on the Contract Line Settings tab

Optional Features

Enabling any of these features, will determine which if any additional tabs / fields appear against a contract / contract line.

Enable Contract details tab: If enabled when within the contract an extra tab appears showing additional fields available for reference or custom reporting, these were originally in the module before we added the ability to enable and add up 150 analysis codes per contract line, so this feature is not used widely, but could be of interest to some.

N.B. The field labels on the contract details tab are not configurable unlike analysis codes , but the drop down selections are within the contract menu item maintenance

Enable deferred nominal tab: As default to specify which nominal codes are to be used for managing deferred income and/or costs these are initially configured at stock product group or service stock item level, but if for some reason they need to be different on just certain contract lines, you may want to consider enabling this optional feature and adding the specific nominals codes on the line.

The default ones set at product group or service stock item level do not show, and if this optional feature is enabled and there is no change to the default you do not need to re-enter any default nominal codes.

Enable Custom Fields Tab: A historical feature from when the module was first created, and when contract lines analysis codes or linking to sop analysis codes was not available. We recommend contract line analysis codes are used as standard as they are available within filters, list views and could be used in reporting.

If, however you wanted additional custom fields and if enabled If enabled, within contract settings and on the custom fields tab this can be configured as either text, numerical or dated.

They will then be visible against a contract on the custom tab, and users would be able to enter the relevant data.

N.B. Any reporting on custom fields would be custom, and creating drop down options to select from are not available unlike contract line analysis codes.

Enable SOP analysis codes: There are up to 150 Sicon contract line analysis codes available , but if as an company you wish to link a contract line to your standard sage sop analysis codes for reporting you can instead of using contract lines or as well as enable this feature

If enabled you will be able to on a contract line within the SOP Analysis codes tab select the standard Sage 200 sop analysis codes.

Various screens within contracts allows filtering by the sage sop analysis codes.

Show period of grace: If enabled an extra field appears on a contract line where you can choose to enter the number of periods of grace (in months).

Use this function to flag the contract line as being in a state of ‘Period of Grace’.

An example of where you may use is where the customer I not sure they are renewing, the contract end date is approaching or has past, but you want to show the line as live instead of expired and you want the system to indicate you are still providing them with a service. If you are using the Sicon Service Module, and there is equipment records against the contract line when logging a service case against the linked equipment record to the pog contract line it will be classed as a live line.

By flagging the line as POG as a visual to note the fact. It would also be possible for any custom reports to pick this flag up.

Period of grace lines still show as a live contract line within the contract even if past contract end date, but the period visible within the period of grace (months) column.

They also will still appear as a reminder to send within the print renewal reminders’ as you would want to be aware they are due, but they do not show on the main contract when using the contract line details radio tab.

Enable Enhanced Discounts: This feature is one where if enabled applies to all lines, not one where you can choose at line level. When considering whether to enable, if you offer discounts based on a campaign, loyalty or a scale basis then this could be a feature that would be worth looking at.

If you offer straight forward discounts for some or all customers, and don’t need to distinguish between type then do not enable this feature.

If not enabled, line discounts are of one type (as per standard sage functionality), and are visible/amendable on the line as below, which is standard sage discount functionality.

They also will still appear as a reminder to send within the print renewal reminders’ as you would want to be aware they are due, but they do not show on the main contract when using the contract line details radio tab.

Enable Enhanced Discounts: This feature is one where if enabled applies to all lines, not one where you can choose at line level. When considering whether to enable, if you offer discounts based on a campaign, loyalty or a scale basis then this could be a feature that would be worth looking at.

If you offer straight forward discounts for some or all customers, and don’t need to distinguish between type then do not enable this feature.

If not enabled, line discounts are of one type (as per standard sage functionality), and are visible/amendable on the line as below, which is standard sage discount functionality.

If enabled the standard two discounts £ and % fields on a line will not appear, but instead an extra tab will appear on a contract line where you can specify discounts for different types of discounts, those being either: Campaign, Scale or Loyalty’.

These could then be reported on within custom reports, please not these labels are hard coded and are not configurable.

Within Contract View, and contract all lines view, the enhanced discounts are also visible by %, Unit Value, and where in use ‘Pro Rata Unit, Total discount %, Total Discount value & yearly results.

Deferred Income ‘Change deferred posting status without generating journals’

Not a recommended feature for accuracy and reconciliation reasons, but where a company is looking to part manage deferred income and / or costs through to the point of month end but would then prefer to raise manual journal within the nominal ledger rather the contract module generating the journal.

When looking at the deferred transaction against a posted sales order within the contracts module each deferred transaction line is flagged with a status of either ‘Posted’ or ‘Not Posted’ status;

Posted: A journal has been created for that line during a month end process, with movements from the balance sheet to the P & L.

Not Posted: The period end routine \ monthly journal postings have not yet been run.

If, as a company, you want to post your contract sales order/invoices to the balance sheet as a deferred transaction, but you do NOT want the contracts module to generate a nominal journal automatically which in turns moves values from the balance sheet to the p & l you would be looking to enable this feature.

This is a on or off feature which if enabled will apply to all deferred transactions on all contract lines.

Important Note: If this feature is enabled you must still run the monthly journal postings for contracts process for two reasons:

1. To populate the screen to flag the relevant transactions for which you wish to change the status from ‘not posted’ to ‘posted’ but more importantly.
2. In order for you to know what figures you need to raise/ enter a manual journal for.To do this you go into the menu option ‘Period End\Monthly Journal Postings for Contracts’ and select the month (Step 1) , then you must select ‘extended view’ (step2) If using this method, we strongly recommend you send this information to excel using the function right mouse click and send to excel’ (step 3).

You would still need to select the post button (step4), as this is the function that changes the status from ‘not posted’ to ‘posted’.

You should keep the excel file in a secure location as part of your month end reporting on your companies’ network for both audit and reconciliation purposes.

Important Note: With this feature enabled after posting, the transaction status would have changed from ‘unposted’ to ‘posted’, your outstanding deferred transaction value will have reduced, this will be seen on within the contract reconciliation are of the module, but no automatic nominal movements will have taken place (until you do a manual journal) and as such you will see a variance.

It is therefore vitally important the manual journal is done straight away for the exact amount reporting on / sent to excel.

We do not recommend this setting for 99.9% of companies, it is very unique to some customers who like to function this way, but it is not a recommend option and from our experience does lead to confusion and lots of support calls with customers reporting contract reconciliation variances.

If you do decide to enable this feature we pop up a warning (as the above screen shot shows) to ensure the feature is understood, and only when that warning is acknowledged by selecting ok, is the featured enabled.

Generate Contract Numbers & Generate Contract line forecasts

Generate Contract Numbers: If auto numbering was not set and contracts added with no contract numbers use ‘Generate Contract Numbers’ to populate numbering of pre-existing Contract.

Also this function can be used if contract were imported with no numbers with auto number not enabled.

Generate Contract Line Forecasts: A useful function if on a contract line you like to see a forecast of future sales orders that would be raised against a contract line. The forecast is automatically generated when a new contract order line is added, the contract is saved.

If contracts were imported, using this function to generate planned sales order forecasts based on contract information within the planned sales order tab against a contract line as per the screen shot below.

There are two types of statuses:

Confirmed – Shows the forecast sales order value, based on invoice frequency/ values based on the contract period.

Future – Shows you an estimated forecast if the contract line was renewed based on current period pricing.

3.2. Contract Line Settings & Defaults

Only service items to be visible when adding lines to a contract: Sicon Contracts uses items in stock control that are set as service stock items, and flagged as maintenance contract items , therefore enabling this is our recommendation , especially if you have hundreds of stock codes set with a product type of ‘Stock’ you don’t want to be scrolling through them to find your contract service stock items set as maintenance contract items.

Enable associated account for Contract Lines: If enabled allows you to link a 2^nd sales ledger account to a contract line, this may be useful if for example you service & support Boilers but because they are under warranty the contract is with the manufacture but the site where the boiler is located may also be a customer of yours and has a sales ledger account in their own right. If enabled selecting a 2^nd associated account is mandatory – but it could be the same s/l account as the contract is under.

SOP Delivery address is compulsory: Tick if it’s a mandatory requirement for users to select a delivery address for the service being provide (The standard SOP delivery addresses function is used for this area of the module).

Automatically create default sop delivery address: Only applicable if ‘delivery address is compulsory’ and if enabled and is designed to be sued where there are no sop delivery addresses created already.  If there are no delivery address created all ready with this enable the system will use the customer’s s/l address and a) create a sop delivery address and use on the contract line automatically.  If the customer does have some sop delivery address already created then on the contract line, users will need to select one from the already created sop delivery addresses.

Delivery Address \ Sicon CRM Contact field Caption:  Use where an alternative name for delivery address to be used as a prompt/label (for example, if the services being supplied at a customer’s address is known to your company as ‘Site’ you may prefer to use label ‘Site’ rather than delivery address].

Display address or Sicon CRM contact when viewing contract lines: When ticked this will show the delivery address when editing a contract line.

SOP Delivery address is compulsory: Tick if it’s a mandatory requirement for users to select a sop delivery address on a contract line.  This option will be greyed out if on the Contract Settings Tab ‘Use Sicon CRM instead of SOP delivery addresses’ is enabled.

Sicon CRM Contact is compulsory: Tick if it’s a mandatory requirement for users to select a Sicon CRM contact on a contract line. This option will be greyed out if on the Contract Settings Tab the Use Sicon CRM instead of SOP delivery addresses’ is NOT ticked

Default Warehouse for new lines: Sage stock control requires a warehouse, even for service items, when using service stock items for contract if there is no ‘real’ warehouse we recommend you set one up called ‘contracts’ or ‘service items’ and allocate accordingly against the service stock item when creating

Default Contract Line Qty: If your contract Qty is always or mostly the same use this to set

Default Price Interval*: If your invoice frequency is always or mostly the same set default here) options are Daily, weekly, Monthly or Annually)

Default Contract Line Duration (In months): If your contract durations are always or mostly the same use this setting to set a default

Default Invoice Frequency*: Associated with / works in conjunction with the field Invoice Interval: Set a default invoice frequency. For example, if most of your contracts are invoiced once every year, you would set this to 1, working with our example Invoice interval you would have 1 invoice per year

Default Invoice Interval: Associated with / works in conjunction with the field Invoice Frequency:  Set a default Invoicing interval. For example, if most of your contracts are invoiced annually you would set this to ‘years’, working with our example Invoice frequency you would have 1 invoice per year

You could as an alternative to achieve the same results set your Invoice Frequency to 12 and your Invoice Internal to months and you still would be seeing 1 invoice per year

However, care should be taken on setting these last two defaults or changing on a line. If you for example set the frequency to 12 (thinking you were entering 12 months) and you set the Interval to year. then the system would think you only invoice that contract every 12 years

*When considering Price Interval & Invoice Frequency its important the user should consider the contract value as a whole to ensure they configure the system and use correctly.

For example, if you set the contract price interval to daily and the rate (as an example) is £1 per day, and you set the Invoice frequency to monthly and it’s a 30-day month the Invoice for the month will be £30, but if it’s a 31day month the monthly invoice will be £31, but if a leap year and it’s only a 29 day month the invoice value will be £29.

Likewise, if you have chosen a daily rate (price interval) of £1 per day and chosen an invoice frequency of annually, the annual invoice could be £365 or in a leap year £364

If your contract prices do not vary depending on the number of days in a month or year then you should be looking to use Price Interval of either Monthly or Annually

Important Note where deferred transaction functionality is used: Only Contract sales orders/invoices set with an Invoice Frequency of Monthly or Annually will be included within deferred transaction calculations. Any contract lines set to an Invoice frequency of weekly the revenue will be ignored from a deferred transaction perspective and will be posted to the nominal code set on the Sicon contract tab on the service stock item. A Message is displayed if a user selects invoice frequency of daily or weekly.

For examples and full details of how to use daily, weekly, monthly and annually when adding a new contract line please visit the section ‘Adding Contracts within the Contracts Module’.

This is because the journal process for journals deferred transactions is a monthly process in conjunction with Sage monthly periods

Enable price change with amendments: If enabled the users will be able to make changes to the price of a contract ongoing during the amendment process being used.

Ask for Reason for deleting contract line: Force users to select from a drop down of reasons why a contact is cancelled. The system requires a minimum of one cancellation reason to be set. These are set up within the Maintenance Menu item, under ‘cancellation Codes’

Enable contact orders for contract orders: Enable only if you are looking to link items to a contract line that are supplied to your customer free of charge under the terms of the contract line service. If enabled an additional field will appear prompting you to select an internal area. For full details on this feature please visit section 12

Display

Hide warehouse: Will hide the Warehouse drop down list box in the contract entry screen.

Hide unit cost: Hide the amend unit price option when making amendments

Hide internal description: If unticked the internal description column will show on the summary tab when editing a contract.

Hide Description: If unticked the description column (as below screen shot) will show on the summary tab when editing a contract. If the setting is ticked the description line will not show on the summary tab when editing a contract.

Enable paging on lists: If ticked, approves performance when opening lists. Only a certain amount of records will be displayed initially and as a user scrolls down more are loaded.

Hide rolling contract option: If ticked on the contract line the ‘rolling contract option will be hidden/ not visible on a contract line. Rolling contracts is further explained with the help and user guide ‘adding a new contract / contract line section’ but in summary its used where you a customer’s contract price is fixed ongoing with no end date and therefore does not need to be include in the renewal process.

Hide trial flag: If ticked on the contract line the ‘trial contract option will be hidden/ not visible on a contract line. Flagging a contract line as a trial is useful where your business is such that you have equipment or services on trial with a customer, you need to maintain a record for the items on trial. Contract flagged as a trial line, will not be included within the renewal processes or within the generate sales order.

As the below image shows contract lines flagged as ‘trial’ can be seen within the Contracts Lines List View, and where the contract line is flagged as trial in the column headed ‘Trial’ there will be a Yes.

As the attached image above shows trail lines are also visible on the main contract’s maintenance view, using the radio button Contract Line details.

3.3. Contract Sales Order Generation Settings

Sales Order analysis code to be set: Select which SOP header analysis code, (pre-configured in standard sage) you wish to stamp with the title in Value of sales order analysis code been set.

Value of sales order analysis code been set: Enter a Description for the content, which will be populated as set in the relevant SOP Sales Order analysis code. This is then pulled through to the SOP module on the sales order and can be viewed on list views, printed on documentation and used for reporting.

Use Contract billing description if populated: If enabled the Billing Description entered on the main contract screen is added as a comment line on to the sales order underneath the contract line itself (If a contract has multiple lines, with same renewing dates, you may not want to enable this option as you may end up with the additional ‘billing description comment’ appearing multiple times on the sales order and therefore invoice.

Create orders for customers on hold: If enabled, during process renewals and generate sales order process, a sales order for the relevant contract will be generated (Thereafter standard sage 200 credit/on hold functions take precedent). If not enabled the system will not generate a sales order, and the account in standard sage would need to be taken off hold before the module allowed users to either ‘generated the sales order’ or processed renewals for that account.

Separate sales orders for each delivery address: If enabled the system will generate separate sales orders per delivery SOP delivery address (For example you have one contract for a customer with two lines both renew on same date for different delivery addresses; if enabled the system would generate two sales orders, whereas if you do not enable this option only one sales order would be generated and you may want to then ensure that the invoice layout on the lines show the end users contract sop delivery address.

In Conjunction with the above, and only editable if the above setting enabled: The system will change the sales order delivery address details to match the contract line delivery address.

In conjunction with the above: Use customer delivery address description as customer order number: Use if the customer delivery address is to act as their order number on the header of the saes order (This would only work if you used the function ‘separate sales orders for each delivery addresses).

Do not generate sales orders for contract lines with zero-unit values: Were a customer has a contract with you but you do not charge, but you still wish to add a contract line, you wish to review annually and go through renewal process but not generate a sales order and send an £0 invoice to them then enable this feature.

This does not affect current functionality whereby ‘if you add a contract line with a unit value, but add 100% discount, the sales order, £0/zero value invoice will be generated’.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Consolidation of Contract Lines to generate one Sales Order ONLY works where the lines are on one contract.  Consolidation of Contract Lines does NOT work across multiple contracts.  From Sicon v22, there is an override on a Sales Ledger account to take preference over the Sales Order consolidation setting above, again this setting ONLY works where the lines are on a single contract.

3.4. Contract Renewal Settings & Defaults

Rolling contracts will not appear in any of the processes such as process renewals, update renewals or print reminders.

If all your contract lines are to be set as rolling (never expires) you do not need to review or set any defaults on this tab.

Using the rolling function is not our recommended method where you like to review contracts with a view to increasing prices or/and have regular contract reviews with your customers but if as a company once a contract price is set its set for the duration that you provide your customer with the said service, and you are not looking to review them at all then it could be you use the rolling function on some or all of your lines.

Where you do enter a contract end dates, before generating the renewal invoice you will need to go through a renewal process which depending on your preference can be done at line level or on mass within the menu item ‘Contract Processing’ section of the module.

If this is your preferred option for some or all of your contract line you should before begin to use the module review this section.

Renewal Settings

First renewal reminder in xx months and second renewal reminder in xx months

When run, the options set on this tab will determine which layout (of which there are two) is printed when printing the renewal reminders from within the Contract printing menu item.

Printing reminders is not a compulsory step within the renewal process so if you have a process where you verbally agree renewal prices with customers or indeed it agreed up front your contracts will increase at renew by a set % then it could be you miss the printing reminders step out.

The first two settings on this tab will determine which transactions appear within the print renewal process in conjunction with the renewal month.

If you send two reminders to customers, for example one 90 days in advance of expiry and the second one 60 days ahead of expiry you would set as above 3 months and 2 months as our example above.

When you then process print renewal reminders depending on which type you choose ‘First reminder’ or Second reminder’.

N.B. It’s possible to reprint a reminder by using the ‘display previous printed’ tick box as highlighted on the screen shot below.

In our example the first reminder is as below.

The layouts for each or both can be tailored to suit your companies own requirements using standard sage 200 report designer picking up xxDayRenewalReminder.report

And our second reminder is slightly different.

Hide Renewal Quantity: Enable if you always raise a contract with a single qty of 1

If however, you invoice for services based on number of licences for example then you would not want to enable this feature, as when you added a contract line you would not have the portion to change the qty from 1.

In our experience the majority of customers using the module will set renewal defaults as described below in order to save time during the renewal process.

Allow confirming renewals whilst updating renewal prices: By enabling this feature during the update renewal process on the ‘update Renewal Screen a ‘Confirm Renewal for All Lines’ button will appear as our screen shot step 1 shows.

If this feature is enabled and if used the ‘Renewal Confirmed’ box within the Renew contract column will be automatically ticked’ (step 2 on our screen shot below) for those Contract lines selected.

If this feature is not enabled the ‘renewal confirmed lines’ (as seen in step 2 above) will need to be manually ticked, or then the user going into each line, on to the renewal tab and ticking ‘renewal confirmed’.

Our recommendation is if the user performing the ‘Update Renewal Prices’ has the authority then this feature will save lots of manual processing, so should be enabled.

Use existing annual unit price if renewal price is zero:

When a contract line is added / set up, it’s possible to on the renewal tab to unadvanced enter the ‘next year’s renewal price’ for example if a first-year price was agreed at a special price but on renewal it will revert back to a standard price. If you did work this way it’s important not hit ‘renewal confirmed’ button on the renewal tab.

If you were not looking to add the renewal price ready for renewal at the time of originally adding the contract line (as most people do not), then this feature should be enabled if you would prefer the suggested renewal price to be the same as the current price (You could then change it if required on the renewal tab on the contract line, or on the update renewal price function).

If you do not enable this feature, and you have not added the renewal price at the time of the original contract line being added, during the renewal process, whether on a line or doing the on-mass update renewal process, the new renewal price will be £0 and you would have to manually enter each line renewal price or use price book function.

Enable if you would prefer on the contract line, on the renewal tab, that the current contract line unit price is pulled through into the Renewal annual unit price field rather than £0.

When renewing, default renewal discounts to current discounts if renewal discounts are not set – Enable if at renewal you want the system to suggest at renewal that the renewal discount remains the same as prior to renewal.

Default renewal frequency to current line frequency – Enable if at renewal you want the system to suggest at renewal that the renewal invoice frequency (how often you invoice) remains the same as prior to renewal.

Default renewal duration – If as a rule all your contract renewals have the same contract length / duration, to save time at renewal set you default duration here, for example as rule your contracts are for 12 months.

Default price % increase – If as a rule you always increase your contract by a certain % at renewal, to save time set the default increase % here.

3.5. Deferred Transaction Settings & Defaults

Set first movement of deferred to be based on a percentage (%) of the contract value: If as a company you have to recognise to the P & L a higher deferred income in the first month, then enable this feature and set the %. 

When the deferred transactions are generated after sop invoice post, you will see within the deferred transactions against the relevant sales order the first month is higher. 

Important Note: This feature is a on or off feature and if enabled will apply to all deferred transactions on all contract lines. It’s not a feature which can be determined at line level. 

If this feature is not enabled the associated items will disappear, as per the screen shot below. 

Calculate deferred amount based on the number of days in the month: By default this setting is enabled for new sites / customers upgrading

The options are therefore either: – 

To be spread evenly throughout the period of cover or based on the number of days in a month. 

If this feature is not enabled and your annual contract value/sales order Invoice posted is £1200 then the deferred movement monthly will be £100 

If this feature is enabled for the same £1200, for the period 01/04/2019 to 31/03/2020 (366 days) the monthly deferred movement would be as below 

Sage as standard in SOP / The Invoice and in turn the deferred transaction will be rounded to 2 decimals

Important Note: Changing this setting after previous transactions have been generated will ONLY apply for new Sales Orders/SOP invoices posted from contracts, no changes will be made to previous generated deferred transactions whether posted/not posted transactions.

Enable IFRS: 

If you are part of a group of companies, you may be required to act in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which are a set of accounting rules for the financial statements of public companies that are intended to make them consistent, transparent, and easily comparable around the world.  

When this setting is enabled, you will see an additional field on the Contract Stock code.

Below is an example of the expected postings when IFRS is activated at 20%: 

3.6. Sicon Contracts and Projects Intergration Settings & Defaults

If Sicon Projects (previously known as Sicon job Costing) is installed the Sicon Projects tab will appear within Contract Settings.

If as a company you are not interested in integrating the two modules you would not enable Projects.

If you are looking to integrate there are several options available as detailed by the numbering on the screen shot below.

Point 1. Enable Projects, if integration between the two modules is required tick Enable Projects.

Point 2. New project for each contract: If you would like a Sicon Project for every contract automatically created at the point you save the contract and all lines within that one contract to be visible on that same project tick ‘Create project for every contract’

Point 3. Automatic Project Numbering: If configured when you save a contract the system will use the format entered here to create a project / set the project number

For example, your projects start with the letters ‘AC’ and are 6 digits long and you would like the first one to be created with a number of 10 you would set it to be AC0010. The field length is not mandatory.

If you have enabled projects and do not set a number, when adding a line you will need to select an existing project and project header

If you have set a number for a format of 6 digits, no letters or numbers example 000000 and you add a contract which is when saved is saved with a contract number of 000036 your project number will be 000036

If you have chosen to create a new project for each contract line and your format was simply 6 digits  000000, and you added a new contract with 2 lines which when saved was contract number 000040 , the project numbers will be 000040-0001  and 000040-0002

Point 4. Default Project Header: Every transaction linked to a Sicon project also has to be linked to a project header. Using project headers is the modules way of categorising and grouping costs /revenue (Similar to within the Nominal ledger you have a Nominal Account code and a CC & Dept).

Project Headers will be need to be configured and set up before a default can be selected on this tab. For further information on Sicon Projects and Maintenance Menu Job Header Types.

In our example screen shot we created within Sicon Projects Maintain Project headers a project header called Cont Rev (as a code) with a Description Contract Revenue.

In our example we set both the header & Project header type to be revenue. A Header type is simply Cost or Revenue, and helps control which headers are presented to you when entering a transaction and when (so you only see revenue headers when putting on a sales order for example).

If enable projects is enabled but you have chosen not to automatically create a new contract and / or create contract per line you can choose to set a default project header and when adding a contract line, it would just be the project you have to select 

A Project Header Type gives you another level of analysis, as it’s then possible to group multiple project headers into a type.

You can then use this type in reports, it drives which headers will be available where in another  Sicon addition for sage 200 , that being on WAP(so the header type can be associated with expenses, timesheets or purchase requisitions) and also controls which Project Group the headers will appear within when looking at the Project Summary tab in the enquiry screen.

You do not need to set any other defaults on this screen as they are not relevant to contracts especially the nominals, as nominal codes for contract service stock items are configured at product group or service stock item level.

Point 5. New Project for each contract line; If you would like to create separate Sicon projects for every line not grouping all lines on one contract to a single project tick the Create new project for each contract line.

If create a new project for contract line is ticked but create a new project for each contract line is not ticked, and you have a contract with five lines, there will be just one project, and all revenues from those five lines will be seen on the created single project.

If create a new project for each contract line is ticked as well you will see five separate projects one for each of the five lines.

If enable projects is enabled but you have not chosen to either create a new contract for each contract or create new contract for each line, when adding a contract and contract lines these will need to be selected when adding a new line as per the screen shot below

If you only enable Scion Project Integration after you have started to process contracts, you will either need to go into each contract, or process any further sales orders / invoices need to go into each contract, select the Projects tab where you will see the blank columns for both Projects and Project Headers and these will need to be set before re-saving

Alternatively, if auto creating projects based on the defaults set on this Scion Projects tab within settings there is an option to retrospectively create as explained further down (point 7)

Point 6. Zero sales order transactions in Project costing and show deferred postings instead: Only editable if ‘Enable Projects’ is selected.

If managing deferred income through the contract’s module and if on the Project you prefer to see the revenue in the month that the deferred income is moved to the P & L during the monthly journal process rather than one lump sum from the sales order tick this If not enabled then the contract period revenue will appear as one lump figure when the sales order is invoiced.

If enabled, when you post a sales order, to begin with the whole value of the posted sales order will show within the project

When the first months deferred transaction is from the balance sheet to the p & l during the month end monthly journal process, (where the transaction status changes from not posted to posted)

when looking at the same job enquiry view you will see the original value is cleared and the monthly amount now showing in deferred transactions with the status posted

Point 7. Create projects for Contract Lines with no Projects: You would be looking to use this function for example if you purchased Sicon projects after you have been using Sicon contracts and you wish to integrate, or you have been using both modules but independently of each other and now wish to integrate and you want a way of adding the project and project headers automatically , based on the format set within settings on to all the lines rather than editing each line.

3.7. Renewal Prices & Sage Price Book Settings

Renewal Prices using Sage 200 Price Book Functionality

If as a company you prefer to use Sage 200 Standard Price Book functionality for controlling your contract selling prices you can on this tab select your current price book and what the price book to use up to a date, and after a date

You would need to maintain this ongoing and ensure you have new price books created annually in order to link the new price book and the Increase date annually

It only is beneficial the majority if not all service stock items set up for contracts are linked to a price book.

If you have a mixture of some service stock items that are linked to price book and some not, it could get confusing as to which ones you need to amend manually.

N.B. For further information and training on Sage 200 Price Book functionality please refer to your sage 20 help and user guide or discuss further with your sage 200 Business partner.

Current Price book: the price book that will be used to update renewal prices for contracts with a renewal date before the ‘Price Increase Date’ field.

Price Increase date/Renewal price book: any contracts with a renewal date after the ‘Price increase date’ will use the ‘Renewal price book’ when updating renewal prices.

In our example we have created two price bands one for 1^st January 2019 – 31^st December 2019 and for the next years pricing one for the period 1^st January 2020 – 31^st December 2020

Example Prices for Price Band effective 1^st January 2019 – 31^st December 2019

Example Prices for Price Band effective 1^st January 2020 – 31^st December 2020

These can then be used during the renewal process using the Sicon contract function ‘Update Renewal Prices’ routine and you have set contract pricing using price bands.

By renewing through the update renewal process you can renewal multiple contract lines in one process and depending on settings confirm all within this one process

Alternatively, you renew line by line by editing each contract line within the contract by selecting the renewal tab

If within settings you have set that on renewal the system shows the current price it will show as our example below (the current price before renewal)

By Selecting the ‘Update Renewal Price’ button the relevant price book price will pull through.

After checking other details on this tab, the user would tick renewal confirmed in order for the contract line to appear in the ‘Process Renewals’

3.8. Custom Fields Setup

Custom fields are a historical feature from when the module was first created, and when contract lines analysis codes or linking to sop analysis codes was not available. We recommend contract line analysis codes are used as standard as they are available within filters, list views and could be used in reporting.

But if you would like to use custom fields then you would first configure within this section and then on the Main Contract Settings Tab (screen shot below) ensure you have ticked the ‘Enable custom fields tab’ to ensure they are visible within the contract line

Custom Fields Set-Up

Custom Fields (configurable spare fields) are visible not only on the contract line, but on screen on the main contracts list, selecting the Contracts, Contract line details or Custom fields radio buttons.

It is possible to setup up to 5 text, 5 Number & 5 Date/Time custom fields and maintain a number of configurable text, numeric or date fields which are then against each contract Line on the custom tab

N.B. SpareDateTime, SpareNumber and SpareText fields 1 and 2 are reserved for system use.  It is not possible to configure the number of decimal places shown for ‘numeric’ spare fields.

N.B. Any reporting on custom fields would be custom, and creating drop down options to select from are not available unlike contract line analysis codes.

As well as being seen on the Main Contract List as with Sage 200 Standard, users can right mouse click on the screen/lines and ‘Send to Excel’, ‘Print’, or ‘Find’. The columns can be sorted, and moved around to suit users own requirements.

3.9. Contract Reconciliation / Sales Ledger Analysis Codes Settings

A very simple way of flagging which (if any) Sales ledger Account Analysis Codes will be visible within the contract reconciliation process / screen when selecting display on the Tab Customer and Products

When flagged the relevant sage 200 Sales Ledger Analysis codes will be shown in the Deferred Income by Customer and Product section at the bottom of screen

In our example we have selected / filtered by a single customer and hit display, if not single customer selected when selecting display all customers will show

Users can choose to send this information to Excel or Print by using the function ‘right mouse click and export ‘Selected’ Line’ or ‘All’

3.10. Contract Line Analysis Code Setup & Configuration

Sicon Contract Line analysis codes are different to standard Sage 200 SOP Analysis codes.

If SOP analysis are enabled on the main contract settings tab as seen on the screen shot below

The system will display an additional tab on a contract, that being SOP Analysis codes, as per our screen shot below

Which in turn gives you the ability to set and configure depending on the settings / defaults set when the sop analysis codes were crated within Sage 200 , of which currently there is up to 20

At a line level, using Sicon Contract Line Analysis where you can add up to 150 codes

The steps to configure are: –

Tick to enable; Enter a Label / Name; Tick if mandatory; Select whether it’s to be a free text field, Date field, Drop-Down, Numeric Value or a simple tick

When creating the contract line analysis fields within settings if you set the data type to be drop down your mange the list for users to select from by clicking on square …

The select Add, enter the options and click ok

When adding a contract line these analysis codes are selectable at line level,

If there are any mandatory analysis codes and where you forget to select when you save a line the one that is mandatory will be highlighted and a warning given

Sicon Contract Line Analysis can be used for filtering within various places within the module. Our example below is within Process Amendments,

But they are also available within: –

Process Renewals, Update Variable Billing Prices, Generate sales Orders and View Contracts

And also, on the Main Contact Maintenance Screen by selecting the radio button ‘Contract analysis codes’

And the list can be sent to excel, or print by using the function ‘Right Mouse Click’ and either Export or Print

4. Contract Maintenance

When you first open the Contract Maintenance Screen by default all Live contracts are visible.

The screen will show the currency symbol relating to the customer’s account currency and the currency therefore used on the contract line, in the screen shot above we have highlighted a contract that is Canadian dollars (CAD) and a USD ($) contract, the other 2 are sterling accounts that are variable billing lines so don’t show any values.

The Net Before Discount Column is the Line Unit Price before discount and is the currency value, in our example 150 CAD (Canadian dollars) and 9090.91 USD.

All other values are the companies Base currency values, in our demo data £ (Sterling).

The exchange rate is a view from Accounting System Manager and from within the Currencies and Exchange Rates area of the module

Filers are available to filter by

Customer; Contract Status (Live by default but can be changed to On Hold, Cancelled, Completed); Service Item Code or Name; SOP or Contract Line Analysis codes. If you apply a filter, this is shown to the side of the field with the words Filter applied. To remove all filters, click the Clear Filters button.

Users can also choose on this screen to view by using the radio buttons which then list the contract lines, rather than top level.

Use the Radio buttons to show different detail:

• Contracts: (As above screen shot) showing the Contract Number, A/C Ref, Customer Name, Description, Status, Contract Totals (Net before discount, Total Discount, Total Net after Discount)
• Quantities: Will show the Quantity, Currency, Unit Price, Base Unit Price and Cost, No. Used – number of times used (number of times the contract line has had a SOP contract order generated from it), and no of invoices remaining (for example Annual contract, but invoiced per Quarter, 2 invoices invoiced, 2 left)
• Contract Line Details: Will show the Quantity, Pricing, Unit Cost, No. of times used, Customer Delivery/site address (Label of which is configurable within settings), no of invoices remaining, Contract Start Date (current contract period), End Date, Current Bill cover to: from dates, Invoice frequency (i.e. If invoicing annually this would display 12, if invoicing per Qtr this would show 3, if invoicing monthly this would show 1. Also displayed would be any analysis codes attached to line, the Sicon Job costing Job associated with the contract if linked (and if job costing enabled), and any renewal or amendment details.
• Contract Analysis codes: Will show the Sicon Contract Module Analysis codes associated with the contract line (as opposed the SOP analysis codes).
• Custom Fields:  Will show any custom fields (Spare fields) assigned to the contract line. Custom fields can be either text, numbers, date & time, and there are 5 of each available and are configurable within configuration settings
• Edit the Contract Selected to View (or edit)
• Description: contract description for internal purposes only, such as Jim Murry’s Contract (s) (When there is one master contract for a customer with multiple lines)
• Status: Manual Status users can set to define the status of a contract and can be used on various list views (No automation process change this status, and should not be confused with the contract line status)

Purchase Order Printed: When a contract line on the contract has had a PO printed (not to be confused with sage 200 POP printing) this flag is ticked (Note that even if there are multiple lines on a contract at this time it only takes one line to have had a PO printed to flag this; this feature will be enhanced and extended in future releases)

Total invoiced to date/total remaining: Total value invoiced and total value remaining based on sales orders generated from this contract, and remaining values to be invoiced

Sales Orders: Sales Orders generated from this contract will be listed and can be viewed.

Orders Created from this contract: This section shows sales orders and sales returns generated from within the contract, or from a sales order linked to the contract , use ‘View Order’ to view the order/return. Where a one off credit, one off charge or an amendment has been generated thus producing a sop order or return they will also be shown

View Deferred Postings: Select to view the deferred posting transactions associated to the order / return

The details being displayed include:

Deferred Transaction Line for the relevant month; SOP Document Number; Amount that has or will be deferred on that date; The Posting Status ( Posted means the deferred routine has been run for that month, and the journal has been created); The URN allocated to that posting; The Nominal codes used within the journal, ; Deferred Ref ( Balance Sheet code debited for an order/credited if a sop return) and P/L Ref
( P & L code credited for an order/debited if return)

If for some reason the journal was for example created as a recurring journal manually in the nominal by the finance team, not realising its automatic, users can create a ‘Reversal’ of the posted or yet to post transaction, or if a manual credit note has been raised against the contract and not linked correctly to the line, the transaction line can be adjusted by using the ‘Edit’ function

Important Note : The transactions stored for deferred income / costs are stored and used in the ‘Contract Reconciliation’ and therefore it’s important to try and ensure that all adjustments to contracts are done in the correct way, and that no manual journals are posted to the nominal accounts within the nominal ledger , if they are there will be variances . See Contract Reconciliation section for more details.

4.1. Adding a New Contract and New Contract lines

Select Contract Maintenance from the side menu, click on new (bottom left hand side of the form) and tab through populating the relevant required information as explained below:

If Sicon Debtor Management is installed, and if this is the first time a contract has been added for a customer then you will see a message as below.

Explaining that the payment information (for direct debit collection) will be taken from the customer’s account and stored against each line of the contract. For more details on Sicon Debtor Management please visit https://www.sicon.co.uk/product/sicon-debtor-management/

Contract number: This is allocated at the point of saving, and will either be auto generated or the user being prompted to enter a contract number (based on configuration settings on the contract settings tab)

Description: The contract description is displayed on the maintenance contract screen and can be useful both from a visual perspective and when for example you send a list to excel

Suggestion / Advice: Where you are adding one contract with multiple lines for that one contract, we recommend you use a general description as our example below, however if your company policy is to only have only one contract line per contract, you could be more specific in your description (i.e. John Smiths Microsoft support contract).

Some companies leave the description blank, but we would always advise that something is entered, even if it is a generic text such as Contract for the customers SL Acc: No number and name

Customer Contact: When you add or change the contact name in this field you will be prompted to confirm you wish for this to be applied as a contact for each line.

Please note that at line level this is only visible if within configuration settings and on the contract settings tab under ‘Optional Features’ you tick the ‘Enable contract details tab’

If you say no, against each line you will have the option of adding a different contact name for reference.

Customer Order Number:

This is where you would, if applicable enter your customers purchase order number. If entering here it applies to the whole contract (meaning if you are adding multiple lines for the one contract and the same PO number applies).

If you are adding multiple lines on one PO and the customers PO number is different for each line, you would use one of the 150 Sicon Analysis Codes that are available on each contract line

On the renewal tab against each contract line renewal PO numbers can also be added where the customer issues different PO numbers for each renewal. This number (because it is on each line) does not populate the front screen

Purchase Order Printed:  Within the module there is a very basic method against a contract line to raise a back to back purchase order relating to a contract line (where you are supplying a service, but then backing it off to a 3^rd party), then used this tick box will be ticked. It’s for internal reference only and only recommended where one supplier is involved with supplying the service for the while contract

Total Invoiced to date:  Only populated after the first sales order for this contract has been raised and is a simple visual of values of a contract Invoiced to date for the in-contract period of the line / all lines and Total Remaining is a visual of what’s remaining to be invoiced for the in-contract period of the line / all lines on the contract.

Example. You have an Annual Contract £1200 but they are paying monthly and you have invoice 2 months.

Total Invoiced to date would show £200

Total remaining: In our example above, if annual contract £120, to date we have raised sales orders for £200 the total remaining would be £1000.

Values shown are net / before vat

On Saving the Contract the system generated contract number will be displayed (If auto numbering is enabled within settings)

If auto numbering is not enabled / not ticked.

When a user adds a contract and saves a contract they will be prompted to enter their own unique contract number.

Suggestion / Advice: During implementation companies should consider the best practice as to whether they are going to use auto generated numbering or not.

If not, they should ensure consistency / agree a best practice for an agreed numbering / alpha number / alpha system so when looking at the main contract maintenance list they will appear in the order that you want them to appear, this is handy for reporting and when sending data to excel

Status: By default, contracts when added are set to a status of Live. Only live contracts are included in any processing’s for generating sales orders.

If a sales order has been raised and a deferred transaction is captured, they will still be included within the monthly journal routine process. This is simply because the original transaction would have been posted to the nominal and to ensure contract reconciliation is correct the journal process needs to happen. If you do not wish for deferred transactions to happen on a particular raised sales order/with linked not posted deferred transactions, then you will need to adjust the open deferred transactions for that / those relevant sales order (s). For more details on this please visit section 6.6 Adjusting Deferred Transactions

By default, when looking at the contract maintenance list only live contracts are display

Contract Statuses:

If the whole contract is no on hold, but an individual is on hold and no processing is allowed then users should use the options available on the contract flag tab against the line where users could select.

Suspended: To simply suspend any processing that would normally become due (may be the customer is int talks with you about whether they are going to renew, or you have heard that they have gone into administration so for now you want to stop any further processing of sales orders temporarily)

Cancelled: To flag as cancelled without any refunds having to be raised. If selecting the cancelled flag, you will be promoted to select a reason and enter a date. Lines flagged as cancelled will not appear in any future processing, and on the line/summary view of the contract will only appear if you tick the cancelled lines tick box

Where a contract amendment is raised resulting in the contract to be cancelled with either a full or partial refund then by default they will not display on the line/summary view either

Once contracts have been processed through to sales orders, the linked sales orders against a contract are visible within ‘orders created from this contract’ and you can choose to view each sales order and drill down on to the sales order lines.

This view shows all sales orders on the whole contract

The reasons column shows the user where the transaction was processed.

Contract Amendment: An amendment has been made and processed through to SOP from the amendment tab on the contract line.

This could be a Sales Order/Contract Amendment where the amendment is a positive value/additional charge is raised against the line on the amendment tab or a Sales Return where a negative/credit has been raised against the contract line via the amendment tab

Generated from Contract: A contract and thereafter a sales order was processed starting off from within the Contracts Module or having been originally added on to a sales order, and once the sales order has been saved, depending on settings either a new contract or new contract line has been saved

Generated from Contract at Renewal: A contract renewal has been processed

Select a transaction, and select ‘View Order’ to drill down to the relevant sales order or sales return raised.

The view deferred postings button as our screen shot above is useful if you wish to see any deferred transactions against one of the sales orders, to review the status of the deferred element.  Users can also see what nominal codes have been captured and will be or have been used during the monthly journal routine

When an order is selected and the view Deferred Postings button is selected users will either see the status as showing as:-

Not Posted: The journal for that month for that relevant transactions have not occurred or

Posted Status: The journal has happened as part of the ‘Period End Routine: Monthly Journal Posting for Contracts’ – Where this status applies the relevant nominal URN is also visible

Where the company is not using deferred transactions within any of their contracts and posting direct to the P & L, then they will if clicking this option ‘view deferred postings’ not see any transactions to be deferred.

This view shows all orders raised against the contract as a whole.

If as a company you have multiple lines on a single contract, and you are looking for orders / deferred transactions raised against a particular contract line, you can gain the same visibility at a line level.

Select your contract from the main contract maintenance list, select the lines tab, select the relevant contract line and select ‘Sales Orders and deferred Tans. button. This view is just looking at sales orders and any deferred transactions previously raised and / or generated from this individual line.

Adding a New Contract Line  

When creating a new contract when accessing the screen will show as below with no lines and no line count for each status showing.

Prior to the release of Sicon v20 (May 2020) the amendments tab was visible as soon as a user went to ‘Add a new Line’

As a result of this tab being available it was possible (incorrectly so ) to make changes to lines that had not had any sales orders generated/invoice/posted against it, which caused problems with reconciliation especially where customers were managing deferred income, because it was possible to create a credit note against something that had not been invoiced from the contracts module, and/or raise a one off charge / credit against something that had not been invoiced so the change made is that:

The Amendments tab will only appear against a contract line after a sales order has been generated, invoice printed and posted and the Post Invoice Update routine has been run. Unless post invoice update is run there will not be an amendments tab when you Edit a contract/line.

If you are adding contracts lines when you are new to Sicon Contracts, and are adding lines on ready for renewal, and you previously invoiced them from a different system, (Ticking the current invoice already generated tick box)  or manually in sales orders, and where you have to raise a credit etc you should raise a manual sales order return in sop, not using a service stock code that is flagged as a maintenance contract item. You should be careful also which nominal code you use on any manual sales return making sure you check what nominal code was used on the original invoice / previous system . If you post the manual sales return to your deferred nominal account if managing deferred through sicon contracts) then you could cause a variance

Top Level Tabs

Tabs visible at this at top level are as below:

Details: Is the main contract summary as first entered when first adding the contract, along with a view of any sales orders raised previously on a contract

Attachments: An area when you can add attachments, and after they have added you can open or delete them. Attachments can only be added at contract header level, not line level. The location for attachments to be saved is specified within the configuration settings on the Contract Settings Tab. We recommend you follow your I. T’s and standard sage location rules regarding where attachments are stored and that the location is one that is backed up and is a network drive.

Memo: A simple way off adding memos, could be details of why the price has changed for example at renewal, although on the memo tab there is a follow up date, there is no reminder functionality

Default Payment Information: only visible when Sicon Debtor Management installed. Where it is, the customers default direct debit preferences will be displayed for the whole contract. Noting that subject to permission they can be changed at contract line / document level. For more information about the Sicon Debtor Module which would help you manage customers direct debits please visit

Second Level of options – Contract line status count

Live Lines: Live lines are active/in contract lines

Expired Lines: Contracts that the contract end date has past (the current date) and has not been renewed or cancelled.

Deleted Lines: Lines that have been selected, and the user has chosen to be removed. Care should be taken doing this, where there are outstanding invoices remaining and where deferred transactions are in use

Cancelled Lines: Lines that have either been flagged manually cancelled  (on the contract flags tab) or via the amendment screen

Pending Lines: When service stock items that are flagged on the stock record/Sicon tab as being a contract item, and where they have been originally added to a sales order in SOP rather than added within the contract module, until the sales order is posted they are treated as a pending line . We class these as pending lines, because until the sales order is posted the sales order can be amended and/or cancelled.

When the sales order is posted the status will change to Live and either (depending on settings, options being:

Always create a new contract regardless of whether one for that customer exists

Always add a new line to a pre-existing contract for that customer if one exists

Or

Increment the Qty on an existing contract line , but only if the line is the:

– Same service stock code
– Same contract cover bill date from: to
– Same unit price, same price interval, same duration in months, same invoice
frequency and same Invoice interval

Completed Non-Contract Lines: It is possible to add a service stock item line on to a contract that is not flagged as a contract item (a recurring contract item). For example, you have a service stock code for contract admin/Set up fee or Service Install and when you sell a customer a contract you also charge them for installation or set up and is treated as a one-off charge (non-recurring / a non-deferred type service)

When these types of lines are added on to a contract and once invoiced (they appear in the normal contract generate sales order process), they will then be treated as a ‘Completed Non-Contract lines’

Variable Billing Lines: Where the type of Service you are providing on the contract is of a variable price nature (i.e. telephone charges which differ each month) you can choose to via the Sicon tab on the service stock record set as a variable item.

When these types of service are added to a contract line, you do not see the standard ‘bill cover from and to’ fields and are processed slightly different. For more details visit the ‘Variable Billing Contracts Menu Item’ of the Sicon contracts help and user guide

Against each of the contract line type will be a count of the number of contract lines (line count) applicable to that status

By default, only live contract lines show when first opening this screen, to show others simple tick the relevant options

Third layer of details (tabs against the lines, when some have been added)

As the relevant tab is selected line information will be shown, and/or used for certain actions when contract lines have been added but are as below:
Depending on the size of your screen, you can use the scroll bar at the bottom of the form to see additional information not visible in the initial view when opening the form.

Summary: A summary view of all the lines, showing only live contract lines by default when opening this form

Amendments: The tab to access where you need to adjust the contract value (up or down) resulting in an amendment sales order/return to reflect the price change, selecting the original sales order raised so the system knows the values and dates from: to
As well as adjustments up / down, this is where you would against a contract line, go to credit in full or part a previously raised sales order and if the contract is cancelled you would also action here.

Renewal: The tab to access when you wish to renew the contract on a line by line basis as an alternative method to ‘Update Renewal Prices’ on mass via the contract processing menu option

Cancellation: The tab to view the cancellation code and cancellation date assigned to previously cancelled lines. Where contract liens have been left to simply expire, users can from this tab select the line and use the drops downs on the code/date fields to select the relevant details

For the full process of amendments, Renewals and cancellations please visit the ‘Contract Processing’ element of the help and user guide

SOP Analysis Codes: If enabled, within utilities and configurations settings and on the Contract Settings Tab, under Option Features as well as assigning a Sicon Contract Line analysis code (of which it’s possible to have 150) to a contract line, you can also link the line to a Sage Standard SOP analysis code . Using SOP Analysis codes could be useful for filtering within SOP and standard SOP reporting

Deferred Nominals: Use with caution – See important note: As part the of module set up and when managing deferred income the relevant nominal codes to be used when a) posting the sales order  b) when running the month end monthly journal process in the contract module moving values from the balance sheet to the P & L are initially configured at either stock product group or service stock item level, they are not visible on the contract line and users do not need to re-enter as during the month end journal process which move values from the balance sheet to the p & L the module looks at the defaults set on the maintenance contract tab on either the product group or the service stock item.

However if for a particular contract line (s) , during the month end journal process you wish the movement to come from a different balance sheet nominal and/or a different P & L code (See Note)   , and if the feature enable the deferred nominal tab on a contract line has been enabled  you could use to change it at  line level.

Important note: At line level you cannot change the nominal code for which the sales order value will initially be posted to, this will still be taken from the service stock item and on the sage analysis tab and the revenue nominal code. It’s only the nominal codes to be used during the contract month end journal routine that can be changed at line level.

If the original sales order is posted to for example balance sheet code 19101 , and the service item on the maintenance contract tab has been set to debit 19101 and credit 39999 during the month end journal process , if at line level you change both the B/S deferred nominal and P/L deferred nominal , you will after the sop is posted be looking at a contract reconciliation variance between accounts  (because you would during the month end journal process potentially be taking the monthly value out of a balance sheet account that the value was posted to originally).

So we recommend that this feature is only used to change which P & l revenue code that would be used during the monthly month end journal process , unless for some reason, you do not use the reconciliation function within the contract module, and you are not worried that you are posting the original income to one balance sheet account, but during the month end journal routine it takes it from another.

This setting is not recommended where multiple users are using the contracts module and where you do not wish for any changes to what nominal codes are to be used over and above those set as defaults on the stock product groups and/or at the service stock item level

Payment Information: only visible when Sicon Debtor Management installed. Where it is, the customers default direct debit preferences will be displayed for the whole contract. Noting that subject to permission they can be changed at contract line / document level.

For more information about the Sicon Debtor Management Module which would help you manage customers direct debits please visit https://www.sicon.co.uk/product/sicon-debtor-management/

Cover Types: only visible when Sicon Service is installed. Where it is service, cover types can set at contract line level so when a service call is logged within Sicon Service the service admin team can see what cover type the customer has (for example gold, response with 4hrs, silver response with 2hrs, Ad-Hoc – no response time guaranteed). For more information please visit Sicon Service 

Adding a New Contract Line

Select Lines Tab and Select Add

The fields that require populating are explained in detail below, noting that some of them are mandatory dependent on other selections: –

Code: Enter or search for the Sage 200 service stock item that has been created to pull through on the contract. In our example above, we have a service stock item for an annual contract to service a coffee machine.

The item had (during implementation) been flagged as a Sicon maintenance item on the Sicon tab on the stock code set up and been flagged as a deferred transaction item

Important Note: If the service stock item is not flagged as being a contract item, you can add it to a contract line and invoice it, but it will be once invoiced once it will be deemed as a non-contract item and will be flagged as a ‘non-contract line, and no longer available for invoicing against

Name: This field pulled through from the service stock record. If the stock item is flagged as using a full Item description this is shown underneath the name for reference

Warehouse: Can be defaulted within contract configuration settings on the contract line settings tab. This is handy if your service stock items for contracts are created against a ‘contracts warehouse’ Sage standard stock functionality is even though they are not proper stock items, you have to assign a warehouse, which is why we recommend a sage stock warehouse is set up for ‘Contracts’.

Site: The address for which the service is being provided under this contract. Only really relevant if the contract is being invoiced to a head office/or another company*, and the service to another address and where you want to capture this information.

*An example of this is that we at Sicon (who uses the module heavily) have one contract for each business partner, and each line is for a different end user of our software, so our settings, during implementation were configured o that we:

– We did not enable ‘automatically create a default delivery address’
– We enabled ‘delivery address is compulsory’
– and on every line, we enter first time for a BP’s end user we create a new delivery address by clicking on the Site Search Icon as below

When clicking ok, you have the option as setting as the default address.

In our case we wouldn’t because each line is for a different end user

On our screen shot it shows as ‘Site’ this is because within our contract line settings (as seen below) we have set our ‘Delivery Address caption’ as ‘Site’

You can set the system to ensure the ‘delivery address on a contract line is compulsory’

You can also choose within settings to set the delivery address based on the customer’s account.

For more details on set up and configuration ahead of using Sicon Contracts module please visit (prior to the implementation stage) Sicon Contract Pre-Requisite’s https://www.sicon.co.uk/user-guide/contracts-help-user-guide/#1

Internal Description: This additional text field / box to enter additional information which can be used for internal reference/purpose only

It is possible using the ‘Insert Variable’ function to show internal descriptions on any sales order / invoice raised.

Sales Order Description: As explained within the Sicon Contract Pre Requisites it is possible to set default contract Order Line descriptions against a product group and on an individual service stock item.

If defaults are set the description will pull through int the ‘Sales Order Line Description Box’ on to the contract line saving the users time not having to enter a description with dates on.

If no default descriptions are created then when the service stock code is select the sales order description box will be blank. If left blank on the invoice only the Stock name will be displayed.

In our example above our service stock item is linked to the product group ‘Service Contracts’ and on our product group for ‘Service Contracts’ we had set a default as below:

We used the insert variable function to pull through the relevant bill cover from: to dates as set on the lines, and they will increment every time a sales order is raised.

Using ‘Insert Variables’ in this way means that users do not have to change dates before they raise new sales orders.

Insert variables can be added at product group, service stock item level or at contract line level
Contract Line Item Values:
Important Notes:

Since release 19.2 (end Nov 2019) we introduced additional fields on this screen, it is important for users to understand about the following relationships between certain fields and the implications of using:

– Unit Price and how it relates to Price Interval
– Invoice Frequency and how it relates to Invoice Interval
– And how all fields work in connection with each other

Unit Price: You need to enter the Unit Price Quoted per ‘Price Interval’

If upgrading to 19.2 and beyond from an earlier version from a previous version all existing lines will default to their existing values. Previous versions only used months and years and they will remain as they were.

Within the modules configurations Settings, on the contract line settings you can set defaults for all the following fields:

Price Interval; Duration in months; Invoice Frequency & Invoice Interval

We would estimate that 95% of contract module users, will use monthly or annual pricing. An example being you have quoted a customer a price based on an annual price, duration 12 months (1 year), and you are invoice every 12 months (once per year)

In which case you would enter as our screen shot below:

Our example is for a 12 month/1-year contract starting 01/11/2019 to 31/10/2020 for a one-off fee of £150

If the customer wanted to pay quarterly we would enter as above in most fields except the ‘Invoice Frequency’ where we have entered 3 (leaving the interval at months)

As a result, the customer would receive 4 invoices within the year (per ¼) and they each will be £37.50

Once the user is happy with the details entered select save (Bottom left hand of the form)

Thereafter when ready to, users would then generate the sales order through the sub menu item ‘Generate Sales orders’ under the menu option ‘Contract Processing’

Some companies run this routine daily, others weekly or monthly or on an ad-hoc basis when they need to add a new contract and raise the sales order/invoice.

When selected and when the user enters the date for which they wish the system to search or contract lines that are due to be invoiced (In our example we 01/11/2019) and hit display

Overdue contract orders due for invoicing prior to the date entered will show in red invoices

You could choose to filter by date and various other options as seen at the top of the screen

By default, when opening the screen all lines are selected, but users can deselect all, select all, or if they want to check out the contact select a line and select ‘Contract details’ which in turn would open the contract.

When ready to push the order through to sales orders for invoicing select ‘Process Selected Contracts and Generate Sales Orders)

When processed confirmation will be shown as below:

Before this process is run, as explained within the Sicon Contracts pre-requisites within standard Sage SOP Utilities – System Setup – User Permissions, those users using the contract module MUST have at least Override Prices, Override Cost Prices set to yes.

If this has not been configured the message displayed instead of the one above will be one that warns that the users’ permissions have not been set.

Using the Days and weeks functionality: Users must be aware of how a contract overall value will / could change one (if) they use the days and weeks functions

If using days as there are a different number of days in certain months, and where you (if you) choose to price based on a daily rate, but invoice monthly – your monthly invoice values will be different throughout the year

Likewise, if you choose to price based on a week, but invoiced monthly – then because some months have 5 weeks, throughout the year there will be different monthly invoice value

If your prices do not vary based on number of days in a month or weeks in a month / year then we recommend you only use months and years

Examples of using Days and Weeks

The example below shows a contract that is priced based on a daily rate of £30 per day, (So we have entered a unit price of £30 and selected a Price Interval of  days

The duration of the contract is 12 months, but we have chosen to invoice it quarterly (every 3 months)

Because the Price Interval is set to days, and the first 3 months to be invoiced is 01/11/2018 – 31/01/2019 the system works out how many days within those 3 months, Nov 2018 = 30, Dec 2018 = 31 and Jan 2019 = 31 making a total of 92 days. 92 days at the daily rate of £30 = £2,760

Another example shows a contract that is priced based on a weekly rate of £2.50, the duration of the contract is 12 months, with the invoice being generated weekly

The 12-month contract value as displayed on the front screen of contracts is calculated as below, using the start date and end date to calculate number of days in the given year/ The number of days in the year divided by 7 (no of days in a week) and the daily rate multiplied by the weeks in a year

Rounded to 2 decimal places

A further example below shows a contract that is priced at £50 weekly the duration of the contract is 12 months, with the contract invoiced once per year

Calculated as below

And on the front Contract screen the values are as below, rounded to 2 decimal places

The example below shows a contract that is priced at £10 per week duration of the contract is 12 months, with the contract invoiced once every 12 months

Because its set to be priced based on a weekly rate the value for the one of invoice will be £ 522.86

If the same contract was a 3-year contract, priced at £50 per week, invoice frequency every 12 months (which is the same as once per year) the invoicing values will be the same as above

But because the contract is for 3 years, the values showing on the contracts front screen list will be the 3-year contract value (because that is the contracted value)

For the reasons above we do recommend during implementation, and training taking your companies requirements into consideration, all contract module users fully understand

Not forgetting you can set defaults for these fields within the configuration settings and on the contract line settings tab.

Other fields available when adding a contract Line:

We estimate 95% of customers are using the module in a straight forward way – raising a contract based on an annual price, invoicing either monthly, quarterly or annually and with the contract duration in months being 12 months (although you can enter any duration in months)

However, there are other options available where your contract pricing is not as straight forward: –

New to Sicon Contract: Entering contracts into the module ready for the next renewal because you are new to Sicon Contracts, and for the current period they have been invoiced on another system. In which case you could make use of the ‘Invoice Already Generated’ tick box/function

In our example below, the customers contract started 01/05/2019 was for 2 years (24 months) and we invoiced for those 2 years on another system prior to using Sicon contracts.

We entered the original start date, and that it was a 24-month contract, the system calculated the end date of 30/04/2021

We ticked the ‘Current invoice already generated function. This flags / then knows that the current period 01/05/2019 to 30/04/2021 does not need billing from the Sicon Module and that the next period of cover that would be invoiced for is 01/05/2021 to 30/04/2023, and the sales order will ready for processing through ‘generate sales orders’ on 01/05/2021

Rolling Contract Function: Use on a line where you are not looking to increase the prices and therefore you do not want to go through the process of renewing the line, because process never change

In our example below we entered a start date 01/20/2019 and its for £120 per year, invoiced once per year (so Invoice frequency 1 and Invoice Interval of years, although I could have select invoice frequency 12 and invoice interval months as both combinations result in the same)

Rolling Contract is ticked and as a result the contract end date field is blank because there is no end date, because the contract is rolling

The system will generate a sales order for the period 01/10/2019 to30/09/2020 for £120 , and because we have enabled rolling, it will generate the period after 01/10/2020 to 30/09/2021 without having to go through a renewal process

If you were adding a contract on when new to Sicon contract, you could also use the ‘Current Invoice already generated’ in conjunction with the Rolling Contract Function

Notes on Rolling Contract Lines:

On the main contract screen where we show the contract values the value shown will be for the contract period billed (current bill cover from:to)

Rolling contract lines will never appear in the ‘Update Renewal Prices’ process because for reasons above they are not lines that need renewing

To see a list of Rolling contract Lines from the Main Contract Maintenance Screen, select the Contract Lines details radio button and you will see a Rolling Column with an indicator not the relevant rolling lines. The columns in this view/screen are sortable so you can group the rolling lines together and could highlight those rolling lines, right mouse and send ‘selected’ to excel for example.

Pro Rata dates: Use where you want to enter a contract for a full year’s period, with a full years price, but for whatever reason you are pro rating the price for the first year

In our example below, we have entered a contract for £1200 per year, duration 12 months starting 01/04/2019 ending 31/03/2020

But we are actually only wanting to bill them from 01/10/2019 to 31/3/2020 as we have as an example given them the first 6 months free (but normally and at renewal next year it will be a full year)

To accommodate this we would use the Pro rate function and enter the date for which within the complete contract period we wish to start billing them from

In our case 01/10/2019. You will see that the current bill cover from:to changes to that 6 month period and the bill cover duration and value of next invoice and next sales order due date reflect this pro rata from date

When the contract period has been billed in full and expires, upon renewal it will revert back to the default £1200 with a full year’s cover.

Other fields on the ‘add new line screen/form’

Unit Cost: A method to manage deferred costs on a contract line. Depending on whether you are using method 1 or method 2 for deferred costs, will depend on whether the unit cost field is visible on the contract line.

For a full explanation and a user guide for managing supplier costs associated with a contract line please visit section the help and user guide title Contract Line Cost of Sale / Supplier Costs

Bill xx months in advance: If when using the ‘Generate Sales Orders’ process and you are required to enter a date in the ‘show orders due before’, and where you prefer to bill in advance and want to put what date you plan to invoice, rather than the actual bill cover from date

To further explain, our contract below has been entered with a start date of 01/09/2019, and the current bill cover from reflects this as does the Next Sales Order due date

On this line I have not set any ‘bill in advance months’

When I generate sales orders, to see this contract line I enter 01/09/2019

If however on the contract line, I set the bill in advance to 2 months in advance the next sales order date is 01/07/2019 which is the 2 months ahead of the bill cover from date (hence the setting bill 2 months in advance).

And to see this contract for sales order generation within the generate sales order process I would need to enter 01/07/2019

There is no right or wrong method, and no advantage of using the ‘Bill in advance’ it is purely down to the company’s preference as to what they are going to use when they use the generate sales order process

If you do not use the Bill in Advance function, you simply need to remember that you need to enter the bill cover from date in to the ‘Show orders due before’ date field

However, if as company you decide to use the function ‘Bill in Advance’ then we recommend you do it on all lines to avoid confusions

View Changes Button: Only visible if Sicon Audit Log installed If Installed Audit log records any changes made to the contract line. For more details please refer to Sicon Audit Log 

4.2. Creating a Contract via Sage 200 Sales Order Processing (SOP) Module

This option is good for those who would prefer to add a new contract line on to a sales order at the same time as selling their customer some goods, for example selling them a washing machine, which is a standard stock item and selling them a service contract to go with that washing machine and where it will then be a recurring service contact and you would like the system to generate you a contract line.

If using SOP standard quotes to quote a customer for a contract line, and you then convert the quote to a sales orders you will need to go into the order and populate the contract additional fields. Sicon contracts does not integrate with SOP Quotes.

When you add a service stock item that is flagged as a maintenance contract item, the screen dynamcally changes and loads the Contract detals and CLAnalysis codes (and Service if installed).

On the details tab all fields except the quantity will be greyed out, and you will need to click on Contract details on the left-hand side.

And it is on the Contract details form that you enter the relevant contract details, the unit price, the price interval (for example as our screen shot above £1200 is the annual price so the unit price is £1200 and the price internal is = years.

If you are using Sage price book in conjunction with this service stock code / customer then the unit price will come through as standard.

There is an ‘amend description’ option (top right hand corner of the form) , if selected any default text/variables configure at product group or within contract settings or on the service stock item will put through, in our example at product group level we had set a description of ‘Service Contract Bill cover from: to’ and used variables to pull through the dates automatically based on dates entered onto the sales order line.

You can add some text within this box if you would like to add some additional information for this sales order/invoice.

If Sicon Projects is installed and set to integrate you will need to on the Details tab select the relevant project and project header.

If any contract line analysis codes are set as mandatory within contract settings, and you forget to enter them you will be prompted to when saving the line, and those that are mandatory are highlighted.

If within contract settings on the contract line settings tab, the ‘delivery address is flagged as being compulsory (as per screen shot below).

If on the contract details tab you forget to select you will be prompted to when saving the sales order line.

When selecting a delivery address you can either select the default one or create a new one of the fly.

When all the contract details have been entered and the sales order is saved it shows as a standard sales order on the standard sop list view

As far as integration with the contract’s module is concerned it would have been determined during set up of contracts module, as to how the module will handle contract lines that are added on to a sales order rather than from within the contract’s module itself.

Within Settings at product group level or within contract manager settings you will see options to specify whether to (on saving the sales order) the system should

• always create a new contract for the customer (regardless of whether there is an existing contract for the sop customer) or
• When updating contracts from SOP, look for an existing contract for the customer, but always create a new contract line

If neither are ticked, then the system will look to match the customer, the service stock item, the price and the bill cover from: to dates and if all matches at the point of the sales order is posted an existing line qty will be incremented.

In all cases when a contract / contract line is added directly onto a sales order within sop until the sales order is posted it is treated as a pending.

If neither of the options above are ticked , or just the 2^nd option is ticked ( ( (look for an existing contract for the customer, but always create a new contract line) the pending line can be seen within the customers’ existing live contract  , by selecting the pending Radio button within the contract.

If the top option is selected (always create a new contract) , then initially when the sales order is saved a separate pending contract will be created starting with the number 999 , and can be visible on the contract list view over main contract screen selecting the contract status = Pending. Once the sales order is posted a new contract with the final contract number will be created.

If neither options are enabled, and there is no existing contract, if you create a new sales order for a customer that DOES NOT have an existing contract and where you add more than 1  contract line on to that new sales order, when you save the sales order for each contract line on that sales order you will see separate pending contracts.

Important Note: When you post the sales order for the new contract customer, you will see  separate contracts . This is because when line 1 is added on to sales order there is no existing contract , and when additional lines are added there is still no existing contract, because until you post the sales order the lines are pending. 

If its important to you that there is only one contract , then you should consider your starting point to creating the contract first within the contract module itself rather than sales orders , thus  adding all the contract lines within one contract and generating through to sales orders and then adding any additional items such as stock.

Alternatively you could add a new sales order for a new contract customer, just adding one contract line, print and post so a contract does exist, create a 2^nd sales order so there is an existing contract and the lines will add to the existing contract. The recommended route would be to start within contract adding the multiple lines, as that way you will get one single sales order / invoice.

From within contracts manager to see what contracts / which contract lines are pending you can use the contract status ‘pending’ either within the contract’s maintenance view.

or within a contact itself on the lines tab selecting Pending Lines

Within Contract manager on the contract itself on the Details view/tab you can see which sales were derived from a sales order being added with SOP as opposed to being generated from a contract.

If a user cancels a sales order with a contract line on it before its posted, any references within contracts of that pending contract/will will be removed.

4.3. Contract View / Contract Line View

When opening a contract and viewing the contract Lines by default ONLY Live contract lines will show and the Live contract lines status filter ticked.

Other status’s available are:

• Expired contract Lines – Contract lines that have expired
• Deleted Lines – Lines that have been Removed from the contract
• Cancelled Lines – Lines that have had a credit raised against the line / contract line cancelled and a reason flag status recorded
• Pending Contract lines – Contract Lines that have been added initially via a Sales order, and where the sales order has not yet been posted and therefore the contract not 100% confirmed as such
• Completed non contract lines – Service Stock Items that have been added on t the contract, but are not flagged as a Maintenance Contract Item, on the Maintenance Contract Tab on the stock Record

It’s possible this type of service stock item on to a contract but it’s not treated as a recurring line, and once invoiced will be flagged with a status of a ‘Complete non contract line’.

4.4. Custom Invoicing Profile

Where a contract invoicing frequency cannot be set as monthly, quarterly, annually, every xx months we have added the ability to have a custom invoice frequency profile

Example: A Contract that officially runs Sep – Aug for a 2-year period, then is renewed.

However the Customer will only accept invoices within each financial year.

So for the contract example of Sep16 to Aug 18 (24 months)
Total Value £2400 plus vat

By using the custom invoicing profile our 2-year contract will have (within a 2-year period) just 3 invoices raised each covering the periods

01/09/2016 to 31/3/2017   – 7 Months @ £ 700

01/04/2017 to 31/3/2018 –  12 Months @ £ 1200

01/04/2018 to 31/8/2019 – 5 Months @ £ 500

How to create a line with a custom Invoicing profile?

This can ONLY be done from within Contracts

On the line itself there is a Custom invoicing profile tick box

When selected the fields / sections not relevant will be greyed out, and as you tab through the No. of Invoices Remaining will not display any dates , but instead the text ‘ Custom Invoicing Profile’

Use the ‘Planned Sales Orders’ Tab to enter the invoicing profile (when you need the sales orders to be generated)

If you attempt to save the line without adding, you will be warned.

Planned Sales Orders Process

Using Add, enter each of the planned/required sales order details, as below and Save

If you attempt to add more than you should (past the contract required dates / value) you will warned.

Once you are happy with the planned sales order lines.

Select Save.

If you have any analysis codes set to mandatory you will be required to set them at this point.

If this is a new contract, and the line is the first on the contract you will see the contract number displayed.

If you are adding a line to an existing contract the screen will close taking you back to the Summary screen showing the line(s).

And also the relevant dates, the period of first planned sales order, and in the Invoice Frequency Column the indication that the line is one with a ‘Custom Invoicing Profile’.

The next step will be generating through to sales order processing, using the ‘Generate Sales Orders’ within ‘Contract Processing’.

Enter the date that you wish the system to list those contracts that require sales orders generating thereafter invoicing, in this example we have entered 31/06/2016. The list can be filtered using various analysis codes, or by customer, invoice frequency, contract number or contract type (Contract Type can be set up within Maintenance).

• Overdue contract lines will be shown as red with a message

The Sales order would then be invoiced, posted and contract updated as standard.

The Sales order will then be visible from within contracts as standard from either the Main Contract Screen and the ‘Orders created from this Contract Pane as below.

Or from the contract line itself, selecting View Details.

And on the Planned Sales Order Tab, users can see the sales order numbers against each planned sales order line if generated.

When Viewing the Line after the first planned sales order has been raised users can see when the next planned sales order is due.

When all the planned sales orders have been raised, the planned sales order tabs will show all relevant sales orders, with no more showing TBC.

Users can also click on a line and View the sales order.

Because all planned sales orders have been raised then on the Summary screen there will be no ‘next sales order date’.

After all Planned Sales orders have been raised / The Contract invoicing has ended the options thereafter will be to:

Either leave to expire naturally if not renewing and if required set a reason flag.

If the renewal is going to result in another custom invoicing profile, then the renewal should be done from the line, by initially entering the details on the renewal tab (example below).

Once Saved you will see the following message.

After Clicking OK users need to go back on to the line and the planned sales orders tab and enter the new planned sales order details for the second year

If the renewal is going to result in a standard invoice frequency i.e., every month, every xx months then because the contract in effect has changed (invoice frequency changed) then because of restrictions , by the pure nature the line was ‘custom’, you will  need to to leave the ‘custom invoicing profile line to expire’ and add a standard contract line , this time, not ticking custom invoicing profile and entering a contract start / end dates, current bill cover to:/end dates etc as you would normally.

• It may be in the future we can allow swopping types, but at this time we can’t.
• You can use the one of credit, one off charge as you would normally.
• You can use the amendment tab to cancel the contract and credit all or some of the previously raised planned sales orders.
• Again because of restrictions by the pure nature its custom at this time you cannot increase / decrease qty’s.

5. Contract Line Cost of Sale / Supplier Costs

5.1. Using Cost field on Contract Line (Method 1)

Use this to add a contract cost against contract Line for a reference only and / or to manage deferred contract costs (see note 1)

On each contract line there is an Annual Unit Cost field

This cost field is unique to contracts and does not pull through from a service stock code, nor does it update any cots on a service stock record when populated

It is purely used for a way of recording a cost, and for the module to use in deferred costs, if the service stock item is enabled for deferred costs

Note 1. It is very unlikely that you would use the system for managing deferred costs if you did not use the contacts module to manage deferred revenue

If you do use the system to manage deferred revenue and you do incur costs, then it is advisable to manage deferred costs as well through the contract module

Note 2. On a contract line if method 2 is used, then the ‘Annual Unit cost field will either be greyed out/not visible’

5.2. Managing Deferred Costs (Method 1)

If using this cost field as a way of recording a cost and the services stock item is flagged as a deferred item, the deferred transactions is captured when the sales order is posted

The movement from Balance Sheet to P & L then occurs during the standard contract, period end, monthly journal routine.

The nominal codes used within the journal are specified either as a default on the stock product group, or on the service stock item as per the screen shot below

For further advice on deferred nominal codes see Contract Pre-Requisites

Using just the cost field on the contract line as a method to record a cost, does not allow printing of purchase order from within the contract module

5.3. Adding supplier details & costs on to the Supplier Tab against a Line (Method 2)

Using this method over method 1 gives you more functionality.

You may choose this method to print a purchase order (if required) and/or Manage Deferred Costs:

Important Note: This feature does not integrate with POP

A Single Supplier Line:  As per screen shot above , you can use even if there is only a single supplier whom you are backing off the service being delivered on the contract line being invoiced out to the customer

Multiple Supplier Lines: As per our screen shot below , you may have a contract with one of your customers for several types of service, but you are invoicing them on a single line with a total revenue value, covering multiple services, but the service you are providing is backed off by multiple service providers (In our example screen shots below Microsoft, Sage and Sicon)

It may be also that the supplier’s contract to you covers different periods of cover, so it is possible to have periods mis aligned between the revenue and the costs

To add:-

On the contract line select ‘Supplier Tab’ in this example there are three suppliers involved with the single ‘sales line’ – those being Microsoft, Sage & Sicon

Each line shows the suppliers purchase ledger account code; name, period (start & end) which calculates the duration, cost, description of service, PO Number and 2^nd Ref  (Code, Start,End,Unit cost all mandatory)

In our example a line for Microsoft, Sage & Sicon

Supplier details & costs are entered within the grid form against the contract line itself

The deferred transactions are captured/generated only when the suppliers invoice added either in the suppliers purchase ledger account  or via POP if you have added a manual POP and then from within the contracts module, contract processing and the menu feature ‘Allocate Supplier Deferred Costs’

When using this feature and lines are added on the supplier tab, to see the relevant deferred transactions (Once the supplier’s invoice is added/allocated to the contract line) you need to go into the contract line itself, edit, select supplier details tab, select the line for which you wish to view the deferred transaction (s) and select (bottom right) the Deferred Costs button (as per the screen shot above)

When using this supplier tab/lines feature, you will not see a costs tab against the contract line itself if you select the ‘Sales Orders and Deferred trans’ – see below

5.4. Print Suppliers Purchase Order (Method 2)

If you do need to send the supplier a purchase order, this is an option from within the Contract Printing Menu item select Print Purchase Orders.

Using the report criteria options select your contract and contract line, if you only have a single supplier, you will print the given purchase order

If you have multiple lines for one contract line (even if they are the same supplier) and where the dates from: to are different they will print as separate purchase orders.

If you have multiple supplier lines, all for the same supplier with all the same dates the system will print one purchase order with multiple lines

You would only print the purchase order from contracts, if

a) The supplier requires a purchase order to be sent and
b) You have not already added the purchase order into Sage POP (Sicon supplier contract lines do not integrate with / does not create an purchase order within POP

5.5. Managing Deferred Costs (Method 2)

Managing deferred costs using method 2 is different to method 1 (where you would use the cost field on the line rather than entering details on to the supplier tab)

Although it is possible to use a mixture of both, it is not recommended as it may get confusing

When entering supplier details and costs on to the supplier tab it’s not until the supplier’s invoice (that would have been entered directly onto the purchase ledger account or via POP), is allocated against the relevant contract supplier line that the module captures the deferred transactions (just like the module captures the revenue when the sales order is posted in SOP) once the allocation has been carried out the supplier contract line deferred postings will be as our example below

If the costs are being deferred the suppliers invoice MUST be posted to the balance sheet deferred contract code.  In our example 19201, which is our balance sheet deferred costs nominal as specified on the Sicon Tab on the service stock record as per the screen shot below

And the default nominal code for standard sage costs for a service stock item is the one on the Analysis tab on the service stock item, and it would be the nominal code field labelled stock, as per our screen shot below

For further advice on what nominal codes to use / set up when using contracts please refer to Contract Pre-Requisites

5.6. Allocating Suppliers invoice to Supplier Costs on a contract line (Method 2)

Step 1: Prior to allocating you must make sure the suppliers’ invoice has been added

In our example we have entered direct into the P & L, but you could invoice match to a manually added POP order, remembering to post the invoice to balance sheet

If you also have Sicon projects installed, as standard if you enter an invoice and select a balance sheet code, you will see the message below 

You would in this instance select yes, as we do want the invoice to our deferred balance sheet code

For further advice on deferred nominal codes see Contract Pre-Requisites

Step 2 ‘Allocate Supplier deferred Costs’ from within the Contract processing Menu

After saving the invoice, you will need to allocate the suppliers invoice against the contract line on the supplier’s tab. This is done from within the contract module, contract processing

In our example we have selected the supplier Sicon, firstly you select the supplier’s invoice/transaction, and in the bottom half of the screen you would select the relevant contract line, on the relevant contract (In our example we only have one)

Important Note: If the supplier’s invoice is higher or lower than expected, once you select and choose to ‘allocate’ the deferred transaction within the contract line on the supplier tab will be adjusted automatically

In our example we had specified the expected cost to be £3,600 but the invoice has come in as £ 4,200

For details on how to run the month end journal routine to move the relevant values from the balance sheet to the P & L please refer to the section if the help and user guide headed ‘Period End Routines’.

5.7. Renew Supplier Contract Lines (Method 2)

Once (if) you have renewed your customers contract, and where supplier costs still apply for the renewal periods you should use the process ‘Renew Supplier Contract Lines’

Select the date that you wish to see the supplier lines due for renewal prior to the date

Select the relevant supplier lines and by processing the ‘Selected Renewals’ the supplier dates will advance on

6. Contract Processing

6.1. Generate Sales Orders

Use this function to raise the invoice for the ‘first Invoice’ of a contract just added, a contract line is marked as ‘Rolling’ or a variable billing contract line

Enter the date that you wish the system to list those contracts that require invoicing, in this example we have entered 31/06/2016. The list can be filtered using various analysis codes, or by customer, invoice frequency, contract number or contract type (Contract Type can be set up within Maintenance).

Overdue contract lines will be shown as red with a message.

Click Display to get the list of contracts due before the date entered.

Tick the relevant contract, or select all and select Process Selected Contracts and Generate Sales Orders.

Ticking a contract and clicking Contract Details will take you through to the contract screen.

Once they have been posted through to SOP, they will disappear from the list and you can either choose more or Close.

Once the contract is through to the SOP module, standard Sage 200 processes apply.

Noting that the order is posted through to the customers ledger from SOP, the contract is not updated fully, and where deferred.

transactions are being applied, they will not be written to the deferred table until posted) this is because until orders are posted completed) they can be amended.

When using the generate Sales Order process, and you enter your chosen date, if there are sales orders that were due before that date , you will be warned with a message in red ‘ Lines in red are overdue’ , and as it says , line in red are those that should have been generated before now (as per screen shot example below)

Important Note: If there are lines in red, and you then process them, you may find that when using this process next , they may appear again but for the next period

For example: If you select 28/1/2017 in your ‘show orders due before’ date, and as above image it shows there was one due to be generated 13/10/2016 and if you select that one, it will generate the order commencing bill cover from 13/10/2016 for the given invoice frequency period, so if the invoice frequency was 1, then the next time you run the process and if you again enter 28/1/2017 in your ‘show orders due before’ date , you will still see the red warning message and lines, and it will show the invoice for the next 1 month on that is due 13/11/2016

So in summary, if you have missed 3 months of monthly invoices it will not generate 1 sales order for 3 months , because your invoice frequency is set to 1 (monthly) you will need to generate the 3 missing sales orders separately

6.2. Amending a Contract after the Generation of a Sales Order

Once you have generated a sales order from Sicon Contracts, we lock down the fields with the sales order, and therefore any amendments need to be done back in the contract/contract line itself if it’s a case of you have noticed you had entered the wrong price or dates etc

You should NOT cancel and/or remove the liens from the sales order, as this method does not update the contract/contract line correctly.

If the Sales Order is not posted: Firstly, you need to use the Sage standard Amend Order Status to cancel the sales order.

The system will warn you that the sales order is related to a contract and that by continuing to cancel the sales order will revert the contract to back to how it was before you originally generated the sales order, reversing the billing dates.

If happy to do so click OK.

Once done, you can go back into the contract line and make the amendments you needed to, and generate the sales order you would in the normal was

If the Sales Order is posted:  If the sales order has been posted, you will need to from within the contract and on the line, use the amendment tab to cancel the sales order, raise a contract sales order return

For more details on raising a credit via the amendment tab please refer to the section ‘Process Amendments’ on the help and user guide

If the Sales Order Value is correct and it’s just dates you need to amend:
If the value of the sales order is correct, but you have agreed to change the dates with the customer (perhaps the start date was to early, or you have agreed to offer 15 months for the price of 12 months for the first year). For example, a contract was raised and invoice £1200 for period 01/08/2019 – 31/07/2020, but the customer did not go live with the service until 01/11/2019 so they are asking for the contract end date to be extended to 30/11/2020

Because the original contact sales order was partially incorrect we would recommend from an audit perspective that that is credited and a new line added

This method (crediting and reinvoicing) is more important if you are using deferred transactions because when the sales order would have been posted, deferred transactions would have been captured and movements to the P & L via the month end journal process would start from 01/8/2019

If you took the easy route and simply went on to the contract line and amended the start date to 01/10/2019 , end date 30/11/2020, current bill cover From:To dates to 01/10/2019 to 30/11/202, then we would advise that you add a note in the internal description box for other users to note you have changed the dates, or add a memo on the memo tab of the contract  but more importantly if you are deferring transactions you have to consider what to do with those.

If you look at the line in question and look at the sales orders and deferred transactions function (example below).

The movement from the balance sheet to P & L during a month end journal process may or may not have been posted.

In our screen shot they show as Not Posted.

So bearing in mind if you have taken the simple route to change the dates by changing the dates on the line to now be contract start date 01/11/2019 – 31/11/2020, the deferred transactions will start 01/08/2019 unless you Edit the lines within deferred transactions.

If you do decide to edit the dates on the deferred transactions, do it with care, if you by mistake delete a line, not noticing it, and save, then automatically within contract reconciliation you will have a variance.

To edit unposted deferred transactions dates, you would select ‘Edit Transactions and change each line.

If the status is posted (Meaning the journal has already happened as part of a month end routine) we really would recommend that you go down the route of crediting the original sales order (which in turn creates credit deferred transactions) and you then add the contract line again.

You could raise a manual journal within the nominal ledger for the months already journaled and use the same process as above, editing the deferred transaction, changing the dates as above, and for those months that have a status of posted, change status un posted. This is not our recommended route, but it can be done, and would recommend you are confident with this option by trying in a test company to make sure you are happy with the process and the results.

6.3. Process an Amendment

The Amendment Tab on a contract line is only visible on a live contract line when at least one sales order has been generated from the contract line and the invoice is printed / posted.

This is because until a sales order is raised / invoice generated there is nothing to amend

If you have entered a contract line but no processing through to sales orders any amendments would be needed to be done on the line itself, before processing.

If you are new to contract manager and you are adding lines in preparation for the renewal, and previous invoices have been generated manually or on another system If you have added a new contract line and you need to raise a credit for the current period (prior to expiry) this should be done as a manual transaction within SOP, it cant be done on a contract line where no orders have been generated from

If you have added contract lines within sales order processing on to a sales order (as opposed to starting it off within contract manager) until the sales order has been posted the line is a pending contract line, adjustments cannot be made on pending lines.

If you have added a sales order / contract line which has become a pending contract you would use the sales order amend order status to cancel the order and invoice if printed and adjust within the sales order and re-invoice / post

Amendments within the contract module, on a contract line can be used to either:

Cancel a contract line in full and raise a credit against a previously raised contract sales order / invoice, credit can be for the full amount for the full period or pro rata

Increment the qty, and raise a pro rata invoice

Decrease the Qty, and raise a credit or pro rata credit

Raise a one-off credit or one-off charge

In our example 1 below we are looking to cancel the contract line and issue a credit for a previously raised invoice (or invoices)

Example 1
Cancellation of a contract with a Credit

the original contract quantity was 1 off, so by entering a minus 1 (-1) its zeros the contract quantity and by ticking the previously raised sales orders, the system will raise a credit note.

If there have been multiple sales orders raised and you are crediting multiple simply select the relevant ones

Select a cancellation reason and date of cancellation

Tick the Confirm amendment and Save.

The system will confirm how much the credit will be and if for the full period will equal the sales order (s) being credited

If you do not tick confirm amendment the system will not generate a credit / SOP return

Example 2:
Increase in Qty

You support your customer’s iPhone and you charge for the contract per phone, the existing line is a qty of 1, and the customer has increased to 3, you do not want to add an additional contract line, simply increment the qty, align with the existing contract and charge them accordingly for the additions up to the current contract renewal date

Use the amendment tab, in the Amendment quantity adjustment box enter 2 and you will see the quantity after amendment value is 3

If charging the additional 2 for the full year ignore the pro rata fields and select Confirm Amendment

If the customer ordered the addition 2-part way through the year and you want to charge from point of order and align with exiting contract end date

Tick the Pro rata box and enter the date from which you wish to charge the customer

When you save the line, you will be prompted to generate the sales order which will be generated from within ‘process amendments as explained further down this user guide’

Example 3
Reduction in Qty

If the qty on the contract line is being reduced, (as an example from 3 to 1) and a credit being issued within the amended quantity adjustment figure entered would be -2

Taking the Quantity after amendment would be 1

Where you are cancelling a contract but only giving the customer a part credit, you would tick the Pro rata date box, enter the date from which you are crediting them (in our example contract full period was 01/06/2020 to 31/05/2021, but we are only crediting them from 01/10/2020

Select a cancellation reason and date of cancellation

Tick the Confirm amendment and Save.

The system will confirm how much the part credit will be and for what pro rata

If you do not tick confirm amendment the system will not generate a credit / SOP return

Example 4
One-off credit or One-off charge

Can be used as often as you need to, and does not reduce the contract line qty’s contract price, or cancel any contact

When used you also get the chance to enter a one-off description, which you would use to enter the reason behind the one-off credit / charge, which in turns will follow through to the sales order / sales return

Examples where one-off credit or chargers may be used, are where you missed one of your regular visits the customer asked for a refund and you agreed as gesture of goodwill credit or if you want to charge them an additional charge because the equipment when your service engineer went to fix under the agreement, was only broken down to customer misuse.

In our example above, we have raised a one-off credit for £50

The nominal code associated with the service stock item on the line for which the one-off credit or charge is being made will be used and therefore it’s important to handle the value as far as deferred income is concerned

In our example the contract full period is 12 months and will be spread over the period of the 12 months

As it’s a small value being credited, we in our example have said create a credit value in July as a one of £50, this is achieved by entering 01/07/2020 in the from date and 1 in the duration

If I wanted to spread the £50 credit for deferred over 5 months starting July I would enter as the below

When the amendment is saved you will see a message confirming the transaction will need to be generated

To acknowledge select continue

To process amendment through to Sales Order Processing, select from the Contract processing menu option ‘Process Amendments’

Select the customer individually to display only theirs or select ‘Display’ to display all amendments waiting to be processed through to sales order processing

Select the relevant ones. Enter a sales order date (which is the sales order header date) and select process

When the sales return / sales order for any amendment is generated they can be seen within the main contract details tab of the contract

If it’s a cancellation or amendment the reason shown is ‘Contract amendment’

If it is a one-off credit the reason shown shows as ‘one off credit’ as our example below and if it was a one-off charge the reason would show as a one-off charge

6.4. Single Contract Line Renewal Process

If it’s your companies policy that once contract pricing is set , it never increases and you do not ever need to review a contract price with a view to increasing (or decreasing) then you can avoid the need to go through a contract renewal process and instead flag a contract line as a ‘Rolling Contract’

Where you have contract lines flagged as rolling, they are in effect never ending and therefore you will not be prompted to renew them and the system will automatically increment the cover dates on the contract and the contract will appear ongoing in the generate sales orders list for invoicing as per the invoice frequency.

Using rolling is not our recommended option unless you are pretty sure your contract prices will not increase, and/or as a company you do not need to review contracts with a view to increasing

It’s very easy to renew contracts, even if no price increase using the update renewal process, so when ever we are involved to assist with a contract project we recommend setting a contract line with an end date, and train the customer how easy it is to review, and renewal on mass, even when there is 0% / £0 increase

However, if you have decided to use rolling on the contract line when flagged as such as per our screen shot below

If you have added the line on via a sales order, and you do tick the rolling function you will note that there is no contract end date and it shows as a rolling contact with the duration showing as ‘Indefinite’.

If you do review contracts with a view to increasing, or always increase pricing and are looking to increase manually or use the price book functionality they there are two methods to increase .

The method described within this section is ‘renewing at a contract level and on a line basis’ rather than on mass

Prior to renewing contract lines, whether this is going to be done per line, or on mass as a company and during the module set up, you would have / should have reviewed the default settings / renewals tab within utilities / configuration settings as per the screen shot below

Setting up the renewal defaults before using the module are further explained within the help and user guide section labelled ‘Contract Renewal Settings & Defaults’

If no defaults are set and/or ‘use existing’ enabled then during the renewal process the user will need to re-key values as they will be £0, blank or 0%

Renewing at Single Line level

One of two ways to start the renewal process, and that is renewing on the line itself by accessing the line, and selecting the renewal tab as below

Fields on this renewal tab are explained as below:

Customer Purchase Order Number: Use to record the customer’s renewal purchase order number for reference if given.

Renewal Quantity adjustment: Used to increment / decrease the qty at renewal if required. For example, your service is providing support per named user, and at renewal your customer has increased the number of users they are asking you to support

Increase by %: Where you are using price list, but where the you have agreed with the customer an incremental annual increase up to price book RRP use this function. Tick the Box and enter the % you have agreed to upgrade by annually until it reaches the price book RRP. Once you tick it shows the price book RRP for reference.

This function would be used for example where you have globally increased prices, but for a  particular customer you have agreed that they will not automatically be increased to this price book RRP but instead have an increment annually until they reach the price book value.

In our example the contract line price before renewal was £800, we had set a price book price RRP of £ 1000.00 , but instead of a £200 price increase at renewal we have set a 5% incremental increase, so the first renewal for the customer wold be 5% on top of £800, (£840) , 2^nd year 5% on top of £840 and year on year increasing by %% until it reaches the RRP value.

At any point the % increase would take the value past the RRP value it will ignore the % increase and use the price book value.

Renewal annual unit price: Based on default settings as explained above it’s possible to default the suggested renewal price on the line / renewal tab to the customers existing unit price set on the line, if enabled annual unit price it will show in this field; users can override it manually*. If settings are not set to show existing annual unit price it will show 0 and users will enter the renewal annual unit price.

*If you want to automatically increase to the Price book RRP press the ‘Update Renewal Price button’

Renewal unit Cost: If populated will update the contract line cost field on the line at renewal.

Note: This unit cost field on a contract line is a field used only within the contract module for reporting and for deferred costs. It is not a field that is pulled through to the sop line on a sales order, or taken from the cost field on the stock record

Renewal duration in months: Based on default settings as explained above it’s possible to default the suggested renewal duration in months. If set to show the existing duration in months it will be visible here, but can be amended for example if original contract was a 12-month contract, but customer has signed up to a 24-month contract

Renewal invoice frequency in months: Based on default settings as explained above it’s possible to default the existing contract invoice frequency, if set it will show here, but can be amended for example if original contract was invoicing every 12 months, but customer has asked now if they can be invoiced monthly, so the invoice frequency would change to 1

Renewal confirmed tick box: Once ready to confirm the renewal of this single line, the user should simply tick this field, by ticking this field the renewal will appear within the ‘Process Renewals process to generate renewal sales orders. If the user renewing at line level does not tick ‘Renewal Confirmed ‘then the line will not appear within the process renewals

Renewal unit discount %: Based on default settings as explained above it’s possible to default the existing contract line unit discount %, if set the existing unit discount will show here but can be changed.

Renewal unit discount value: If within settings the system is set to by default show existing contract line unit discount value, it will show here, if not changed, the renewal line discount value will remain the same

Once the user is happy that all the relevant lines they are looking to renew at that time have been updated / confirmed, the next step would be to ‘process renewals’ which is within the contract processing menu option

When the process renewals screen opens, the user needs to enter the relevant renewal due before date. In our example our contract is next due for renewal 01/06/2020, and on the contract line itself we had left the ‘bill in advance field as 0 months’

On the process renewals screen we would be expected to enter 01/06/2020 to see this line to process the renewal through to sales order processing as per our screen shot below

However, if on the line we were using the bill in advance function, and we had it set to bill 2 months in advance

On the process renewals screen you would enter 01/04/2020 (2 months ahead of the renewal date of 01/06/2020)

If you use the bill in advance function, no contract dates are affected, it’s simply a user’s / company’s preference as to what date they use /enter when using the process renewals screen.

Here at Sicon we use the contracts module in house on the contract lines we add we leave the bill in advance set at 0 months but we do send the customers invoice out 2 months in advance. The way we work is as an example , its 1^st April 2020 and need to process / send out the renewal invoices for contracts lines that are due for renewal 1^st June 2020, and once we have confirmed renewals for all lines on the process renewals screen we enter 1^st June 2020 as the ‘ show renewals due before date’.

When opening the process renewals screen and by entering your date and selecting display – you are selecting to show / display the lines confirmed due for renewal before xx/xx/xxxx, so it may be that there may be lines on there from previous periods not yet processed.

We therefore recommend rather than simply selecting all and process, that you review the ‘Renewal Contract Start’ column to see if any have been previously missed.

If they have you can still select them along with current date selected but as an alternative you may want to select them separately and process through to sales orders with a different sales order header date.

Once happy to process the renewals though to sales orders tick individually as required, or select all and then then Process Selected Renewals and Generate Sales Order.

Note: If you do not see any lines to process in the renewals screen even though you have gone through the Update Renewal Prices, this is likely to be because you still have sales orders/invoices to process on the existing contract line. Amend the contract, click on the line you are looking to renew and scroll across to the No. of Invoices Remaining column, this needs to be 0 to see the lines in the Process Renewals Screen.

You will be prompted to enter a date which will go through as the sales order header date.  Once processed you will see a visual confirmation that the sales orders have been added

Once the renewal is within sales order processing. The line is set as confirmation not required by the contracts module so there will be no requirement to pick/confirm or despatch. To invoice you would use the standard sop invoice process as you do others.

It’s important to note that whilst the renewal invoice is within sales order processing / before it posted through to the sales ledger, it cannot be amended, for example, if you spot a mistake with the renewal pricing, duration or dates etc.

Instead you would need to she sage standard ‘amend order status function’ to cancel

Once the order has been selected to be cancelled the system will warn you that because the order is related to a contract the line will be reversed back to how it was before you processed the renewal, you would then amend the contract line / the details on the renewal tab and process through again

Once the renewal order has gone through to the sales order module , it will be linked to the contract line and visible by clicking on the relevant sales order , within the orders created from this contract view

Until the sales order is posted the order status will be Live, and if managing deferred income until the sales order is posted there will be no deferred transactions captured

Once the sales order is posted the status changes to complete and where managing deferred income by selecting the order (or line from within the contract itself) you can ‘View deferred Postings’.

6.5. Multiple Contract Lines Renewal Process

The method described within this section explains how to renew multiple contracts in a single process rather than on a per line basis as described in the previous section of the help and user guide

Prior to renewing contract lines which ever method, during the contract’s module set up, you would have / should have reviewed the default settings / renewals tab within utilities / configuration settings as per the screen shot below

Setting up the renewal defaults before using the module are further explained within the help and user guide section labelled ‘Contract Renewal Settings & Defaults’

If no defaults are set and/or ‘use existing’ enabled then during the renewal process the user will need to entered as the renewal values displayed as they will be £0, blank or 0%

The purpose of using the ‘Update Renewal Prices’ process is to enable you to either enter renewal prices within a grid form, filter the update multiple contract lines by either SOP, Customer or Sicon Contract Line analysis codes, use price bands or apply a % increase and based on a setting within contract utilities \ configuration settings and on the renewals, tab as shown below

If enabled the ‘Allow confirming renewals while updating renewal prices’ button / function will appear on the update Renewal Prices screen allowing the user to ‘Confirm Renewal for All Lines’ and an extra column as shown below

The function is a quick way of confirming the lines you have either increased, or simply reviewed and left the same as the current contract price, and after processing sets the ‘renewal confirmed flag on the contract line renewal tab as ticked, thus allowing the generation of the contract renewal order through to sales orders for invoicing

Without the setting enabled on the renewal tab within configuration settings, the update renewal prices screen will display as below, no extra column for flagging lines as renewal confirmed, and no button to confirm for all lines flagged for renewal and the user will need to confirm at line level

If the setting is not enabled, you can still use this screen to filter / calculate an increase based on a price book or a % increase, but you would then need to on each individual contract line, access the renewal tab, and confirm renewal

Some companies like this 2-step approach, as it may be one user within the companies prepares what the renewals will look like after applying a price band increase / % increase or manually by using ‘update renewal prices’, (in our example we selected just one line to increase, manually entered a renewal price, ticked the left-hand column tick box

and then on this screen select process at which time the user will see a message that the ‘Update Prices is complete’

but it’s another user’s responsibility to print the reminders

and once the customers confirm renewal the user goes into the individual line, on the renewal tab and ticked confirm

in order for the renewal contract invoice to be generated through ‘process renewals which in turn pushes the contract renewal transaction through to sop or invoicing)

But if you primarily have one user that works with all the contract renewals, then using the ‘update prices with the setting ‘Allow confirming of renewals while updating prices does save a lot of time

Update Renewal Prices using Sage 200 Price Book

One method to apply increases is to make use of the standard sage 200 price book, this would work well if you have set prices that change each year

Sage 200 price book functionality is standard Sage 200, for assistance on how to create a price book please refer to your business partner for advice or your Sage 200 help guide within the programme itself

Once set up you will need to set

Your current price book (in our example Jan19-Dec19)

The date that that current price book expires (in our example 01/01/2020)

And select which price book to refer to thereafter (in our example Jan 20 – Dec20)

In our example above, we have set our price book a name of Jan19-Dec19, and a price increase date of 01/01/2020

This means that any renewal that takes place prior 01/01/2020 will look to the price book Jan19-Dec19 to set the customers contract line renewal price

If a customer’s contract line is due for renewal after 01/01/2020 it will look to the renewal price book which I have called in my example Jan 20 – Dec20

Once 1^st January 2020 has passed, I would need to

Change / set my ‘current price book’ to be Jan 20 – Dec20

Change the date in the Price Increase date to be 01/01/2021

And select the next renewal price book which would be Jan21 – Dec21

When ready to update renewal prices using the price book: –

From within the Contract Processing menu option select Update Renewal Prices

Step 1. Once the form opens the first thing is to do is enter the two in between dates you are looking to work with

If needed, you can filter by sop, customer or contract lines analysis codes if you wish to, it may be different contract manager user look after different regions which are associated to an analysis code.

Step 2. After you have entered the relevant dates, select ‘use price bands’

Step 3. Then select ‘Calculate Renewal Prices’

The system will then look for all the contract lines relevant and assign the relevant renewal price (s) associated with the price book configured to be used.

The renewal price will be displayed in the column New Renewal Price

If need be the user can click in the field in the new renewal price column on a line and change if for this one line it was going to be different

Step 4. Once happy with the renewal prices you would in the contract number’ column either tick individually, or if happy with all lines, select all

Step 5. If you are ready to confirm all lines are ready for generating through to sales orders (via the process renewals function) and you have the feature enabled, you would then use the button ‘Confirm Renewals for All Lines’

If you do not have the ‘confirm renewals for all lines button’, they will need confirming on the contract lines themselves as explained previously within this section

Step 6. Select Process, after which you will see confirmation that the lines have been updated and are now ready for processing through to sales orders via the contract’s menu Contract Processing \ Process Renewals

Note: If no price books are configured / set up within contract settings the price book option on this screen will be greyed out

Update Renewal Prices using a x% Increase

From within the Contract Processing menu option select Update Renewal Prices

Step 1. Once the form opens the first thing is to do is enter the two in between dates you are looking to work with

If needed, you can filter by sop, customer or contract lines analysis codes if you wish to, it may be different contract manager user look after different regions which are associated to an analysis code.

Step 2. After you have entered the relevant dates, select ‘Increase by % option, and enter your desired increase %, in our example we have entered 5% I

Step 3. Then select ‘Calculate Renewal Prices’

The system will then look for all the contract lines relevant to contract end between dates as entered, and increase by the set %

The renewal price will be displayed in the column New Renewal Price

Alternative use of the ‘Increase by %’ Option

If you are not increasing any prices for the contracts for the selected dates, but you wanted a quick way to renew your contracts on mass at 0% increase rather than go into each line you would use the same process as explained above, using the Increase by % option but simply leave the ‘Increase by% at 0%

If need be the user can click in the field in the new renewal price column on a line and change if for this one line it was going to be different

Step 4. Once happy with the renewal prices you would in the contract number’ column either tick individually, or if happy with all lines, select all

Step 5. If you are ready to confirm all lines are ready for generating through to sales orders (via the process renewals function) and you have the feature enabled, you would then use the button ‘Confirm Renewals for All Lines’

If you do not have the ‘confirm renewals for all lines button’, they will need confirming on the contract lines themselves as explained previously within this section

Step 6. Select Process, after which you will see confirmation that the lines have been updated and are now ready for processing through to sales orders via the contract’s menu Contract Processing \ Process Renewals.

6.6. Variable Billing Process

Added in v2015.2.0.19 Variable Billing is for contract lines where the amount varies each invoice, for example electric metre readings.

Where required to be used, on the Service stock item enable the ‘Use Variable Billing Box, if ticked the Maintenance Contract Item option is greyed out (and vice versa).

Variable item lines are treated different and do not need bill cover from / to dates, a contract start / end date and as such are treated as a non-maintenance item is the same way as a service item not flagged as maintenance item, but the difference being is that the system will not remove a variable contract line after being invoiced once (where as a standard service non contract item line will be removed/flagged as non-contract item) once invoiced.

Important Notes

1. It’s important and we recommend you use the Insert Variable function (either on the product group or the service stock item itself because there is no bill cover to date fields populated from the contract). By selecting the %%date:NextDateOfVariableBilling%% The system will add this date in to  the sales order description field on the contract line every time, so the customer knows what date is being billed up to.
2. The Variables are different to those used for standard maintenance contract items, so whether you are adding default variables on the variable product group, the service stock item itself or on the contract line / sales order line description be careful you pick up the correct ones.
3. We recommend you have a different product group / service stock item(s) for variable lines, to allow you to configure Default Contract Line Descriptions to save entering this manually on every contract line. The variables required for showing the relevant billing date is a different variable to a normal contract item, as shown below.

You may also want to consider different nominal codes for the revenue costs. As these orders are more likely to be billed after the event you would probably not be deferring these type of contracts and therefore you would want to post the revenue direct to the P & L.

Once the ‘Use Variable billing’ box is enabled, when adding a new contract line, because the item has been flagged as a variable item, you only enter the Quantity.

The Annual Unit Price should be left £0.

No dates are required and therefore are greyed out.

Enter other details as you would a normal contract line (You may want to consider using one of the sop analysis codes or Sicon contract line analysis codes to mark the line as a variable).

Invoicing

When you know the variable amount to bill, to process the line through to a standard sales order for invoicing select the ‘Update Variable Billing Prices’ within the Contract Processing Menu.

Select display to show all the variable contract lines.

You can filter by Product Group, Stock Code or Customer – leaving these fields blank will search for all the variable contract lines.

Enter the Bill Date, that you wish to record that you are billing up to i.e. electricity usage up to xx/xx/xx.

Enter the Billing Net Total (Next Invoice Unit Price).

Select the lines to and select process after which the screen will display ‘Update Process Complete’.

Note: You are able to import Variable Billing Prices, click the Import Template to generate 2 Excel spreadsheets the screenshot below shows the Example file, the other one is the one to populate and save as a CSV file for importing.

The next step is to generate sales orders using the ‘Generate Sales Orders’ within ‘Contract Processing’.

Enter the date to list the contracts that require sales orders generating and then invoices. In this example we have entered 25/06/2019. The list can be filtered using various analysis codes, or by customer, invoice frequency, contract number or contract type (Contract Type can be set up within Maintenance).

Overdue contract lines will be shown as red with a message.

Variable billing lines are shown in green.

Select All, or manually tick the lines to generate the sales orders for.

Click Process Selected Contracts and Generate Sales Order.

Select a Date from the Date Selection screen, this is to allow you to be able to select a specific date for the orders to be generated on as opposed to defaulting to today’s date.

The Sales order will then be visible from within contracts, on the relevant contract tab.

Next Invoicing Period

Follow the steps above, no need to go into the contract again, no need to renew and it’s only when you want to mark the variable billing line as cancelled and set cancellation flags, change any other details that you need to go into the contract line again.

6.7. Expired Contracts

By selecting Expired Contracts users can review contracts lines that have expired naturally but where no reason code thereafter entered.

Users may add the reason why (by selecting the line and selecting the reason from the drop down list available as screen shot below) not only from a visual aspect within a contract, but where they have written custom reports for expired / cancelled contracts they may want to ensure there are always reason codes entered.

It’s important to note that simply by adding a reason codes the contract line is not cancelled/further invoicing will be suspended.

6.8. Rolling Contracts (contracts that do not expire)

Where a contract line is flagged as ‘Rolling’s as per the screen shots below, the dates on the contract automatically increment and the contract will appear in the Generate Sales Orders process automatically without any renewal process/action.

Caution should be taken when considering whether to use this function

We do not recommend using unless you know that your pricing never increases, the company’s policy is one that they so review contract pricing

It’s very easy to renew contracts (even if no price increase), using the update renewal process (using a 0% increase if there are no price changes)

If you do decide to use the function, you do not have to use them on all contract lines, or all contracts, so if you do have the situation where you do have some contracts that will never have an increase, this would be the method to use

If created originally by adding a contract item via a SOP sales order, when viewing you will note that there is no contract end date and it shows as a rolling contact with the duration showing as ‘Indefinite’.

When adding directly from within the contract module the rolling function is underneath the contract start date.

When a start date is added and then the rolling tick box ticked, then the Contract end date field is blank.

Remember …rolling contract lines will appear in any renewal process or any renewal reminder reports.

7. Period End Routines

Use this menu option to generate your monthly deferred income/cost postings, if you are using this for your contract DI Reconciliation.

7.1. Monthly Journal Postings for Contracts

Select the month you wish to post the journals for.

In this example, we have chosen April 2019, you will note that the system has warned us that there are postings due for previous months, (in red text) which means that contracts have been added relating to a previous period or we did not run the month end for that period, or we did not select all relevant transactions during a previous routine.

If this message appears we recommend you do not continue, but investigate those past month’s transactions before continuing to ensure you action accordingly.

If the periods are still open they will post into to the relevant period. If the previous periods are closed, they will (as is standard within Sage 200), post into the current open period.

It’s very important to note that if you have future months open and in error you select a future month, it is possible if you ‘Post’ that postings will occur (a journal moving from balance sheet to P & L) for future months.

Where this applies monthly journal postings for deferred transactions the system will split journals by date. This will make sure that journals are posted on the correct date.

The screen allows you to :

View what the journal entry would look like to make sure you are happy with the postings and if not, close/amend the correct contract and process again.

Choose to leave all selected (default option), or deselect some (if you do not wish to post the journal at this time)

Select a contract and choose Show Contract to view that specific contract or

Select a contract and choose Show Transactions to display the order history and any deferred transactions.

View Past Transactions, will display any postings previous for the same period.

You can choose your views as follows:

• Standard list, shows Contract number, A/C Ref, A/C Name, Contract Line and amounts or
• Extended list which shows the relevant nominal codes as well as the above fields as standard list

To process the journal simply press Post.  The system will ask you if you are sure you want to post deferred revenue; if you are select Yes.

Subject to your standard Sage 200 Nominal ledger settings, the journal transactions will either appear on the relevant nominal accounts straight away or sit in deferred waiting until update nominal postings are processed.

7.2. Contract Reconciliation

Contract DI Reconciliation showing the analysis of all the deferred income transactions. There are three options for reconciliation enquiries:

Deferred Income over Months: displays the total value of the deferred income transactions broken down by month and grouped by nominal code.

Customer and Products: the top two panels show customer and product contract values and should always balance. This is a total value for the contract, not just the remaining deferred income.

The bottom three panels provide a detailed breakdown of the remaining deferred income postings, by default includes all the deferred income transactions (posted and un-posted).

You have the option to filter out transactions already posted to give you the remaining total deferred income by customer, product or by both. In order to report these details you can use the right mouse click ‘Send to Excel’ for each of the panels.

Reconciliation Screen: this shows the total remaining deferred income for each nominal code that the contract lines are linked to.

This is compared to the current nominal balance plus any waiting (deferred or pending) nominal postings and provides a variance.

On this screen you can using the hyper links drill down to the relevant nominal account

In an ideal world there should be no variances, (there is on ours because it’s our test data) if there is it’s likely that a manual journal has been posted to the balance sheet nominal code, so we recommend manual journals are not made, if the nominal balance on the balance sheet account is incorrect then investigations should be made into the contract deferred postings and nominal, and where required adjustments to the deferred ‘not posted’ transactions

Where you are seeing a variance then there are a number of investigatory steps you can take to investigate. For full details see below:

On this screen there are 4 columns, these are explained as below

Outstanding Deferred
These figures are taken from the first tab ‘Deferred Transactions over months’ (in my example I have both revenue and costs deferred, a lot of customers just have revenue as they are providing the service not a sub-contractor etc).

The deferred transactions are those capture after sop post, where a service stock item used on a contract line is flagged as being a deferred item, and are shown month by month, and you can drill down.

Noting (as further explained below) that if at sop post stage the contracts are not updated, because the user has not processed then the system would not have captured the values to include in the deferred transaction file, and will not be seen on this first tab).

Nominal Balance

A snapshot in real time of the nominal balance on the relevant nominal account.

Waiting Postings

If as a company you do not have update nominal real time. And you have to run the ‘Update Waiting Postings’, the value in this column is equal to the ‘waiting to be updated’ for the relevant deferred nominal codes.

Variances

A sum of all 3 columns, hopefully this will be Zero £0.00 , but if not the below may help you to identify why not , and allow you to correct.

Things to Consider and Check

Have you got the setting ‘ Change deferred posting status without generating a journal’ enabled within Utilities/Configuration Settings/Contract Settings – If so then the system will not create any journals during the period end routine ‘ Monthly Journal Postings for contracts’ it will only change the deferred transaction status from not posted to posted, and unless you create a manual journal , you will see variances within contract reconciliation  equal to the value of the transactions that had their status changed’

Were you happy opening position (prior to contract manager) of those balance sheet codes were correct?

Has someone raised any manual journals within the nominal ledger?

If yes, then this is likely to be the reason why you are seeing a variance as contract manager will not know about those manual journals.

Manual journals in the balance sheet accounts would be the 1^st thing I look at.

2^nd thing would be to make sure none of the service stock codes used in contracts are set for the revenue to go direct to the P & L instead of the balance sheet code (the nominal is on the analysis tab on the service stock record (example below).

Make sure also that the same balance sheet nominal code is being used for the monthly journal on the same stock code.

Make sure the ‘create monthly journal postings from revenue was ticked, (and its not a case of it was only ticked after contract sales orders had been raised, because if it had, contract manager would not have generated any deferred postings).

If on the maintenance contract tab your fields are blank, it’s because the codes are set on product group level.

Using Sicon Projects ( previously known as Job Costing)

If the Nominal code shown on the Sage Analysis Tab in the Revenue Field is showing the balance sheet deferred nominal account correctly but the sales order was posted to a another nominal code, you need to check (view) the sales order line to see where it has posted to. If the sales order was generated from within contracts the user cannot manually change the nominal code when either an order has been generated from contracts as we lock it down, however if it’s been manually added on a sales order a user can (shouldn’t but can ) change the nominal code.

Furthermore if Sicon Projects (Job Costing as it was previously known) is installed and set to integrate , because projects is ‘king’ it may be that the project header that was set on the line, has overridden the nominal code, because the project header itself when created in projects has had a default nominal code set against it and is overriding the nominal set up on the stock record.

If this is the case you need to review the project header set up within Sicon projects and ‘Maintain Project Headers’.

It’s likely you have a project header specifically for contracts, if this is the case then make sure that the Default Nominal A/C is set to be the same as the stock record/analysis tab/revenue field nominal account.

If you are using a generic project header, then make sure there is NO default nominal code set on the project header, this way the sales order line will use the stock record nominal code.

If this has happened and explains the variance, you will need to investigate, and journal the value of the sales order (net) tat was posted to a another nominal instead of the balance sheet deferred, and raise a manual journal debiting the in correct nominal account, and crediting the correct nominal code referencing the invoice / sales order number for audit purposes.

Has a contract user, been into a contract, and edited, deleted, added any deferred transactions? Users may not realise that any amendments, adding, clearing done here (screen shot below) only effects deferred transactions and not the original value posted to the balance sheet from the sales order raised.

When you go in to contract manager are you seeing a warning that there are contracts not updated? (as per the screen shot below).

If so, then this means that although the sales order has been posted, the contract deferred postings tables/file have not been updated, and therefore when the monthly journal routine is run, they will not be included and a journal entry not made, so the original value posted to the balance sheet is not reducing.

To correct this, use the following menu option / process to update.

If everything above is checked and you are happy, and you believe everything is in order with the above then its likely that you need some consultancy to help you investigate and you should contact your business partner and/or Sicon to arrange some consultancy (this will be chargeable at your business partner standard consultant rates).

8. Contract Printing

8.1. Print Renewal Reminders (not applicable to ‘rolling contracts’)

Two different renewal reminder letters can be printed from the Contract Manger Module; first reminder and second reminder.  You can use either, or both, and the layouts are based on standard Sage 200 report designer layouts, which can be amended. NB: using reminders is not a mandatory step.

The renewal month will be picked up from the next start date of the contract line and the First and Second Reminders will be sent out in accordance with this date and in conjunction with the module settings (see Utilities – Configuration Settings – Renewals).

Select Display to show all the contracts due for reminders to be sent (or use the filters as required).

Select the relevant contracts or select all and select print.  Standard Sage 200/3rd Party print options apply for sending to customers.

8.2. Print Purchase Orders

This facility in this version is relatively new and may grow in function over the next few releases.

On a contract Line you can specify a supply that the contract is ‘backed off to’ (for example).

The purchase order layout is a simple one, but can be customised through Sage 200 report designer (This function is not at this time linked through to Sage 200 POP).

The details listed are contract numbers, in this example on contract number 10 ‘Hulme Home Fitters’.

The contract has 2 lines, one for hardware support, one for software support, both lines are backed off to 3^rd parties and both have suppliers (different suppliers) associated with.

The system will generate 2 pages.

Page 1 for the back to back / 3^rd party supplier costs in association with line 1.

Page 2 for the back to back / 3^rd party supplier costs in association with line 2

9. Maintenance

9.1. Contract Type Maintenance

9.2. Payment Type Maintenance

The ability to create payment types were in the legacy contracts as standard, and were included before the ability to have up to sicon contract line analysis codes (up to 150), and there was a requirement for some customers to analyse contracts by payment method within custom reports.

Once configured sits within the ‘contract details tab’ which can be enabled from within the contract settings tab within configuration settings.

If enabled, an additional tab appears on the contract line and is a selectable drop-down feature.

9.3. Visit Frequency Maintenance

The ability to create payment types were in the legacy contracts as standard, and were included before the ability to have up to 150 analysis codes, and there was a requirement for some customers to visually see / note if onsite visits were included in the contract.

Once configured sits within the ‘contract details tab’ which can be enabled from within the contract settings tab within configuration settings.

If enabled, an additional tab appears on the contract line and is a selectable drop-down feature.

9.4. Deletion Reason Codes (Cancellation Reason Codes)

At least one ‘Cancellation is required’ in order to process amendments/credit of previously raised contract sales order.

For custom reporting purposes / for a visual reference to record why a contract has expired, not renewed or cancelled.

The system has cancellation flags on the contract lines which are visible / editable on a contract when using the function ‘edit’ / ‘amend’ and ‘View’.

They are no longer visible when adding a new line as they were previously.

The only time that the system populates the date cancelled flag and cancellation code (reason) automatically is when the contract amendment process is used to cancel and credit a previously raised contract sales order.

If the contract line is left to ‘expire’, the line, by default is not shown on the contract line, but can be accessed by ticking the expired flag, at which time the line can be edited and the contract flags manually set.

There are also two additional flags which could be added to custom reports as well as a visual, they are.

Complimentary: To record perhaps that the credit was because the contract is to be complimentary / no charge.. In this instance you would not flag as cancelled or enter a cancelled date (if you do the system will not display the contract lines in other areas for renewal etc).

Suspended: If you want to flag the contract as being suspended, if ticked a free text box for entering a reason why appears.

Contract Lines were Suspended Flag is ticked will not allow generation of ‘Sales Orders’.

If a cancellation code is unticked so it is disabled, you will no longer be able to select this as a cancellation reason however, all contract lines that have  an association with a disabled code will retain this in the background.

9.5. Who Sold Maintenance

The ability to create Who Sold maintenance  were in the legacy contracts as standard and were included before the ability to have up to 150 sicon contract line analysis codes, or the use of SOP Analysis codes  within the module (SOP Analysis Codes is the  most frequent method used to allocate a sales person against a transaction).

Once configured the data sits within the ‘contract details tab’ which can be enabled from within the contract settings tab within configuration settings and can be used on custom reports, and as a filter within ‘generate sales orders’

10. Imports

10.1. Import Contracts

Import Contracts using the csv import available from within the module itself, this ensures the correct template for the correct version.

By Selecting ‘Example Import file’ the system will generate / create two excel workbooks.

One will have definitions of the data to be populated on a spreadsheet with headers, types, length, details of whether the field is mandatory or optional, notes for your reference and examples.

We do not recommend contract numbers starting with a 0 (Zero) as excel / saving as csv have a habit of stripping these off; We recommend you ensure that date columns, Qty Columns are formatted correctly and other excel formatting and configuration is considered.

The other one will be an example of a csv (which is the file format required for importing).

As with all Sicon module import routines if there are errors in the file to be imported the system will give you details of which line is causing the issue, and what field on that line is the issue.

10.2. Import Service Item Stock Settings

If using deferred Revenue and/or Costs, default numbers can be set at either stock product group level or stock code level. Nominals for these types can be imported against each stock record using the Import Service Item Stock Settings using the csv import available.

Initially selecting ‘ Example Import File’  to generate your template.

11. Generate Deferred Postings

As standard deferred transactions are created and stored in database at the point of the contract sales order being raised and then posted , but where contracts lines are being imported, and the service items are flagged on the stock record as being a type where deferred income/costs apply , and where the current period of contract has been invoiced in a another system prior to importing you may want to generate the deferred transactions  in the new system in order for monthly postings / journals to occur rather than manual journals manually within the nominal ledger

If however for the imported contract lines, where the service item is flagged as deferred , but you do not wish  (until renewal) for the system to generate monthly journals, then simply do not use this function.

If this is the case use the menu option within utilities.

Enter the date you wish the system to generate deferred transactions from , tick the ‘mark as posted’ option , select display and the relevant contract lines will be displayed.

Select the relevant ones , and select ‘Generate Deferred Postings’.

Once complete if you were to look at a contract line, and then view details.

And select the ‘deferred Transactions Tab’.

The newly created deferred transactions will be listed.

Important note however; consideration needs to be given current balances on the relevant nominal codes prior to import and the requirement to ensure the correct nominal codes are associated to the stock product groups or stock codes for service stock items being used within contracts. We would recommend that new nominal codes are created on take on of contracts where it’s felt the balances on the nominal codes are not accurate.

12. Contract Orders

12.1. Contracts where Items/Assets/Equipment are included

For those customers that as part of their service contract with them include items on long term hire for the duration of the contract this feature is ideal

Anyone who has more complex hire requirements, then our advice is to take a look at the feature rich Sicon Hire Module

A prerequisite for this contract order feature to be used is that you have the Sicon Fixed Assets Module installed, configured and set-up

Scenario / Example of where you may want to use this feature

You supply electric bikes to commercial and retail customers.

Some of those customers have a contract with you to maintain and service those e-bikes for which you charge an annual fee and as part of the contract itself the bike is supplied to them free of charge to be used during the duration of the contract

The e-bikes until supplied to the customer are stock items within the sage 200 stock module, once supplied, the e-bikes remains your property, a company asset but as part of the process needs to be transferred to your asset register depreciating in line with the relevant fixed asset categories default values

This feature allows you to link what is to start off with a stock item, allocate, pick and despatch it producing a despatch note and at the same time an internal stock issue / movement thereafter creating a fixed asset record, NBV of which is taken from the cost of the stock item, category & sub categories taken from the sicon fixed asset defaults on the stock item record

It also creates an equipment record (equipment records are part of the Sicon Common Components module which is installed alongside the Sicon modules)

If as a company you are using Sicon Service, you would be able to see the equipment records within the service module and create service cases accordingly

Depending on how you prefer your assets to be created when despatching the stock item against a contract line, you can choose to either create an asset per single item, or if for example one customer has 5 e-bikes all the same (a single stock item) as part of their contract, you can choose to create a single asset with a batch qty of 5

This is something you should decide before you start using the feature, and enable during set-up

12.2. Pre-Requisites / Set Up

If you are looking to create a single asset with a batch qty then within Fixed Asset Settings tick the ‘Enable multiple quantity asset batch’ as per the screen shot below

If against a contract line the customer has just 1 e-bike in our example a single asset will be created with a batch qty of 1

Categories & Sub Categories

Create & configure the relevant categories and sub categories relating to the assets/equipment that are supplied as part of the contract. (Examples below)

Internal Areas Set up within Maintain Stock Control Settings

During the process to despatch a stock item against a contract order line, the module uses Stock Internal Areas at two different stages of the process allocating and pick/despatch

Our recommendation however for month end reconciliations within the stock and nominal modules is to have a different contract order issue internal area and nominal accounts

If it’s not important to you as a company to know the different values, then you can use your standard internal issue area, or use separate contract order issue area, but the nominal account behind it remains your stock holding nominal account

If following our recommendation, we recommend the Internal Account to be a balance sheet additions nominal code associated with the Fixed Asset category

In our example our e-bikes within fixed assets are linked to a category ‘Long term contract Hire Orders’ with a sub category E-Bikes All Types

In our example we have created a Stock Internal Area called ‘Contract Order Issue’ and the balance sheet nominal code is set to be our ‘Long Term Contract Hire Additions’

The first time the Internal area is used is at ‘allocation stage’ this moves the stock from Qty Available to Qty Allocated’

When allocated stock history shows

The second time the Internal area is used is when the item is despatched, and the module issues the stock item / creates the fixed asset (s)

When despatched stock history shows Out – Internal, with the reference being the contract number, plus the contract order line number

Stock Item & Fixed Asset Defaults

On the stock item itself you need to set the default category and if Sub category

This is done within the Sicon tab, select Fixed Asset Defaults to link the asset category and sub category, when despatching the stock item against a contract line using contract orders, the system will use these defaults

Stock Item / Warehouse

You will also need to ensure the stock item (s) has a cost price set, as this will be used to create a net book value (nbv) when the asset is created, and make sure the stock item has the relevant warehouse set, from where long-term contract item items are despatched from.

If you do not set a cost price your asset will be created with a £0 value, and you will need to amend the asset details before depreciation takes place.

Contract Order Settings

Before you start adding contract lines which include contract orders, please ensure within the settings tab you select the newly created internal area you have created for contract orders.

12.3. Adding contract Order lines - Linking Hired Out Item to a Contract line

Add your contract line as you would normally do so within contract module.  For further details please visit the section within the Contract module help and user guide section ‘Adding a New Contract and New Contract lines’

In our case we have a service stock item set up for an E-Bike Annual Service & Maintenance Includes the Bike Hire

When the contract line is added, highlight the line and use the ‘contract orders’ button to link add the stock item (s)

The group No is there only for if you are adding lots of stock items within this form and you wish to group / list certain ones together on the despatch note. If this is not relevant the grouping can be left at 0

Select the Item code (stock item), tab it shows the stock name.

The description field can be left blank or you can type some extra info into the field

To set a default Sage stock warehouse for all stock items on this contract order, set a default at the top left of this screen

If you haven’t selected a default warehouse at the top of this form, you can select each time per line

Enter an Order date and Due date (Shown on the despatch note layout) and will be used during the internal stock issue appearing in stock history as the date issued

Until the lines are allocated and despatched no internal stock issues take place and the assets / equipment records are not created.

You can use the move up / down function, (highlighting a line first) to reorganising the order in which the items will appear on the despatch note if not using grouping.

Or if added on by mistake you can remove.

12.4. Print, Allocate, Picking Note & Despatching

Also, from this screen you can print the contract order details, noting this is not the contract itself, this is the lines you have added on this ‘Contract Order’ Form.

Use Allocate Lines, just like you would on a normal sales order, to ensure the stock is reserved against this contract order

When ready to ship the stock items (in our example e-bikes), use Print Picking list /print despatch note.

Layouts can be amended using standard sage 200 report designer

This documents can be re printed at any time using the same buttons on this screen :- Print Order, Picking List, Despatch Note

We recommend when testing this feature that at each stage you check the stock record / balance / history so you are aware off the stock movements that take place.

12.5. Process to Create the Fixed Asset & Equipment Record

It’s at the despatch stage of the process that the asset (s) are created which in turn creates an equipment record (s) which are visible when against the contract line, the user selects the ‘Equipment Button’.

The despatch date is used as the capitalisation date when creating the fixed asset

This will create an Equipment Record on the contract line for the items despatched.

The assets are created using the category and subcategory set stock item level, the cost value from the stock record.

The date of purchase and capitalisation date will be set to the despatch date during the despatching of the item against the contract line.

The Asset Type is by default set to ‘Contract Asset’.

The equipment record remains linked to the contract line, the equipment record shows the contract end date, but even after this end date the equipment record remains so if you are using Sicon Service you can still log a service / support call against the equipment. But you will see that the contract has expired

The asset remains as an active fixed asset, and in line with the depreciation values / life will continue to depreciate

If the asset/equipment record needs to be written off, for example if the customer damage the e-bike beyond repair, then within fixed assets you would use the modules ‘write off asset’ process and if using the sicon service module you can un-assign the equipment record from the linked customer

Important Note: The above contract order process does not generate the actual contract line for the contract itself through to sop for billing, this should be done using the standard Sicon Contract processing method, for further details please visit the relevant section of the Sicon Contract help and user guide titled ‘Contract Processing’.

13. Enable Module

This screen is used to show all configured Sicon Add-ons and allows the entry of enable strings to allow use of a module.  When a new module enable string is provided, copy into the ‘Enable string’ field and then click Apply to save the changes.

If online enable strings have been activated these will self-populate.

14. Contract Reports

Within the Contracts module there is a suite of reports that are available.

As with all the reports, they are written in Sage Report Designer and are therefore editable by Business Partners and / or customers, the only proviso is that a backup of the original report is taken prior to being edited.

Each report has a Criteria Values window which allows for filtering of information before the report is run.

15. Release Notes

The release notes page shows which release of the system includes new features or issues resolved.

At the release of Sicon v21 we announced that going forward, we will only be supporting Sage 200c and as such we are able to drop the year from our version numbers. We moved from 201.201.0.0 to 210.0.0.

New features detailed in the Release Notes relating to Pre-Release versions will not be detailed in the current Help and User Guide until the end of development phase.

16. New Features & Important Information