2.11.4 Managing contract information
In the Contracts view of the Assets module, you can register and manage contract information.
You can register contract information by manually adding information about individual contracts or by importing a CSV file containing the contract information.
Maintain contract information to keep the status up to date. This is especially important when a contract is expired or cancelled, when a related asset is changed, or when a contract term is extended.
Note that you can also update information about contracts in a batch by exporting information about contracts and importing an edited CSV file.
You can also delete contract information for which management is no longer needed.
- Organization of this subsection
(1) Managing contract status
For contract information, you can set Contract Status, which indicates whether a contract is valid (within the contract term) or invalid (contract term has ended). Setting Contract Status will let you display a list showing the statuses of the contracts that are entered into. You can also display contracts that have ended, as well as the contracts that are within the contract term.
There are following types of contract statuses:
- Active
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Indicates that the contract is within the contract term. If a contract for which the contract term has expired has this status, the contract is treated as an expired contract.
- Canceled
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Indicates that the contract was terminated. Set this status if a contract is cancelled during the contract term.
- Expired
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Indicates that the contract period has ended.
The administrator can add custom contract statuses (no more than 100 statuses excluding the default contract statuses).
- Tip
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If you register the contract statuses and contract terms, you can check the contracts for which the expiration date is approaching on a summary report.
(2) Checking the costs for hardware assets and software licenses
You can check the operational costs for hardware assets or software licenses in reports. You can check the costs for assets, using the following reports under Asset Detail Reports:
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Hardware Assets Cost report
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Software License Cost report
With these reports, you can check the monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly contract costs for each contract type.
Note that, to check the costs, you must set the costs in contract information and associate it with hardware asset information or software license information.
The following shows the concept of checking the costs for which contract information is associated.
In the above figure, for the lease contract associated with hardware assets, monthly payment is set for the contract term from October to March. Therefore, for the six months of the contract period, $100 is booked monthly. In the same way, for the support contract, $600 is booked monthly for the twelve months of the contract period. For purchase, the lump sum is set, so $1,100 is booked in December.
The monthly amount is summed up based on these calculated amounts, and the amount is booked quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly.
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The amount is summed up for each contract, and does not depend on the number of hardware assets associated with contract information.
(3) Calculating the costs for hardware assets
If you associate contract information and hardware asset information, the contract costs are calculated. The costs for hardware assets are displayed on the Hardware Assets Cost report (under Asset Detail Reports) of the Reports module.
The following describes how to calculate the contract costs.
Costs for each contract type
The total costs for individual months are calculated for each contract type. Based on those costs, quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly costs are calculated. The costs for each month is calculated based on the value in Monthly Cost for monthly payment, or on the value in Total Cost for lump sum. A year starts with the month set in the Duration and Start Date view (under Reports) of the Settings module. The costs for twelve months are displayed on the Hardware Assets Cost report (including the date the report is displayed).
The costs are calculated for each contract type based on the conditions below.
The costs for a contract with contract type XXX are calculated below. XXX is one of the following:
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Lease
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Rent
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Maintenance
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Support
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Fixed
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Custom contract types added by the administrator
Method of payment |
Calculation |
---|---|
Monthly |
Sums up Monthly Cost for the contracts that satisfy all of the following conditions:
Note that the costs for the Monthly payment occur every month for the period from the start date to the end date of the contract specified in Contract Term. For example, if Contract Term is 2011/4/10 to 2011/6/10, the costs occur on 2011/4/10, 2011/5/10, and 2011/6/10. Therefore, if the specified month is April in 2011, May in 2011, or June in 2011, the costs are displayed. |
Lump Sum |
Sums up Total Cost for the contracts that satisfy all of the following conditions:
Note that the costs for a Lump Sum payment occur on the Contract Date. |
Export
You can output the costs summed up for hardware assets to a CSV file. The format of an output CSV file is as follows:
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For Report Name, List Name, Report Date, Currency Unit, and Report Duration, text strings are output without double quotation marks (").
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For the fields other than above, data is output with double quotation marks (").
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For a blank column, only a comma (,) is output as a delimiter.
The following is an example of a CSV file.
Note that data is output for customized contract types, in addition to the default contract types.
(4) Calculating the costs for software licenses
If you associate contract information and software license information, the contract costs are calculated. The costs for software licenses are displayed on the Software License Cost report (under Asset Detail Reports) of the Reports module.
The following describes how the contract costs are calculated.
Costs for each contract type
The total costs for individual months are calculated for each contract type. Based on Monthly Cost or Total Cost for individual months, quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly costs are calculated. A year starts with the month set in the Duration and Start Date view (under Reports) of the Settings module. The costs for twelve months are displayed on the Software License Cost report (including the date the report is displayed).
The costs are calculated for each contract type based on the conditions below.
The costs for a contract with contract type XXX are calculated below. XXX is one of the following:
-
Lease
-
Rent
-
Maintenance
-
Support
-
Fixed
-
Custom contract types added by the administrator
Method of payment |
Calculation |
---|---|
Monthly |
Sums up Monthly Cost for the contracts that satisfy all of the following conditions:
Note that the costs for the Monthly payment occur at every month for the period from the start date to the end date of the contract specified in Contract Term. For example, if Contract Term is 2011/4/10 to 2011/6/10, the costs occur on 2011/4/10, 2011/5/10, and 2011/6/10. Therefore, if the specified month is April in 2011, May in 2011, or June in 2011, the costs are displayed. |
Lump Sum |
Sums up Total Cost for the contracts that satisfy all of the following conditions:
Note that the costs for the Lump Sum payment occur on the Contract Date. |
Export
You can output the costs summed up for software licenses to a CSV file. The format of an output CSV file is as follows:
-
For Report Name, List Name, Report Date, Currency Unit, and Report Duration, text strings are output without double quotation marks (").
-
For the fields other than above, data is output with double quotation marks (").
-
For a blank column, only a comma (,) is output as a delimiter.
The following is an example of a CSV file.
Note that data is output for customized contract types, in addition to the default contract types.
(5) Notification of expired contracts
Based on the contract end dates set in Contract Term in contract information, you can send email notifications of expired contracts.
The function of sending summary reports is used for notification of expired contracts. You can set the summary report notification destinations in the Summary Report Notifications view (under Reports) of the Settings module.
The number of expired contracts is reported by email. A contract is determined to be expired based on the following conditions:
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Contract Status is other than Expired or Canceled.
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The date of notification is later than the contract end date.
If you want to know the details about expired contracts, click the link in the email body. Clicking the link displays the Reports module. In the Summary Reports view of the Reports module, click the link for an expired contract. You are moved to the Assets module, and here you can check the details about the relevant contract.
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You can also check contract terms on the Expired Contracts (next 3 months) panel.