Creating Purchase Contracts

• 20/01/2025
• 10 minutes to read

Similar to Continia Expense Management and most other Continia solutions and modules, the Purchase Contracts module integrates directly with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Access it using the icon when you want to create purchase contracts.

You can create purchase contracts in two ways:

• From scratch, via the Purchase Contracts page
• Based on an expense

The method you use depends on your requirements and the page you're navigating from. Both methods are described in detail below.

Create a new purchase contract

You can create a purchase contract from scratch, without basing it on an existing expense.

To create a new purchase contract:

1. Choose the icon, enter Purchase Contracts, then choose the related link to open the Purchase Contracts page.

   Note

   You can also open this page from the Business Central Role Center: Under Continia Expense Management Activities > Purchase Contracts > All.

2. In the action bar, select New to open the Purchase Contract page.

3. On the General FastTab, fill in the fields as needed. Refer to the following table to understand the different fields.

   Field	Description
   Purchaser Code (Reviewer)	Enter or select the code of the person you want to review the contract that you're setting up.
   Price Type	Specify whether the amounts of the contract lines must exactly match the amounts of related expenses for the expenses to be approved automatically (Fixed Amount), or if a certain amount variance is acceptable (Variable Amount). Selecting Variable Amount instructs Expense Management to use the values entered under Max. Allowed Line Variance % for the relevant lines (on the Lines FastTab) to determine if the related expense amount is within the allowed variance. Selecting Fixed Amount instructs Expense Management to disregard any values entered under Max. Allowed Line Variance %.
   Invoicing Period Code	Specify how often you expect expenses relating to this contract to be sent by the employees. Your selection is used for calculating the Yearly Amount for each line on the Lines FastTab, together with the Quantity and Unit Cost fields. Note You can create your own period codes by opening the drop-down menu of the field, and selecting + New. Next, fill in the fields as required. Under Period Date Formula, your entry must be an integer followed by D (days), WD (weekdays), W (weeks), M (months), Q (quarters), or Y (years) – for example, 2W (two weeks). You can also specify how often the contract must be reviewed, by editing the Review field. If you select Date Formula, enter the formula under Review Date Formula, using the above guidelines. The information you enter in these two fields is auto filled in the corresponding fields of the Review FastTab in step 4 below.
   Auto Approve Within Variance	If you want Expense Management to automatically approve expenses, where the amount matches the corresponding contract line amount within the variance defined under Max. Allowed Line Variance % on the Lines FastTab, select Yes. Depending on whether you select Yes or No, the following rules apply: Yes: If you selected Fixed Amount under Price Type and/or entered no value under Max. Allowed Line Variance %, the expense amount must match the contract line amount exactly for the expense to be automatically approved. No: If you selected Variable Amount under Price Type and/or entered a value under Max. Allowed Line Variance %, these settings will be disregarded.

4. On the Review FastTab, fill in the fields as needed. Refer to the following table to understand the different fields.

   Field	Description
   Review	Specify how often the contract must be reviewed. The default option is Yearly, unless you edited this in the Invoicing Period Code field in step 3 above. Any changes you make to the Review and Review Date Formula fields under Invoicing Period Code are auto filled in this field. Note If you select Date Formula, the Review Date Formula field appears. Enter a formula in the form of an integer followed by D (days), WD (weekdays), W (weeks), M (months), Q (quarters), or Y (years) – for example, 2W (two weeks). For more advanced formulas, you can also use + and –, or you can enter the letter C (current) as a prefix to any of the previously mentioned time units, for example, CM+10D (current month plus ten days).
   Next Review Date	Specify when the contract should be reviewed next. The default value depends on what you selected above under Review. For example, if you selected Yearly, the default value is the contract start date plus a year, minus one month.

5. On the Lines FastTab, create a line for each employee that you expect to receive an expense, by filling in all fields as needed. Refer to the following table to understand the different fields.

   Field	Description
   Expense user	Select the expense user that you want to be associated with this line.
   Unit Cost	The Amount Excl. VAT and Yearly Amount fields (which are both uneditable) are auto filled based on the information you enter in the Unit Cost field. The same two fields are also auto filled if you edit the Quantity field. The value of the Yearly Amount field is based on your selection in the Invoicing Period Code field on the General FastTab.
   Max. Allowed Line Variance %	The expense amount is automatically approved if it matches the contract line amount within the percentage variance that you enter in this field. Important This only applies if you have set on the General FastTab, Price Type to Variable Amount, and Auto Approve Within Variance to Yes.

Create a purchase contract from an expense

Another way to create a purchase contract is to create one from an expense.

To create a purchase contract from an expense:

1. Choose the icon, enter Expenses, then choose the related link.

2. In the list of expenses, select the expense that you want to use as a basis for your purchase contract.

3. Select Edit.

4. In the action bar, select Actions > Purchase Contract > Create Purchase Contract (this opens the Edit - Create Purchase Contract page).

   Note

   The following fields auto fill with data from the header of the selected expense:

   • Description auto fills with the Description value from the expense.
   • Purchaser Code (Reviewer) auto fills with the Salesperson/Purchaser value from Expense Approver ID on the Continia User Setup page. ***
   • Review auto fills with the default option Yearly.
   • Vendor No. auto fills with the Vendor No. from the expense.

5. Check the auto filled fields and edit if necessary, then fill in the remaining fields as required.

6. Select OK to close the page and create the contract.

This opens the contract on the Purchase Contracts page, where you can make any necessary changes and fill in additional fields. For a detailed description of this process, see steps 3-5 in the above section.

Add an expense to an existing contract

You can add an expense to an existing purchase contract:

1. Choose the icon, enter Expenses, then choose the related link.
2. In the list of expenses, select the expense that you want to use as a basis for your purchase contract.
3. Select Edit.
4. On the Purchase Contracts FastTab, in Purchase Contract No., select the contract that you want to add the expense to.
5. On the Purchase Contracts FastTab, in Purchase Contract Line No., select the three dot menu to see the dialogue that asks whether you want to create a new contract line based on this expense or not. Choosing Yes creates a contract line.

   Note

   If the contract already has a line for this employee, you can choose from a list that shows contract lines filtered by this employee number.

See also

Purchase Contract Reviews
Approving Expenses Based on a Contract
Viewing the Purchase Contract Archive