Edit

Contract

A contract represents a unit of order that defines who, what, when and how much will eventually execute and ultimately bill. This window can be accessed from the Dashboard, Contracts, AR and Log.



Edit

Layout

Across the top of the window you have a main menu that gives you access to various features.

The top half of the main part of this window are fields that represent the "header" of the contract. The fields in this portion of the contract are automatically populated (when creating a new contract) using the values specified on the Customer.

The bottom half of the window contains tabs that show the contract line item(s) and the rotation(s).

Edit

Main Menu

• File
  • Save
    Commits any changes made to the server.
  • Print
    Prints the contract as a Confirmation.
  • Print Preview
    Displays the contract as a Confirmation for review or printing.
  • Export
    Prompts for what type of electronic document you wish to export the Confirmation.
  • Close
    Closes the window.
• View
  • Spot Detail²
    This launches the SpotDetail window that displays the overall status of each item contained on the Contract.
• Tools
  • Approve
    Approves the contract and closes the window.
  • Cancel
    Cancels the contract immediately (as soon as possible).
• Options
  • Correction Mode
    Provides the ability to make limited in-place changes to a contract that has been previously approved. Extreme care must be taken when utilizing this capability as it changes the information that is contained on many reports and could cause major confusion with others in your organization. With the New Premier ALL invoices that deal with one contract have to be manually reversed to get to Correction Mode. With Multi-Select this becomes an easier process for reversing the logs and finalizing them.

¹ Available in Essentials and Premier 2013.
² Available in Premier 2014; effectively replaces the Placement Summary and provides significant enhancements over it's predecessor.

Edit

Contract Header

The fields in the header (top half) of the window are automatically populated (when creating a new contract) using the defaults specified on the Customer. These fields can further be modified for circumstances where the default is not appropriate for the specific contract needs.

• Customer - See Customers.
• Agency - See Agencies.
• Sales Person - See Salespeople.
• Estimate # or Est/Adv/Prod - If an Agency that has an EDI # configured, the field will be split into three parts providing the ability to enter the Agency Estimate Code, Agency Advertiser Code and Agency Product Code. In most cases, all three are required. If no EDI # is configured (or this Customer is not associated with an Agency, an Estimate # field is provided.
• P.O. # - The purchase order number.
• Pre-Pay - Checking Pre-Pay allows the use of the Pre-Pay column in the Log Editor to identify clients that are of this status.
• Product - The product.
• Discount % (Optional) - Provides the ability to apply an overall discount to the entire contract (on an Invoice-by-Invoice basis).
• Agency Commission % - This field is automatically populated using the selected Agency's default AgencyCommission.
• Sales Commission % - This field is automatically populated using the selected SalesPerson default SalesCommission. If, for example, you provide a bonus for first contract of new Customers, you can modify the percentage on a contract-by-contract basis. (See SalesCommissions.)
• Tax (Optional) - See Taxes.
• Revenue Source - See RevenueSources.
• Revenue Type - See RevenueTypes.
• Primary Conflict - See Conflicts.
• Secondary Conflict - See Conflicts. Now can be changed without Correction Mode.
• Billing Cycle - A contract is be created that generate Invoices in several ways:
  
  None - This is a special "billing cycle" that effectively disables any Invoice from being created and is meant for a contract that is a PSA, Promo, Bonus, etc.
  Calendar - The items on this contract will be automatically placed within a calendar month billing boundary; if the contract runs where the items cross over multiple months (calendar month billing boundary), multiple invoices will automatically be generated accordingly for each month.
  Broadcast - Similar to Calendar except on a standard radio broadcast billing cycle boundary.
  Weekly - Similar to Calendar except on a weekly billing cycle boundary which starts at the beginning of every Monday.
  End of Schedule - Regardless of how long the contract is running, only one Invoice will be produced. This type of billing cycle is recommended for "short-run" orders.
  Begin of Schedule - Once this contract is approved, an Invoice is immediately produced and approved that can then be sent to the Customer for payment for the total of the contract. As the items execute, further Invoices are created (similar to the Calendar billing cycle) that are zero dollar and can be used a affidavit of performance. Begin of Schedule is ideal for handling Pre-Payments.
  
  
  CS It is possible to change this value after the contract has been approved using Correction Mode; however, extreme care should be taken when doing so as this completely removes any existing Invoices and recreates them based on the newly selected billing cycle. Any payments that have been applied will also be automatically reversed and will need to be manually reapplied after the newly created Invoices are re-approved.
  
  
• Invoice Type - There are several Invoice types to choose from:
  
  None - When selected, also automatically sets the Billing Cycle field to None; effectively disabling the creation of any Invoices for this contract.
  
  
  Detail - The default and most verbose of Invoice choices available; as much detail that can be provided is provided.
  Summary - Significantly reduces the amount of information provided.
  Time - Groups the items by time.
  Time/Rates - Groups the items by time and rate.
  
  The Detail, Time and Times/Rates Invoice types can also include the Affidavit or Notarized Affidavit texts as configured in Station.
  
  Co-Op Notarized Affidavit - This specialized Invoice type is very similar to Detail but includes a breakdown of each piece of Copy.
  
  
  CS Invoices can be further defined (what is included, how the information is presented, etc.) by using the options available in Group.
  
  

Invoice Type can now be changed without Correction Mode.

• TFN - Think of this as a reminder to identify a contract as being "till further notice"; this can be seen on the Contract report to help keep track of these types of Contracts. (Now A Legacy option).
• Comment - The information entered in this field will be included on the Invoice as part of the Invoice header. For certain scenarios it may be necessary to specify a slightly modified comment on a per-Invoice basis; for these we provide the following replacement tokens:
  
  <priormonth> - The name of the month for the Invoice end date minus one month.
  <month> - The name of the month for the Invoice end date.
  <nextmonth> - The name of the month for the Invoice end date plus one month.

Edit

Contract Items

This is the working portion of the contract. One or more ContractLineItem entries are entered in order to specify the number of units to execute and/or billing lines to be created.




This list is MyViews enabled.

Standard Columns

• Line - The line number of the item (for reference purposes).
• Station - See Stations.
• Avail Type - See AvailTypes.
• Start Date - The start date of the line item.
• End Date - The end date of the line item.
• Start Time - The start time of the line item.
• End Time - The end time of the line item.
• Length - The length of the line item.
• Schedule - Shows the number of spots per day.
• Rate - The rate of the line item.
• Qty - The unit count of the line item.
• Total - The total gross dollar amount of the line item.
• Rotation - This shows when a direct rotation is added to this line item and which one.

Optional Columns

• Comment - The comment of the line item.
• Override Advertiser - Does this line item ignore defined Customer separation.
• Override Conflict - Does this line item ignore defined Conflicts?
• Placement - The placement weight assigned to this line item.
• Repeated - Defined using the Skip Weeks field of the line item.
• Status - The approval status of the line item.
• Trashed # - The number of canceled/trashed units.

Below the list are two buttons and a summary message containing total count of items and total gross amount.

• New
  Creates a new spot-based line item.
• Off-Air Revenue
  Creates new off-air revenue (non-spot-based) line item.

See ContractLineItem.

Edit

Contract Rotations

The rotations define how Copy is attached to the individual units (spots) when locking (approving) a Log.




Columns

• Station - See Station.
• Items - The number of pieces of Copy in this particular Rotation.
• Length - The length of the Copy in the rotation (all Copy in a particular rotation will be the same length).
• Start Date - The start date that this particular Rotation is valid.
• End Date - The end date that this particular Rotation is valid.
• Start Time - The start time that this particular Rotation is valid.
• End Time - The end time that this particular Rotation is valid.
• Schedule - The days of week that this particular Rotation is valid.

Edit

Context Menu

• Open
  Open the highlighted Rotation.
• New
  Creates a new Rotation.
• Delete
  Deletes the highlighted Rotation.
• Duplicate
  Creates a new Rotation using the highlighted Rotation as a template.
• Move Up
  Moves the highlighted Rotation one position higher in the list.
• Move Down
  Moves the highlighted Rotation one position down in the list.

Edit

Up/Down Buttons

The large up and down buttons located in to the right of the Rotation list are used to move individual rotations up and down in the visible (sorted) list.

The importance of the order of multiple rotations can not be overstated. To illustrate by using a specific scenario, let's say that you have a Contract that contains Copy that can run all day every day for the duration of the Contract and the Contract also contains a few pieces of Copy that runs only during "lunch time". This can be handled simply by creating a single line item on the Contract and two entries in the rotations list. One entry would be for the all day side of things containing Copy that can run the whole day for each and every day. The second entry would contain just the Copy that is valid for the "lunch hour". Here's where things get interesting...

Incorrect

The rotation list contains the All Day entry followed by the Lunch Hour entry.

In this configuration, each and every time that a spot (on the Log) determines which piece of Copy to choose, it will always stop at the first item in the list since it is legal for the target date, time, station, etc. In other words, the second entry will never be evaluated because the first item is always found to be valid.

Correct

The rotation list contains the Lunch Hour entry followed by the All Day entry.

When the Log attempts to determine which piece of Copy to assign, it will test the first entry. Only on the days that are valid, the time that is valid ("lunch hour") and other criteria are met will the first item be found to be valid and utilized. If it is not valid, it falls through to the next entry on the list; which, in this scenario, would be found to be valid.

Edit

New Button

The new button is used to create (add) a Rotation to the list. The new button is only available if there is existing Copy that relates to this contract.

Edit

Contract Notes

The notes tab contains a single field that provides you the ability to enter notes that will only be seen by Users. This field is never included on Confirmations, Invoices or Statements.

Edit

Additional Information

See Common UI Behaviors.
See ContractLineItem.
See Customer/Contract Scenarios.