Purchase contract reviews

The review process is a central part of the Purchase Contracts module. The purpose of contract reviews is to ensure that one person in an organization – the reviewer – is responsible for periodically checking one or more of the organization's current contracts and making sure that they're up to date, renewed, cancelled, or modified, if necessary. You can assign different reviewers to different contracts or have one person review all contracts – whatever makes the most sense for your organization.

A purchase contract administrator – typically an accountant – will initiate the process by sending either one contract or a batch of contracts to the reviewer, who will then review the contracts and send them back to the accountant for verification and finalization. In each review, the reviewer can add extra lines, remove unused ones, and write review comments for the purchase contract administrator to consider.

The individual steps of the process are described in more detail in the following sections.

Set up a purchase contract administrator

If you want to send contracts for review and carry out a number of other review actions, you must be set up as a purchase contract administrator.

To set up a purchase contract administrator:

1. Search for and select Continia User Setup.
2. In the list of Continia users, select the ID of the user that you want to make a purchase contract administrator. This will open the Continia User Setup Card.
3. Under General, in the Purchase Contracts section, toggle Purchase Contract Administrator to on.

This makes the selected user a purchase contract administrator capable of sending contracts for review and managing reviews in general.

Send a single contract for review

To send a contract for review:

1. Search for and select Purchase Contracts.
2. In the list of contracts, choose the one you want to send for review.
3. On the action bar, click Process > Start Review.

This sends the contract for review, and the Status field under Review changes to Pending Review.

Send a batch of contracts for review

To send a batch of contracts for review:

1. Search for and select Purchase Contracts.

2. On the action bar, click Process > Start Review Batch... to open the Send Purchase Contracts for Review page.

3. Under Filter: Purchase Contract Header, the Next Review Date filter is added and prefilled with the date range ..[today]. This means that all contracts that haven't yet been reviewed and whose Next Review Date has been exceeded will be sent for review in one batch. If necessary, change the prefilled date range.

4. (Optional) If you want to add another filter, click + Filter.

5. (Optional) Under Advanced, enter any necessary restrictions to the batch report in terms of row generation time/maximum number of rows or documents.

6. (Optional) If you want to run the batch report at a later time, click Schedule..., then select a start date/time and an expiration date/time. You can also enter a date formula, which will then autofill Earliest Start Date/Time. {% hint style="info" %} If you select Next Run Date Formula, you must 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 the mathematical symbols + 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). {% endhint %}

7. Click OK when you're done.

This sends all contracts within the specified date range for review in one batch, and the Status field under Review changes to Pending Review for each of the contracts.

Cancel a contract review

To cancel a review that you've initiated:

1. Search for and select Purchase Contracts.
2. In the list of contracts, choose the one whose review you want to cancel.
3. On the action bar, click Process > Cancel Review.
4. A dialog appears, asking if you want to cancel the review. Click Yes.

This cancels the review. On the Purchase Contract page, under Review, the Status field changes from Pending Review to empty.

Submit a contract review

When a contract is sent to you for review by a purchase contract administrator, you can review the contract and submit your review back to the administrator. You can do this in either Business Central or the Continia Web Approval Portal.

Using Business Central

To submit a review using Business Central:

1. Search for and select Purchase Contracts.
2. In the list of contracts, in the No. column, click the number of the contract that you want to review. This opens the Purchase Contract page.
3. Review the contract and make any necessary changes.
4. Under Review, click the Comments field.
5. On the action bar, click New to add a comment line.
6. Under Comment, enter your review comments. The Date and Name fields will autofill.
7. Repeat steps 5-6 if you have additional comments, then go back to the Purchase Contract page, where your comments will display in the Comments field.
8. On the action bar, click Process > Submit Review.
9. A dialog appears, asking if you want to submit the review. Click Yes.

This sends your review to the purchase contract administrator, and under Review, the Status field changes to Review Submitted.

Using the Web Approval Portal

To submit a review using the Web Approval Portal:

1. Sign in to the Web Approval Portal.
2. On the Purchase tab, click Contracts to open the My Pending Reviews page.
3. In the list of contracts for review, select the one that you want to review.
4. Review the contract, and make any necessary changes.
5. In the text field in the upper-right corner, enter your review comments, and click Save when you're done. Repeat this step if you have additional comments.
6. On the action bar, click Submit Review.

This sends your review to the purchase contract administrator. In Business Central, on the Purchase Contract page, under Review, the Status field changes to Review Submitted.

Finalize a contract review

To finalize a contract review:

1. Search for and select Purchase Contracts.

2. In the list of contracts, in the No. column, click the number of the contract that you want to finalize. This opens the Purchase Contract page.

3. Check the reviewer's contract changes and the review comments under Comments > Review.

4. (Optional) If something isn't quite right or you have questions for the reviewer, you can add a comment under Comments yourself, to let the reviewer know what's wrong or what you're unsure about. After this, return the contract to the reviewer by clicking Process > Return to Reviewer. In the dialog that appears, click Yes.

   Note

   This sends the review back to the reviewer and changes the Status field under Review back to Pending Review. The reviewer can then check the administrator's comments, make any necessary changes, and resubmit the review.

5. If everything is in order, you can finish the review: On the action bar, click Process > Finish Review.

6. A dialog appears, asking if you want to finish the review, click Yes.

This brings about five changes under Review:

• It clears the Status field to prepare for the next review cycle
• Updates the Next Review Date field based on the review frequency that you've specified in the Review field
• Any review comments you may have added will display in the Comments field
• Last Date Reviewed updates to today's date
• Your name displays in Last Reviewed by.

Related information

Creating purchase contracts
Approving expenses based on a contract
Viewing the purchase contract archive