Oracle Service Contracts User Guide

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Preface

Creating Contracts

Overview of Oracle Service Contracts

Elements of a Service Contract

Managing the Service Contract Life Cycle

Creating a Contract

Copying Information Between Contracts

Searching for a Contract or Template

Creating a Template from a Contract

Importing Service Contracts

Entering Defaults for Contracts

Overview of Entering Defaults for Contracts

Specifying Contract Effectivity and Maximum Duration

Entering Parties to the Contract

Entering Party Contacts

Creating or Modifying a Customer Contact Record

Entering the Billing Account and Address

Entering the Shipping Account and Address

Entering the Price List

Entering Billing Schedules

Billing Schedules Overview

Creating a Billing Schedule Using Billing Streams

Entering a Billing Stream

Using Billing Streams to Handle Irregular Billing Periods

Creating a Billing Schedule from a Billing Profile

Specifying How Billed Amounts Appear on Invoices

Suspending Billing for a Contract

Holding Credits Until the Next Billing Cycle

Entering Tax Exemptions

Specifying a Payment Method

Specifying Payment by Credit Card or Commitment Number

Requiring a Purchase Order

Specifying a Purchase Order Number for Invoices

Specifying a Receivables Transaction Type for Payment

Assigning Sales Credits

Requiring and Specifying a Purchase Order for Service Charges

Specifying How a Contract Will Be Renewed

Defining Grace Periods

Specifying and Starting the Contract Approval Workflow

Organizing Contracts by Assigning Them to Contract Groups

Specify a Different Quality Assurance Check List

Entering an Estimate of Contract Revenue

Specifying Contract Terms

Granting Additional Access Privileges

Entering an Additional Description or Comment

Setting Up Defaults for Contract Renewal

Overview of Default Levels

Entering Contract Defaults

Setting Up System Profiles for Renewal Defaults

Speeding Up Contract Line Entry Using Default Values

Entering Service Lines

Overview of Entering Service Lines

About Service Lines

Entering a Service Line (General Procedure)

Changing the Billing and Shipping Accounts and Locations

Entering Billing and Shipping Contacts for a Contract Line

Creating or Modifying a Contract Line Contact

Specifying How a Contract Line Is to Be Renewed

Renewing Service Purchased for Seasonal or Peak Periods

Specifying What a Service Covers

Levels of Coverage and Their Uses

Covering Customer Products (Instances in Oracle Installed Base)

Covering Customer Products

Browsing Oracle Installed Base to Identify Item Instances for Coverage

Entering a Customer Product into Oracle Installed Base

Covering Parties

Covering Customer Accounts

Covering Party Sites

Browsing Through Party Sites

Covering Systems

Browsing Through Oracle Installed Base Systems

Covering Inventory Items

Viewing Details About a Covered Product

Maintaining Pricing Attributes for Covered Products

Specifying How the Service Prints on an Invoice

Omitting a Line or Subline from the Invoice

Specifying the Invoice Text

Pricing What a Service Covers

Adjusting the Price of a Service for a Covered Product or an Item

Repricing a Service by Changing the Price List

Manually Adjusting the Price

Changing the Basis for Pricing a Service

Pricing Service for a Party, Customer Account, Site, or System

Specifying a Payment Method for a Contract Line

Specifying Payment by Credit Card or Commitment Number

Requiring a Purchase Order

Specifying a Purchase Order Number

Modifying Coverage Provided by a Service

Scheduling Preventive Maintenance Activities

Scheduling Multiple Activities at the Same Time

Scheduling Individual Activities

Scheduling Activities at Regular Intervals Using Schedule Streams

Viewing Maintenance Program and Activity Details

Updating Scheduled Service Dates for a Maintenance Program

Ending Service Lines on a Day Specified by the Customer

About Cotermination

Applying the Cotermination Date to a Service

Specifying Tax Status

Applying Changes from a Service Line to the Covered Sublines

Assigning Sales Credits for a Contract Line

Updating Service

Applying Default Values to Existing Contract Lines

Entering Usage Lines

Overview of Entering Usage Lines

Charging a Customer for Usage

Entering a Usage Line

Specifying How the Customer Is Charged

Charging Based on a Fixed Quantity of Usage Regardless of the Actual Usage

Charging a Flat Fee Regardless of the Actual Usage

Charging for Reported or Estimated Usage Per Period

Charging Based on Reported Usage

Entering a Counter

Entering the Starting Counter Reading

Creating Special Price Breaks

Point and Range Price Breaks

Deleting Special Price Breaks

Prorating Price Breaks to Apply to Multiple Periods

How Price Breaks Are Prorated

Specifying a Billing Schedule for a Usage Line

Recording Usage by Updating a Counter Reading

Entering Subscription Lines

Overview of Entering Subscription Lines

About Subscriptions

Entering a Subscription Line

Specifying a Schedule of Product Shipments

Adjusting the Subscription Price

Viewing Pricing Details

Specifying a Billing Schedule for Subscriptions

Viewing the Shipment Status of a Subscription Order

Ordering Service in Oracle Order Management

Overview of Ordering Service in Oracle Order Management

About Ordering Service in Oracle Order Management

Ordering Service in a Sales Order

Adding Service Lines to an Existing Contract

Specifying Renewal and Other Details for a New Contract Created for Your Order

Running Concurrent Programs to Generate Contracts Automatically

Reprocessing Orders That Did Not Create Contracts

Viewing Created Contracts by Sales Order Number

Viewing Contracts by Sales Order Number in Oracle Service Contracts

Viewing Contracts by Sales Order in Oracle Installed Base

Modifying the Dates That a Warranty Is Effective

Changing Only the That Dates a Warranty is Effective

Changing Both the Warranty Dates and Installed Date

Setting Up New Contract Defaults for Oracle Order Management

Understanding the Impact of Contingencies on Revenue Recognition

Adjusting Prices

Overview of Adjusting Prices

Entering Price Adjustments

Getting Help in Picking Adjustments

Viewing Total Adjustment Amounts

Viewing Adjustments for the Whole Contract

Viewing the Total Adjustments for an Individual Line or Subline

Reverting to the Original Price List Price

Cascading Service Price

Running Quality Assurance Results and Troubleshooting

About the Quality Assurance Check (QA Check)

Running the Quality Assurance Check from the Actions Menu

Submitting the Contract for Approval from the Actions Menu

Running the Quality Assurance Check from the (Summary) Administration Subtab

Running the Contracts QA Program

Troubleshooting Errors

Approving Contracts

Approving Contracts

Submitting Contracts for Approval

Tracking Contracts During the Approval

Approving Contracts

Signing Contracts

Billing

Overview of Billing

Understanding Billing Levels

Creating Billing Profiles

Billing Customers Based on Usage

Billing Using Credit Cards or Commitments

Specifying Multiple General Ledger Accounts for Contract Revenue Streams

Executing Billing Through Concurrent Programs

Running the Service Contracts Main Billing Program

Running the AutoInvoice Import Program

Running the Service Contracts Fetch Receivables Info for Billing Program

Running the Service Contracts Usage Averaging Program

Running the Service Contracts Usage Settlement Program

Viewing Invoice Details

Viewing Invoice History

Reviewing Invoice Transactions in Oracle Receivables

Understanding Bill Presentment Architecture

Using Variable Accounting and Partial Periods Revenue Recognition

Managing Contract Negotiation

Overview of Managing Contract Negotiation

Understanding the Negotiation Workflow

Understanding the Negotiation Phases

Managing Your Work

Overview of Managing Your Work

Finding Contracts by Status or Notification Type

Finding Your Most Recently Accessed Contracts

Bookmarking Contracts

Finding Bookmarked Contracts

Creating Groups

Organizing Contracts by Group and Subgroup

Finding Contracts Using the Contract Groups Hierarchy

Removing a Contract from a Group

Searching for Contracts Using the Entitlements Search Window

Using the Index to Navigate Through Contracts

Using the Administrator Workbench to Manage Contracts Under Negotiation

Overview of the Administrator Workbench

Viewing Notifications

Publishing a Contract to a Customer for Acceptance

Submitting a Contract for Approval from the Administrator Workbench

Suppressing Reminders

Enabling Reminders

Running the Quality Assurance Check

Updating Multiple Contracts

Updating a Contract

Opening a Contract

Sending an E-Mail to a Customer from the Administrator Workbench

Printing Quotes and Contracts

Identifying Follow-Up Actions

Using Shortcuts in the Administrator Workbench

Viewing Contract Details in HTML

Overview of Service Contracts in HTML

Finding Contracts (HTML)

Sending an E-Mail to a Customer (HTML)

Viewing Contract Details (HTML)

Viewing Service Line Details (HTML)

Viewing Coverage Details (HTML)

Viewing Covered Level Details (HTML)

Viewing Usage Line Details (HTML)

Viewing Usage Counter Details

Viewing Subscription Line Details (HTML)

Viewing Item Instance Details (HTML)

Viewing Order Information for a Service Contract (HTML)

Viewing Billing Transactions (HTML)

Using the Customer Acceptance Portal

Overview of the Customer Acceptance Portal

Opening the Customer Acceptance Portal

Accepting a Contract

Adding an Attachment

Declining a Contract

Requesting Assistance

Managing the Contract Life Cycle

Overview of Managing the Contract Life Cycle

Modifying Multiple Contracts at the Same Time (Mass Change)

Handling Change Requests

Entering Contract Changes

Reviewing and Approving Changes

Updating Contracts Online

Creating Different Contract Versions for Your Customer

Viewing Contract History

Handling Returns and Granting Credit

Changing Contract Status

Extending and Renewing Contracts

About Contract Extensions and Renewals

Extending a Contract Without Repricing

Repricing an Extended Contract

Extending a Contract Line

How Billing Schedules Are Updated for Extended Contracts

Understanding Contract Renewals

Managing Manual Renewals

Managing Online Renewals

Managing Evergreen Renewals

Understanding Sales Credits During Contract Renewals

Explaining the Pricing of Renewed Contracts

Specifying How the Renewed Contract Will Be Priced

Renewing Contracts Manually

Managing the Event-Driven Renewal Process

Allowing a Grace Period for Renewals

About Grace Periods

Specifying a Grace Period for the Current Contract

Specifying a Grace Period for the Renewed Contract

Understanding Billing Schedules on Renewed Contracts

Consolidating Multiple Contracts for Renewal

Sending Quote Letters by E-mail

Understanding Line Level Cancellation and Termination Reasons

Canceling a Contract Line

Canceling a Contract Subline

Creating and Enabling Templates for E-Mails to Customers

About Templates for E-Mails to Customers

Overview of Templates for E-Mails to Customers

Creating and Enabling Templates for E-Mail Attachments Sent by Agents

Enabling Templates for Communications Generated by the Negotiation Workflow

Contract-Specific Data Available for Inclusion in Template Documents

Viewing the Data Definition Structure

Uploading and Registering a Template in Oracle XML Publisher

Creating the Set of Templates Used for Customer Communications

Specifying How the Template Sets Are to Be Used

Viewing PDF Attachments

Viewing Sample Marked-Up Documents Provided with the Application

Using Notes

Using Notes

How Notes Are Used in Oracle Service Contracts

Adding Service Contract Notes

Adding Service Coverage Notes to a Standard Coverage

Adding Service Coverage Notes to a Service Coverage (Instantiated Coverage)

Viewing Notes

Terminating Contracts

Overview of Terminating Contracts

About Terminating Contracts

How Termination Works

Terminating a Contract

Restrictions for Terminating a Contract

Terminating a Contract Line

Terminating a Contract Subline

Terminating Multiple Contracts at the Same Time

Viewing the True Value of a Contract

Understanding Termination and Credit Generation with Partial Periods

Running Reports and Programs

Overview of Running Reports and Concurrent Programs

About Reports

About Concurrent Programs

Running Reports and Programs

Creating Contract Items in Oracle Inventory

About Contract Item Types

Creating Service Items

Creating Warranty Items

Creating Subscription Items

Creating Usage Items

Defining Serviceable Products

Restricting How Items Are Used

Setting Up Standard Coverage and Subscription Templates

Overview of Standard Coverage and Subscription Templates

Specifying Standard Coverage

Defining Standard Coverage

Setting Up a Subscription Template

Copying Standard Coverage into a New Coverage

Modifying Standard Coverage for Existing Contracts

Modifying Standard Coverage for New Contracts

Index

Oracle Service Contracts User Guide

Contents