Amendment Steps

These topics discuss using an amendment process option to add an amendment. As a buyer and contract document owner, you create a construction contract for a new building. You and the builder sign off on a set of plans that calls for a concrete driveway with a contract line specifying the material and cost of the driveway. You use the Attachments feature to attach plans and surveys to the executed contract document. During construction, you decide to replace the driveway with asphalt construction.

In addition, you know that for this contract you will always maintain amendments separate from the executed contract, and there is no need to update the original executed contract along with the amendment.

Using the document authoring system you can:

1. Create an amendment document configurator that meets the needs of the contract change.

   When you create a document configurator for use with amendments, you must select the Use with Amendments only check box on the Document Configurator Definition page. Amendment configurators can be defined as a simple generic templates that perhaps contain clauses with references back to the original contract information, or you can define them to be more complex or specific in nature to contain rules and clauses that explain the type of change specific to the original type of contract that is being amended.

   Note:

   Generally, you define amendment configurators as part of setting up the library, so this would not be a typical step for creating an amendment.

2. Open the purchasing contract related to the new building to update the line item information to indicate the change to asphalt.

   Assume that the item information is present in the original contract through the use of a repeating clause and transactional bind values for the contract item, description, and so on. At this point, the current executed contact document lists the original information about the use of concrete, but not the use of asphalt.

3. Click the Maintain Document button.

   The system opens the Document Management page. When the building contract document was initially executed, the system activated the Create Amendment button.

4. Click the Create Amendment button to define amendment processing information.

   You select the process option for use with the amendment. Depending on the process option, you can select the amendment configurator that you created for the contract changes to create the amendment. For this example, you want to store amendments separately from the original executed contract, and will not update the existing contract.

5. Select the Amendment Files Only process option on the Create Amended Version page.

   In addition, you can select the version numbering format and add comments pertaining to the amendment. The system generates the draft version of the amendment using the configurator you selected. It generates the amendment number starting with one. If you create additional amendments, you can reset the separate internal version number for the document to zero at the start of each amendment, or you can continue using the version numbering from the original contract.

   Note:

   You can only have one amendment in process at a given point in time for a contract.

6. Click the OK button to begin system processing.

   Depending on the amendment configurator definition, the system includes the appropriate information, such as content and bind variables, in the amendment file. For example, if you include a repeating section that contains the contract items as did the original contract, the system creates a complete list of the latest items, including the newly added asphalt item, in the amendment.

   You use this information as a starting point for modifying the amendment file. Because you selected the Amendment Files Only process option for this contract, the system uses only the separate amendment file as you edit and check in the document.

   Note:

   This example is dependent on how you use the transactional purchasing contract because the transactional contract is not version controlled and always contains the latest version of the transactional contract information. It might be more appropriate in some situations to generate an amendment without purchasing transactional contract information, manually add information to the amendment, and, after the amendment is executed, update the transactional purchasing contract.

7. Collaborate and approve the amendment.

   In this step, you collaborate and obtain internal approvals depending on the amendment requirements. These process steps can be the same as the original document processing or simplified for each amendment based on the requirements and the workflow configuration you are using for the amendment.

8. Dispatch and execute the amended contract similar to processing the original document.

   You perform this step after any collaboration is complete and the new amendment is agreed upon by you and the builder. The system sets the contract document status to Executed and makes the Create Amendment button available again in case additional amendments are required in the future.

Note:

The system processes ad hoc document amendments similar to purchasing contracts. Two steps change in the previous example when the system is processing an ad hoc amendment. In step 2, to open an ad hoc contract, you use the Document Management page and step 3 is not needed. Life-cycle processing for an amendment is the same for both ad hoc and purchasing contract documents.