Create a Contract Identification Rule

This example demonstrates how to create a contract identification rule, which you use to determine how to group order documents into revenue contracts in Revenue Management.

In this example, let's say your company is a telecommunications company that sells mobile phones and plans. In the telecommunications industry, the customer contract typically is represented by a sales order for the purchase of a phone, along with either a talk and text service plan, a data plan, or both. The sale can take place either within a retail store or through a website. The order detail is captured and processed through an order management system.

Typically telecommunication companies use the customer account number (phone number) as the common identifier across order documents. The customer account number is unique across all outlets and regions, so using the customer account number as the identifier to group order documents from the order management system ensures that you don't overvalue revenue by failing to connect an associated relevant discounted sale. Alternatively, you can use identifiers such as the bill-to customer party identifier and customer purchase order. Your business requirements determine the appropriate identifiers to use.

In this example, since the required identifier isn't a named attribute in the Revenue Management source document or source document line, you use an extensible attribute to pass the customer account number to Revenue Management. You then refer to the extensible attribute when defining your contract identification rule. Create a contract identification rule that identifies your sales order lines to be included in a revenue contract based on the customer's account number (phone number), which is provided in the extensible line character attribute number 41.

Create the Rule

1. Navigate to the Manage Contract Identification Rules page.

2. Click the Add Row icon to create a new contract identification rule.

3. Enter the listed values in these header fields:

   Field	Value	Description
   Name	By Customer and Extensible Line Char 41	The customer's account number.
   Priority	20	The lower the value, the higher the priority. In other words, rules with lower values are applied first.
   Enabled	Yes	Indicates that the rule is complete and is ready for use.
   Freeze Period	2	The number of days from the contract date that the contract is available for new order documents or lines to be added to the revenue contract. Once the period has elapsed, Revenue Management freezes the contract and then allocates the revenue. In this case, all related order documents must be completed and passed to Revenue Management by the end of the second day.
   Description (optional)	Customer Account Number	The customer's account number.

4. In the Grouping Attributes section, click the Add Row icon and enter the listed values for matching group 1:

   Field	Value	Description
   Source Document Type	Third Party	The source document type that you're defining the grouping attribute for. You can define multiple source document types in one rule.
   Source Document Attribute Name	Bill-to Customer Party Identifier	The name of the attribute to be used as the grouping attribute.
   Matching group	1	You can use multiple matching criteria for source lines to be grouped into a single contract.
   Copy to Reference	Disable	When you enable this option for a grouping attribute in the rule, the value of the grouping attribute is populated in the Reference field in the Manage Customer Contracts page. When using the Copy to Reference feature, you can: Enable only one source document attribute name per matching group. Enable the Copy to Reference option only when you create the rule. No longer update the Copy to Reference and Reference Prefix fields once the rule is in use.
   Use as Contract Group Number	Disable	When you enable this option, the customer account number is used as a contract group number. This lets you view accounting for all related contracts using the Contract Activities Detail Report.

5. In the Grouping Attributes section, click the Add Row icon again and enter the listed values for matching group 2:

   Field	Value	Description
   Source Document Type	Third Party	The source document type that you're defining the grouping attribute for. You can define multiple source document types in one rule.
   Source Document Attribute Name	Extensible line character attribute 41	The name of the attribute to be used as the grouping attribute.
   Matching group	2	You can use multiple matching criteria for source lines to be grouped into a single contract.
   Copy to Reference	Enable	When you enable this option for a grouping attribute in the rule, the value of the grouping attribute is populated in the Reference field in the Manage Customer Contracts page. When using the Copy to Reference feature, you can: Enable only one source document attribute name per matching group. Enable the Copy to Reference option only when you create the rule. No longer update the Copy to Reference and Reference Prefix fields once the rule is in use.
   Use as Contract Group Number	Disable	When you enable this option, the customer account number is used as a contract group number. This lets you view accounting for all related contracts using the Contract Activities Detail Report.

6. Click Save and Close to create the contract identification rule.

   When you run the Identify Customer Contracts process, it identifies which orders are to be grouped into the revenue contract, creates the contract, and sets the contract freeze date.