Each contract has a "Status" identifier that indicates a contracts current status. The current Status values available are: Draft, Future, Active, Expired, Due or Closed. By default, the system will assign a Status of 'Auto' to every contract that is created.
The 'Auto' status value allows the system to automatically update the contracts status based upon its Term information. For example, if a contract's Start date is yet to be reached, it will be assigned a status of 'Future'. If it has already arrived, it will be assigned a status of 'Active'.
TIP: The Automatic flow of status is: Future > Active > Due > Expired, Draft and Closed are optional manual values that can be used.
As a contract goes through its lifecycle, if the status is set to 'Auto', it will reflect the applicable 'Auto' status until it eventually reaches 'Expired' as the contract End Date or Cancellation Date has been reached.
Note: The actual value of 'Auto' cannot been seen until the Status field is edited. When in view mode it will display the current auto status applied.
Fig 1 - Status field on the Contract Summary
A contract is considered to be 'Due' if the end date is within a specified amount of days of the end date. By default this is set to 30 days. This can be changed by an Administrator by changing the option of "The number of days before a Contract's end date status is set to Due". See the Account Configuration article for an explanation of how to change this value.
Overriding the 'Auto' Status
You are able to override the automatic calculation of a contract's status by editing the Status field directly.
Once the status field for a contract has been changed to a specific value, it will remain as that value until the User moves the Status value back to "auto". When changed back, the system will reflect the appropriate status based upon the contracts current Term information.
The override can be used, for example, when a contract has passed it's expiration date. The contract is being indicated as "Expired", but you may in negotiation with a supplier and service may be continuing whilst the negotiation takes place.
Fig 2 -Manually changing status of a contract