The value of a Contract is an important attribute of most financial agreements. Intelligentcontract provides features to allow you to accurately record the value of a Contract. Contract Values can be specified in a simple way - by typing the value of the Contract and having that value displayed as it has been entered - or advanced options can be used to calculate the value of a Contract based on a breakdown of a Contracts Value. Additional Advanced Options also give you more ways to display the Contract Value.
Simple Contract Values
For most Contracts using the standard Contract Value will be sufficient. You are able to specify a value for the Contract and then whether that value is a "one off" value or a regular amount, for example, monthly.
For example, for a rolling Contract that has a value of £100 per month, you are able to specify exactly that charge. The screen below shows how this contract value can be specified.
Fig 1 - Contract Value
The "No Value" option allows you to specify that a contract has no financial value. This allows you to distinguish between a zero value contract and a contract that has no financial value.
Note: If your Contract Value is a single payment and it doesn't recur, then you are able to specify that the Contract Value has a frequency of "once"
Advanced Display Options
By clicking on "Show Advanced Options", you will be able to see additional features that allow you to control how the contract value is displayed within the contract form. You are presented with 4 display options:
Fig 2 - Contract Value Advanced Options
You can choose one or more of these display options at once. So you are, for example, able to display an Annual Value along with the Value "spent" on a Contract up to the end of last month.
| Display Lifetime Value | Displays the total value of the Contract taking into account the start and end date of the Contract. Please note: If you are specifying anything other than a "Once" value, this option is not available if either the start or end date are not specified. |
| Display <monthly> value | Even if you enter the value of a Contract such as "£30 monthly" you can display the value of the Contract as "Annually" or "Weekly" for example. The options are: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Bi-annually (i.e. twice per year) and Annually |
| Display value up to <end of last year> | You can decide to display the value up to the end of a specified period such as end of last year, The options are: Last Year, Last Quarter, Last Month, Today, Next Month, Next Quarter, Next Year. This can be used to show the "spent" amount of a Contract's value up to the end of a specified value. Please note: For this display option to work, you must specify a Start Date. |
| This is an approximate value | Tick to indicate if the value is only an approximate amount |
Note: When a value is displayed an icon will be displayed next to the value to indicate the period to which that value is applicable. Figure 3 below shows examples of the icons. For example, M indicates a Monthly value, O indicates a value that only is applicable Once and L indicates that the value shown is a Lifetime value.
Choosing the Value to display on the Summary Screen
Having used the tick boxes to decide which of the display options you would like to see, you can also decide which of these options will be displayed on the Contract Summary screen. You are able to click on the "star" next to the option to be used on the Contract Summary. These can be different value options for each Contract.
Approximate Values
You may see that the Contract Value specified as being approximate. This is indicated when the value is preceded by a "~" symbol. Approximate values are displayed when the display option chosen is of a different frequency to the specified value. For example, When a "Daily" value is requested when the value is specified as a "Monthly" value. Values are approximate due to the varying numbers of "days in a month" and "weeks in a month".
Calculated from Financials
If you need to capture more detail about the pricing of a Contract then you can use option of "Use Financials to Calculate Value". When this has been checked, the system will use the records entered in the Financials tab in order to calculate the value of the Contract.
Fig 3 - Financials Tab
You are able to add as many records as required to describe the price of a Contract.
Exclude a Record from the Value Calculation
You may wish to exclude one or more values in the Financials tab from the overall calculation of a Contracts Value. This may be when a "set up" fee or another type of one-off payment is recorded in the Financial tab, but you don't want this value to distort the monthly or annual values or it may be that new pricing for a Contract comes into operation and you want to preserve the old pricing but not include it in the Contract Value.
Add a Discount
If the Contract value is discounted then this can be identified on the financial record concerned, you can enter either numeric or percentage values.
Start and End Dates
If the price of a Contract does vary over time (for example, the price may change from year to year) then you are able to specify the start and end dates for each Financial record. This will allow you to put an an end date against the old price and a start date against the new price. For example, if you had a £300 2-year Contract, where year 1 had a value of £200 and year 2 had a price of £100 then you could create two Financial records:
| Value: £200 | Start: 1-Jan-2017 | End: 31-Dec-2017 |
| Value: £100 | Start: 1-Jan-2018 | End: 31-Dec-2018 |
Note: Where a start date for a Financial record is not specified (i.e. left blank), then the Contract start date is assumed. Similarly, if a Financial record end date is not specified (i.e. left blank) then the Contract end date is assumed. In addition, if the Contract start or end dates are left blank but a Financial record is provided with a start or end date, then these will be assumed for the contract start or end dates.