Supporting objects of the Contracts application

Overview

Before you start working with the main objects of contract management, it is recommended that you create records for the supporting objects in the Contracts application. Their purpose is to provide underlying information for contract management processes.

Material and material groups

A material record represents a type of article that your company purchases under a contract. A material group is a category of such articles. Materials and material groups come from the purchasing department.

The material data constitute the central reference directory of the purchasing department. ERP systems use material data to standardize and automate relevant processes. For requisition systems, such as Matrix42 Contract Management, it is therefore important to import an up-to-date copy of the material data and use it for data management and data processing purposes. This also includes the material groups. They might be needed to determine responsibilities within the purchasing department or for reporting purposes, to analyze the "procurement profit" (achieved cost savings).

Therefore, each implementation of requisition processes in Matrix42 Contract Management should entail regular imports of material groups and material master data.

Requisition templates

A requisition template connects stock keeping units and software products to material records. It is a sample order to be used within a requisition process.

Cost categories and ledger accounts

A cost category is a group of costs used for differentiated cost planning and controlling of expenses. Cost categories are specified in cost plans of contract items. They are also linked to ledger accounts.

Ledger accounts are used in financial accounting for entering operational expenses and revenues for commercial and tax purposes.

For the purposes of a target/performance comparison between your cost planning and actual costs from accounting, you can import current bookings into your contract management system and assign them to specific ledger accounts. This way costs from cost plans and bookings can be compared for a selected cost category.

Reports in the Contracts application provide aggregated information based on a selected cost category.