Creating and publishing a contract

What is this page about: A step-by-step walkthrough for building a contract from product lines with a billing cycle, and publishing it so Light generates the invoice schedule. It also lists everything publishing checks, so a contract goes live first time.

# On this page

• Create the contract
• Fill in customer and billing details
• Add product lines
• Publish and check the invoice schedule
• What blocks publishing
• Best practices
• Related articles

# Create the contract

1. Go to Revenue & Invoicing > Contracts.
2. Click Create contract.
3. In the Create contract dialog, set the Contract period (start and end date), enter a Description, and select the Entity.
4. Click Create.

The contract opens on its detail page with a Draft badge. Nothing bills yet. The contract's currency is set from the entity's local currency, and you can change it on the detail page.

# Fill in customer and billing details

1. Under Customer, select the customer.
2. Under Contract terms, set the Invoice template, and check the Currency, Contract period and any Reference or PO number.
3. Under Billing schedule, set the First invoice date, Invoice lead days and Net terms. Together these decide when invoicing starts, how far ahead of each billing date an invoice is dated, and how long the customer has to pay.
4. Under Payment, set the Payment type and Payment to.

# Add product lines

1. On the Lines tab, use the product picker to add a line.
2. Set the line's Recurrence, Quantity, Account, Tax code and Billing period. Add a Discount, a Price override or a revenue release schedule in the Releases column if the line needs one.
3. Click + Add product line for each further product the contract covers.

Two figures on the contract behave differently:

• Total contract value adds up the invoices raised so far and the invoices still scheduled, so it moves as the schedule changes.
• Contract ARR ("Annualised contract value") is a figure you type in yourself. It doesn't recalculate when lines change, so update it when the contract changes materially.

# Publish and check the invoice schedule

1. Once every required field and at least one line is filled in, click Publish.
2. Wait for the badge to change to Active.
3. Open the Invoices tab.
4. Leave the status filter on All to see every period, or pick Draft, Open, Void, Partially paid, Paid, Scheduled or Cancelled. Scheduled shows what's still to come.

Each row is named Invoice 1, Invoice 2 and so on, with its own invoice date and amount. Invoices you link to the contract by hand show their own title with a Linked badge. The Next invoice card shows the date of the next one due.

Publishing also creates a draft invoice straight away for every period up to today. See Verifying the invoice schedule for how the rest are created and how to check them.

# What blocks publishing

If anything is missing, publishing fails with Failed to publish contract, and the missing fields show Field is required. Publishing checks for:

• Entity
• Customer
• Currency
• Start date
• Net terms (this one shows in the error message only, not next to the field)
• First invoice date
• Invoice template
• Payment type, plus a payee bank account when the payment type is bank transfer or direct debit
• At least one line. A contract with none fails with "Contract does not have any lines".

Each line also needs an Account, a Billing period start, a Quantity and a Tax code.

Nothing partial is created. Fill in what's flagged and publish again.

# Best practices

• Set the billing schedule before adding lines, so you aren't rechecking dates afterwards.
• Add every product line before the first publish. Changes after publishing go through a working version, with tighter limits on existing lines. See Amending and renewing a contract.
• Check Total contract value once the schedule exists. It's a quick way to confirm the contract adds up to what was agreed.
• If publishing fails, fix every flagged field in one pass. The error lists everything missing at once.

# Related articles

• Contracts
• Verifying the invoice schedule
• Amending and renewing a contract
• Products and Pricing
• Invoice Generation

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