Approving Sales Contracts

The Approve Sales Contracts screen allows users to retrieve ratified contract information from the Sales Center, and either approve the information for processing in WMS, or reject the information. If the information is rejected, the information will not be processed in WMS and will not be saved in the database.

Important

WMS supports the following sales center contract types: Sale, Spec Home, Ratified Sale. If a contract has already been entered into WMS, the contract can be Deleted.
Sales contract data should be retrieved from the sales center on a regular basis (daily is recommended).
Transmissions from the sales center may contain multiple jobs, and may contain original configurations, change orders, or delete orders.
IT IS IMPORTANT that contract data for each job is processed in the following order:

Original Configuration (Sale or Spec)
Ratified Sale (Change Order)
Delete Configuration (Delete)

Failure to comply with logical sequencing when processing jobs may result in errors.

Users working in an environment with multiple companies dealing with the same sales center must process incoming sales center items for each company individually, closing one company before proceeding to the next. Subsequent retrievals must be performed manually (Retrieve from Disk).

To open the Approve Sales Contracts screen:

From the Sales Pricing menu, selectApprove Sales Contract, or click on the Approve Sales Contract icon in the Sales Pricing toolbar.

To retrieve contract data from the sales center:

From the Sales Contract Approval menu, select Retrieve from Sales Center,
Or
Click on the Retrieve from Sales Center icon in the application toolbar.
Select the file(s) to be retrieved. Use the Ctrl, or Shift key to select multiple files.

WMS contract information is retrieved from the sales center and displayed in the Approve Sales Contracts application screen.

Note

When a configuration having one or more options that lack detail items appears in the Sales Contract Approvals screen, those options will be treated as custom options until they are added and replication is run, or an estimate is assigned.

The imported contract information is displayed in a Tree view format within the right pane by community, and by job within community.

To expand and collapse the information within the application, click on the '+' sign to the right of the node. To collapse the information within the application, click on the '-' sign to the right of the node.
Or
Use the Expand/Expand All buttons to expand contract details, and the Collapse/Collapse All buttons to collapse contract details.

- Community Node - Designated by the Community icon.
- Job Node - Designated by the theHouse icon.
- Original Configuration - Designated by the Configuration icon.
- Change Order - Designated by the description 'Change Order' plus an identification number.
- Options Node - Designated by the description 'Options'.
- Base House - Designated by the Red Dot icon.
- Options - Designated by the Blue Dot icon.

The original transmission received from the sales center for a specific job will be identified as the original configuration for that job, and will include the information related to the base house and any options that were included on the original contract for that job.

Subsequent transmissions received from the sales center for a specific job will be identified as change orders for that job. When change orders are received for a job, both the original configuration and any previous approved change order information for the Job will display in addition to the new change order information for the job. This allows the user to view the complete history for the job. The previously approved history information will not allow any further changes.

Transmissions from the sales center may contain multiple jobs, and may contain an original configurations, change orders, or delete orders. Important: Original configuration/change orders for a given job must before a delete order is processed for that job. Failure to comply with logical sequencing when processing jobs may result in errors.

Note

See the Ratification of Approved Sales Contracts section for additional information regarding changes to configuration status.

Warnings and Flags

Warning and Estimate Required Flag

Base House: If the Sales Variance is less than zero, then a Warning symbol will be shown. The Base House's Sales Variance is calculated using the following formula:

Base House Sales Center Selling Price - Base House Database Selling Price

Change Order: If there is an unrecognized option, then an Estimate Needed symbol will be shown. If not, then each Option will be queried to determine whether or not at least one of them indicates a Sales Concession Warning, in which case a Warning symbol will be shown.

A Sales Concession Warning occurs when an Option's Sales Variance is less than zero. A Change Order Option calculates its Sales Variance using the following formula:

(Sales Center Extended Selling Price - (Database Selling Price * Quantity Change)).

If, however, the Option is being deleted, then the following formula is used instead:

(Abs (Sales Center Extended Selling Price) - Abs (Database Selling Price * Quantity Change)).

Change Order Option: See previous explanation for Change Order/Change Order Option.

Configuration: The same process that a Change Order undergoes is followed, however, instead of checking the Change Order Options (which don't exist), the Base House is first checked, followed by the Options themselves.

Configuration Option/Lot Premium: See the previous information regarding Configurations and/or Change Orders for the information about the Options themselves.

The Retrieve from Sales Center process will verify the base model and options received with the existing models and options in the Sales Pricing module. Any base models or options that cannot be identified as existing in the Sales Pricing module will be noted in the Sales Contract Approval screen. The user will not be allowed to Accept the configuration containing unidentified options without first attaching a Sage Timberline® Office estimate for the custom options.

Note

Configurations containing an unidentified base model must be rejected. (Custom base models will have to first be added to the Sales Pricing module via an imported Sage Timberline Office Estimate and then transmitted up to the sales center as a custom base model.)
When a configuration having one or more options that lack detail items appears in the Sales Contract Approvals screen, those options will be treated as custom options until they are added and replication is run, or an estimate is assigned.

To retrieve from disk:

Note

This retrieval method is available for clients that are using a custom sales center. This retrieval method is also available to clients using the Builder1440™ or Sales Simplicity® sales centers if there are errors in the information that has been received, or issues receiving the data from the sales center. In this case, the user will be retrieving the information from the XML file located on the client's server.

Select Sales Contract Approval > Retrieve from Disk, or click on the Retrieve from Disk icon in the application toolbar.

All screen views and tasks are identical to the Retrieve from Sales Center process.

To attach an estimate:

Expand the Change Order to the individual Option level.

Click on the Option Number that requires an estimate. The details related to the option display in the right side of the screen.
Double-click in the Associated Estimate field on the right side of the screen. TheSelect Estimate screen displays.

Double-click on the appropriate Estimate.

The option requiring an estimate is identified by the Blue Dot icon.
The change order is available for approval, and the Accept icon will display to the right of the change order number.
The name of the associated estimate displays in the details section of the screen and the associated estimate field.

To accept an original configuration or change order:

Click on the original Configuration number or on theChange Order configuration number to be accepted.

Click on the Accept icon in the application toolbar.

- The accepted configuration information no longer displays in the screen, and the data will be added to the WMS database.
- The Customer Information tab in the Jobs Setup screen within WMS is populated with the customer information received from the sales center. The customer information will also be updated in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost.
- The users that are included in the Purchasing E-mail Distribution screen will be notified via e-mail that the contract has been accepted. See Purchasing E-mail Configuration for details.
- The base model and options information will display in the Issue Budgets and Issue Purchase Orders screens within the Purchasing module and will be available for the user to issue. Once the budget and purchase orders have been issued by the user, the information will be updated to Sage Timberline Office Job Cost.
- The selling price in WMS is updated with the approved contract information. The selling price information is also updated in Sage Timberline Office Job Cost. Once contract information has been accepted and the Enter Selling Price application has been updated, the information in the Enter Selling Price screen will be set to read only, and will not be available for manual editing.

To reject an original configuration:

Click on the original Configuration number or on theChange Order configuration number that is to be rejected.

Click on the Reject icon in the application.

Click Yes in the confirmation window to complete the rejection process, or click No to abort it.

In the Reason for Rejection screen, enter the details to be included in the rejection notification. Mark the checkbox to Apply this reason to all rejected configurations, if desired.
Click OK to continue the rejection process, or click Cancel to abort the rejection process.

- The rejected configuration information no longer displays on the screen. The data is removed from the WMS database, and no additional processing is allowed within WMS.
- The configuration must be revised on the Sales Center and sent again, or the information must be manually edited in the XML file, and the XML file subsequently retrieved from Disk.
- The users in the Purchasing E-mail Distribution screen will be notified via email that the contract has been rejected.

Note

Change orders may not be rejected. The change orders must be accepted in their current format. Correction change orders must be processed in order to offset the original change order.

To refresh configuration and change order data:

To refresh all original configuration and change order information from the WMS database, click the Refresh Data icon in the application toolbar.

Approving Sales Contracts

To open the Approve Sales Contracts screen:

To retrieve contract data from the sales center:

Warnings and Flags

Warning and Estimate Required Flag

To retrieve from disk:

To attach an estimate:

To accept an original configuration or change order:

To reject an original configuration:

To refresh configuration and change order data:

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