Topic Overview
- Creating and editing contracts
- Setting a contract unit to "Fully awarded"
- Managing reverse charge contracts under §13b UStG
- Possible contract statuses
- Adding initial reserves for change orders in a contract
- Entering installment invoices paid outside of Alasco
- Uploading contract documents
Creating new contracts
Contracts in Alasco reflect real construction project agreements. They include contract documents and relevant contract details as metadata.
Open Costs in the sidebar and select Contracts. Click on + Add contract to create a new contract.
Enter all available data for the new contract in the window that appears. The following fields are mandatory:
- Name
- Status
- Contract unit
- Contractor (as soon as a contract has the status Ordered)
- Contracting entity
Note:
In the Contracting entity field, the main contracting entity of the project is pre-selected by the system, but this can be adjusted manually at any time.
You can optionally add the following data to the contract:
- Contract date
- Contract number
- Cost center
- Booking account
- Description
- Amount (net or gross)
- Initial reserves (net or gross)
Once you select a contract unit when creating a contract, you will see the Remaining budget of contract unit (Net) below the amount field. The remaining budget is calculated as follows:
Current budget - Contract forecast (Real case) = Remaining budget of the contract unit
This calculation already includes the current contract, allowing you to see immediately whether the contract exceeds the contract unit's budget or not. If the contract exceeds the budget, the font color of the remaining budget changes from green to red with a negative sign.
In this case, you can use the link on the right to navigate to the contract unit and increase the budget if necessary. Then click on the refresh icon next to the remaining budget amount to update the display.
Tip:
Click on the pencil icon when entering the amount. This allows you to enter the amount in net or gross.
When creating a contract, you can differentiate between Reverse charge contracts under §13b UStG and regular contracts. Simply check the box for With invoice issuance (according to §13b UStG). This means that all invoices in a reverse charge contract are §13b invoices. §13b invoices and "regular" invoices must be separated into two different contracts.
Before a contract can be assigned to a contractor or a contract unit, it must be created in the account master data (Contractor) or in the project (Contract unit). You can access existing contractors and contract units via drop-down lists.
Contract status
The following values are available as a Status for a contract:
- Draft
- Ordered
- Partial completed
- Completed
As mentioned above, a contractor must be specified for contracts in the Ordered status. You can only reach the Partial completed status by creating a partial final invoice via the invoice workflow. You can reach the Completed status by creating a final invoice via the invoice workflow or by manually changing it in the contract. This is only possible if the contract exclusively contains single invoices with a completed approval process.
To do this, select the contract you want to change and click on the pencil icon to edit. Change the status in the Contract status field to Completed. You can manually set a recurring invoice contract to Completed as soon as the cash outflow period has ended.
Setting a contract unit to "Fully awarded"
When you create a new contract or change the status of an existing contract from Draft to Ordered, a prompt will appear. Alasco will ask if you want to set the associated contract unit (if it is still in the Budgeted status) to Fully awarded.
This prompt is only shown to you if you have the permission to edit contract units. Making this change helps prevent discrepancies in the project forecast. The prompt explains the exact impact and shows the project forecast before and after the change. You can also use the link included in the prompt to directly access the related Help Center article about the project forecast.
Initial reserves
In Alasco, you have the option to build reserves in a contract to secure a contract unit's budget for potential additional costs. To do this, enter the net amount of the reserve to be created in the Reserves section when creating the contract.
Reserves can be gradually "melted down" by change orders. This is made possible when adding a change order using the Deduct from reserves after final approval option. If reserves are not needed, they can be dissolved, making them available again as unused budget for the contract unit.
Click the Save button to complete the contract creation.
Tip:
You can view the reserves of any contract in the Cost control. Furthermore, you can decide whether the created reserves should be included in the contract forecast or not.
The contract list in Alasco provides an overview of all your contracts. You can view and use this under the Costs section in the Contracts tab. Here you can add necessary columns to the list and remove unnecessary ones. You can save multiple different views specifically for your requirements and switch between them quickly. In addition, you can filter the created contracts by all active columns and export all your views to Excel.
Installment invoices paid outside of Alasco
If installment invoices for a contract have already been reviewed and approved before using Alasco, you can record this data collectively. All data managed outside of Alasco will be created in a traceable manner.
To use this option, first select the contract after creation and click the edit pencil icon in the Installment invoices paid outside Alasco field in the contract overview.
The Amount corresponds to the cumulative amount paid to the contractor (in the form of installment invoices).
The Number of invoices corresponds to the number of installment invoices already issued and paid by the contractor.
Tip:
Click on the pencil icon when entering the amount. This allows you to enter the amount in net or gross.
Storing contract documents
During the invoice verification process, it is often necessary to compare invoices with other contract documents. To avoid getting lost in separate archives and folder structures, you can upload PDF files for each contract under the Documents tab. You can store these either as documents belonging to the main contract or as attachments, e.g., to change orders in the contract, and then download them again if you have the appropriate access permission.
Through the button below the link to the respective contract on the right side, all relevant documents are accessible during invoice verification without media breaks via a newly opening window.