Overview
- Create and edit contracts
- Manage reverse charge contracts
- Status that a contract can have
- Create initial reserves for change orders in a contract
- Enter invoices already paid via advanced options
- Store order documents
Create new contracts
Contracts in Alasco reflect actual construction project contracts. In Alasco, these contain contract documents and relevant contract details as metadata. You can create new contracts either by clicking the "+" button in the navigation bar at the top of the screen or under the menu item "Costs" and submenu item "Contract overview".
To create a new contract, click on the "+ Add contract" button at the top right of the screen.
The following data is mandatory when creating a new contract in Alasco: denomination, contract unit, contractor*, contracting entity, contract type, status, and amount. They are marked with an asterisk.
Note: In the contracting entity field, the main contracting entity for the project is preselected by default; however, it can be adjusted manually at any time.
When creating a contract, you can select between reverse charge contracts according to § 13b UStG and standard contracts. You can choose between the two types of invoicing by checking the box "Includes issuing invoices according to reverse-charge rule (§13b)".
Therefore, all invoices in a reverse charge contract are all §13b invoices. §13b invoices and "normal" invoices must be separated into two different contracts.
Note: You can read more about this in our Help Center article on §13b invoices/reverse charge procedure.
(*Contractor: A contractor must only be specified when a contract is assigned the "Ordered" status.)
Before a contractor or contract unit can be assigned to a contract, they must be created in the master data of the account (contractor) or in the project (contract unit), respectively. Then, the existing contractors or contract units can be selected from drop-down lists.
Contract status
The following values are available as the status for a contract:
- Draft
- Ordered
- Partially completed
- Completed
As already mentioned, contracts with the "Draft" status must be assigned to a contractor. The "partially completed" status can only be achieved by creating a partial final invoice via the invoice workflow. The status value "Completed" can be achieved by creating a final invoice via the invoice workflow or by a manual changeover in the contract. This is only possible if the contract contains only already approved single invoices. To do this, select the contract to be changed and click on the pencil icon "Edit". In the "contract status" field, change the status to "Completed". A recurring invoice order can be manually set to "Completed" as soon as its cash outflow period is completed.
Reserves
In Alasco, you have the possibility to create reserves as part of a contract to set aside contract unit budget for potential additional costs. To do this, enter the net amount in the "Reserves" field when creating the order.
Amendments can be charged to the contract unit budget previously set aside as reserve, by checking the box "Subtract from reserves" during the "verify amendment" stage of the amendment addition workflow. If reserves are not needed, they can be released and are thus available again as unused award unit budget.
Tip: You can display the reserves of each contract in the "Cost controlling" table. You can also decide whether the reserves should be included in the real and worst case scenarios of the "contract cost forecasts". You can learn more about this in the articles on cost controlling and flexible forecasts in Alasco.
Advanced options
If a contract with installments, which contains installments checked and approved prior to using Alasco, the data regarding the already approved installments can be entered under "Advanced options". Therefore, the data kept outside of Alasco is traceable.
The "Start paid amount" corresponds to the cumulative disbursement amount to the contractor. The "Start installments seen" corresponds to the number of partial invoices that the contractor has already issued.
Click the "Add" button to complete the order creation.
Contract list
An overview of all your contracts is provided by the improved contract list in Alasco. You can access it under the menu item "Costs" and submenu item "Contract overview". The improved list can show the contracts for all projects combined or for a specific project. You can add and remove columns to the displayed list as per your requirements. You can save several different views for your particular requirements and quickly switch between them. You can also filter the contracts using any of the active columns. You are also able to export any specific view in .xlsx and .xml formats.
Tip: You can find a detailed explanation of the contract list functions in the article Improved invoice list, contract unit list, contract list and change order list in our Help Center.
Storage of contract documents
During invoice verification, invoices often have to be compared with other order documents. To avoid losing files in separate archives and folder structures, PDF files can be uploaded for each contract in Alasco under the tab Documents. These can be uploaded as part of the main contract, amendments or general attachments. These can then be viewed or downloaded with the appropriate access authorisation. When reviewing invoices, the link to the contract is found under the invoice details and sends you directly to the contract overview, where then you can choose the "documents" tab and review the attached documents more thoroughly.
Tip: In the further articles of our Help Center, you will learn how to create multipart contracts, recurring invoice contracts and change orders.