Change Requests

A change request is a copy of an active contract on which you can propose changes. You can create a change request from the Billing Contract Detail page. When you have finished editing a change request, you can optionally submit it for approval using a Salesforce approval process before applying it to the contract. If a change request is in progress for a contract, a link to that change request is displayed on the Billing Contract Detail page.

When a contract is active, you might need to create a change request to edit the contract depending on the options your administrator has chosen. See Billing Central Settings and Billing Contract Field Sets.

When you create a change request, the values of custom fields on the contract are copied to the change request and the values of custom fields belonging to related contract line items are copied to the change request line items. However attempting to create a change request will fail if the contract or contract line item includes a custom field that requires a unique value.

When you create a change request, pricing structures on active contract line items that have not yet been billed are copied to the change request line items. This ensures that any changes to the pricing structures on the change request line items do not affect the pricing structures on the active contract, and vice versa. Pricing structures on active contract line items that have been billed are not copied to the change request because you cannot change them.

When you apply a change request, the changes on that change request are applied to the active contract. The change request then becomes a superseded contract and contains the contract as it was before the change request was applied. In addition:

• Billing schedules that have not been billed are deleted.
• Draft billing documents for the contract are deleted or discarded depending on the Allow Deletion of Draft Billing Document setting in the Billing Central Settings custom setting. See Allow Deletion of Draft Billing Document.
• Billing schedules are created automatically for the next 12 months.
• The contract's status is set to "Expired" if the change request includes an edit to move the contract's end date to before today, or if the contract's end date was already before today but its status was still "Active". This happens immediately, not next time the background job to expire contracts runs.

Complete billing documents are not deleted.

Note:

If the Allow End Contract Line Before Billed To field is enabled, billing schedules that have been billed are deleted if you move a contract line item's end date to before its Billed To date. Billing Central creates a draft credit note automatically if the customer is entitled to a refund. For more information, see Early Termination of Contracts and Contract Line Items and Automatic Creation of Draft Credit Notes When Applying Change Requests.

Workflow

The diagram that follows shows a sample workflow for creating a change request from an active contract and applying it.

Note:

Your organization might use an approval process that is different from the one shown here.

Using the Change Request API

The Change Request API supports creating approximately 350 contracts with 5 contract line items each per execution. The exact number varies depending on several factors including whether any custom processes or integrations are being used, the number of analysis items and custom fields being used, and Salesforce limits.