A contract item’s state (and in some cases, the contract’s date range) controls availability and charge generation. Typically, a contract item progresses from Preliminary Active Completed during the life of a contract.
In the Preliminary state, the room or asset is reserved for the patron and considered “in use”. In the Active state, charges can be generated. The Completed state releases the room or asset for use as of the contract item’s End Date. A user can change contract item states manually, through a batch function, or through a scheduled task.
Note: In the Housing section of the GET app, the Your Contracts area displays a patron’s Contract Items and their current state in a view-only format. However, the actual status of each contract is not displayed for the contract item. For each contract item, the following states are possible: Preliminary, Active, Suspended, Terminated, and Completed. The Canceled and Expired states will not be displayed.
Depending on how an organization manages contract items, other states may be used during the life of a contract item. The following contract item states are available:
The Preliminary state is an initial state and is used to indicate a contract item that has not been committed to yet. The Preliminary state counts against asset, asset type, and facility usage.
For example: An assignment in the Preliminary state will mark the space as occupied.
Users may set an expiration date for a contract item in a Preliminary state. If the contract stays in the Preliminary state until the expiration date, the state will be automatically changed to Expired when the Process Contract Items batch function or task processes the contract item.
This status is useful, for instance, to record proposed assignments and then process signed patron contracts later, changing those items to an Active status. Any contract items left in the Preliminary state will expire when they reach the expiration date.
A contract item must be in the Preliminary state in order to link charge schedules to it.
A Preliminary contract item can be changed to Active, Expired, or Canceled.
The Active state represents a contract that has been committed to. The Active state counts against asset, asset type, and facility usage.
For example: An assignment in the Active state will mark a space as occupied.
A contract item must be in the Active state for charges to occur. Charges will be generated when the Process Contract Items batch function or task runs. Once a contract item is in the Active state, users cannot change the charge schedule. To do so, must change the contract item to a Preliminary state. However, an Active contract item cannot be reversed to a Preliminary state if charges have been generated for the contract item.
An Active contract item can also be changed to Suspended, Completed, Terminated, or Canceled.
It’s not necessary to set an Actual Start date when changing a contract item to an Active status unless there is a need to track Actual Start vs. Expected Start information.
The Canceled state is a final state and does not count against asset, asset type, or facility usage. Users may reverse a Canceled contract item to either a Preliminary or an Active state.
The Completed state is a final state and is the normal end state for a contract item. The Completed state is used to mark a contract item as finished. Once a contract item is Completed, no more changes can be made to the item unless it is changed to an Active state.
The Completed state counts against asset, asset type, or facility usage, until the contract item’s End Date. If a contract item is changed to Completed before its Expected End date, the Actual End date should be changed to release the asset for use.
The Expired state is the state reached from the Preliminary state, usually because the contract has reached the expiration date. The Process Contract Items batch function or task will automatically change Preliminary contract items to Expired when the expiration date is reached.
A contract in an Expired state does not count against asset, asset type, or facility usage. An Expired contract item can be reversed to a Preliminary state.
The Suspended state is used to flag a contract item at a user’s discretion. Suspended contract items count against asset, asset type, and facility usage but will not generate charges. For instance, an assignment in the Suspended state will mark the room as occupied. Once a Suspended contract item is changed to an Active state, any pending charges will be generated when the Process Contract Items batch function is run.
A Suspended contract item may be changed to Active or Terminated.
The Terminated state should be used when a contract item ends before the Expected End date. A Terminated contract counts against asset, asset type, or facility usage unless the Actual End date is changed. If changed, the room or asset will become available following the Actual End date.
A Terminated contract item may be reversed to Active.
Note: A contract item’s state cannot be reversed if the change will cause a patron to have more than one simultaneous room assignment or to be reassigned to a room that has been assigned to another patron.