Merging contracts

About merging contracts

Poetic allows contracts to be merged within or between companies. Using this function, you can:

• Merge multiple contracts into one contract

• Move some entitlements from one company to another company on a different contract
• Consolidate contracts for companies that occur in the system more than once because of data entry errors

Criteria for allowing merges

The contracts to be merged must meet the following criteria:

• All contracts to be merged must have a status of Active. You cannot merge contracts that are To be released, Inactive, or Disabled.
• All contracts to be merged must have the same co-termination setting.
• All contract returns and orders must be completely processed.
• All contracts to be merged must have the same setting for group creation.
• All contracts must have the same technical support entitlements associated with them or must have the same support option.

If the radio button for Must buy after initial maintenance purchase is selected on the merge into contract and the Within family and version flag is checked on the Tech Support tab of the Contract Maintenance page, the merge will not be processed.

The Registry CAN_MERGE_CONTRACTS_WITH_DIFFERENT_END_DATES controls whether contracts with different end dates to be merged. If the Registry is set to False, the contracts must all have the same end date.

The Registry CAN_MERGE_CONTRACTS_WITH_DIFFERENT_COMPANIES controls whether contracts belonging to different companies to be merged. If the Registry is set to False, the contracts must belong to the same company.

Merges and contract groups

When you merge contracts, if the group creation function is enabled, you can include all the groups, some groups, or none of the groups on a contract.

You cannot inactivate a contract if any group remains active. All of the groups must be merged to a different contract.

Performing the merge

To merge contracts:

1. On the Administration menu, click Tools.
2. On the Tools menu, click Merge contracts.

   The Merge Contracts page displays.

3. In the Contract to Merge Into section, use the find icon to search for and select the contract to merge into.
4. In the Contracts to be Merged section, use the find icon to search for and select the contracts to be merged.

   If the contracts being merged into another contract have coupons, the coupons are transferred to the Merge Into contract and the contract number is replaced with the Merged Into contract number.

5. To merge all of the groups on a contract when the merge transaction occurs, check the All Groups checkbox.
6. To inactivate contracts that were merged into another contract, in the Merge Options section, check the Inactivate the original contracts (if there are no remaining active groups) check box.
7. Click Next.

   The Select Groups page displays the contracts that can be merged.

8. If you did not check the All Groups check box on the Merge Contract page, then to select individual groups to merge:
   1. Click the plus sign (+) next to a contract to display the list of associated groups.
   2. To include a group in the merge, check the Select checkbox next to it.
9. Click Next.

   The Merge Contracts Confirmation page lists the changes.

10. Verify the merge data is correct, then click the Finish button.

    If you have the proper security access privileges, an Edit Coordinator button displays. Click this button to edit the coordinator for the merged into contract.

    The Merge Contracts Complete page displays information about the completed merge.