Audience: Power Users
Out of the box, Contract Eagle comes with six different date types:
Contract Start Date
Contract Renewal Date
Contract End Date
Other Reminder 1
Other Reminder 2
Performance Report Date
When setting up your contract types, you can choose which of those dates are Required, Optional or Unavailable. However, for certain contract types you may wish to set up other date types, eg:
a Lease might have a Rent Review Date
a Customer Contract might have a Invoice Date or Billing Date
When Contract Eagle sends a reminder email to someone in your organization, the date type is displayed in the subject and body of the email, so the recipient can see what the reminder is for:
Setting up your own date types will make it really clear what action needs to be taken when someone in your organization receives an email alert - particularly if that alert is two years down the track!
Create or Edit a Custom Date Type
Go to the Contracts menu > Maintain Date Types.
From the list, click on an existing date type to edit it, or click the Add New Date Type button.
The dates "Other Reminder 1" and "Other Reminder 2" don't look relevant - should I edit or delete them?
You certainly could, but they might be useful if you get a one-off contract where you need to set up more reminders than usual. These two date types can just sit on the bench and be called into action if you ever need them.
Setting up Date Type properties
Once you're in the Date Type maintenance screen, enter or edit the properties as required and click Save once you're done:
Date Type tab
Title: As well as being the label used when entering a new contract, the title will appear in the reminder email, eg "Rent Review Date".
Description: When entering a new contract, the description appears underneath the date in italicized text. Use the description field to give your end users guidance on exactly how they should enter and configure this date type, what reminder types they could use, etc.
Business Unit: If you have many different date types, you may find it useful to categorize them under different Business Units. Only Power Users within that Business Unit will be able to make changes to this date type.
Unless you have a large organization with many devolved Power Users, you can just put your new date type under the Default Business Unit.
Screen Layout: Choose between Simple or Advanced for when end users are entering dates in contracts:
Simple - only allows users to enter a specified date, and gives no option to make the date recurring or send email reminders. This is how Contract Start Date is set up.
Advanced - allows users to select either a specified date, or a date relative to another date in the contract, eg "Contract Start Date PLUS 6 months". Advanced is also the only option that allows recurring dates and the sending of email reminders.
If you select "Advanced", the screen will also display the "Reminder Message" tab for you to enter further properties for this date type.
Reminder Message Tab
These settings affect the reminder emails sent to internal staff or counterparty contacts when an event date approaches:
Introductory Message (Internal) and (Counterparty): see the examples below. This text appears in bold near the top of the reminder email. If an Introductory Message is specified against a date type, the text is not visible when entering new contracts, so cannot be configured on a per contract basis. It will go out with each reminder email for this date type.
Default Reminder Message: see examples of "Reminder message" below. This text appears in the reminder email under the heading "Message". When entering dates for individual contracts, this text is visible and can be adjusted as needed. On this screen, you are just specifying the default message for this date type.
Default Days in Advance: When entering dates for individual contracts, you can specify how many days in advance a reminder should be sent. On this screen, you are just specifying the default number of days in advance for this date type.
Sample email sent to Internal user when a task is created. This email shows the date type, due date, contract name, counterparty, messages and links to the task and contract:
Sample courtesy message email sent to counterparty contact, if this type of reminder is specified in a contract. This email shows the date type, due date, contract name and messages:
