Link records to a contract

The Linked Records card on a contract's details page holds the contract's party, the party's contact, and the assets or locations the contract covers. You link records by picking them from an Add menu on the card. Only companies, people, assets, and locations can be linked; documents cannot. Editing links requires the Contracts Manager role for Contracts.

Before you start

You need the Contracts Manager role for Contracts. If you do not have it, the Linked Records card shows existing links but has no Add control. For details, see Contracts roles and permissions.

Party label by contract type

The contract's party label depends on the contract Type, and so does whether the party can be a Company, a Person, or both.

Link the party

The party is the company or person on the other side of the contract. The steps below use Supplier as the example label; the menu uses the label for your contract's type from the table above.

1. Open the contract to its Contract Details page.

2. In the Linked Records card, click Add.

3. Choose the option for the record type you want. When the contract type allows both, the menu shows a Company option and a Person option, such as Add Supplier (Company). When only one record type is allowed, the menu shows a single option for that type.

4. In the dialog, search for the record. For example, the search field is Search company records when you are adding a company.

5. Select the record or records. Records already linked in this role are filtered out, and the same record cannot be added twice in the same role.

6. Click Link Records.

You can link more than one record in the same role by selecting several before you save. If a contract has no party linked, the card warns: "No Supplier is linked to this contract." (with your contract's party label).

Link the party's contact

The party contact is a named person at the party company, such as the account manager for a supplier. The contact is always a Person, and it must be a contact of a company linked as the party.

1. In the Linked Records card, click Add.

2. Choose Supplier Contact (the label follows your contract's party label).

3. Search for the person and select them.

4. Click Link Records.

The contact option is disabled until a company is linked as the party. The menu explains this with "Add a supplier company first", using your contract's party label.

Link the assets or locations the contract covers

Use the Covers role to record what the contract applies to, such as the vehicles on a maintenance contract or the buildings on a lease.

1. In the Linked Records card, click Add.

2. Choose Add Asset or Location.

3. Search for the assets, or switch the Record Type selector and expand the location tree to pick locations.

4. Select the records. Only assets and locations can be linked here; documents cannot be linked to a contract.

5. Click Link Records.

How links appear on the card

Links are grouped under headings for each role: the party label, the party contact label (for example Supplier Contact), and Covers. Each row shows the record's name as a link to that record. If you do not have access to a linked record, its name is hidden and the row shows Restricted record instead.

Remove a link

Removing a link only removes it from the contract. The linked record itself is kept.

1. In the Linked Records card, find the link and click the remove button on the row.

2. Confirm by clicking Remove Link. The confirmation, "Remove Linked Record?", tells you that "This removes the link from the contract. The linked record is kept."

The link is removed and the card updates. When you remove a company party, contacts linked under it may no longer be eligible. The confirmation tells you how many contacts will also be removed ("This also removes 2 contacts from the contract."). Contacts that are shared with another company stay on the contract.

Related tasks

• Create a contract and Edit a contract, in Managing Contracts

• Contracts roles and permissions