Contracts User Guide

Change Summary

Overview

TechnoMile’s Contracts solution helps Government Contractors manage the entire Contract Lifecycle initiating from Pre-awards to Post-awards through a user-friendly set up and administration tasks. Contracts is built on the highly flexible and scalable Microsoft Dynamics platform, where users can easily configure and manage Contract and Subcontract processes.

Our Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) product, part of the Contracts solution, delivers a robust set of functionalities with role-based access controls to Contracts, Modifications, Closeouts, Task Orders, Subcontract Agreements (NDAs, SoWs, and TAs), CDRLs, CLINs, Sub CLINs, Approval Workflows, FAR/DFAR Clauses, Small Business Subcontracting, Delivery Orders, Document Repository, and Subcontracts.

If you have any questions, please reach out to your Administrator or feel free to contact us directly at support@technomile.com.

Audience

• Contracts Suite Users

Benefits

• Easy-to-use templates, auto-population of data, notifications, and alerts transform the slowest process into an efficient and effective automated document management solution

• Tracks milestones, deliverable dates, and approvals to create accountability and encourage collaboration

• Tracks your compliance and adherence to best practice processes to ensure fewer mishaps occur

• Alerts you when key issues arise and enables team members to address them more efficiently

• Enables you to explore data and find actionable intelligence more efficiently with filters

Add Contract Specific Clauses to Contract Clauses

1. Go to a Contract record.

2. Go to the Clauses tab.

3. Click Edit.

4. Enter a name in the Contract specific clauses section. 

5. Click Save.
   Clause is added to the Clause Library.

6. Click the information icon to view information about a Clause. 

Manage Wage Determinations

Look up Wage Determination data and associate it with a Contract record. 

• Add a Wage Determination record to a Contract by clicking Add on the Wage Determination tab.

• Look up specific Wage Determination records using filter criteria and add them to a Contract.

Add Wage Determinations to a Contract

1. Go to a Contract record and click ... to display additional tabs for the Contract.

2. Click Wage Determinations.

3. Click Add New to add a Wage Determination record. 

4. In the Wage Determination window, you can search for a WD Number or search based on State and County. 

5. From the search results, select the checkboxes of the required WD item(s). 

6. Click Save.
   Records will be generated. You will receive an email notification when complete. You can also go to Refresh Jobs to view the Status of a WD creation.

   NOTE

   If the selected WD items had already been created, they cannot be created again on the same Contract record. This will then be indicated as Failed in Audit Logs.

   

DCAA Contract Briefs

1. Go to a Contract record.

2. Click Generate Documents and select Contract Brief. 

3. Click OK. 

4. Click ... and select Documents. 
   The generated Contract Brief document displays in the grid attached to this Contract. 

   NOTE

   If SharePoint has been configured for the Contract entity, the generated Contract Brief document is stored in a dedicated Contract folder in the SharePoint repository. The name of the folder and the folder path where the generated document is saved, is displayed against each Contract Brief document.

5. Click Open Location and open the Contract folder. The dedicated Contract SharePoint folder where the Contract Brief has been saved, opens. 

6. Click a Contract Brief document link to view the Word document. If SharePoint is configured, the Contract Brief document opens from the saved SharePoint location.
   If you make changes to the Contract, you can generate a new Contract Brief document to reflect the updated information. 

Subcontracts

Subcontracts can be created from the Partner and Agreement entities, and also the Contract itself. Before creating a Subcontract, a Partner record should be created.

There is a validation check for Subcontracts related to Partner records. The Partner record includes information for NDA Completed and TA Completed. Each of these items also includes a field to capture the Completed Dates. If these fields have not been marked complete, along with a date of completion, an error will display when you create a Subcontract related to the Partner/Agreement.

Create a Subcontract from an Existing Partner Record

To create a Subcontract from an existing Partner record, you can use the Quick Create option.

1. Go to a Partner record.

2. On the Subcontracts tab, click New Subcontract. 

3. Quick Create: Subcontract panel opens, enter the required information. 

4. Click Save and Close to create the Subcontract.

Create a Subcontract from a New Partner Record

These steps initiate the Subcontract from a new Partner record.

1. On the Partners tab, click New. 

2. Select a Partner, Opportunity Name, and Point of Contact.

3. Click Save and Close to create the Partner.

4. You can then click Create Subcontract on the Partner record page to create a Subcontract. 

5. Click Save and Close to create the Subcontract.

Create a Subcontract from an Existing Agreement Record

To create a Subcontract from an existing Agreement record, you can use the Quick Create option.

1. Go to an Agreement record.

2. Click Create Subcontract. 

3. Quick Create: Subcontract panel opens, enter the required information. 

4. Click Save and Close to create the Subcontract.

Create a Subcontract from a New Agreement Record

These steps initiate the Subcontract from a new Agreement record.

1. On the Agreements tab, click New. 

   NOTE

   You can also create a new Agreement from within an existing Partner record.

   

2. Enter information in all the required fields.

3. Select a Contract.
   You can also search for a specific Contract Number or use the Advanced lookup to search for Contracts.

4. In the Partner Number field, select a desired Partner. The field displays Partners that are related to the selected Contract on the Agreement. The Partner Role field is automatically populated based on the selected Partner.

   NOTE

   You can also enter an Opportunity Name and its related Partners display when you click inside the Partner Number field.

   Auto-filtering for Partner Number

   Auto-filtering for Partner Number is primarily based on the selected Contract. If a Contract has not been selected on an Agreement, then Partner Number auto-filtering is based on Opportunity Name. If both Contract and Opportunity Name are present on an Agreement, then auto-filtering is based on the Contract field. 

5. Select a Vendor/Partner POC.
   The options for this field are automatically filtered based on the Partner that was previously selected. 

6. Click Save to save the Agreement. 

7. You can now click Create Subcontract on an Agreement record to create a Subcontract.

   NOTE

   You will receive an error if the fields and dates for NDA Completed, TA Completed, and SOW Completed have not been filled in. You can still create the Subcontract, but you will receive an error indicating that these requirements are not satisfied.

   

8. Click Save and Close to create the Subcontract.
   As the Subcontract moves through Stages, some of the fields on the Partner record are updated to reflect completion.
   Example: 
   If the selected Agreement Type is NDA, and the Agreement Stage is E-Signature Completed, then the Partner record is updated to reflect that NDA has been completed. So the NDA Completed field displays Yes and the NDA Completed Date field reflects the current completion date.

Create a Subcontract from an Existing CPAR Record

To create a Subcontract from an existing CPAR record, you can use the Quick Create option.

1. Go to a Contract record.

2. Click ... and select CPARs.

3. Click Create Child records and select Create Subcontract. 

4. Quick Create: Subcontract panel opens, enter the required information. 

5. Click Save and Close to create the Subcontract.

Create a Subcontract from a New CPAR Record

These steps initiate the Subcontract from a new CPAR record.

1. On the CPAR tab, click New CPAR.

2. Enter the required information.

3. Add a Subcontractor.

   1. In the Key Subcontractors And Efforts Performed section, click New Subcontractor.

   2. Enter a Name for the Subcontractor.

   3. Click inside the DUNS field to display Partner records that are related to the Contract associated with the CPAR.

      NOTE

      From this window, you can also create a Partner. Click New Partner to display a creation window. Click Save and Close to create the Partner then continue creating the Subcontractor for the CPAR.

      

   4. Click Save and Close to add the Subcontractor to the CPAR. 

4. Click Save to create the CPAR.

Intelligent Contract Ingestion (ICI): DD-1155

You can now import DD-1155 forms for Contracts.

Import DD-1155

1. In the Contracts section, click Import Solicitation. 

2. Select DD1155 from the drop-down menu. 

3. Click Choose File and select the desired DD-1155 form PDF file.
   A message displays indicating the file is being parsed. You will also receive an email notification that parsing has begun.

4. Click the link in the email to view the status. 

5. You will receive another email notification when the file has been successfully parsed. 

6. Click the link to view the parsed information and confirm that it can be ingested into the system. 

7. Click OK to confirm or click Cancel to go back to the ingestion screen. 

8. Click Next to continue.

9. CLINs/SLINs/ACRNs data displays, review these items.

10. Click Confirm & Ingest to ingest this information into the system.

11. Click Next to continue. 

    Review Contract Clauses

    There are two types of Contract Clauses: Matched and Unmatched.

    • Matched Contract Clauses
      These Clauses already exist in the system.

      1. Contract Clauses - Matched window displays all Clauses that have been incorporated by reference number and incorporated by a full text match. 

      2. Click the Compare icon to view details about a Clause. 
         Clause Comparison window displays information directly from the Clause Library and compares information found in the document that you imported. 

      3. You can Accept or Reject each Clause.

      4. Click Next to continue.

    • Unmatched Contract Clauses
      These Clauses do not exist in the system. There is no compare tool for Unmatched Clauses since these Clauses are not yet populated in the system.

      1. Contract Clauses - Unmatched window displays all Clauses that have been incorporated by reference number and incorporated by a full text match. 

      2. Click Confirm & Ingest to continue.

      3. Clauses are ingested.

12. On the Form DD1155 window, click Next to continue.
    Contract is created. 

13. Go to the Clauses tab to view the imported Clauses. By default, they are accepted.

14. Go to the CLIN/SLINs tab to view the imported CLIN/SLINs data.

Update Existing Contracts using Intelligent Contract Ingestion (ICI)

This feature allows you to automatically update an existing Contract by extracting data using ICI technology. This process eliminates the manual data capture process.

• You can upload a PDF from an existing Contract

• Attach the original Form to a Contract record

• Select items from the extracted data to update Contract records

  • SF-33

  • SF-26

  • OF-347

Create a Contract Mod using Form SF-30

Create Contract Mods using SF-30 data and update Contracts so that Mods creation can be automated. The new Create Mod button allows you to upload and process the SF-30 Form.

This feature also includes the ability to add new Contract Mod records.

1. Go to a Contract record.

2. Click the ellipsis icon and select Contract Mods.

3. Click the next ellipsis icon and select Import Contract Mod. 

4. Click Choose File and select a Contract Document file that is saved on your system.

   NOTE

   The format of this file must be PDF.

   

5. Click Submit.
   A message displays indicating that the file has been sent for parsing. You will receive an email notification when the parsing is completed.

6. A list of Contract Mods from the ingested file displays.
   

7. Scroll through the list to view the items. You can modify some of the fields from this screen.

8. Click Confirm & Ingest to add the Modifications to the Contract.
   The New Contract Mod page displays.

   NOTE

   A new feature allows your System Administrator to configure a default amount to be entered, if the ingested Amount field is blank.

   

Clause Library

Mass Updates

Use the Mass Update button to refresh your Clause Library.

1. Go to Clauses.

2. On the FAR Clause Library page, click Mass Update. 

3. In the Mass Update window, select a Clause Type and enter Revision Date.

4. Click Update to refresh the Clause Library. 

5. If no updates are available for the selected Revision Date, the Clause Library will not be updated. 

6. If updates are available, the updates display in the Mass Update window. 

7. Select the checkboxes for the desired updates and click Update to apply the changes.

8. Click OK to run the updates.
   Tip: Use the search bar to locate Clause updates for a specific Clause. 

9. You will receive an email notification with details about the Clauses that were updated.
   You can also view details about the updates in Refresh Jobs. 

10. Use Audit Logs in Refresh Jobs to view information about the updates. 
    If the Status indicates Failed, it is likely because the data was already matching and NO updates were required. 

Delete a Contract

1. Go to a Contract record.

2. Click Delete. 

3. Click Delete again to confirm this action. Contract is deleted.
   However, you may receive an error if there are any ACRN, CLIN, or POP records related to this Contract. You must first then delete all related items, before you can delete the Contract record. 

Delete Related Records

1. On a Contract record page, click ... to display additional options.

2. Go to the CLIN/SLINs tab.

3. Drill-down to the SLIN records and find related Funding records.
   Note: The lowest level of the record hierarchy is Funding.

4. Delete the related Funding record.

5. Delete the related SLIN record.

6. Delete the related CLIN record.

7. Repeat deletions for each related Funding, SLIN, and CLIN record.

8. Delete related ACRN records.

9. Delete related POP records.

OCIs

This feature enables you to create OCIs along with a review and an approval process.

1. Login to your Microsoft Dynamics instance and click Compliance App.
   

2. Go to Opportunities and click to open an Opportunity Record.

   

3.  Click Initiate OCI.

   

4.  Enter details in all mandatory fields such as Contracts POC, Proposal Due Date, Adjudication Reason, etc. and click Save and Close.

   

5. Click to open the newly created OCI record.
   

6. Go to Internal Team and click New Team Member.  

   

7. Enter a value in the User field, select Role as Reviewer, and click Save and Close.  

   

   Reviewer is added.

8. Click New Team Member again.

   

9. Enter values in the User and Sequence fields, select Role as Approver, and click Save and Close.
   Note that Sequence determines the flow of approval in case there are multiple Approvers. For instance, a value of 1 assigned to the Sequence field of an Approver implies that he/she will be the first to receive the OCI for approval and so on.

   

   Approver is added.  

   Similarly, you can add multiple Reviewers and Approvers.

   

10. Click the More commands for Team Member icon and select Send For Review.  

    

11. Click OK.  

    

    Emails are sent to the Reviewers along with the link to the OCI record page.

    

    Note that Business Process Flow (BPF) Status changes to Submitted for Review.

12. Click Send For Approval.  

    

13. Click OK.  

    

    Emails are sent to the Approvers, along with the link to the OCI record page.

    

    Also, BPF Status changes to Submitted for Approval.

14. Go to Approval History.
    Note that Approval Status is currently Pending.

    

15. Once it is approved, Approval Status changes from Pending to Approved and BPF Status changes to Completed.  

    

    

Create Contract from Opportunity at any Stage

1. Go back to Opportunities and click to open an Opportunity record.
   
   Note that if this Opportunity is in a Stage that has been specified as the default Stage(s) for creation of a Contract by your System Administrator and as per the requirements of your organization, then the Create Contract button is visible and you can create a Contract from the Opportunity.

   Your System Administrator can also specify other default Stage(s) by adding Stages into the JSON Value field of the Convert To Contract Stages record present in the Product Configuration entity. System Administrators can also specify if multiple Contracts for one Opportunity have to be prohibited by specifying AllowDuplicates as false.

   Note that the default value of AllowDuplicates is true, which means that multiple Contracts can be created for one Opportunity.
   

2. Click Create Contract.
   

3. Enter details in fields such as Contract Name, Contract Number, Execution Date, etc. and click Create Contract.
   Note that Opportunity, Primary Organization Name, and Anticipated Contract Value are auto-populated from the Opportunity record however, they can be edited.
   

4. Click Yes.
   
   

   Contract is created. 

   

   Note that if your System Administrator has specified that an Opportunity cannot have corresponding duplicate Contracts, then an Error message displays, post clicking Create Contract.

   

BOEs

WBS Tasks & POP

1. Go to BOEs and click New.
   

2. Enter details such as WBS, WBS Task, Spread Type, etc. and click Save.
   Note that you can change the Start and End Dates even after a BOE is created, post clicking Save. If you do so, the following Warning message displays. Once BOE POP is updated, by default Hours are spread evenly for each month (from BOE Start Date to End Date) however, you can change the Hours in Discrete Spread Type, as per your requirements.

3. Click New Parent Task.
   

4. Click Continue.
   
   Note that the WBS Task field is auto populated from the BOE however, you can edit it.

5. Enter details such as Task Name, Start and End Dates, etc. and click Save.
   
   Parent Task is created. 
   

   Note that the Start and End Dates of a Parent Task must lie between the BOE Start and End Dates. If not, the following warning message displays.

   

Agreements Management Timeline

1. Go to Agreements and click to open an Agreement record.
   Agreement record opens that displays BPF Timeline, which shows the change in Stages based on the change in Statuses. 

   NOTE

   You cannot change stage manually.

   

Reports

Agreements Expired in past 30 days Report

1. Go to Reports, click the Dashboard Selector icon, and select Available Agreement Reports.
   

2. Click Agreements Expired in past 30 days.
   A new tab opens.

3. Click Run Report.
   Agreements that have expired in the past 30 days Report displays.
   

Agreements Expiring in next 30 days Report

Similarly, you can view Agreements Expiring in next 30 days Report by selecting the same under Available Agreement Reports.

Agreements Expiring in the next 30 days Report displays.

Agreements Pending Approval Report

Similarly, you can view Agreements Pending Approval Report by selecting the same under Available Agreement Reports.

Agreements pending approvals Report displays.

Agreements Pending Execution Report

Similarly, you can view Agreements Pending Execution Report by selecting the same under Available Agreement Reports.

Agreements Pending Execution Report displays.

Agreements Pending Review Report

Similarly, you can view Agreements Pending Review Report by selecting the same under Available Agreement Reports.

Agreements pending review Report displays.

Automated Contracts Ingestion

CDRLs Ingestion

A new Import CDRL button has been added to Contracts on the CDRLs tab so that you can easily initiate the upload from within a Contract. You can view the original file uploaded in the Contract Documents folder once the ingestion is complete. You can view and edit the records created after the ingestion process.

1. Go to a contract record.

2. Click the ellipses icon and select CDRLs.

3. In the CDRLs grid, click Import CDRL. 

4. Click Choose File and select a CDRL data file that is saved on your system. Wait for the file to be parsed.

   NOTE

   The format of this file must be PDF.

   

5. Click Select CDRL to select the recently uploaded CDRL data file.

6. Click Confirm & Ingest.
   CDRL fields are auto-populated and you can edit the fields here, if required. You can upload and then view/edit multiple CDRL data files by performing the same steps as shown above. 
   Contract Line Item details display.

7. Click Confirm & Ingest.
   

8. Edit values in fields such as Frequency, Requiring Office, App Code, etc. and click Update CDRL. CDRL record is updated.

   Note: You can also view the Audit History of a particular CDRL record that displays in the form of a table.

9. Click Add Item.
   Contract Line Item is added.

   NOTE

   In cases where multiple Contract Line Items are created while clicking the Add Item button and data is added into the field(s) of only one Contract Line Item, then all the remaining Contract Line Items with no data in them are automatically removed from the CDRL record, after clicking the Update CDRL button.

   

10. Scroll up and click New CDRL.

11. Enter values in fields such as Contract Line Item No., Exhibit, Category, etc. and click Create CDRL.
    CDRL record is created. 

12. You will receive two email notifications: when parsing is initiated and when it is completed, with a link to the output.
    

13. Review and edit the parsed output before accepting and ingesting it into a Contract record.

CPARs Ingestion

You can now import CPARs for an existing Contract using the CPARs tab, where you can upload a CPARs document. This follows the same process as Contract ingestion using OCRs.

1. Go to a Contract record.

2. Click the ellipses icon and select CPARs.

3. In the CPARs grid, click Import CPAR.
   

4. Click Choose File and select a CPAR data file that is saved on your system.

   NOTE

   The format of this file must be  PDF.

   

5. Click Submit.
   A message displays indicating that the file is being parsed.

6. You will receive two email notifications: when parsing is initiated and when it is completed, with a link to the output.
   

7. You can make changes to any of the fields, as per your requirements and click Confirm& Ingest.
   

8. A confirmation message displays, click Ok.
   New CPAR page displays.
   

9. Go to the CPARs tab and click to open the newly created CPARs record.

10. Go to the Internal Team tab and click New Team Member.
    You can also view all the ingested data related to Key Subcontractors and Evaluation Areas here.

    NOTE

    Sequence determines the order of the flow of the review in case there are multiple Reviewers.

    Example: A value of 1 assigned to the Sequence field of a Reviewer implies that this Reviewer will be the first to receive the CPARs for review. You can also leave the Sequence field blank in order to send the CPARs for review to all the Reviewers, simultaneously. 

Automatically Create Tasks or Deliverables from Contract Documents

1. Go to a Contract record.

2. Click Create Obligations. 

3. Click Choose File and select a Contract Document file that is saved on your system.

   NOTE

   The format of this file must be PDF.

   

4. Click Submit.
   A message displays indicating that the file is being parsed.

5. You will receive two email notifications: when parsing is initiated and when it is completed, with a link to the output.
   

6. Click the link received in the completion email.
   Obligations Extraction window opens in a new tab. Note that by default, the Due Date is 10 days from the current date.

7. You can further refine the Extraction Results by selecting a keyword from the Keywords drop-down menu.

8. You can also change the Due Date by selecting another Date.

9. Select an Owner for each line item.
   Once a name is selected, you can click the x icon to remove it and select another name.

10. Click Task Type and determine the appropriate action for each line item from the following options:

    • Ignore: Does not create a required action for the Contract.

    • Create Task: This allows you to create a Task associated with the line item.

    • Create Deliverable: This allows you to create a Deliverable associated with the line item.

11. Click Submit.
    

12. On the Contract record, click the ellipsis icon and select Activities to view Deliverables.

13. Click an item to view its details.
    
    

14. TASK tab of the Deliverable displays. Note that the Description field contains both the Key Sentence as well as the Next Sentence.
    
    

CPARs

Is the enhanced ability to extract and ingest CPARs data from a PDF document that was downloaded from government websites and establishes a review process.

NOTE

This is visible only to CPARs Admins (Owners of records) and only when CPARs Status is Approved.

1. Go to a Contract record.

2. Click the ellipsis icon and select CPARs.

3. Click a CPAR to view its Status and details of a record.

4. Click CPAR Process and select Complete. 

5. CPAR Status is updated to Completed.