While Oracle Contracts provides authoring capabilities for contract terms and conditions, it is common practice to use an external word processor, such as Microsoft Word, to author complex contracts. Oracle Contracts enables you to use Microsoft Word for extensive offline text editing, and for sending the contract terms for review, negotiation and approval.
The terms and conditions can be supplied to a business document in either of the following ways, as defined by the values of the Contract Source field of the business document:
Structured Terms
The contract terms are represented by the structured terms defined in the Oracle Contracts. The Structured Terms option provides you with the ability to enter sections, clauses, and contract templates as you author the contract, and to control the contract text all the way to contract approval, using Oracle Contracts features.
Attached Document
The contract terms exist in a Microsoft Word document that is attached to the business document; the attached document is categorized as the primary contract document for the business document. An attached document is typically in Microsoft Word format, but may be in any format.
You must have the nonstandard authoring privilege to use the Attached Document feature, that is, to update Contract Source to Attached Document and to attach primary contract documents. See Oracle Contracts Function Security.
Note: The content of attached documents is neither verified nor validated by Oracle Contracts.
Oracle Contracts allows importing the Microsoft Word document and synchronizing the changes with the structured contract available in the system. Modifications to the original contract can be reviewed before changes are accepted
Microsoft Word synchronization process enables you to download the contract from the system to collaborate offline with customers and make changes to the contract terms. After making changes to contract terms in Microsoft Word, you can choose one of the following options:
Upload the file as an attachment. For more information, see Uploading Documents as Attachments.
Upload the file containing the changes into the system's structured representation of the terms. Then, review the changes and decide whether to accept or reject them. All accepted changes are updated into the contract in the system.
This feature provides the convenience of being able to use offline documents, from authoring and editing the contract through to contract approval. In some organizations, contract terms are provided solely in offline documents; these documents can now be used within the contract life cycle as maintained by Oracle Contracts.
For many business documents, you will maintain the same Contract Source for the entire contract life cycle, as in the following cases:
For business documents that are always associated with a contract template and whose terms and conditions are always represented by Structured Terms, this means that you can use all the Oracle Contracts features and facilities throughout the contract life cycle.
With the Attached Document feature, you can provide the terms and conditions in a Microsoft Word document or another type of document, as is the policy in some organizations. This document that contains the contract terms is attached to the business document as the Primary Contract Document.
Note: It is not necessary to always have the same file as the Primary Contract Document throughout the contract life cycle, so long as the currently attached file provides the most recent version of the terms and conditions.
For a business document, you can switch the Contract Source as follows: