Exhibit Lines (ELINs) and Contract Data Requirements Lists (CDRLs) are used in CLM documents when there is a need for capturing information for 100s or 1000s of lines. For example, a ship repair scenario would need 1000s of lines to be entered in the system and all the lines would be associated with a parent line. Though users could use the CLIN/SLIN structure for this requirement, a better alternative is the ELIN/CDRL structure. Also using ELINs and CDRLs structures enable users to print the lines separately from the main body of the contract. Thus, when a contract is printed, the 1000s of lines do not get printed in the middle of the contract document, they are printed separately in a manner similar to an attachment of a CLM document.

Exhibits are related to a CLIN or SLIN, their lines provide a lower level of detail for the CLIN or SLIN. Exhibits are used when there is an extensive list of items (such as 1000 spare parts) that must be maintained on the resulting contract, but the contracting officer would like to reference that list as a whole in the body of the contract (say within Section B of the UCF) and push the longer list to the back of the contract or to another document all together. CDRLs, however, will need to be generated on the standard DD1423 form.

CDRLs, a type of ELIN, are used to list items that are either of no additional cost or are not separately priced, however, they are related to the line item being bought and need to be received, accepted, and otherwise accounted for. Examples would be training manuals associated with a training course. The training course can be a single CLIN with a price and 25 manuals are included with that price, but not separately priced or listed with the CLIN. There needs to be a way to account for the 25 manuals upon receipt of the class, therefore they are listed as a CDRL.

DFARS Subpart 204.7105, outlines the numbering procedure for ELINs and CDRLs.

Each Exhibit or CDRL is assigned a 1-2 alpha character that is represented as a capital letter. The system begins assigning using the letter A and once Z is reached, the system resumes with double alpha, starting with AA. The letters I and O should not be used. The assigned numbers are editable by users and the system does not need to enforce that the numbering be sequential or consecutive. Once an exhibit or CDRL is numbered, the number remains unique across the document. Thus, the same exhibit or CDRL number cannot be used more than once across the given contract.

The items that are associated to each exhibit are detailed in exhibit lines. These ELINs are assigned a four character alpha numeric number. The first 1-2 characters of the number represent the associated exhibit. The remaining characters represent either a 2 or 3 character sequential serial number. Thus, for Exhibit A, the ELINs can be A123 or A09Z.

An exhibit can be associated with more than one CLIN/SLIN if all ELINs in the exhibit have no funding, and are either informational or NSP (have no cost). If the exhibit has cost/funding, then it would need to be duplicated to allow the system to properly register the financial impact.

While there is no regulatory limit on the number of exhibits that can be attached to a single CLIN or SLIN, in consulting with contracting officers, in real practice this number is usually low, typically one, and sometimes two or three. An example of a single line with 3 exhibits would be a single line for a large scale production effort and separate exhibits for development, test, and production data deliverables.

An exhibit structure (A, B, AA etc.) may have may exhibit lines (CDRLs or non-CDRLs) under it. A single exhibit structure can refer to multiple contract lines (lines or sub-lines). Similarly, one line in a contract may refer to multiple exhibit lines.