Definitions

Differentiating Between Contract, Trading File and Blanket Order

Contract

A Contract is a formal document representing a signed/approved agreement between two parties (Vendor/Customer). In Dynamics 365 Business Central, the following documents can be considered contracts:

• Sales Order
• Purchase Order
• Sales Blanket Order
• Purchase Blanket Order

Blanket Order

A Blanket Order is a type of Contract that serves as a framework for a long-term agreement between a company and their Customer/Vendor. It is typically used when a Customer commits to purchasing large quantities of an item to be delivered in several smaller shipments over a specified period.

• Purpose: Used for monitoring, forecasting, and planning purposes without affecting item availability.
• Usage: Often covers only one item with predetermined delivery dates.
• Difference from Trading File: Reflects only sales or purchase agreements, not a consolidated view of both.

Trading File

A Trading File is an entity that groups sales and purchase documents related to a specific deal. Unlike a Contract, it is not signed/approved by third parties. It acts as an analytical container to consolidate all figures related to the same deal.

• Consolidation: Can include multiple contracts and purchase documents, such as Sales Blanket Orders, Sales Orders, Sales Invoices, Sales Return Orders, Sales Credit Memos, Purchase Blanket Orders, Purchase Orders, Purchase Invoices, Purchase Return Orders, and Purchase Credit Memos.
• Inherited Information: Analytical dimensions set in the Trading File are inherited by related documents, allowing data consolidation through contract cards/lists, financial reports (e.g., Account Schedules), or Power BI reports.
• Creation and Management: Created during deal planning, filled with relevant information (Description, Start Date, End Date, main Customer, etc.), and applicable Dimensions/Dimension values.
• Budgeting and Analysis: Can include budgeted revenue, cost, and margin for later analysis.
• Manual Assignment: Sales/Purchase documents can be manually assigned to a Trading File, inheriting Dimension/Dimension Values.
• Revenue/Cost Tracking: Updates ongoing revenue/cost and margin, allowing checks on Budget vs Work in Progress (WIP). Posted documents reflect actual numbers for Budget vs WIP vs Actuals comparison.
• Driven by Sales or Purchase:
  • Driven by Purchase: Triggered by the creation of a Purchase document, related to a Vendor.
  • Driven by Sales: Triggered by the creation of a Sales document, related to a Customer.
• Customer/Vendor Association: Can have associated Customer/Vendor numbers for informational purposes and creating new related documents. Can include orders from different Customers/Vendors (e.g., a trading commodity company buying 250 tons of grains and selling to ten different Customers).
• Item Lines and Budgeting: Can contain several item lines, each with a defined budget.