Linking parent-child contracts
Summarize
Summary of Linking parent-child contracts
The Linking parent-child contracts feature in ServiceNow enables users to manage contract family hierarchies via theRelated contract requeststab. This tab displays all related contract requests including parent, child, sibling, and grandchild contracts, allowing you to link contracts, inherit fields from a parent contract, or unlink contracts. When linked, the parent contract is automatically referenced in the child contract, and associated contract repository records are linked accordingly.
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Key Features
- Contract Family Hierarchy: Easily view the full hierarchy of related contracts, including parent, siblings, children, and grandchildren.
- Linking Actions: Two main actions are available:
- Link contract: Establishes a parent-child relationship without copying fields. Applicable if the parent contract is not cancelled and child contract states meet criteria.
- Link and inherit fields: Establishes the relationship and copies configured fields from the parent to the child. Requires field mapping configuration and specific contract states.
- Access Control: Displays only contracts in the hierarchy that users have permission to view based on roles such as contract fulfiller, group manager, collaborator, watchlist user, requested-for user, or opened-by user.
- Automatic Linking of Amendments: Amendments are automatically created as child contracts and appear in the hierarchy.
- Visual Indicators: Clearly identifies the currently open contract in the hierarchy for easy navigation.
Practical Considerations
- Only one parent contract can be linked at a time, and the parent cannot be in a cancelled state.
- Parent contracts must be of a single contract type using own paper or third-party paper, excluding multiple contracts type third-party contracts for inheritance.
- Contracts cannot be linked as parents of contracts earlier in the hierarchy (e.g., a Statement Of Work cannot be set as parent of its Master Service Agreement).
- Linking and inheriting fields is intended during drafting and negotiation phases, with specific contract states allowed for each action.
- Users must have assignment or collaboration roles on the contract request to perform linking or unlinking actions.
Key Outcomes
By leveraging the Linking parent-child contracts functionality, ServiceNow customers can:
- Maintain clear and organized contract hierarchies to improve contract lifecycle management.
- Ensure data consistency by inheriting critical fields from parent contracts, reducing manual data entry errors.
- Control access to contract information based on user roles, enhancing security and compliance.
- Quickly correct errors by unlinking incorrect parent-child relationships.
- Automatically track amendments as child contracts, preserving contract lineage.
The contract family hierarchy in the Related contract requests tab shows all related contract requests and lets you link, inherit from, and unlink parent contract requests.
When you open a contract request and navigate to the Related contract requests tab, the tab displays the complete contract family hierarchy for that contract request. The hierarchy includes parent, child, sibling, and grandchild records.
From the same tab, you can link a parent contract request, inherit fields from it, or remove an existing link. When linked, the Parent contract field in the contract request Details tab is automatically populated with the parent contract request number. The associated contract repository records for the parent and child contract requests are also automatically linked.
The Related contract requests tab displays the following records:
- The parent contract request of the currently open record
- All sibling contract requests — other children of the same parent
- Children and grandchildren of sibling records
- Direct children and grandchildren of the currently open record
A visual indicator highlights the contract request that is currently open, distinguishing it from other records in the hierarchy.
Access control for related contract requests
The Related contract requests tab displays only the contract records within the family hierarchy that you have access to. Records you're not authorized to view aren't displayed.
Access to a contract request is determined by your role in that contract request. You can view a contract request in the hierarchy if you're one of the following:
- The assigned contract fulfiller
- A group manager or fulfiller of the assignment group
- A collaborator
- A watchlist user
- The requested-for user
- The opened-by user
Amendments in the hierarchy
When you create an amendment contract request, it is automatically created as a child record of the originating contract request and appears in the hierarchy on the Related contract requests tab.
Choosing a linking action
The Related contract requests tab provides two linking actions.
| Action | Use when | Additional prerequisites |
|---|---|---|
| Link contract | You want to establish the parent-child relationship only, without copying any fields from the parent. | The parent can be a contract request in any state except Cancelled. If the child contract is in Contract signed state, the parent must be in Contract signed or Closed complete state. |
| Link and inherit fields | You want to establish the parent-child relationship and automatically copy configured fields from the parent into the child contract request. | Contract request must be in Draft, Work in progress, or Awaiting review state only. Parent-child field mapping must be configured. For more information, see Configure field mapping for parent-child contract linking. The parent must not be a multiple contracts type third-party contract request. |
The following conditions apply to both actions:
- You must be assigned to the contract request, be a group manager, or a collaborator.
- The parent contract must not be in a Canceled state.
- Only one parent contract can be selected while linking.
- The parent contract must be a single contract type using own paper or third-party paper.
- A contract can't be linked as a parent of any contract before it in the hierarchy. For example, if Master Service Agreement (MSA) is the parent of Statement Of Work (SOW), then SOW can't be set as the parent of MSA.