Keying Agreements into PEER - Contract Tracking Module

Log into PEER

Visit PEER in your web browser at https://peer.app.vumc.org. Log in with your VUMC ID and password.

From the Home Screen, select the Contract Tracking module

Once logged in, you will be redirected to the PEER Portal Home page. In the center of the page you will see a module tile titled "Contract Tracking". Click on this tile to enter the the Contract Tracking module, where you can key in your contracts.

Contract Tracking Home

The Contract Tracking module Home page is a searchable list of all your contracts in the system. From this screen you can (1) begin a new contract record, (2) sort your agreements according to pre-defined parameters such as expiration dates inside 90 days, or by the Next Action Date that you will set on the Status tab inside each contract record, (3) search the current view, (4) export search results to Excel, and (5) manage the contract type choices for your agreements.

To begin keying a new agreement, click the New Contract Button (1). After a confirmation warning, you will be taken into a new blank contract record.

The Contract Summary

The Contract Summary is where all the information about the agreement will be captured. Data fields are broken up into groupings on the various tabs. Most of the data is optional, though a set of minimum information is required. 

To begin entering information, click the Edit button (1) in the Gold toolbar, which will activate the edit mode for all fields on the current tab. 

Other items of note:

(2) the Contract CT number. CT (simply standing for Contract Tracking) number is a sequential numeric identifier for the contract within PEER. You may put your own internal contract number or identifier in the Owner Department Contract ID field on the General tab, but the CT number remains unique to this record in PEER.

(3) click Home to return to your list of contracts (Contract Tracking Home)

Adding information to the General Tab

Once you have clicked the Edit button, you'll see two new buttons: Save and Cancel. Cancel simply exits edit mode and returns the current tab to read mode. To make changes, simply fill out the fields in the tab and then click Save. 

When attempting to change tabs while in Edit Mode, you will receive a warning that you may lose unsaved changes. It is best practice to Save before changing tabs. Clicking save automatically turns off Edit Mode.

Required Fields on the General Tab:

Owner Department - select the Vanderbilt or subsidiary business unit to whom the agreement belongs. Only Contract Tracking users from this unit will have access to this record.
Owner Contact/Contracting Officer - a person in the owning business unit responsible for this agreement, will receive any review/expiration notices sent by PEER.
Contract Title - A descriptive title of the agreement, its purpose, etc.
Other Party to the Agreement - name of the other legal entity who is a party to the agreement.

For contract type, if the selections are empty, you need to (1) make sure you have defined your type choices (Go to Contract-Tracking Home, then on left side under Tools click on Manage Types), then make sure you have chosen a Department Owner on the General Tab and saved. Once the tab has re-loaded, re-open edit mode and your type choices should be available.

Contacts Tab

Next, in the contacts tab, enter all relevant information. If the agreement provides some service to a Vanderbilt business unit OTHER than the owner unit, you may denote this in the Customer Department field. A vanderbilt signatory field is also provided should you desire to track the signor of the agreement.

Next, provide contact information for the other party to the agreement, e.g. whom did Vanderbilt contact to negotiate terms?

Status Tab

The features of the status tab allow you to manage contract workflow within PEER if you so choose.

First, you have the Status selector. There are seven status values available:

Active "A" - This is for agreements current in effect.
Pending "P" - New agreements still in their first negotiation. When you create a new CT record in PEER it will default to P. Every file should be P only once in its life.
Review "R" - Like P, except for when a previously Active agreement is under review for amendment, renewal, etc.
Expire "E" - This is a designation for contracts past their expiration date or which have been allowed to lapse, terminated, etc. Expired files are by default excluded from the All Contracts and Next Action Date views on the Contract-Tracking Home screen
Limbo "L" - a rare status used for when negotiations have stalled with no movement/action anticipated, but project is not officially dead.
Information "I" - another rare status used for files that represent information about another set of contracts. Best use of this would be for a template or model agreement. "I" files are not in and of themselves actual signed agreements.

Next, there is the Next Action Due field. This is an internal tickler date and is intended for your use to indicate when action may be required on an agreement in negotiation or signature process. Use this in combination with the Next Action Notes field to leave notes about where things are in the process.

Once you've input the next action date and notes, you can use the "By Next Action Date" view on Contract-Tracking Home to sort all your agreements by this next action date, oldest dates are always at the top. In this way, you have a tickler list of files you need to address.

Dates Tab

On the dates tab, enter the following information:

Begin Date - start date or effective date of agreement (most often the date of the last signature)
End Date - if agreement has a specific termination date
Continuous Agreement - Yes if agreement is open ended. No if agreement has a termination date

Auto Reminders:

If auto reminders are enabled, PEER will send automated reminders to the Owner Department Contact/Contracting Officer as follows:
- for continous agreements, beginning at 90 days from anniversary of start date and continuing at 60, 30 and 15 days out,
- for defined-termination date agreements beginning at 150 days out and then at 120/90/60/30/15

PEER will note the date last notice was sent during the current review cycle and the type of notice (120, 90, 60, etc.)

To turn off the notices for the current cycle, click edit and then click the Set Notice Response Received button. This will populate the Date Notice Response Received field and will ensure you do not receive any additional reminders for this cycle. Your next reminder would then not send until the following year. 

If you sent Send Renewal Reminders to Disabled, then no reminders will go out ever.

Financial Tab

On the financial tab, key a dollar value for the agreement. You may also include a cost center number for your tracking purposes (system does not perform any billing/invoicing/payment processing whatsoever). Finally, indicate whether funding is incoming or outgoing (are we paying or getting paid?).

Documents Tab

Documents tab handles any attachments you want to upload. The main purpose here is to house PDF scans of the signed agreement and any amendments, renewals, addenda, etc. PEER will accept PDF, Excel, Word, and other common formats. Firefox and Chrome users can use the drag-n-drop feature to drop files in from their computer. Internet Explorer users will need to use the blue Upload button.

Uploaded files can be deleted or edited, and can be given an optional description.

Sequences Tab

Sequences are individual sub-records that allow you to capture dates, dollar amounts and PDF versions for specific actions on a contract. For example, above we have a sequence for the Original contract and a second sequence for Amendment 1. You would continue to key a new sequence for each new amendment, and/or for other related addenda such as work orders, Letters of Intent, and so forth.

Create a new sequence by entering edit mode and then clicking the blue "New Sequence" button. In the form that pops up, you'll be required to choose a sequence type. The sort order is optional and sets the order in which the sequences appear in the table and can be changed later. Sort notes is a short note about each sequence that also appears in the table and can be changed later.

Each sequence has its own set of tabs and sequence-specific details that will need to be filled out, as well as a place to upload the fully executed PDF of the contract document for that sequence. Please see the help document "Keying Sequeces into PEER - Contract Tracking Module" for detailed instructions on entering sequences.

File Info Tab

There is no data to add in this tab, it is merely informational and shows who created the record and when, as well as who last modified the record and when.

At this point you are done and can return to the Contract Tracking Home page to begin your next contract record.