In this Part 2 of the Contract Submission tutorial, we'll create a new contract submission, begin filling in the submission form, and learn how to navigate around the form effectively.
Create a new draft submission
If you are not already logged into PEER, please log in now and use the main menu to return to the My Requests page.
Now, click on the blue "New Request" button in the upper right of the screen. You will be greeted with a notice asking you if you're sure you want to create a new "draft" contract request. Click on the green "Create Request" button, then you will be taken immedately into your new draft request.
The Wizard
You will be brought to Step 1 of the contract request. Depending on the type of request you are submitting, there may be as many as 7 steps (pages) or as few as 2. On Step 1, the Wizard will appear. This wizard MUST BE COMPLETED before any of the remaining steps are editable. The Wizard asks you some basic questions to determine what kind of agreement you need to submit, and therefore which steps to show and what questions to ask you.
Finish the wizard
Once you complete the wizard, it will tell you what kind of request it thinks you need. If this doesn't appear correct, you can go back and re-take the wizard. WARNING: If you start/re-take the wizard, it must be finished to unlock the rest of the contract request.
The Submission Form
We've chosen a standard contract request for this tutorial. Billing agreements are 4 steps, CDA/DUAs are 2. Don't be intimidated that the menu says there are 7 steps to this form. It actually goes quickly, and is broken down into 7 steps to make navigating through the form more efficient.
Notice the areas of the form noted below: 1) The status bar, this color coded just like the legend, 2) The print friendly button, which will give you a one-page formatted layout of the entire 7-page form if you need to print a hardcopy, 3) the navigation menu, which allows you to bounce from any step in the form to any other step in the form, 4) the Save & Continue button, which will save any input and move you to the next step in the form, and the Clear Changes button, which returns the form to the last saved state, and 5) The Submission History box, which tells us who created this submission and several vital dates, plus who the last person was to edit the request.
Unsaved Changes
Let's test out the form for a moment. Go ahead and make selections for the first three drop down fields, and then enter a title. Normally, once you've entered all the information, you'd click Save & Continue to go to page 2. This time, however, instead of saving, click on the Step 2: Sponsor/Other Party link on the left hand navigation menu. If you have many any changes to the form from its original saved state, PEER will warn you that you're about to leave the current step, which will cause you to lose your changes. So click cancel and then click save & continue.
Skip around as much as you want
This is a good time to note that you do not have to fill in all, or even any of the fields on any particular step in order to move to any other step in the form. You may not have all your information in front of you when you first create the request, so fill in what you have, save and then log out of PEER. You may log back in later and complete your request. Once you are satisfied your request is complete, PEER will check it for errors before you can submit the form.
Conclusion
That concludes this part of the tutorial. In Part 3 we'll finish up the form data entry.