Change the state of a communication

When a communication is sent, a state is assigned, for example, so that the company user or contractor user who views the communication can see whether the communication has been Approved or Rejected.

Changes to the state of the communication are displayed in the State Transitions section of the Communication Details page.

Users with the following contract roles can change the state of a communication in the Company Portal:

• Contract Owner

• Contract Administrator

• Company Representative

See Communication routing paths for further information about the possible states of a communication.

Communications which require response

Whether the communication requires a response is determined by its communication template (the Required Response option). When a communication which requires agreement and/or a reply is sent, an associated obligation is automatically created.

The obligation is automatically closed when the communication is Agreed, Not Agreed or Rejected, if it requires agreement only. If it requires agreement and reply, it is automatically closed when a reply is sent and the communication is Agreed, Not Agreed or Rejected. See Contract obligations for more information.

If a communication can be marked as the formal reply to a communication which requires one, the option to do this is displayed when the reply communication is published - i.e. when its state is updated from Draft to Approved or Awaiting Agreement. See Respond to a communication for more information.

Workflows

A change to a communication's state can trigger the relevant mapping workflow to change the communication's reporting category (for financial reporting), depending on its communication template. See Communication reporting categories for more information.

Warning If there are validation errors in the mapping or notification workflow templates associated with the communication template, the state of the communication cannot be updated.

Warning If the user assigned to the Contract Owner contract role for the communication's contract is disabled, the mapping workflow will not trigger.

Countersigned documents

For communications which have been Agreed or Not Agreed, countersigned documents can be attached even though further standard attachments are not permitted unless the contractor's Method of Communication is set to Contractor to Communicate via Other Means.

Communications in multi-currency contracts

For a communication in a multi-currency contract that does not use the contract base currency, the exchange rate used for the communication is 'frozen' when it is updated from the Draft state. In other words, the system uses the currency exchange rate that was in effect at the time the communication was issued.