Creating a Contract

Most contracts in Veles are created automatically when a Quote is promoted to an Order and the Order is activated. But there are situations where you need to create a contract manually — backfilling an existing agreement that predates your Veles instance, recording a deal that was negotiated outside the platform, or migrating active contracts from a legacy system. The manual contract creation wizard walks you through a 4-step process: Contract Details, Phases & Line Items, Documents, and Review & Activate.

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Starting a draft

To create a contract manually, navigate to the customer’s account and click Create Contract. A confirmation dialog appears:

• The contract is created as a draft for the selected company.
• Drafts can be freely edited and deleted.
• Once activated, the contract is locked and becomes the source of truth.

Click Create Draft to enter the contract editor.

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Step 1: Contract Details

Dates & billing The first step sets up the foundational terms that apply to every Phase and Line Item on the contract.

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Effective period

Set the start date and end date for the full contract duration. The term is calculated automatically from these dates. Veles validates the dates and flags potential issues. For example, if you enter a start date of April 1, 2026 and an end date of April 1, 2027, Veles will note that this is “1 year and 1 day” and that a full 1-year term typically ends on March 31, 2027. Click Fix to auto-correct, or leave as-is if the dates match your signed agreement.

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Owner & billing

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Purchase order (optional)

If the customer has issued a purchase order, enter the PO number here. This associates the PO with the contract for reference and can appear on invoices.

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Contract owner

The team member responsible for managing this contract and its renewals. The owner appears in the Renewals dashboard and can be used as a filter. Click Save & Continue to proceed to Step 2.

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Step 2: Phases & Line Items

This step defines the commercial structure of the contract: what’s being sold, at what price, and across what time periods.

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Adding Phases

The timeline bar at the top shows the full contract period (from the effective dates set in Step 1) and tracks how much of the term is covered by Phases. Click + Add Phase to create a commitment interval. For each Phase, set:

• Start date and end date within the contract’s effective period.
• Phases must be sequential and non-overlapping.
• Together, they should cover the full contract duration.

For a simple annual deal, create a single Phase spanning the full term. For multi-year or ramp deals, create one Phase per commitment interval.

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Adding Line Items

Within each Phase, add the products and pricing that define the customer’s entitlements:

• Select products from your price book.
• Set the quantity and contracted price for each product.
• Configure billing cadence (monthly, quarterly, annual, one-time).

The summary panel on the left tracks your progress: number of Phases, Line Items, and Total Value update as you build. Click Save & Continue to proceed to Step 3.

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Step 3: Documents

Attachments Attach supporting documents to the contract for reference. This is where you store the signed agreement, SOWs, order forms, or any other documentation associated with the deal. Click + Add Document to upload files. Supported formats include PDF, DOCX, and common image formats (PNG, JPG). Documents are attached to the contract record and accessible to anyone who can view the contract. They’re for reference only — they don’t affect the contract’s commercial terms or pricing. Click Save & Continue to proceed to Step 4.

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Step 4: Review & Activate

Final check The final step presents a summary of the contract and a readiness checklist before activation.

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Activation checklist

Veles validates that the contract is complete and flags any missing elements: Items with a green checkmark are complete. Items with a dash are either incomplete or optional.

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Contract details summary

Below the checklist, a summary displays the contract’s key details (period, owner, billing address) and Phases & Line Items count. Click Edit on any section to go back and make changes.

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Activating

When you’re ready, click Activate Contract. After activation:

• The contract status changes from Draft to Active.
• Contract Phases and Contract Lines become the authoritative entitlement record.
• The contract appears in the Renewals dashboard based on its end date.
• If Stripe is connected, billing orchestration begins based on the contract’s billing cadence.

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When to use manual contract creation

Backfilling existing agreements. When you first deploy Veles, your active customer contracts need to be entered into the system so that amendments, renewals, and reporting work correctly. Manual creation lets you record these agreements with their actual contracted pricing and terms. Off-platform deals. If a deal was negotiated and signed outside of Veles (e.g., via email and a manually signed PDF), you can create the contract directly to bring it into the system of record. Migration from legacy CPQ. When transitioning from another CPQ system, manual contract creation (or CSV import) establishes the baseline ARR and entitlement state in Veles.

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What’s next