How Contract Lines are created
Contract Lines are produced when an Order is activated. Each Order Line creates or modifies a Contract Line based on the Order’s commercial classification and the contract impact instructions on the line.What a Contract Line contains
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Product | The SKU. Identifies what the customer is entitled to. |
| Active quantity | The number of units the customer is currently entitled to. |
| Contracted price | The authoritative price for this product on this contract. This is the price that was committed at execution, not the current list price. |
| Billing cadence | How this entitlement is billed: monthly, quarterly, annual, or one-time. |
| Service start | When this entitlement begins. Inherited from the parent Contract Phase. |
| Service end | When this entitlement expires. Inherited from the parent Contract Phase. |
| Renewal behavior | How this line should be treated at renewal: auto-renew, manual renewal, or do not renew. |
| Parent Contract Phase | The Phase this line belongs to. |
| Originating Order Line | Reference to the Order Line that created or last modified this Contract Line. |
The contracted price
The contracted price on a Contract Line is one of the most important values in the system. It is the authoritative price for this product on this contract — the price that was agreed to during negotiation, resolved at promotion, and committed at activation. The contracted price is not the current list price. It is not recalculated when the price book changes. It is not affected by new pricing rules or data sheet updates. It is the price that was locked at the moment of execution. This distinction matters most during amendments. When a customer modifies their contract mid-term, the contracted price serves as the baseline: Example: A product was contracted at 4.25/unit after negotiation. The customer wants to add 20 more seats mid-term. The incremental seats are priced relative to the 4.25 contracted rate — not the current list price of $5.00. The system preserves the negotiated rate unless explicitly overridden. This ensures commercial integrity, auditability, and predictability across the life of the agreement.How Contract Lines are affected by different Order types
New Business
Each Order Line creates a new Contract Line. These initial Contract Lines establish the baseline entitlement: what the customer bought, at what price, for what period.Amendment: add product
The Order Line creates a new Contract Line for a product that wasn’t on the Contract before. The new line is added to the appropriate Contract Phase (active or future, depending on when the new product takes effect).Amendment: modify existing
The Order Line adjusts an existing Contract Line. Common modifications include:- Increase quantity — the active quantity on the Contract Line is updated. For mid-term increases, proration is typically applied for the remaining duration of the active Phase.
- Decrease quantity — the active quantity is reduced (if permitted by your configuration).
- Adjust pricing prospectively — the contracted price is updated for future Phases only. The historical contracted price in past Phases is preserved.
Renewal
Expiring Contract Lines are replaced by new ones with updated terms. The renewal may include:- Price uplift — the contracted price is adjusted (e.g., 5% annual increase).
- Quantity changes — the quantity may increase or decrease based on the renewal negotiation.
- Term changes — billing cadence or service boundaries may be adjusted.
Active vs. historical Contract Lines
Contract Lines exist in one of three states, determined by the status of their parent Contract Phase: Active. The parent Phase is current. These lines define what the customer is entitled to right now and what they are being billed for. Future. The parent Phase hasn’t started yet. These lines represent upcoming commitments (common in ramp and multi-year deals). They can be modified by amendments. Historical. The parent Phase has ended. These lines are preserved as a permanent record of what was committed during that period. They cannot be modified and serve as the audit trail for past commercial state.The ability to reconstruct the exact state of a customer’s entitlements at any historical point in time is a direct result of preserving historical Contract Lines. Finance teams rely on this for revenue recognition, audit compliance, and reconciliation.
Contract Lines and billing
If Stripe is connected, active Contract Lines drive ongoing billing:- Recurring lines generate invoices on their billing cadence (monthly, quarterly, annual) using the contracted price and active quantity.
- Prorated lines (from mid-term amendments) generate adjusted invoices for the remainder of the current Phase.
- Renewal lines trigger billing at the start of the new Phase using the updated contracted price.
Contract Lines and the MCP server
Through the Veles MCP server, AI agents can query Contract Lines programmatically. This enables workflows like:- Pulling the current entitlement state for a customer to inform a renewal conversation
- Checking contracted prices before building an amendment quote
- Monitoring upcoming Phase transitions to proactively generate renewal quotes
Example: Contract Line through amendments
Initial deal: Customer buys 50 seats of Platform at $40/user.| Contract Line | Quantity | Contracted Price | Phase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform License | 50 | $40/user | Year 1 (active) |
| Contract Line | Quantity | Contracted Price | Phase | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform License | 75 | $40/user | Year 1 (active) | Quantity increased. Incremental 25 seats prorated for remaining months. Contracted price preserved at $40. |
| Contract Line | Quantity | Contracted Price | Phase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform License | 75 | $40/user | Year 1 (historical) |
| Platform License | 75 | $42/user | Year 2 (active) |
What’s next
Contract Phases
The commitment intervals that Contract Lines belong to.
Contract Management
The full Contract object model and mutation logic.
Proration Logic
How mid-Phase changes are prorated on Contract Lines.
Order Lines
The execution-layer lines that produce Contract Lines.