The master contract is a document under which you can group contracts as lower level contracts. It contains the general terms which apply for all the lower level contracts over a specified period.

You group contracts as lower level contracts under a master contract to ensure that

• The terms in the master contract are granted in all the lower level contracts

• The data in all lower level contracts remains consistent

You can group the following documents under a master contract:

• Quantity contracts

• Value contracts

• Service contracts

The link between the master and lower level contracts is controlled by the referencing procedure which is assigned to the master contract type in Customizing. The referencing procedure determines which data is copied from the master contract into the lower level contracts

A master contract contains header data only. In the master contract, you can record:

• Business data

• Partner data

• Contract data

• Billing plan data

On the overview screen of the master contract, there is a list of all the lower level contracts which refer to it. You can branch from this list into the individual contracts.