An evergreen contract is a long term contract without a predetermined validity period end, and is assigned to an exchange agreement. The exchange partners negotiate at regular intervals to determine the on-going status of the evergreen contract. The exchange partners determine whether or not the evergreen contract is to be valid, or if it is to be considered "closed".

There are standard evergreen contracts and there are unlimited evergreen contracts.

An unlimited evergreen contract does not have a quantity schedule, because the exchange partners can call-off the quantity required at any time.

The evergreen type:

• Determines whether the contracts that are assigned to the exchange agreement are standard or unlimited evergreen contracts.
• Is defaulted from Customizing and is dependent on the exchange type. In Customizing, that is set under Industry Solution Oil & Gas (Downstream) ® EXG ® Transactions ® Define exchange types. It can be changed as long as no contracts are assigned.
• Is copied into all assigned contracts, and determines the various ways in which contract quantities are handled.

• In the contract, automatically sets the indicator allowing unlimited delivery ("overdelivery").

The start date of the exchange agreement also serves as the validity period start of the contract and of the quantity schedule (for standard evergreen contracts).

The review date indicates the date on which the exchange agreement and the evergreen contracts are to be reviewed by the exchange partners.

For standard evergreen contracts, the review date (or end date, when no review date has been entered) is mandatory. It is automatically copied into the contract as the validity period end and also serves as the end date of the quantity schedule.

When changing the review date, you can simultaneously update the validity period end of the contract and of the quantity schedule.

The end date indicates the date on which the exchange agreement comes to an end. It is automatically copied into the contract as the validity period end and also serves as the end date of the quantity schedule for standard evergreen contracts.

When changing the end date, you can simultaneously update the validity period end of the contract and of the quantity schedule.

After the end date, no exchange-related orders or contract call-offs are possible. Goods receipts for call-offs and goods issues for contract call-offs can still be posted, when the posting date is within the validity period of the exchange agreement. Financial posting are also possible after the end date.

The notice period indicates how many days are required before the exchange agreement can be terminated.

The breakdown indicator is used in the quantity schedule to determine the length of a breakdown period.

For unlimited evergreen contracts, the breakdown indicator for No breakdown / no schedule has to be selected, because no quantity schedule is allowed.

For standard evergreen contracts, every other breakdown indicator (for example, monthly) can be selected.

Using the quantity schedule split (QS split), the type of quantity schedule split in the quantity schedule can be determined (for example, assignment of the entire quantity to each period).

For unlimited evergreen contracts, the corresponding field will remain empty, because no quantity schedule is allowed. The material quantity of the contract item is only for information purposes, the system does not check that quantity.

For standard evergreen contracts, the QS split has to be selected, which assigns the material quantity of the contract item to each period in the quantity schedule.