The contract item screen represents a single trade on a contract, with information unique to that trade.

Every contract (purchases and sales) must have at least one item. Items are identified as unique by their Description code and an Optional Identifier code. Allocations are created by tying a sales item to a purchase location screen.

A Contract Item Screen

You may choose to create more than one item on a contract if any of the following information is different:

1. Price (fixed or differential).
2. Position (trading, shipment or valuation).
3. Grade/Description.
4. Destination.

If you wish to have two items with the same description on the same contract, you can use the Optional Identifier field.

You can access the contract item screen in four ways.

To go directly from the Main menu to an item screen, pick Contracts > Purchases or Contracts > Sales, then select Item.

Select Contracts > Purchases or Sales > Item

Enter the contract number to look up, then select Continue to proceed.

If there is more than one item on the contract, you will be asked to select the item from the Contract Item Chooser. Highlight an item, then click on the Continue button.

Select the Item then pick Continue

You can click the Item menu choice to see a list of items.

You can also double-click on an item in the grid.

Finally, you can click on the blue link that shows the description and optional identifier.

Ways to Access a Contract Item

Here is a description of each section of the item screen and how to access that section.

The top of the screen shows summary information, with links to the contract main screen, the location screen and any sales. You can also see the contract date, counterparty, country and shipment terms. This information must be changed on the contract main screen or elsewhere in the system.

Contract Summary Information

This is a purchase item for grade BRA. It has one location screen (0002172) and 2,000 Bags have been allocated. The vendor for this purchase is MYSHIP', the country is BRAZIL' and the shipment terms are FOB.

To the right of the contract information is the trade analysis which lets you do a quick assessment of the trade. This shows the contract price, the estimated exdock cost, the market price as entered in CATS, and the profit on this individual trade. If the contract was TBF or partially hedged then CATS would also display the average hedge price.

The contract has been fixed at $1.5000 USD/LB. It has an estimated ex-dock value of $1.5000 USD/LB and an estimated market price of $1.55000 USD/LB. (The entered market price for exchange ICE is displayed as $1.6000 USD/LB).

Below the contract and price information is the total bags, weight, and amount.

Contract Item Units and Description Note

There are 2,000 Bags, each weighing 69KG. The total weight is 138,000 KG (or 304,234 LB). The total cost of the material is 456,352.20 USD.

Select Unit to modify the number of bags, bag weight, or total weight on the item.

The shipment position is entered when you create a contract item. The valuation information is either entered manually or uses the Arrival Month to Futures Table to get the futures month for each shipment position.

Shipment Position and Valuation Information

The shipment position is Shipment during or before 2014-07-15. The destination is NEW YORK. The exchange is ICE. The Note is filled in automatically from the grade description file and can be used to populate the contract confirmation.

CATS is automatically valuing this material at SPOT (since the shipment period has passed) and is using a valuation of 10.0000 cents under position 2015-09 on the ICE exchange. Click on the position date link to see information about that particular position.

You can access the shipment position by clicking Shp from the toolbar menu. Use Val to change the valuation position and type of valuation.

The purchase item has been price fixed at $2.10 USD/LB. The hedge was done at $2.25. The final price was calculated using a differential of 10 cents under September ICE. We had eight lots to fix, and the price fixing was completed July 2014.

This example does not show the individual costing options. Use the “Tran” menu to add and review costs. Costs can be estimated on each individual contract item based on weight, units, percentages, etc. These costing records can then be applied to vendor invoices.

Different sections of the item screen are managed under each menu option. This allows users to access only certain areas of the item screen.

Create a new item. You will be asked if you wish to copy an existing contract item.

Change the units, unit weight, or total weight on the item. You can also change the basis for the weight (for example, from per KG to per LB).

Change the shipment information.

Change the fixed price.

Change the differential price. If the price has been fixed, you will need to zero out the fixed price before CATS will allow you to change the differential.

Add and review hedging/fixing information.

Review detailed information about this trade, including cost of inventory.

Edit how CATS values the material and recalculate the valuation.

Add financing/collateral type.

Add & review transportation costs.

Add & review cost estimates.

Edit just the note.

Switch to viewing sale contract items.

Links ● Click on the Purchase Contract Number to go to the Contract Main Screen. ● Click on the grade code to see the grade/description code dialog. ● Click on the location screen number to go to the location screen (if the item has multiple screens it will show a list). ● Click on the number of allocated bags to view a list of allocations for this item. ● Click on the counterparty account code to go to the Account Screen ● Click on the country code to see the country code dialog. ● Click on the shipment terms to see the shipment terms dialog. ● Click on the exchange to see the exchange code dialog. ● Click on the position to see the position dialog.