Contract State Changes
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You can customize your contract states according to your business needs.
You will also be able to select from Default or Legal contract states to
fit your needs.

You can also change states regardless of the contract state. 

In this article:

-  Change the contract states from default to legal or custom.

-  Change states regardless of the contract state

**Change the contract states from default to legal or custom.**

1. From your dashboard click on settings and then select contract
   states.

    Tip: You need to be logged in as the administrator to change the
    contract states.

2. Once you are in contract states slick on the drop down to access the
   legal and custom contract states.

    Note: Changing the contract state will change the contract state
    immediately throughout the application.

3. Selecting Custom would allow to enter custom wordings for each
   state.

Contract State:

.. figure:: http://dohelpcdnstorage.blob.core.windows.net/help/Contract%20State.jpg
   :alt: !
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Default Contract State Work-flow:

.. figure:: http://dohelpcdnstorage.blob.core.windows.net/help/ContractStateWorkflowUpdated.PNG
   :alt: !
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   !

**Change states regardless of the contract state**

1. The manager clicks on more under the contract state on the
   contracts overview page.

2. The user selects the next state which the contract should be moved to where the user is given the option to select any other state that is not shown on the contracts states dropdown.

3. The user is given an option to enter a reason which will be logged
   under the audit history of that contract.

4. If you change states regardless of the contract state then the normal
   contract state work-flow will be followed from the latest contract state change.

5. This can be done by the contract manager and all managers and authors
   in the system.

6. This will also update the comments wall on the contract overview
   page.

7. Same alerts functionality will continue.

Change states regardless of the contract state:

.. figure:: http://dohelpcdnstorage.blob.core.windows.net/help/out%20of%20sequence.png
   :alt: !
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**Automatic Contract State Changes**

Dolphin 365 now supports automatic state changes depending on contract dates and states.

- State of **"Active"** contracts which reaches the **end date** is automatically changes to **"Expired"** state by the system. The contract manager gets an alert for the state change. 

- State of **"Signed Off"** contracts which reaches the **start date** is automatically changed to **"Active"** state by the system. The contract manager gets an alert for the state change.

.. figure:: https://dohelpcdnstorage.blob.core.windows.net/help/stateChanges1.png
   :alt: !
   :align: center
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   !

**See Also:**

-  Permissions
-  Comments