---
title: "Obligations"
canonical: "https://kb.uconn.edu/space/FPB/27755806854/Obligations"
format: markdown
---
Contracts+ has the capability to set an obligation for a specific party that can be tracked by the Contract Manager until the obligation has been completed or satisfied.  An “obligation” is a specific task or responsibility assigned to a party under a contract, tracked until it is fulfilled.

Obligations can be set by the Contract Specialist during the drafting process or the buying team following the execution of the agreement.

Obligations must have Role(s) and person(s) added for proper setup.  Here is a description of the roles and persons available to select:

## \uD83D\uDCD8  Owner and Stakeholder Roles

**Role:**

- **First Party Owner:** This is the individual that manages the obligation on behalf of the University.  This will typically be the Contract Specialist or Buyer.  This is **required** for each NEW obligation that is setup.  Only this individual can mark the item as complete in the system.
  - This may be the Contract Manager or “Pick a User” may be selected.  “Pick a User” will allow the Contract Specialist or Buyer to select anyone at the University to own the obligation.  It is recommended that the Contract Specialist or Buyer ONLY be used as the “owner”
- **First Party Stakeholder: **This individual may be another person at the University who should be informed of the obligations status.  Additionally, they may be required to provide the documentation to the First Party Owner.  An example would be for a Waiver Memo.
  - This may be the Contract Manager or “Pick a User” may be selected.  “Pick a User” will allow the Contract Specialist or Buyer to select anyone at the University to assign to this obligation.
- **Second Party Stakeholder: **This individual is the contact from the Supplier that is responsible for fulfilling an obligation.  Examples include provision of OPM1 forms, insurance documentation, bonds, etc
  - **Person/Second Party Contact: **This must be a selectable contact for the Supplier.

When added, any of these Owner or Stakeholder roles will have a task/notes section to refer to regarding exactly what they need to do for their part of the obligation . This can be pre-set in the library or customized when adding a custom obligation to the contract.

> ℹ️ Note: Please remember to “Check Out” the contract for edits.  Otherwise you will not be able to add obligations.

## \uD83D\uDCD8  Adding an Obligation to a Contract from the Obligation Library

1. In the Contract Record, navigate to the left-hand side menu and click the “Obligations” tab

![image-20250521-131032.png](media://50284f38-5bee-4ed7-a3cc-b0a876022fef)

2. Select “Add Obligation From Library”

![image-20250521-135029.png](media://9fb6f1e3-f1f6-4a4f-9052-e8dfe51e952b)

3. Choose the obligation from the library you wish to work with for this contract

![image-20250605-183813.png](media://abbc0173-c23c-4549-bf19-d8f0cf622f58)

4. A setup wizard will appear where you can customize your options.  From here you can:
  1. Re-label the default library name and description.
  2. Toggle the checkbox if documentation will be required from the obligated party as well.
  3. You can edit the timing of the obligation due date.  This is the date the obligation becomes due.

> ℹ️ Note: Any time past the obligation due date, is considered “overdue”.  The system will send automated e-mails to the obligated party until they complete that task and it is marked as complete by the First Party Owner.

![image-20250605-183500.png](media://da7e5b18-9be9-4c7d-a15e-ee2de7d27e94)

After these configuration steps, you can select “Next” to proceed to the next page.

5. This page will help you determine the appropriate owners and stakeholders in this process.  An obligation from the library will have a default First Party Owner, typically the contract manager.  From here you can:
  1. Click actions and then properties.  This will allow you to edit characteristics of the First Party Owner.  This includes customizing the task/notes, and what types of notifications should be sent:

![image-20250605-184208.png](media://d7f8d8c5-1b6e-4815-b553-0eac5400df9b)

![image-20250605-184227.png](media://f89e713c-8933-4a1a-b3fc-3a53dee68769)

![image-20250605-184109.png](media://87ebbfee-db05-4dfc-bb30-40e8e5cb60f5)

6. You will also want to add new owners/stakeholders aside from the primary First Party Stakeholder.  Most often, this will be a Second Party stakeholder (Supplier).  Obligations can also be used to remind first party stakeholders (departments) on upcoming deadlines for requirements (i.e. waiver memos, etc).

![image-20250605-184541.png](media://2890e4dd-c306-4361-a8c9-eab874609ed1)

![image-20250605-184556.png](media://743416ae-c19d-4825-aa3b-66fcd46f06a4)

After you have configured the Second Party or First Party Stakeholder and selected the contact, click the “Save button”

![image-20250605-184758.png](media://0737b135-e5db-4f8b-bca9-b517dbe36154)

7. You can choose advance notice settings that the obligation is upcoming.  For example, if you choose 5 days advance notice before the obligation due date of 2 days before the contract start date, a Contract Start date 6/17/25:
  1. The obligation due date to provide the documentation and complete the tasks for the stakeholder is 6/15/25.
  2. A reminder would be sent out on 6/10/25, 5 days before the obligation due date.
    Click save changes in the blue box, this will create the obligation

![image-20250605-184842.png](media://17408dd9-7b55-48d7-8e71-3a761520c8cd)

An example email notification for an obligation to a Supplier can be seen below.  The Supplier will continue to receive the e-mail at the sent intervals until the First Party Owner marks the obligation as “Complete”.  It will continue to email them periodically if the task if overdue.

![image-20250605-185726.png](media://3b78f22b-44ba-43a4-afeb-e9abceecd620)

## \uD83D\uDCD8 Adding a Custom Obligation to a Contract

To add a custom obligation created from scratch to the Contract Record, please follow the below steps:

1. In the Contract Record, navigate to the left-hand side menu and click the “Obligations” tab

![image-20250521-131032.png](media://50284f38-5bee-4ed7-a3cc-b0a876022fef)


2. Click the Blue “Add Obligation Button”.  Select “Add New Obligation” from the drop-down.

![image-20250521-131149.png](media://973aaceb-aa20-401e-9616-a7448d188e1b)

3. Fill in the required information.
  1. **Name and Description:** This includes giving the obligation a name and description.  This will help the stakeholders (first and/or second party) get an understanding of what is required of them to fulfil the obligation.
  2. **Tags**: If any tags exist to categorize the different types of obligations, you can select that here
  3. **Options:** “Documentation is Required” will require one of the stakeholders to provide a required document before the obligation can be completed by the owner in the system.  This is recommended for compliance forms and helps the University store this information in a central location once received.  We are not using the “Prompt to create invoice when marked as complete” option as this time.
  4. **Frequency:** The obligation can be set to a one-time or recurring obligation.  “One-time” obligation will simply require selection of a date option in the “When” field.  If “Recurring” is chosen, the obligation can be set to repeat on set intervals.
  5. **When: **This selects when the obligation is due back to the Owner.  A custom date can be selected or the date can be dynamically chosen to be a set interval before or after contract start date or end date, for example.
  6. **Due:** The specific time of day that the obligation is due, i.e. 11:59pm
  7. **Time Zone: **This is checked to Same as Contract (EST) by default.  If a different time zone is desired, the check box can be unchecked and another time zone selected.

Once completed, click the blue next button.

![image-20250521-132701.png](media://c5e08d95-1ecb-4052-a7c0-fdc56dbe87af)

4. You will now have the opportunity to add owners and stakeholders as described earlier in this article, by clicking the “Add New” button: [https://uconn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FPB/pages/27755806854/Obligations#%5CuD83D%5CuDCD8--Owner-and-Stakeholder-Roles](https://uconn.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FPB/pages/27755806854/Obligations#%5CuD83D%5CuDCD8--Owner-and-Stakeholder-Roles)

![image-20250521-133752.png](media://578eb64e-7fdc-4a80-a2db-6410b52ce30c)

5. You can choose advance notice settings that the obligation is upcoming.  For example, if you choose 30 days advance notice before the obligation due date of 30 days before the contract start date, a Contract Start date 5/1/25:
  1. The obligation due date to provide the documentation and complete the tasks for the stakeholder is 4/1/25.
  2. A reminder would be sent out on 3/2/25, 30 days before the obligation due date.
6. Click save changes in the blue box, this will create the obligation

An example email notification for an obligation to a Supplier can be seen below.  The Supplier will continue to receive the e-mail at the sent intervals until the First Party Owner marks the obligation as “Complete”.  It will continue to email them periodically if the task if overdue.

![image-20250605-185559.png](media://ed6f4f5d-151d-44a7-a248-e6d5efb78098)


## \uD83D\uDCD8 Closing Obligations

When an obligation needs to be closed, the Contract Specialist or Buyer can follow the below instructions:

1. Locate the obligation and click “Actions”.  This will bring up a menu that will display a variety of options

![image-20250521-134344.png](media://4984e291-4e5c-4a1a-b5dd-8de39c54ef26)

2. **Mark as Complete: **If you click “Mark as Complete”, a window will appear that will allow you to note when it was completed, any notes or comments you would like to record, and attach any of the required documentation provided

![image-20250521-134605.png](media://197cf9af-7013-4855-af9a-3164925b2471)

Clicking the “i” information button will allow you to see details and the attachment.  You can also navigate to the attachment section of the Contract Record, which will list the obligation documents as separate attachments:

![image-20250521-134743.png](media://fea5aba3-ca73-4315-892c-d5b916c14562)

![image-20250521-134757.png](media://af24249d-1452-454d-b295-c3202a883ab1)

> ℹ️ If there are common obligations that frequently occur that you would like to see incorporated into our standard processes, you may want to have these added to the obligation library.  Please contact the Director of Contracting & Compliance to have these obligations reviewed and potentially added to the library for future use.

## \uD83D\uDCCB Related articles

> Macro (contentbylabel)