Beginning November, 1996, a new conversation will be available to agencies for online requests of two contract reports. The reports will provide agencies with contract information such as:

• Agencies having contracts with a particular contractor;
• Contractors providing services within a particular category;
• Contracts within an agency, sequenced by category code.

The two reports that can be requested in the conversation are:

• CON013B-Contracts in Agency Order (Exhibit A)
• CON013D-Contracts in Category Order (Exhibit B)

The user can request one or both reports. The contract records included on the report(s) will be selected based on parameters entered in the conversation.

The reports will contain contract data as of the end of the previous day.

The CON013 conversation can be accessed throughMenu 031 on the CAS by agency personnel. Each agency should limit and control the number of employees authorized to request these contract reports. This is important for many reasons, including Payee ID privacy issues and appropriate use of CAS resources.

The Contract Selection Parameters Input Screen (Exhibit C) must be completed for each CON013 request. The following fields are required for every request.

REQUESTOR'S NAME
REQUESTOR'S TELEPHONE NUMBER
NUMBER OF COPIES
REPORT(S) REQUESTED

Additionally, parameters must be entered in at least one of the following fields:

CAT (Category Code(s))
AGCY/DEPT
PAYEE ID

NOTE: Agencies are reminded that Payee IDs provided to agencies by contractors are subject to the restrictions of both Federal and State privacy laws. Payee IDs are NOT to be shared with any other entities, including State agencies, except for tax purposes (and other legally permissible exceptions). Therefore, agencies should not request Payee IDs from other agencies in order to access contract information.

Agencies are reminded to ensure that the correct Payee ID is on the Contract Master file for all contracts. This is important for contract and reporting purposes.

Requiring one or more of the preceding parameters will prevent inadvertent selection of all 152,000 State contracts for the requested report(s). All other parameter fields are optional and should be used to further refine the contracts selected for the report(s).

Depending on the scope of the request, the CON013 reports can be extremely large. It is important to consider each parameter, as described on the conversation's Help screens, and its effect on the contracts to be selected. Enter parameters to select only those contracts relevant to the information needed. Enter parameters accurately; there are no edits for most parameters. Invalid parameters will result in an inaccurate report.

The Help function, described below, can be accessed at any point in the conversation by pressing PF05HELP. When returning to the input screen from the Help function, any data which was previously entered will still be displayed on the screen.

When all required fields and relevant parameters are entered, press PF03SUBMIT to submit the job to produce the requested report(s).

A series of Help screens has been developed to assist users requesting CON013 reports. To access the Help screens, press PF05HELP from the input screen. The first Help screen provides instructions for using the Help function and lists all topics included. The screens that follow give detailed information about each of the selection parameters.

Users of the CON013 conversation should read all Help screens and understand each of the parameters before reports are requested. If you have questions after reading the Help screens, contact the Accounting Information Center at (518)473-1170.

Once the report(s) are produced, they will print on the agency printer which is assigned to the terminal used for submitting that request. Be sure your printer is turned on and supplied with adequate paper. It is important to remember that the CON013 reports can be large; therefore, consider all parameter options before requesting reports. Once submitted, the reports should start printing within 3 hours. If not, call your Agency Network Control Center or OSC Customer Support at (518)486-6745 the same day for a reprint. If you call your Agency Network Control Center or Customer Support after that day, and they are unable to reprint, you must resubmit the request. Also call OSC Customer Support if a larger than expected report has begun printing, and you wish to cancel the print. Be sure to know your CICS printer number prior to calling.

A Contract Category Code Inquiry has been developed to provide users with valid codes to be used as selection parameters when requesting CON013 reports.

The inquiry identifies all valid contract category codes and is available on menu 031.

The Select screen lists all valid major category codes. When the user keys the major category code and presses ENTER, a list of the intermediate category codes within that major category will be displayed.