A blanket (volume) contract is an agreement to spend a predetermined amount with a specified vendor over a period of time. This type of contract can also list items or services that the vendor will provide.
You can create release purchase orders from blanket contracts and track committed costs for all purchases that you make. You also can create release purchase orders from purchase requisitions for items or catalog services that reference a blanket contract. When you approve a release purchase order, verification is made that sufficient funds remain to cover the total cost of the purchase order.
You can associate commodity groups and codes with blanket contracts to help categorize expenses. After you make these associations, you can report on contract use by commodity. You also can use commodity groups and codes to route contracts to the contract manager responsible for this commodity.