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Full Service Contract entry
How-to guide

How to create a Service Contract in Salesforce

Service Contracts are the umbrella records for ongoing service relationships — "Acme has 24/7 support through 2027." They group Contract Line Items (specific products covered) and Entitlements (the SLA terms). Service Cloud or Field Service licensing is required.

By Dipojjal Chakrabarti · Editor, Salesforce DictionaryLast updated Apr 20, 2026

Service Contracts are the umbrella records for ongoing service relationships — "Acme has 24/7 support through 2027." They group Contract Line Items (specific products covered) and Entitlements (the SLA terms). Service Cloud or Field Service licensing is required.

  1. Open the Account the contract is for

    Service Contracts are tied to an Account.

  2. Click New on the Service Contracts related list

    Or App Launcher → Service Contracts → New.

  3. Enter Contract Number (or let it auto-number)

    By default Service Contract Number is auto-numbered. Override only if your finance system needs a specific format.

  4. Set Status, Start Date, End Date

    Status (Active / Inactive / Cancelled / Expired). Term in months auto-calculates End Date if Start Date is set.

  5. Set Owner, Account, Term

    Owner is the rep responsible for the contract. Term is in months.

  6. Save

    Service Contract is created. Now build out the lines.

  7. Add Contract Line Items and Entitlements

    Contract Line Items reference Products covered. Entitlements (under each line item) define the SLA terms — Type, Start/End Dates, Per-Incident, Business Hours.

Mandatory fields
Accountrequired

Required. The customer the contract is with.

Statusrequired

Required. Active is the default for live contracts.

Gotchas
  • Service Contracts require Service Cloud, Field Service, or Entitlement Management to be enabled. New orgs without one of those licenses don't see this object.
  • Contract Line Items vs Order Products: Contract Lines describe what's COVERED for service; Order Products describe what was SHIPPED. They're independent objects.
  • Status doesn't auto-flip to Expired when End Date passes. Either build a scheduled Flow to flip Status, or accept that End Date is the source of truth and ignore Status for reporting.

See the full Service Contract entry

Service Contract includes the definition, worked example, deep dive, related terms, and a quiz.