We have a single Workflow Process, to create a contract when an opportunity is "Closed as Won". The default date for the end of contract is the same as the start date, so if the contract started a week or two earlier, the newly created contract is instantly expired.
When I hit the renew button, it prompts us to renew the contract lines (we have none) and we get an error message and a log file (below). We have no custom integrations or software running. This is plain jane out of the box. I have tried it in IE 9 and Firefox (using the IE emulator plug in). I am kind of shocked that this is an issue and cannot understand why there are so many hard and fast rules with contracts. Everything else is so flexible.
Unhandled Exception: System.ServiceModel.FaultException`1[[Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk.OrganizationServiceFault, Microsoft.Xrm.Sdk, Version=5.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35]]: An unexpected error occurred.Detail: <OrganizationServiceFault xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/xrm/2011/Contracts"> <ErrorCode>-2147220970</ErrorCode> <ErrorDetails xmlns:d2p1="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/System.Collections.Generic" /> <Message>An unexpected error occurred.</Message> <Timestamp>2013-03-28T00:33:06.7465684Z</Timestamp> <InnerFault i:nil="true" /> <TraceText i:nil="true" /> </OrganizationServiceFault>