Rental transactions are called “Contracts”. These can go for any time period – one minute or indefinitely – and can be invoiced at any desired interval. For example, a long-term hire will generally be invoiced on a monthly basis.  


A degree of familiarity is assumed with this article



TABLE OF CONTENTS




Contract List


To start a Contract, press the Contracts button and the Contract Listing screen appears. This lists all existing Contracts depending on their status. 

                1 - Booked - created but not yet underway (item not actually “on hire” yet)

                2 - In Progress – item is “on hire” and contract is not complete

                3 - Invoiced – contract has ended and is invoiced completely

                4 - Deleted – archive of deleted contracts

 

When each status is selected, the list changes appropriately. It can also be sorted by Customer and there is an “All Contracts” tab which shows ALL contracts in number order and the status of each.



A - Rental Availability

This button will show the availability of rental items in a Diary format:



The colours here can be defined by the user


There are Beginning (1) and End (2) markers letting you know the location where the vehicle is being picked up and dropped off.


You can right click over a contract to open it.


Unavailability can occur when it is booked in the workshop or manually flagged via the "Unavailable Dates" button in the item maintenance (Rental Rates tab)



 

Rental Contract Maintenance


The buttons for inserting various postings onto the Contract are on the right-hand side. 

Rental Item – adds the item(s) for hire

Equip Rental – adds extra equipment that is hireable (eg ramps, drivers etc)

Equip Sales – adds extra equipment that is saleable (eg ramps, drivers etc)

Consumable – this is effectively the Rental Dept stock list (LPG, staples etc)

Outwork – purchase orders for the Rental Dept

Parts – stock from the Parts Dept




Rental Item


  • Check Out:
    • Enter the date, 
    • The time will be entered from the settings (can be overridden)
    • Reading is taken from the vehicle
    • Notes - enter anything applicable
    • Location - select the location is is coming out of
  • Check in:
    • Same as Check out
  • Quantity, Rate & Total Charge:
    • Calculated from the number of days on hire



Hire Equipment


- The system does not force this Hire Equipment to be associated with an Item.
- If it is to be associated, the Rental Stock down arrow will provide a list of available items (ie only those already on this contract).  
- If Equipment is associated with an Item, it will print directly below it on any invoices
- If not it will print after anything that IS associated with an Item




Adding Consumables and Parts is a matter of selecting from the appropriate list – 


NB: Consumables may or may not be associated with a Rental Item as for Equipment above.




Booking Out


This is the point a contract becomes active - ie changes from Booked to In Progress after clicking on the Accept button (A) in the contract:


You will be asked to confirm the Hire details:




Check in & Manual Invoicing - after contract end.


This process starts when clicking on the Invoice button after the End Date/time has passed


Only after the date/time has passed &
If the system is in the same month


This window will not show if the date is in the future




Invoice Now/Later



The Now part of the screen is the Contract portion that the system calculates should be Invoiced NOW (ie one month of a long-term hire). 

If the Contract period is complete (ie the Item has been Checked In (see above), there will be nothing in the Later panel as the entire portion is to be invoiced.  


Click on Invoice & you will be asked if you want to finalise the contract - click Yes or No as per your internal policies



Once finalised the contract will move to "Invoices" and not be in any Contracts list
The Contracts list can be considered WIP