Rental - Preparation and Workflow
This page itemises the steps that you need to carry out to configure the Rental module and also outlines a typical workflow.
Making Items available for Rental
- Add a record to the Item register representing the Item to be rented out. This should be a Stocked Item. It is also recommended that it is Serial Numbered at the Unit level.
- Add a second record to the Item register to represent the default rental charge for the Item. This should be a Plain or Service Item. Specify the rental charge in the Base Price field, and specify Sales Accounts and VAT Codes for each Zone as necessary.
- Connect the two Item records together by entering the Item Number of the second Item (the rental charge Item) in the Rental Invoicing field on the 'Recipe' card in the first Item.
Please refer here for an illustration of this process.
- Create separate records in the Rental Charge Types setting for each charge period (e.g. daily, monthly and/or fixed price). You must have at least one record in this setting.
- If you need different rental charges depending on the charge period (e.g. depending on whether the charge period is daily or monthly), create additional Plain or Service Items to represent those rental charges and then add records as appropriate to the Basic Rental Price Lists setting.
You can also include the rental charge Items in the standard Price Lists feature if you need different rental charges depending on the Customer.
- Follow the usual Purchase Order process to order the Items and receive the Items into sales stock using a Goods Receipt.
- Move the Items to internal (rental) stock using a Stock Transfer record. This will create a record in the Rental Item register for each Item that you transfer. Depending on how you enter the Stock Transfer record, records will also be created in the Asset register for the Items, allowing you to enter them in to the depreciation process.
Registering Customers
Although you can rent Items to any Customer with a record in the Contact register, it may be that you need to approve a Customer for rentals. If so, enter records for each approved Customer in the
Authorised Customers setting and select the
Only for Authorised Customers option in the
Rental Settings setting. This will mean that you will only be able to rent to Customers that you have approved (i.e. you will only be able to rent to Customers that have records in the Authorised Customers setting that you have marked as OK).
Creating Rental Agreements
An
Agreement is the central record from where you will manage the process of renting a Rental Item to a Customer. From an Agreement, you will book Rental Items to the Customer for the rental period, hand the Rental Items over to the Customer, receive the Rental Items back from the Customer, add rental charges and create the Invoice. You must enter an Agreement before you can carry out any of this work.
In more detail, a typical workflow in the life of an Agreement will be as follows:
- An optional initial step is to create a Rental Quotation, to quote a rental rate to the Customer for the Rental Items that are to be rented.
- Create an Agreement. You can do this by adding a new record to the Agreement register, or you can create an Agreement from a Rental Quotation. An Agreement is the record that governs the entire rental process: all other records in the process can be created, opened and returned to from the governing Agreement.
- Choose the Item that is to be rented out. One way to do this is to produce an Availability report from the Agreement, which you can do by selecting 'Availability' from the Operations menu (Windows/macOS) or Tools menu (iOS/Android).
- Add Rental Reservations to book the Rental Items that the Customer will rent as part of the Agreement and to specify the rental periods and charging methods (e.g. daily or monthly). You can create Rental Reservations from the Availability report mentioned in the previous step or by selecting 'Rental Reservation' from the Create menu (Windows/macOS) or + menu (iOS/Android) in the Agreement. If you created the Agreement from a Rental Quotation, Rental Reservations for each of the Rental Items listed in the Quotation will be created at the same time.
- Create Items Out records to record the handing over of the rented Items to the Customer. You can do this from the Agreement or from the Rental Reservation. Mark the Items Out records as Sent and save to confirm that the Customer has taken possession. The Rental Items in the Items Out record will be removed from rental stock and the originating Rental Reservation will be updated to show that the Rental Items have left rental stock. The Status of the Reservation will be updated to "Delivered". If the Reservation is to be charged on a daily or monthly basis, you will be able to add rental charges to the governing Agreement (step 8 below).
- As the end of the rental period approaches, an option is to create a Collection record that lists the rented Items that are to be returned. Again you can do this from the Agreement or from the Rental Reservation. You can print the Collection record and send it to the Customer as a reminder that the rental period is about to end and listing the Rental Items that they should return. It can also act as a scheduling device to help you plan the collecting of Items.
- Create Items In records to record the returning of the rented Items from the Customer. You can do this from the Agreement or from the Rental Reservation. Mark the Items In records as Accepted and save to confirm that you have taken possession of the Rental Items back from the Customer. The Rental Items in the Items Out record will be added back in to rental stock and the originating Rental Reservation will be updated to show that the Rental Items have been returned. The Status of the Reservation will be updated to "Returned". If the Reservation is to be charged on a fixed price basis, you will be able to add rental charges to the governing Agreement (step 8 below).
- Add all rental charges and any extra charges as necessary to the Agreement so that they can be invoiced to the Customer. If a Reservation is to be charged on a daily or monthly basis, you can do this at any time after step 6, and you can do it periodically (e.g. daily) or you can do it at the end of the Reservation period. If a Reservation is to be charged on a fixed price basis, you can only do it after the Rental Item has been returned (i.e. after step 7). You can add charges for the rental to the Agreement by selecting 'Rental Charges' from the Create or + menu while looking at the Agreement or using the 'Charge Reservations' Maintenance function.
You can also add additional charges for any expenses incurred during the rental process. You can do this from any of the records in the process (e.g. Agreement, Rental Reservation, Items Out, Items In, etc) by selecting 'Add Charge' from the Create or + menu (when working from an Agreement, the function is named 'Charge').
At any time you can print an Agreement Info report from the Agreement by selecting 'Agreement Info' from the Operations or Tools menu to check the charges so far and for the Customer to approve them in advance of invoicing (step 10).
- Create Rental Item Inspection records to record the inspection of the returned rented Items. If a Rental Item belongs to a Rental Item Group in which you have selected the Automatically create Inspection after the Items comes in option, a Rental Item Inspection record will be created automatically when you save an Items In record that you have marked as Accepted. When you enter a Result in a Rental Item Inspection record, mark it as OK and save, the Current Status of the Rental Item being tested will be updated, depending on the Result.
- Create the Invoice. You can do this from the Agreement by selecting 'Invoice' from the Create or + menu or you can use the 'Invoice Agreements' Maintenance function.
- Mark the Agreement as Finished. You cannot mark an Agreement as Finished if there are any connected Rental Reservations with Rental Items that have not been returned or if you have not yet invoiced all charges.
---
Go back to:
