About Rentals
Using the Rental Counter
Use the Rental Counter to set up a rental contract with a customer, whether in person or over the phone. See Using the Rental Counter for more information.
Checking rentals in and out
Use the Rental Check Out/In form to collect an initial payment for a rental and to close a rental contract. See Checking Rentals In and Out for more information.
Recalculating rental rates
When a customer is ready to check in their rental, you can recalculate the rental rates to find a better rate. See Calculating Better Rental Rates for the steps to find better rates.
A better rate is one for which the calculated total rental amount for a contract line item that is being checked in is less than the calculation of that total amount using the contract line's original rate and unit of rate. The better rate is calculated for and applied to the entire rental period, whether any portion of the rental period has been invoiced or not.
Rental staging
The system is enabled to track a rental order as it moves from ordered to picked to packed to shipped. As a rental order moves through different stages, the contract Line Status field is updated throughout the system to reflect the current stage. These are the possible statuses:
- Open
- Closed
- Estimate
- Hold
- Picked
- Packed
- Shipped
- Pickup
When the Rental Pick List Report is run, the contract line status is automatically changed to Picked. You must manually change the line status to Packed, Shipped, or Pickup as the contract moves through those stages.
You can use the Contract Line Status Change Utility to manually change the status of contract lines. You can change the status for multiple lines at one time, if desired.
Performing a credit check
Click to perform a credit balance check. If you are over your credit limit, a warning message is displayed to alert you. Click to open the Rental Contract Agreement form or click . If you are not over your credit limit, the Rental Contract Agreement form opens automatically.
If a customer is on credit hold, a red X is displayed on the Rental Counter and Contracts form, otherwise a green check mark is displayed.
The system checks the Credit Hold field on the Customers form to determine if the customer is on credit hold. If you are integrated with SX.e, the system performs an SX.e API call to retrieve the customer credit hold and period hold information from CloudSuite Distribution.
Non-inventory items
Rental contracts can include non-inventory items, but the rental line can only be checked in if a purchase order line has been created for the non-inventory item.
Re-renting items
In some cases, you might need to rent an item from a vendor before renting it to a customer. This is referred to as re-renting.
When creating purchase order lines to fulfill rental requests from a customer, use the Reference field on the Purchase Order Lines form to link the PO line to the rental contract.
Charging freight for rentals
You can charge freight for a rental on the Contracts form and on the Rental Counter.
When contract invoicing or rental check out/in is performed, the freight total is stored in the invoice header, and the Freight field amount is cleared. The freight amount is included on the output of these forms:
- Contracts To Be Invoiced Report
- Contract Invoicing
- Contract Rental Agreement
Additional freight can be added for subsequent check-ins. Freight charge on a contract does not recur.