- Control of Rental Return by Operator Division:
- A flag can be set by operator in Operators to control whether an operator should be
able to return or edit existing contracts from a division other
than his own default division.
When activated, this setting prevents operators from returning
products on contracts from other divisions.
Allow Override of Rental Rates:
- The Company Security Parameters sets a
company-wide rule on whether rental rates and rental dollar amounts
on product details can be over-ridden on invoices generated from a
contract billing, such as cycle billing and rental return.
When set to prohibit rate over-rides, any rate adjustments must be
made through the discount process, rather than directly to the
rental charge.
Field Access Security in Security Role
Permissions can further restrict the ability to change rental
rates by individual operators.
Inventory Transfers on Return to a Different Location:
- When inventory is returned to a different location from the
location that it went "Out" from per the Contract, a transfer can
be created to move the inventory quantities and inventory values to
the new location.
The following Company Contract Parameters
can be set to process these transfers:
- Inventory Transfer Default:
This prompt is the default that is displayed on the Rental
Return Inventory Transfers screen in Rental Return that can be over-typed as
required.
If the Rental Return Inventory Transfers screen is
suppressed, then the transfer is or is not created, based on this
Inventory Transfer Default.
-
Suppress Inventory Transfer Screen:
This field controls whether the Rental Return Inventory
Transfers screen is triggered at all in the Rental Return and if it is suppressed, then the
transfer is or is not created, based on the Inventory Transfer
Default.
Field Access Security:
- Additional role security can be set to restrict certain actions
in the Rental Return and in invoices
resulting from a rental return by field, as defined for the
operator in Security Role Permissions.
This security feature can be used to control the operator's ability
to over-ride field values including product description, discount
percents, dates/times, quantities, rates, price, and terms.
Partial Returns:
- Partial returns can be made.
- An invoice can be produced for each partial return until all
items on the contract are returned or sold.
- Conversely a single invoice can be generated with each item
adding to the original invoice as items is returned.
The option to generate a single invoice from multiple partial
returns is controlled in the Divisional Return
Parameters. The Invoice is automatically put "On Hold" and so
does not get posted until all products are returned and the
Contract is closed.
If this flag is not activated for the division, invoices from
partial returns can still be put on hold manually using Hold/Release Current Invoices and subsequent
returns can still be added to the same invoice.
- To add returned Products to a single invoice from
multiple-returns, the products must all come from one
contract. If a single invoice from multiple contracts is desired,
then consolidate the contracts first from Contract Consolidation.
- Alternatively, rather than return some items early on a partial
return, use Off Rentals by Contract to
stop the billing on returned items, then return all items when the
remaining ones come back.
Auto Generate Customer W.O. from Rental Return or Product
Exchange:
- There are two methods of generating a blank service Work Order when a non-bulk rental product is
returned on a Rental Return or exchanged
on Exchange by Contract, Exchanges By Customer, or Confirm Exchange Pickup:
- When the product Status Code of a non-bulk rental
product is updated at the time of rental return or exchange, a Work
Order can be generated automatically if service is always required
on return or the customer has damaged the unit.
Settings in the Divisional Return
Parameters activate the Update Status Code processing
for returns and for exchanges per the division on the contract.
The appropriate Status Codes that should generate W.O.s can then be
defined in Status Code Actions By
Group.
-
A Work Order can also be generated for
non-bulk rental products that belong to a Group that is flagged to generate a W.O. at return
or exchange, as outlined in Create Work Orders
For Returned Equipment.
Revenue Posting of Return to a Different Store:
- When a contract is rental returned to a different division, all
the revenue on the contract at the time of return will be allocated
to the Division out on the contract.
Any item added to the return invoice will be allocated to the
return Division on the invoice.
The Division on a contract can be changed on the contract
header before return if required, however the Location
cannot be changed as the product quantities have already been
relieved.
A portion of the revenue can be assigned to the returning
division, only if a percent is setup as the Cross Store
Check-In% of Rentals for Return Location in the Divisional Return Parameters.
The G/L account for posting the Cross Store Revenue is assigned in
Rental Product Class.
Reversing a Rental Return:
- Invoice mistakes can be corrected by reversing adjustments in
Miscellaneous Invoices.
The only purpose of reversing a Rental Return is to put items back
out on rent, because they were returned by accident.
Click the REVERSE button at the bottom left of the
Rental Return screen prior to selecting a
contract, to initiate a reversal as outlined in Reverse A Rental Return by Invoice.
Primary/Secondary Sales Parts on Returns:
- Because Sales parts that are sold in packages are sometimes
also sold singly, a secondary related product number can be
identified in the "Re-Order Information window" Sales Inventory, to track quantities of this
product that are to be sold individually. Providing a secondary
product number allows partial sales and partial returns of the
primary product, on Invoices, and Rental Returns.
e.g. Saw blades are generally sold in blister packages
containing 5 blades.
Using the Primary Product number for the packages of blades, a
quantity of 2 (10 blades) could be put out on a Contract. If the
customer used 7 of the 10 blades, the remaining three blades could
still be returned to the Secondary Product number for individual
blades.
The actual processing shows quantity 1 of the Primary product sold,
and quantity 1 of the Primary product returned to stock. Then
quantity 1 of the Primary product is transferred out of stock, and
converted to quantity 5 of the Secondary product that is
transferred in. Quantity 2 of the Secondary product is then
sold.
This means that the rental return invoice shows a sale of 1 package
of blades (Primary product) and a sale of 2 individual blades
(Secondary product).
"Days to Bill" Pricing:
- At the counter when a contract is entered, the operator can
give a one-time price break on the contract by setting the Days
to Bill lower than the actual rental period.
For information on this billing feature refer to the setting in the
Company Billing Parameters that controls how
this price break is applied over an extended rental period.
i.e. Whether the Days To Bill entered on a Contract is
respected on only short-term contracts versus long-term contracts
where the contract is cycle billed before it is returned.
"Monthly Billings" Rates:
- Normally when equipment is being billed on the calendar month,
the same monthly charge is billed on the interim cycle billings for
each of the twelve months regardless of the days in that month.
i.e. the 29th, 30th and 31st days are not billed in the rate
calculation.
However if the equipment is billed by calendar month, and the
period between the last expected cycle billing for the contract and
the rental return is less than 28 days, then the 29th, 30th and
31st days in that period will be chargeable, as this last period is
a partial month.
Accumulated Metered Billing:
- Meter units can be billed for Non-bulk metered equipment in the
interim Cycle Billing, if the equipment
has metered rates and the new meter count has been entered in
Edit Cycle Billing Meter Amounts.
The Rental Return considers these billed
units when calculating remaining chargeable units.
Note: The Rental Return will only credit meter amounts billed if
the contract is back billed to the original date/time out and a
lower meter count is entered.
Reverse A Rental Return by Invoice will
re-instate accumulated meter amounts and the window on the amount
to credit will allow calculations including the last meter amount
billed.
FIFO Returns:
- The FIFO return option allows a customer to return a selection
of items with the oldest contract dates first.
This can be useful when a customer is returning a number of pieces
of bulk equipment such as scaffolding and he did not have all the
related contract numbers.
Click the FIFO RETURN button at the bottom of the
Rental Return screen to initiate a rental
return for a customer across contracts as outlined in FIFO Rental Return.
If your firm uses the FIFO approach more frequently, the FIFO
return processing can be set to be your company default, from the
Rental Return Settings of the Company
Inventory Parameters.
If FIFO return is your default, the operator can always revert to
the standard Rental Return by clicking on
the BY CONTRACT button at the bottom of the FIFO
screen.
Note: FIFO rental returns cannot be processed for a customer who
has been charged varying Waiver rates, as the percent of rental to
charge may not be consistent across the contracts.
Pickup Tickets:
- Rental Return products can also be entered by the Pickup
ticket.
The Allow Multiple Pickups To Be Closed at One Time flag in
the Divisional Return Parameters, can be set
to feed Rental Returns with products being returned on multiple
Pickup tickets from a single Contract.
When activated, the default response to the Return All Items
prompt in Rental Returns, is always 'P' for Pickup tickets. A
window will then open listing all Closed pickup tickets for that
contract. Multiple tickets can be flagged to be billed in that
Rental Return on a single invoice.
Note: This feature is triggered by the division of the Invoice
being created, which is usually the operator's default division.
This is not necessarily the contract division.
If this Rental Return default option is not activated for a
division then the default response to the Return All Items
prompt in Rental Returns is then determined by the setting in
Default Options For Screen.
It can always be over-typed in the Rental Return as required.
If a 'P' is manually entered, a single Pickup ticket can still be
used to feed the return.
Refer to Delivery/Pickup Sub-System for
more information on this Off Rent Ticket feature.
Power Kits:
- When a Primary Non-Bulk Rental product is returned on a
contract, any Power Kit components accompanying that primary
product are NOT billed individually and are deleted from the
original contract when it is closed.
For information on the Power Kit feature refer to Power Kits.
Contract/Rental Return Documents:
- Generally, the signed contracts (the originals) are kept at the
front counter in an alphabetical file.
When the customer returns equipment or calls to have it picked up,
the counter staff will pull the original contract from the
alphabetical file for reference and to attach it to the resulting
invoice.
Email Customer Satisfaction Survey:
- When the Activate Customer Survey Processing is enabled
for a division in the Divisional Miscellaneous
Parameters and a survey is setup in the Customer Survey Configuration, then Contracts can be
flagged in document entry to generate a Customer Satisfaction
Survey and email it to the eligible Contacts at the time the
Contract is closed in Rental Return.