Cylinder Entry

Some consumable sales products such as oxygen, propane, or water, require a container for the delivery and to complete the sale.
The Cylinder tracking feature can be used to sell the consumable product according to the capacity of the container selected, and to track the cylinders or bottles at each customers' site, enabling monthly billing for the rental of the containers.
This feature can be activated in the Company Rate Parameters by assigning a Cylinder Contract Cycle Billing Day Code.
Refer to the Cylinder Settings section in Company Rate Parameters for an overview and for product and parameter setup information.

This utility can be used to enter a new order for a cylinder-required product, or to close an order creating an invoice to bill the customer for the consumable product delivered and sold.
Closing the order also updates the contract with the number of cylinders shipped and returned for the site, in preparation for Cycle Billing to bill the container rentals to the customers.

The prompts for cylinder transaction entry include:

TRANSACTION TYPE

Select one of the following transactions types:

• Click New to create a cylinder order, and to generate a ticket for a driver to deliver or to pickup cylinders from a customer's site.
  The new delivery order can be added to an existing open contract or a new contract can be generated.
  When adding to an existing contract any other previous orders are not displayed, except for any current Balance out of the cylinder product number being ordered.

• Click Close to complete an existing order after the delivery is completed, which invoices the customer for the consumable sales products delivered, and updates the rental contract with the actual number of cylinder additions and returns.
  This does not close the contract.

  Note: When the actual cylinder counts are entered on a transaction, this closes this transaction even if not all the cylinders were delivered to or picked up from the customer.
  When transactions are closed and billed, the contract remains open and available to add additional cylinder transactions in the future.

  When a cylinder contract should no longer be used, it can be terminated using Close Cylinder Contract.

• Click Sell to sell any cylinders containers remaining out on the contract to the customer as 'Missing' through the Rental Return process.
  All open cylinder transactions must be closed to finalize the orders, before remaining cylinders on the contract can be billed as sold.
  Any cylinder rentals are not billed on this invoice, as they will be invoiced on the next Cylinder Billing run in Cycle Billing Edit.

  Note: When the Sell action is completed, the contract is still available for any additional cylinder transactions.
  To terminate a contract that should no longer be available for cylinder tracking, use the Close Cylinder Contract utility.

DIVISION

Enter the division that applies to this cylinder transaction, including the resulting contract and invoices.
The division defaults according to the operator's division control defined in Operators.

All income, revenue, and expenses are tracked by the division, and posting to the correct G/L accounts for that Division is automatic.
Special Rates can also be setup to be assigned to the division in the "Rental Rates & Pricing" parameters on the Operations tab of Configure System Settings in Special Rate Codes.

LOCATION

Enter the location that applies to this cylinder transaction, including the resulting contract and invoices.
The location defaults according to the operator's location control defined in Operators.

The location of the document determines where the parts inventory is taken from.
G/L transactions to update inventory costs, always post to the G/L Location from which the inventory was relieved.

CUSTOMER #

Enter the customer to be billed for this order, or look up the customer in the Document Customer Search window.

Note: This process is available to both On Account and Cash customers.
However the rental charges for the cylinder units is always billed on account through the Cycle Billing and depending on your firm's configuration, invoices for Cash customers that are charged on account instead of paid could cause the customer to be added to the Bad Risk Customer List.

If multiple existing contracts exist for this customer the View Cylinder Contracts window is generated, providing the ability to select an existing contract to update.

If only a single contract exists for this customer, the site will default.

CREDIT LIMIT WARNING

If the customer's Account Balance has exceeded the Credit Limit, a warning will display, showing the Credit Limit as set in Customer Information, and the Total Past Due with the Percent Over the Limit.
A window is provided to view the unpaid account details.

A setting in the Company Security Parameters, controls whether unposted invoices are also included in this accounting.

A flag in the Company Security Parameters, can be set to prevent a customer number from being entered on a document if the customer's Credit Limit has been reached or exceeded.
If this feature is not activated, a Credit Limit warning still displays on the screen, but this will not prevent the transaction from being entered.

An audit record is generated to track which clerk overrode the limit, as reported on Print Override Report for follow-up.

If your firm requires stricter controls on overriding the credit limit, use the permissions in Security Roles, and/or a password can be setup in Module Passwords.
The Reason Codes, can also be activated for the clerk to explain why it was overridden.
For more information on security features refer to System Security Overview.

BAD RISK WARNING

This window only appears if the customers has been flagged as high risk.
Comments can be displayed to help explain the problem to the counter staff, and the ability whether or not to allow further activity can be set.
The customer is identified by checking for a match in one of several predefined fields as outlined in Customer Bad Risk Warning.

CYLINDER COUNT WARNING

If an optional Maximum Cylinders Per Year has been assigned to a customer in the "Additional Information" window in Customer Information, and the cylinders out exceed this count, a warning is triggered however this does NOT restrict further cylinder business.

SITE#

If a single cylinder contract exists for the customer, the site defaults to the site of that contract, or if multiple contracts exist and a contract was selected from the View Cylinder Contracts window then the site defaults from that contract.
This default can be over-typed as required, or a different site can be selected from the Site Search window.

The site is a mandatory field used for the delivery, regardless of the Site Required flag in the Company Contract Parameters.
A flag in the Required Document Information in the Company Contract Parameters can be set to ensure that this Ship To City is a valid city registered in City Tax Codes.
When the Ship To City is mandatory on documents, if there is a 'Prov' and/or a 'Postal' code associated with the city in the City Tax Codes table then these Province/Postal values will default to the Shipping address when the city is entered on the address.

CONTRACT#

If a single contract exists that matches the division, customer and site, the contract number will display.
If your firm allows multiple cylinder contracts per site, and more than one contract exists the View Cylinder Contracts search window is provided to view and select from those existing contracts, or to create a new contract leave this field blank.

The feature to allow or restrict Multiple Contracts Per Site can be activated in the Cylinder Settings in Company Rate Parameters.

If this is a New cylinder transaction, this field can be left blank to create a new contract with the next available contract number for the division, to track the cylinders that are to be delivered to the site.
The cylinder contracts for both On Account and Cash customers will be assigned the Cylinder Billing Day Code defined in the Cylinder Settings in Company Rate Parameters.

Cylinder contracts cannot be modified in Contracts and the container products do not show in the contract details until the cylinders are delivered through the Close transaction action which logs the correct delivered container count as out on rent as of the delivered date.

An existing contract number is mandatory when entering a Close or Sell transaction.

Note: For Sell transactions, all pending cylinder transactions must be closed before the contract return can be completed.
This can be achieved by completing Close transactions with zero delivered for each outstanding delivery.

LAST BILLED

The date of the last monthly billing of cylinder rentals for that contract is displayed for reference, as any additional delivery transactions on that contract cannot be back-dated prior to the last monthly billing.

PURCHASE ORDER#

Enter the customer's P.O. number for the order, if applicable.
This Purchase Order prints on the Delivery Ticket for the driver.

Some customers require P.O.'s on all documents.
If this applies, the Require P.O. flag can be set for the customer in Customer Information.
An optional blanket P.O.# can also be assigned in to the customer, that defaults to all P.O. fields for the customer, but can be over-typed when required.

Note: If an existing contract is being updated, and a new P.O. number is entered, the new P.O. number will be updated on the contract.

SHIP TO NAME

The Site description is displayed and can be modified for this Cylinder order.

SITE INFORMATION
A window is provided to capture changes to the Site address information for this order, along with an ordered by name and phone number.
The "Optional Site Order Placed By" flag in the Company Rate Parameters controls whether the "Ordered By" name becomes a mandatory input field.
Any name can be entered as the Order Placed By name and the Customer Name Check List Search window is provided to search for any names already associated with this customer.
Names entered in the Order Placed By are not automatically added to the Name Check List.

The Site address from this window, the ordered by name and the phone number are printed on the Cylinder Delivery Ticket.
The Site address from this window is also reflected on the Contract and resulting Invoice.

MANUAL PICKUP TICKET#

This field only applies to the Close option when the actual quantity of cylinders delivered and picked up is reported.
It can be used to record an optional ticket number associated with the driver's delivery pad, and will be included in the comments of the resulting invoice.

COMMENTS

The Comments window is provided to capture any notes to be added to the Cylinder Delivery Ticket and to the associated rental Contract for the containers.

Resulting Cylinder Details:
This product details are skipped for a Sell cylinder transaction and the Rental Return screen is generated, unless there are any open cylinder transactions on the contract.
If there are pending transactions the option is provided to Close them now, before continuing with the Sell process.
The column headings in the Cylinder Details paging screen vary, depending whether the action is for a New or Close cylinder transaction.
The fields for New or Close cylinder transactions include:

SEQ

The sequence number tracks the product records in this table.

• New: When a new order is being entered, previous orders on the same contract are not displayed.
  
• Close: When information on a completed delivery is entered, all outstanding transactions for the contract are displayed to allow confirmation of the quantities on any completed deliveries.
  This does not close the contract.

TRX#

A system generated transaction number is assigned to each record, that is used to match new deliveries with actual delivery confirmations.

DEL DATE

• New: When a new order is being entered, accept today's date or over-type the date with a preferred expected delivery date.
  
• Close: When information on a completed delivery is entered, the original expected delivery date is displayed.

The date of the first transaction on this ticket will be printed as the order date on the Delivery Ticket header.
The actual delivery date can be updated in the Transaction Date field. The prices as of the actual delivery date are charged on the sale of the consumable product in the containers.

Date Range Control:

If the operator does not have Date Range Override permission, the date will be checked to make sure the date is valid against the date ranges set as acceptable in Date Range Control for RSCY.
The date control feature helps prevent data entry errors.

DEL TIME

• New: When a new order is being entered, accept the current time or over-type it with the expected time.
  
• Close: When information on a completed delivery is entered, the original expected delivery time is displayed.

The actual delivery time can be updated in the Transaction Time field.

PRODUCT #

The container or cylinder product number is displayed on line one, and the sales or consumable product number is displayed on detail line two.

• New: Enter the cylinder product number, barcode, or consumable sales product that requires a cylinder, or select one from the Inventory Search window.

  If a sales product requiring a cylinder is entered, the Contained in Cylinder window is triggered to select the specific cylinder size to be delivered.
  The cylinder product number to be delivered is then displayed in this field, as it is the container size that determines the quantity of the sales product to be sold.

  Note: Only consumable sales products that have been assigned a rental cylinder or container in Make / Model and Re-Order Information. can be entered.

• Close: A list of the container or cylinder product numbers currently out on this contract is displayed.

Note: Any Kit or Suggest Sales List items are not recognized when a cylinder product is rented/sold.

DESCRIPTION

The container or cylinder product description is displayed on line one, and the sales or consumable product description is displayed on detail line two.

Cylinder Quantity Details:

• NEW Delivery/Pickup Transactions:

  The New transactions can only be added, changed or deleted before they are accepted.
  The following columns only apply to New transactions:

  BALANCE

  This balance reflects the current number of this cylinder already out on this contract.
  i.e. for this cylinder Product #

  Note: If your firm allows multiple cylinder contracts per site, any cylinders out on other contracts are not included in this balance, even if they are at the same site.

  
  DELIVER

  Enter the number of this cylinder that the driver intends to deliver.
  The actual count that was delivered will be entered when the delivery is completed and this Trx# is closed.

  
  PICKUP

  Enter the number of this cylinder that the driver is expected to pickup from the site.
  The actual count that was returned will be entered when the delivery is completed and this Trx# is closed.

  
  TRX DATE

  This is the date that the cylinders are expected to be delivered to the customer's site, and becomes the billing start date for delivered cylinders, and the billing end date for cylinders returned.
  Prices as of the actual delivery transaction date are the prices that are charged on the sale.
  It defaults from the Del Date but can be over-typed as required.

  Date Range Control:

  If the operator does not have Date Range Override permission, the date will be checked to make sure the date is valid against the date ranges set as acceptable in Date Range Control for RSCY.
  The date control feature helps prevent data entry errors.

  
  TRX TIME

  This is the time that the cylinders are expected to be delivered to the customer's site, and becomes the billing start time for delivered cylinders, and the billing end time for cylinders returned.
  It defaults from the Del Time but can be over-typed as required.

  • CLOSE Delivery/Pickup Transactions:
    The Close transactions can be used to update the actual cylinder quantities delivered and picked up, and once the updated quantities are accepted on the transaction, the transaction is closed and cannot be updated further.
    The following columns only apply to Close transactions:

    UPD

    Uncheck this box for any transactions that should not be updated and closed.

    Check this box if there are cylinders that have been delivered or returned for the transaction, in order to enter the actual quantities, and close the transaction.

    
    BALANCE

    This balance reflects the current number of this cylinder still out on this contract prior to this Close record.

    Note: If your firm allows multiple cylinder contracts per site, any cylinders out on other contracts are not included in this balance, even if they are at the same site.

    
    ORDERED

    Following are the original cylinder quantities ordered for reference:

    DELIVER

    This is the number of cylinders that the driver was expected to deliver.

    PICKUP

    This is the number of cylinders that the driver was expected to pickup from the site.

    
    ACTUAL

    Enter the cylinder quantities from the completed delivery as follows:

    DELIVER

    Enter the actual number of cylinders that the driver delivered.
    When the Close is completed for a delivered quantity, an invoice is generated for the sale of the product contained in the cylinders, based on the number of cylinders times the capacity that each contains as defined in Make/Model and Re-Order Information.
    If no cylinders were delivered confirm the quantity by re-entering a zero.

    Note: No availability checking is done on containers delivered.

    
    PICKUP

    Enter the actual number of cylinders that the driver picked up from the site.
    This cannot exceed the Balance out on this contract, even if there are more cylinders out at the same site on other contracts.
    If no cylinders were picked up confirm the quantity by re-entering a zero.

    Note: Once a cylinder delivery transaction is Updated with actual delivered and pickup quantities, it is closed and cannot be accessed again, even if only partial quantities were entered.

    
    CYLINDER CONTAINS

    The sales product number and description contained in the cylinder are displayed.
    This is the product that will be billed on the invoice resulting from closing a delivery of this cylinder on the delivery ticket.

    
    DEL#

    This is the delivery number that is appended to the contract number to identify this specific delivery ticket.

    
    TRX DATE

    This is the finalized date that the cylinders were actually delivered to the customer's site, and becomes the start date for delivered cylinders, and the end date for cylinders returned, that is used in the average cylinders out calculation for the month.
    Prices as of the actual delivery transaction date are the prices that are charged on the Cylinder Contains sales product.
    It defaults to the Trx Date from the New order, and can be over-typed as required.

    This actual Trx Date cannot be earlier than the Last Billed date displayed in the header information, as cylinder rentals on the contract have already been billed up to this date.

    Date Range Control:

    If the operator does not have Date Range Override permission, the date will be checked to make sure the date is valid against the date ranges set as acceptable in Date Range Control for RSCY.
    The date control feature helps prevent data entry errors.

  
  Finished?

  • New: Click ACCEPT to accept the new orders or click CANCEL to abort.
    A Delivery Ticket is always automatically created for the Driver and the operator is prompted whether to print the Delivery Ticket at this time.
    Tickets can always be printed later from Print Cylinder Delivery Ticket

    LOCATION AND EVENT INFORMATION Window

    This window only appears if the event management processing has been activated in the Company Rate Parameters and it has not been de-activated for the operator's division in the Additional Pop-Up Windows, in the Divisional Contract Parameters.

    Click the CANCEL button or the ESC key to exit this window if event rates do NOT apply to this document, or enter the event information as outlined in the Location and Event Information window.

  • Close: Click ACCEPT to accept the cylinder changes in preparation for monthly billing and to invoice the customer for the consumable sales product delivered in those cylinders, or click CANCEL to abort.
    This closes the transactions but does not close the contract.
    

    Errors:

    The Cylinder Quantity Errors screen is triggered if the quantity to pickup exceeds quantity currently out on that transaction.

    An information log is displayed on the screen if other errors occur, providing the ability to print the messages as outlined in Information Log.
    Errors that prevent completing and closing a delivery include:

    • "Actual deliver/pickup values have not been entered."
      To fix, if no cylinders were delivered or picked up, a zero must be entered in the field to confirm.
    • "Transaction date is out of allowable range."
      To fix, correct the Trx Date in the expanded detail record, to make it within the date range for RSCY.
    • "Transaction date must be after the last billed date."
      To fix, correct the Trx Date in the expanded detail record, to ensure it is after the last monthly billing of this transaction.

  
  INVOICE DATE

  This pop-up defaults the invoice date to the Delivery Date of the Cylinder transactions unless there are deliveries for varying dates.
  Accept or enter the appropriate invoice date for billing in the Invoice Date window.
  The acceptable date period is based on RSIH as set in Date Range Control

  
  CYLINDER INVOICE SERVICES

  If the Close transaction information is accepted, the invoice number created is displayed at the bottom of the screen, and the window is triggered to bill Delivery and/or Pickup services on that invoice using the corresponding Service Codes as setup by the "Charge Delivery Default" in the Division Delivery/Pickup Parameters.
  The charge per the selected Service Codes respects any customer, then divisional, then regular rates.

  
  INVOICE DETAILS

  The Invoice Header reflects any Ship To address changes entered for the cylinder delivery.
  The standard Invoice Details screen is triggered listing the consumable sales products sold, with the Quantity being the number of cylinders times the cylinder capacity, and the Unit Price being the list price of the sales product.
  Additional product details can be added to the invoice as required.
  Complete the invoice as outlined in Invoice Details.

ACTIONS:
Additional actions provided by buttons on the Cylinder Entry screen include:

• Print a List of Pending Deliveries:
  Click the REPORT button to generate the Open Cylinders Deliveries Report.