Rental Period Calculations

Each rental item on the document maintains its own date/time out, date/time due, rate structure, and billing details.
This allows items out on rent at different times to be recorded on the same contract, and rental billings to be maintained and tracked by individual product.

This Rental Period Calculations window is provided on each rental document on the Unit Price field for rental transactions to access the rental billing information, with some variation depending on the document.

Note: This window opens automatically to confirm the rental dates and rates, if the Out date is prior to today's date.

The prompts include:

DATE OUT or DATE BILLED FROM

On rental documents such as contracts or reservations, this is the date when this rental equipment went out.
The date/time out and date/time due automatically default from the dates and times entered on the document header in the Rental Period window, but can be over-typed for specific product details prior to any billing.
This date is used to determine availability and billing.

The ability to modify this field can be controlled by the 'Permit' flag set on Worksheet - Date Out, Rental, Detail, and Contract - Date Out, Rental, Detail, and Reservation - Date Out, Rental, Detail for the corresponding documents, in the Security Role Permissions for the role assigned to the operator.

Date Change Defaults:
When the 'Date/Time Out' is changed to a date/time that is later than the 'Date/Time Due', the default 'Date/Time Due' is automatically also changed the by number of days defined by the "Default Date/Time of Days per Rental" value set in the Divisional Rate Parameters, unless the "Ignore Default Date/Time Due" is checked in the Divisional Rate Parameters and then the 'Date/Time Due' for the product is set to same as 'Date/Time Out'.

On Invoice Details this field becomes Date Billed From and can be used to establish the rental period to bill. If Date/Time Billing information is entered, it will be printed on the invoice next to the product rented.
If the rental time period is NOT entered in this window, but the rental period needs to be printed on the invoice, then manually enter the rental billing period in the Invoice Comments.

Note: When an additional item is added to an existing Contract the Use Current Date flag set in the Date Out/Date Due window is respected for determining the Out date and time.

TIME OUT or TIME BILLED FROM

This is the time when the equipment went out using the 24 hour clock.
The time entered determines the number of hours used, which impacts the Utilization reporting and the billing.

The ability to modify this field can be controlled by the 'Permit' flag set on Worksheet - Time Out, Rental, Detail, and Contract - Time Out, Rental, Detail, and Reservation - Time Out, Rental, Detail for the corresponding documents, in the Security Role Permissions for the role assigned to the operator.

If your firm does not track the time out/in, make a company policy as to the time to be entered and preset the Default Time Out in Divisional Rate Parameters.
e.g. Always enter 8 AM for time out (entered as 0800), and 6:30 PM for time in (entered as 1830).

Note: In Change mode, once a product has been billed, the Time Out cannot be changed.

DATE DUE or DATE BILLED TO

On rental documents this is the date when the items are expected to be returned.
This does NOT determine when the billing ends. The billing ends at the actual return date, entered during Rental Return.
For information on the importance of reporting an estimated Date Due back, refer to Contracts.

On Invoice Details this field becomes Date Billed Thru and can be used to establish the rental period to bill.

RENTAL PERIOD Calculator:

Alternatively, on a Contracts or Counter Worksheet a window on the Date Due field is provided to calculate the due back date using the Rental Period as defined in Days or Weeks.

TIME DUE or TIME BILLED THRU

This is the time when the equipment is expected to be returned using the 24 hour clock.

INDEFINITE

This flag defaults if previously defined for the document in Rental Period window but can be changed for this product if required.

Check this box if the due back date is unknown, to ensure that return requirement transactions are not written for this product and that the product will remain "unavailable" until it is actually returned.

A setting in Company Rate Parameters controls whether the billing period always uses 28 days for "Indefinite" products, or whether the default period determined in the Divisional Rate Parameters still applies.

Note: This field is not relevant and is suppressed on Invoice Details.

RENTAL CAP

This field only applies if the Rental Cap processing has been activated in the Company Rate Parameters.

The Rental Cap determines the maximum rental amount for this product per unit, as set in the product file. This can be over-typed if required.
This item will NOT be billed above this maximum Rental Cap and a note will display in the rental calculation window when the cap has been reached.

If Reason Codes On Override has been activated in the Company Security Parameters the operator will be prompted for a reason code if the Rental Cap on the product was overridden, as outlined in Prompt for Reason Code.
Enter the Reason code for the change in the rate or select it from the window.

Specific customers can be flagged to allow or ignore the Rental Cap in the Billing Information settings of the "Additional Information" window in Customer Information.

Note: This field is not relevant and is suppressed on Invoice Details.

DAYS TO BILL

This processing can be activated when the Prompt For Days to Bill is checked in the Divisional Rate Parameters, providing the option to set a maximum number of days to charge for the rental time period, to give a one-time price break on the contract by setting the Days to Bill lower than the actual rental period.

The Days to Bill defaults from the value entered on the document header in the Rental Period window, but can be over-typed on the each rental product detail if required.
If no Days to Bill value was entered on the document header, then this field is disabled in the product details and there is no maximum set.

If the document dates are changed, the operator will be prompted whether to recalculate the Days To Bill too.

Refer to Divisional Rate Parameters for rate calculation details.
A setting in the Company Billing Parameters to control how this price break is applied over an extended rental that requires cycle billing.

Note: This field is not relevant and is suppressed on Invoice Details.

HOURS OUT

The number of hours out is calculated as the elapsed number of hours between the Date/Time Out and the Date/Time Due.
The calculation is based on the number of hours in each day as setup in the Review Calendar.

RATE CODE

The Rate Code refers to which rate was selected for this time period (e.g. Daily, Weekly, Monthly) according to the number of Hours Out.

The rate selection will always be optimized in favour of the lowest rate.
e.g. Equipment is out for 4 days: If the Weekly rate is cheaper than 4 times the daily rate, the Weekly rate is used.

RENTAL RATE STRUCTURE

A window on the Rate Code field provides the ability to access the standard rental rates for this product as outlined in Rental Rates.

RENTAL RATE

The rental rate is amount charged per day or per week or per month.
This rate is calculated based on the rental period and the rate structure defined for this customer for this product or Group.

Note: Any new rates will apply if the Out Date falls after the New Rate Date date setup in the rental rate structure detail for this product.

Rental Rate Over-Rides:

A flag in the Company Security Parameters can be set to prevent operators from changing the rates on the document.

Any rate overrides are automatically tracked in the Print Override Report.

The Rental Rate Override Prompts for All Rates flag in the Company Rate Parameters controls whether all rates for this product detail are automatically over-ridden proportionately, or whether the following query is triggered:

CONFIRM RENTAL RATE OVERRIDE

Select one of the following:

• Click on Over-Ride All Rates For This Product to change all rates proportionately for this product on this detail line.
• Click on Over-Ride This Rate Only to change only that one rate and base rate level.
• Click on Flat Rate Rental to always charge this Flat Rate per unit, every time this product is billed.

PASSWORD

Passwords may be setup to better control when rates are over-ridden.

REASON

If Reason Codes On Override has been activated in the Company Security Parameters the operator will be prompted for a reason code to explain why the rate was over-ridden as outlined in Prompt for Reason Code.
Enter the Reason code for the change in the rate or select it from the window.

UNIT RATE

This is the charge for each unit, and will be carried back to the Unit Price field on the document detail.

UNIT RATE CALCULATION:

Window to view the Billing Breakdown of the rate was calculation including:

• The unit rate equals the rental rate each, multiplied by the time period.
  e.g. If equipment was out for 3 days at $20 per day, the unit rate = $60 each.

• A note will display if the maximum rental cap has been reached for the product.

• If this product has meter reading or blade usage charges, they will also be displayed in the window.

• If this Unit Rate Calculation window is being viewed from the Invoice Details that result from a product returned on a contract that has tracked off rent time, and the enhanced Off Rental feature has been activated from the Support Application Parameters, click on the OFF RENTALS button to view any "Off Rent Trx" information for this product rental as outlined in Off Rental Transactions.

BILLING INFORMATION on Contracts

The billing information only applies when reviewing an existing Contract and includes the following information:

• OFF RENTAL HOURS (hours not charged to customer)

• DATE/TIME LAST BILLED

• ACCUMULATED RENTAL AMOUNT billed to date for this product (prior to the discount)
  A window is provided on the Accum Rental Amt field to view a list of the Accumulated Invoices as outlined in Billing Details.

• ACCUMULATED METER AMOUNT billed to date for this product (prior to the discount)

• RATE ADJUSTMENT reflecting the adjustment made if this product has had any billings and then rates were subsequently updated on the contract using Update Contract Rental Pricing.
  A window is provided on the Rate Adjustment field to view rate adjustment history as outlined in Show Rate Adjustment Details.

Finished?

Click ACCEPT to accept the rate information and exit the window.