Customer Deposits Overview

During contract and reservation entry, a Customer Deposit may be entered. This can be used for either Advance Payment of the estimated contract, or a Security Deposit against loss of the equipment, or both. Your firm should make a policy on Security Deposits and/or Advance Payments, and make it clear to your counter staff.

Advance Payment

Some firms ask the cash paying customer to leave a deposit equal to the estimated contract total (i.e. pay for the contract in advance).
At the end of the contract entry, the estimated total if the customer brings back the equipment on time, is displayed.
This total can be used as a guide for the Customer Deposit Amount.

Security Deposits on Contracts

An option of Contracts is to calculate a Security Deposit for cash contracts.
If the Security Deposit option is activated, the sum of the rental product security deposit amounts is displayed as the SECURITY DEPOSIT when totalling the contract.
Your staff will see this amount on the screen, then ask the customer for this deposit amount. The Convert Reservations and Convert Rental Quotes also prompt for security deposits.

To activate the Security Deposit, enter the Security Deposit amount each in Rental Inventory in the window on RENTAL RATES.
For items with a rental conversion (e.g. rental per dozen) the quantity used is per conversion (e.g. a security amount per dozen).

When entering contracts in Contracts, the software checks to see if the Customer is On Account.
If the customer is not flagged as ON ACCOUNT in Customer Information or if the customer is Customer # blank (no number) Cash Customer, then any Security Deposit amounts for rental items are totalled.
The Security Deposit is calculated as Security Deposit Amount multiplied by the quantity. The total security amount is displayed when the contract is totalled above the prompt for Deposit Amount. If the Customer does not have an Account, the words *CASH CUSTOMER* will display, reminding the operator to take a security deposit.

Both Advance Payment and Security Deposits

Some firms require that the cash customer leave both a security deposit and also pay for the contract in advance.
The Estimated Rental payment and/or the Security Deposit can be charged as set the Deposit Settings in the Company Contract Parameters.

Credit Card Pre-Authorization

Some firms refuse to rent equipment without a credit card, with pre-authorized credit approval (obtained with electronic credit card machines). Technically, this is a ZERO customer deposit, since no money has been received yet.
The money is received when Rental Return is completed and the contract is closed.

The Default Authorization Only Prompt for Credit Card setting in the Divisional Miscellaneous Parameters controls the whether Credit Card payments default to be an actual deposit, or default to Authorization only.
This default can be over-typed on the deposit as required.

Applying the Deposit

When a deposit is taken on a Contract it is usually held until the equipment is returned. It is then refunded or applied against the invoices generated from Rental Return.
A setting in the Company Security Parameters can be set to control whether the operators have the ability to change the amount of the deposit used against a Rental Return Invoice or used against a Sales Order Invoice. The security control settings include:

N - No change allowed, must accepted calculated deposit amount.
O - Allows a change to the deposit amount used only on partial returns and orders as the Contract or Order is still open.
Y - Provides full access allowing operators to over-ride deposit amounts used.

The Apply Contract Deposit flag in the "Cycle Billing Parameters" in the Company Billing Parameters can be set to cause the deposit on the contract to be used in Cycle Billing Edit and applied in Cycle Billing to reduce the cycled billed interim invoice amount, instead of holding the full deposit until the Rental Return.