The primary reason for using the mouse in the Reservations form is to allow inspection of the data which sits behind the cells. A single-left-click displays the Allocation Summary form which consists of two sections: the top section displaying the number of vehicles in the group on the date selected, how many bookings exist for that group for that day, how many vehicles in the group have been allocated to those bookings; finally, it also displays the total number of vehicles in the group (this final value denotes the number of vehicles in the Marketing/CRM module that have the Available for hire flag set to Y - regardless of the associated dates).
The second, and lower, section displays the vehicles that make up the group and show the present status of each of those vehicles as of the date selected.
To access the Allocation Summary:
From the Master Menu, select the Vehicle rentals option and Company required.
The VEHICLE RENTALS Menu is displayed.
Select the Reservations option.
The Reservations and Availability form is displayed.
Single-left-click in an individual cell within the form.
The Allocations Summary form is displayed when the Reservations option is selected from the VEHICLE RENTALS menu and a single-left-click of the mouse is used in any individual cell within the form.
This form is divided into five parts that are as follows:
In addition to displaying the form name the Title Bar displays the date and hire group of the selected cell.
The Allocations Summary dialogue box contains a number of group boxes displaying the following information:
Legend:
A static legend bar that simply displays what each of the colours means within the availability grid. A Blue colour denotes the vehicle is currently booked onto an agreement whilst a red colour denotes that the vehicle is crosshired.
Summary Group Box:
Displays a brief summary of the allocation details for the vehicle in the group which is as follows:
The total number of vehicles in the hire group on the selected cell date.
The total number of bookings that exist for the selected hire group on that date.
The number of vehicles in the group have been allocated to those bookings.
The total number of vehicles in the group. This final number denotes the number of vehicles in the Marketing/CRM module that have the Available for hire flag set to Y (regardless of the associated dates).
Vehicle Allocation Selection:
If the Operator Questions checkbox is ticked within Vehicle Rental System Parameters General 4 Tab then the Operator Questions functionality is brought in to use. As a result of this, the rental hire operator is prompted with specific defined questions at the time of making the booking in order to ensure all the correct details are recorded for the booking; it is then possible to subsequently display in the Allocation Summary form only those vehicles which conform to the specification in the recorded selections for allocation to the booking. In this case the Vehicle Allocation Selection field is now displayed in the form. This field defaults to M to denote Show Vehicles Matching Spec. As a result of this selection only those vehicles which have specification/charge items allocated against them in the the Specification Item Grid in the More Details Tab of the CRM Rental Vehicle record (MK.drveh) are displayed. This can be edited to A to denote Show All Vehicles.
Agreements Allocation Grid:
All vehicles within the cell hire group are displayed within this grid.
Tip: The order in which the vehicles are shown can be governed by settings in the Sort Sequence Tab within System parameters.
The following fields are displayed for summary purposes:
Vehicle: The full vehicle variant description (taken from the Marketing/CRM vehicle record).
Group: The hire group code.
Description:
Reg No: The registration number of the vehicle.
Loc: The Out Location of the vehicle on the agreement (i.e. which depot the vehicle is currently located at).
Tip: Immediately to the right of the location the system displays the current odometer reading for the vehicle in order to assist in selection of the appropriate vehicle for a rental agreement.
Availability: A descriptive text field that tries to provide as much allocation information as possible regarding the current vehicle status e.g. Free 8.00 01/02/2004 or Booked until 8.00 07/05/2004, etc. This is the best attempt by the system to give a plain English illustration of the vehicle's present status, without having to maintain manually input text of this sort against each agreement. It has been described as a T-card status.
Tip: To examine any of the agreements which relate to a particular vehicle then double click on that vehicle line within the grid with the left mouse button and a further window appears displaying a list of associated agreements. This window lists agreements to which this vehicle is allocated, or an agreement that is in progress at this time. A rental agreement which has been finished does not appear on this display. However, a single-right-click displays the Vehicle Specification form listing all the current vehicle specification items.
If agreements exist for the selected vehicle the form displays the agreement number, followed by the agreement status in brackets; the start time and date, followed by the finish time and date are shown next. A Yor N indicates whether delivery or collection is required; an E signifies that the dates or times are estimated. The location code shown indicates where the hire is to terminate; finally, the system displays to whom the vehicle is being rented.
Tip: A double-click of any agreement displayed within the grid opens that agreement so that it may be viewed or edited.
It can be seen that the drill down has the following sequence:
Drill-down on a cell to view the group summary detail.
Drill-down on an individual vehicle to see the agreements associated with it.
Drill-down on an individual agreement to open the agreement in full detail.
COMMAND BUTTONS:
OK: Carries out the required search or drill-down.
Cancel: Cancels the allocation drill-down function and returns to the Reservations form.
Help: Displays online context-sensitive help using the default browser.
sah 10/11/05
