This topic gives an overview of the main Vehicle Rentals Reservations and Availability form.
Tip: Troubleshooting section provides answers to common queries and questions surrounding the bookings/agreement functionality.
The Reservations and Availability form is the form within the Vehicle Rentals module which is utilized more than any other. It provides access to all of the details required in order to carry out the following rental functions:
What do you want to do?
The mouse may be used to initiate all of the menu options and icons commands as well as navigate around the form; it is also used to drill-down and view the vehicle booking information that sits behind the cells that occupy the centre of the form.
Tip: Initially the form may appear quite complex; however, it may help to know that within this form (and many others within the rental module) the menu bar and icon bar functionality typically mirror each other; it is down to user preference as to whether the menu options or icons are used to carry out the required functions.
To access Reservations and Availability:
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.
Reservations and Availability form
The Reservations and Availability form is displayed when the Reservations option is selected from the VEHICLE RENTALS menu.
Tip: Some systems may have the 3rd Party Reservations menu option. This replicates the Reservations option in all respects bar one. The 3rd Party Reservations menu option is designed for providing access to a (usually inhouse inplant) 3rd party vehicle supplier from whom rental vehicles are brokered. As a result when accessing this option the Prices Tab and Invoiced Tab cannot be accessed by the supplier using this option.
This form is divided into five parts that are as follows:
Title Bar
In addition to displaying the form name the Title Bar provides a number of other useful identification criteria and buttons.
| Menu | Icon | Description |
|---|---|---|
| File > New |  |
Displays the Create Booking form that enables a new booking to be created. |
| File > Open |  |
Displays the Open agreement form that enables an existing booking to be located and opened by entering one or more of the selection criteria fields. |
| File > Exit |  |
Returns to the main Vehicle Rental Menu. |
| Vehicle > Movement |  |
Displays the Movement Log form that enables the movement of a vehicle from one rental location to another; this option is typically used in rental companies that operate a multiple location environment. |
| Vehicle > Maintenance |  |
Displays the Maintenance Booking form that displays a shortened booking type form which enables the vehicle to be booked into the workshop. This has the effect of removing the vehicle from availability and also showing the vehicle as unavailable on the utilisation report. |
| Utiliites > Go to Today |  |
The scroll bar at the bottom of the form may be used to look at availability for vehicles for future dates. In this case, this menu option can be used to quickly return the availability form to today's date. |
| Utiliites > CRM |  |
Accesses the CRM module and its associated Company, Customer and Vehicle records. |
| Utiliites > Admin |  |
Accesses Administrator mail and diary functions. |
| Reports > |  |
This menu option provides access to the five most frequently used Vehicle Rental reports.
Once written within RepGen a ![[...]](Ellipsis.gif){kind=small} button may be used to locate and select these
reports for inclusion within this menu list within the Reports Group Box in
the Supplier/Misc Tab within Daily
Rental/System Maintenance/System Parameters. |
| Help > |  |
Provides online access to context sensitive help for the current application using the default browser. |
Legend
A static legend bar that simply displays what each of the colours means within the availability cells. These colours are defined within the Availability colours group box in the General Tab within Vehicle Rental / System Maintenance / System Parameters.
Reservations Dialogue Box
The Reservations and Availability dialogue box has four main areas of interest.
Hire Groups
Located to the left of the form. This gives details of the hire groups by displaying the Hire group code (this can be up to four alphanumerics) and its associated description.The Hire groups are initially created using the Hire groups option within Miscellaneous Options. The number of hire groups that may be displayed is limited via the Groups in shared memory table field within the General Tab in System Parameters. To display further groups then the scroll bar may be moved up or down accordingly.
To plot the statistics for a particular group single-left-click while the mouse pointer is over the description of the group required. A Select Item form is displayed. This enables monthly, year-to-date and life-to-date statistics to be displayed (in Pie Chart, Bar Chart or Cluster format).
Calendar
This area of the form has a mouse control display and a dynamic diary which can be scrolled as required to show any selected 10 day period. This section of the form displays the month, date and day of the week relating to the portion of the reservations diary being displayed. Weekends are highlighted, (on a default set-up the highlight is grey although this colour may be changed if required).
On entry to the form the diary automatically places today's date in the first column of the display, followed by the next nine days. To display further days the scroll bar may be moved left or right accordingly (up to the the total number of days that may be displayed within the form which is determined by the Half-days in shared memory table field in the General Tab within System Parameters.
Reservations Grid
The reservations grid is located at the axis between the Hire Group rows and Calendar columns. This displays details, through use of a colour display, of availability of vehicles within a group (for example, if a hire group has reached a reserve level, whether there are no vehicles available, or indeed if an overbooking situation exists.
Use of the mouse enables a drilldown into any of the cell elements and examines the vehicles which belong to a particular group on a particular day.
In this area of the form each day is represented by two coloured cells. These initially display the availability status of each half of the day by using predetermined colours. Familiarisation with the legend enables an at-a-glance display of whether there are vehicles available in a group, whether the bookings have reduced the available number of vehicles to below the reserve level, or whether there are no vehicles available. The coloured cells can also display the number of vehicles available inside each cell (if the Display availability values field is selected in the General Tab within System Parameters.
The information shown on the group section of the form is quite simple. The line for each of the groups displays details for a 10 day period. Each day is illustrated by two coloured cells; this is one for A.M. and one for P.M. The cells are displayed in one of four different colours. The normal display for a group is green to denote there are vehicles available for hire in that group for the day in question. If the cell is yellow then this denotes that the number of vehicles able to be hired has fallen below the reserve level. The Reserve level field is set in the Hire Group table in the Miscellaneous Options menu.
Note: Change to yellow occurs when the number of available vehicles moves below the reserve level; the colour is not affected when the number of available vehicle is the same as the reserve level.
If the cell is red then it means there are no vehicles available for hire in that group for that period. If the cell is blue then the group has been overbooked and there are insufficient vehicles to cover the number of bookings already taken.
Tip: These colours are defined within the Availability Colours group box set in the General Tab within System Parameters.
Allocation Summary
The primary reason for using the mouse in the Reservations form is to allow inspection of the data which sits behind the cells.
The allocation summary form can be displayed in two different formats accessed via a single-left-click or single-right-click.
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.
A single-right-click displays an alternative Allocation Summary form which consists of two sections: the top section displaying a summary, selection and sort criteria.
The second, and lower, section displays the agreements that meet the Selection criteria entered and any notes held against a highlighted agreement.