The Vehicle Rentals module functionality is vastly increased when supported by CRM defaults held against the company, driver and vehicle records. This additional functionality is provided by attaching an extra file to each of the basic CRM company, customer and vehicle records.
What do you want to do?
Tip: Enable codc1 for the Vehicle details form (although depending upon what system is being used these forms may not necessarily have to be enabled).
To access CRM Vehicle Rental - Rental Details 2 (Details Tab):
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.
Select the 
icon.
The Open Agreement form is displayed.
Locate the required agreement using the appropriate selection criteria and select the Open command button.
The Rental Agreement form is displayed.
Select the 
icon.
Select the Company Options menu.
Select the 
icon
Select the Company menu option.
Select the Rental Details 2 option.
The Details Tab is automatically presented.
The company defaults are numerous and allow for powerful functionality and data integrity.
Agreement Defaults:
Invoice to: Is the invoice to be addresses to the Account address or the Driver address? The
button enables the appropriate selection.
Company's Insurance: Whose insurance should be used as a default within the agreements for this company; the
Working days: An asterisk is used to denote each working day for this company. For example, if Saturday and Sunday are not " working " days for this company then only the first five asterisks should be entered.
Note: If this field is left blank then the system uses the default global value Chargeable days field in the General Tab within System Parameters.
Recalc on Extension: Used in conjunction with the equivalent Recalc on extension flag held at a global level within the General 3 Tab of System parameters and the Recalculate flag held against the Prices Tab of the rental agreement itself. For a recalculation of prices to take place the flag must be selected at the global level then against the Company record and finally within the agreement. A tick placed in this checkbox denotes that, when a rental agreement is extended for this company, the tariff rates may be recalculated (i.e. if the new rental period now encompasses a week as opposed to several days, for example, then the system utilises the weekly tariff rate as opposed to the daily tariff rate which may be more beneficial to the customer).
Customer rates/charges table: Specific tariff rates may be held for individual companies. These rates are set up within Customer rates/charges table within Miscellaneous Options. The table is given a name (typically relating to the company name or SL Account code) and this table name is manually populated in this field. Any agreements created for this company then automatically use the specific rates table values.
Warning: Table name and field are case-sensitive his option so it must be ensured that whatever is typed within this field accurately reflects the true table name.
Invoice by Days: A checkbox which, if selected, denotes that this company is only ever to be invoiced at the daily tariff rate no matter how long the period of hire for a rental agreement.
Use periodic invoicing: A checkbox which, if selected, denotes that this company is pointed towards the specific Long term period invoicing table defined in the Periodic invoice table field.
Periodic invoice table: Specific invoicing periods may be held for individual companies. These periods are set up within Long Term Period table within Miscellaneous Options. A specific period table name may be held in this field to point this company at a specific long term periodic invoicing table. This is typically used for larger customers who choose to defined their own invoicing periods on which they would like to be invoiced.
Warning: Table name and field are case-sensitive his option so it must be ensured that whatever is typed within this field accurately reflects the true table name.
Link all companies: This field is used in conjunction with the Produce summary invoice field below and enables all agreements for all companies that share the same Sales Ledger account to be linked, so that they appear on the same summary/consolidated invoice.
Sort Invoices By Key: A field for defining how the Long Term Invoices are to be sorted. The
Break on Change: Related to the above invoice sorting. A page break is thrown each time the field displayed in this field changes during invoicing.
Single Branch Invoices: A checkbox which, if selected, combines agreements for each branch per invoice.
Produce summary invoice: A checkbox which, if selected, denotes that a single summary/consolidated invoice is produced for all rental agreement for this company that fall within the specific long term invoicing period that is being invoiced.
Fleet billing: This option is mutually exclusive with the Produce summary invoice checkbox. It may only be used if the Fleet module is installed. If this checkbox is selected then the system will consolidate any Vehicle Rental invoices for a particular company with any contract hire invoices for the same company.
Note: Currently sales invoices raised within the Vehicle Rentals module are printed and posted directly to the Nominal Ledger invoice buffer and ultimately to the Sales Ledger transaction file once daybooks have been printed. Invoices raised within the Kestrel Fleet modules are batched into a Pending invoice file (IPEND) before printing and posting to the Nominal Ledger invoice buffer and ultimately the Sales Ledger transaction file once daybooks have been printed. With this flag selected, invoices produced within Vehicle Rental for this company are no longer posted directly to the invoice buffer but now go through the Ipend file in order that they can be consolidated with the hire invoices. To identify records in the Vehicle Rentals invoice transaction log that are to be posted using the new fleet consolidated billing routines an internal account code is stamped on all of these transactions. This is done using the Internal acc types field in the General 3 Tab of System Parameters. Any transactions stamped with this code use an internal invoice sequence document number i.e. Next Internal Invoice Number or Next Internal Credit Number defined within System Controls.
Use Cost Centres: If this checkbox is selected then at the point a Sales Ledger account/CRM company is selected within Vehicle Rentals the system validates the account code against the Fleet Address Group file. As several address groups could use the same sales ledger account code the system checks for each and every occurrence of the Vehicle Rental sales ledger account code (DRACC) within the FC.custo file (and offer a choice of address group codes where a match is made). With this flag selected the address group selection is deemed a critical step in the account code selection and it is not possible to continue with a booking unless an address group has been allocated. This address group is saved to a new field (FLTADGRP) within the Daily Rentals agreement file (DR.agree) for use in the Use Fleet consolidate billing posting routines later. In addition to the validation of this address group code the system also ensures that the chosen address group has a valid Dump vehicle allocated to it. Effectively, a Dump vehicle needs creating for each address group that acts as a central storage area for a customer's transactions where no vehicle specific contract exists (ie. Incident managed vehicles, accident managed vehicles and in this case Vehicle Rental vehicles). In addition to this the fleet cost centre file (FM.ccent) is interrogated to see if there are any cost centre codes for the chosen address group. If so, then a list of the available cost centre codes is offered with an enforced selection ultimately populating the Cost Centre field in the agreement.
Tip: If this flag is selected and there are no cost centre codes for the chosen address group the system enables a cost centre code to be selected from the Cost Centre table within the Vehicle Rental module and even enables a cost centre to be created on-the-fly.
At the point a Sales Ledger/Marketing (CRM) company is selected within Vehicle Rentals, if that company has the Use Fleet Consolidated Billing (within the Marketing Company Rental record) cleared, but the Use Cost Centres flag (MK.drcom.USECC) is selected then a cost centre needs to be selected from the vehicle rental cost centres set up within the Cost Centres table in Miscellaneous Options. All cost centres that match the company magic number are displayed within the agreement and a selection should be made. If there are no matching entries for that company the user is allowed to manually enter a cost centre. The selected cost centre is then stored in the existing Authorisation 2 field (DR.agree.POREF).
CS Invoice format: Formats may now be customer specific (provided that the format descriptor in the Title page of the format Stationery is set to CSI). This is the format code for the customer specific invoice stationery format.
CS Credit format: Formats may now be customer specific (provided that the format descriptor in the Title page of the format Stationery is set to CSC). This is the format code for the customer specific credit stationery format.
CS LTI Summary: Formats may now be customer specific ((provided that the format descriptor in the Title page of the format Stationery is set to CSS). This is the format code for the customer specific Long Term Invoicing Summary stationery format.
Misc Details:
Charge Vehicle Reg fee: System can be set up to automatically charge the customer for the Vehicle Registration Fee. This checkbox, if selected, denotes that the selected customer is to be charged the registration fee.
Tip: Various other parts of the system also need to be set up in order for this process to work: firstly, a charge code needs to be defined within the Charges table (this is typically, REGF and should be set up with a Charge Type of P and Unit of Days and the Max Days to invoice value needs to be set to 20); secondly, this charge code needs to be defined in the Registration Fee field within the General 2 Tab of System Parameters; thirdly, the Minimum Days to invoice field within the Tariff Type is typically set to 28.
Non-Billing Table: There is a Non-billing table function within Miscellaneous Options that enables a calendar table to be created for the year and in it days can be defined that are considered to be non-billing or bank holidays. When these days fall within the invoicing period a negative STND charge is created for each non-billing day. This field works like the Customer rates/charges maintenance table in that a calendar table is created for non-billing days and given a name. This name is then allocated to this field.
Tracking Rate: If the Vehicle Tracking field is populated with a charge code in the General 2 Tab within System Parameters then the system automatically prompts within the agreement: Use Vehicle Tracking?; if the Yes command button is taken at this prompt then a charge using this code is created in the Prices Tab of the agreement. The charge value is derived from the value held within this field.
Tip: When allocating a vehicle to a tracking agreement the system then subsequently prompts for the vehicle to be a vehicle defined as a tracked vehicle using the the Tracking fitted field on the More Details Tab of the Marketing Vehicle Record in the Rental Details form (drveh record).
