The Hire Groups form is displayed when the Hire groups option is selected from the MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS menu.
The Hire Group form consists of three tabs:
Users may create new hire groups, amend existing groups, display the contents of a hire group, delete a group record or search the file. Do not delete a group record unless you are satisfied that there are no vehicles belong to that group still on file.
We will cover the Amend option, during which we will explain the content of each of the fields held against the hire group record.
The following are fields displayed on the General Tab on the Hire Groups form:
Main
Description: This is the 20-character description of the hire group being edited.
Vehicles in group: You are not allowed to edit this value, it is fully maintained by the system. The number will be calculated by counting the number of vehicles in the marketing vehicle file which have the correct group code and have the rental availability flag set to Y.
Reserve Level: This is the number which will trigger the Reservations screen line to change colour from that which illustrates there are plenty of vehicles for a group, down to that which indicates that the number of vehicles available for hire is reaching a critical level.
If for example there are ten vehicles in a group, users may wish to show the reserve level colour when the number of available vehicles gets down to three.
There do not have to be any vehicles in the marketing system with this group code when the group code is established. They can be created later if required. The system will recognize their existence automatically, and therefore update the number of vehicles in the group, after they have been created.
Amend hire groups: When the Amend option is selected, the screen will ask the user to specify which hire group is to be amended. Type in the required code or use the ellipse[...] button search facility to locate it.
Purchase
Purchase analysis and Purchase GIS: This allows you to enter nominal ledger cost centre and expense codes which will be used for the purchase of external hire.
This expense code will be used when you hire in vehicles and there are two codes, one for the purchase of services and the other which serves as a vehicle purchase goods in suspense account. Enter as appropriate, ask for help from your accountant if you are unsure about which expense codes to use.
The vehicle record will be covered later in this manual.
Once the two fields have been edited, the screen will return to the initial ring menu.
The screen will now display the first of the hire group tabs.
The Charges screen will allow up to ten standard charge codes to be stored against each record, these will be defaulted onto every agreement created which uses this tariff type.
A charge can be amended by selecting and pressing the Edit button or just double clicking the item. Once the data has been entered correctly you must press the Apply button to commit it back to the grid.
Code: The charge code should be entered, followed by <TAB>. Use the ellipse [...] button search facility to identify the charge codes.
Description: This is the description of the charge code just entered.
Type: This is the type of charge that will be made. It will default from the charge code and cannot be edited on this screen. It will either be D for daily, O for once only or F for factor.
Rate: This is the rate at which the charge will be invoiced. Each charge type holds up to five different rates.
This is the final screen in the hire group option. The screen will allow input of up to ten tariffs against each group. When a tariff code is entered on a hire agreement, the system will not allow a group code to be allocated unless it holds an entry for the required tariff code.
To choose the tariff required click the Change Tariff button. This will produce a menu for selecting the required tariff or a New tariff if available as there as 10 tariff slots. To amend a line of the selected tariff you must either double click the line or click the line and press the Edit button. This will make the edit line available. This can be edited and then committed back with the Apply button.
Tariff Type: The existing tariff type, where known, will be displayed in this box. Either accept it or type in a new code.
Only ten tariff types can be created in each group code record. If all ten have been used and a new one has to be created then select an existing one which can be deleted, when the cursor gets to the tariff type box over type the old code with the new one and proceed as detailed below.
Sales: This is the cost centre and expense code to be used when rental costs are invoiced using this tariff type and group code combination. There is a ellipse [...] button search facility provided to help locate the correct combination of nominal codes.
Break: This is the break field. When this is used it can add a further dimension to the charges made using this tariff type. The idea here is to allow different charges to be made depending on the length of the rental. The Command line will ask you to enter the number of days that this tariff will be valid. On the first line of the table, the screen assumes that the charges about to be input will be valid from day one of the hire until the day number input.
Therefore if the number 14 is input, the charges will be valid for the first 14 days. The next line may be 28, in which case the charges on that line will be valid from day 15 to day 28.
If the option is not going to be used then enter 9999 in the first line and the charges will be used for hires of all lengths.
If more than one line is required, the following five figures will need to be input for all lines created.
Hourly: This is the rate per hour for this hire group combined with this tariff type.
Daily: This is the daily rate for this hire group/tariff type combination.
Weekend: This is the weekend rate for this hire group/tariff type combination.
Weekly: This is the weekly rate for this hire group/tariff type combination.
Monthly: This is the monthly rate for this hire group/tariff type combination.
BUTTONS
Once editing, or creation of, tariff types is complete you are able to use the following buttons:
Save: This will save the hire group record along with the new values just edited.
Cancel: This will abort the amendment process and return you to the MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS menu without establishing an amended hire group record.
Exit: Returns you to the MISCELLANEOUS menu.
