To access the General 4 Tab:
From the Master Menu, select the Vehicle rentals option and Company required.
The VEHICLE RENTALS Menu is displayed.
Select System maintenance option.
The System Maintenance menu is displayed.
Select the System parameters option.
The System Parameters form is displayed.
Select the General 4 Tab.
The System parameters (General 4 Tab) form is displayed when the System parameters option is selected from the System Maintenance menu and the General 4 Tab is selected.
The following fields are contained within this form.
General Settings (continued):
Auto finish/Invoice: If the Estimate flag is unticked within an agreement (i.e. there is a fixed automatic return date/time for the vehicle) then this flag, if ticked, allows such agreements to be automatically Finished by the system once the agreement end date has passed and then invoiced.
Tip: The default value is Unticked.
DR document type: The document type code used within the Document Archive process to where scanned Vehicle Rental documents are sent. As with document types for rental format stationery documents this code ultimately relates to a UNIX directory on the server where the scanned .tif images are held.
There is a Document scanning facility within the rental agreement form to scan and retrieve images (Checksheets, licences, signed agreements, etc) that are held against the agreement.
Tip: The default value is DS.
Min weekly invoice value: This value is used to assess if it is worthwhile printing a weekly long term invoice. Any long term weekly invoice with a value which falls below the value contained in this field will not be printed. The value is therefore be included in the next long term invoice run (as long as the value then exceeds this amount).
Tip: The default value is Blank.
Min monthly invoice value: This value is used to assess if it is worthwhile printing a monthly long term invoice. Any long term monthly invoice with a value which falls below the value contained in this field will not be printed. The value is therefore be included in the next long term invoice run (as long as the value then exceeds this amount).
Tip: The default value is Blank.
Accounts integration: A checkbox which, if it contains a
denotes that the Daily Rental module is integrated with the Kerridge Accounts module with all the rental postings being posted to the appropriate Nominal, Sales and Purchase Ledger files. Please take advice from a Kerridge consultant before saying if the rental system is not to be integrated.
Tip: The default value is Ticked.
Journal Type: The journal type to be used for accounts postings in the Nominal Ledger. The journal types are set up in the Miscellaneous menu within the Nominal Ledger. Seek advice from a KCC Accounts consultant in order to establish the correct code to use for this operation.
Tip: The default value is Blank.
Cash account category: A Vehicle Rental Cash account may be defined by the code entered here. The code entered here mirrors the code selected within the Sales Ledger account Category Code i.e. C for Cash Sales.
Processes such as the automatic creation of a weekend charge code are only enabled for customers that are set up with a C for Cash Sales in the Sales Ledger account.
Tip: The default value is C.
Allow change of invoice account: A checkbox which, if ticked, allows the account code selected within an agreement to be changed even after an invoice has been raised for the original Sales Ledger account on the agreement
Tip: The default value is Unticked.
Account types: Allows the setting of account types for redirected printing. In this way a rental company may elect not to print any internal invoices, for example; although the invoices are still produced and archived they are not be physically printed.
Tip: The default value is Blank.
Document types: The documents that are to be redirected for the above Account types. Invoices and credit notes are the typical documents that are redirected; however, Quotations, Agreements, Invoices or Credit notes may be directed by entry of the appropriate code(s).
Tip: The default value is Blank.
See also: The Printer name (to which the redirected documents can be sent) within the General 3 Tab of System Parameters.
Use current date/time: A checkbox which, if ticked, tells the system to overrides any existing date and time values (from default records, etc) within the Start Rental, Finish Rental and Offhire processes and to populate the Offsite, Onsite and Offhire date and times within these forms to the current date and time.
Tip: The default value is Unticked.
Recalculate tariff price: A checkbox which, if ticked, denotes that when an agreement is extended the system automatically recalculates the tariffs. This is opposed to manually selecting the Recalculate command button in the Prices Tab. This recalculates the tariff rates, according to the new breaks (if applicable) that the revised hire period date force the agreement to fall into. For example, breaks may be defined in the Tariff rates table which determine that for a hire period of 14 days or less a rate of £70 is charged but for a hire period longer than this (up to 9999) a rate of £60 is charged. The agreement may initially be created for 7 days thus attracting a rate of £70 per day; however, the agreement hire period may then be extended to 28 days and use of this checkbox results in an automatic amendment within the agreement to the new rate to £60 per day (without having to use the Recalculate button in the Prices Tab.
Note: Recalculation may not always be desirable and is typically left as requiring user intervention.
See also: The Recalculate command button within the Prices Tab.
Tip: The default value is Unticked.
Prompt for fuel at finish: A checkbox which, if ticked, ensures that during the Finish Rental process the system always displays a pop-up form to prompt for if a fuel charge is to be added to the agreement. This is simply a visual reminder for the operator.
Tip: The default value is Unticked.
Force scan documents: A checkbox which, if ticked, forces the display of the Document Scanning form at both the Start Rental and Finish Rental processes.
The rental operator may simply close the document scanning form down but the closure of the form without scanning a document is an audited event.
Tip: The default value is Unticked.
Allow payment signs: A checkbox which, if ticked, enables the Payment method codes to be both positive and negative. This allows, for example, a deposit to be taken on a VISA card code and then the deposit refund to be taken on a VISA card code; this is useful for the balancing of payments for individual credit card accounts.
Tip: The default value is Ticked.
Free of charge tariff type: Enables the creation of Free of Charge agreements when the company/customer Sales Ledger account is on stop. A pop-up will be displayed on the rental agreement form advising that the account is on Stop and prompting for the creation of a FOC agreement. IF Yes is selected a Booking is created resulting in an FOC Agreement where the tariff type/rate is automatically populated from this parameter. If No then the system effects a return to the Reservations form.
The rental quantity on the FOC agreement is populated with the number of days that has been specified on the booking in the required slot i.e. daily, weekly, monthly. The rental price on the FOC agreement is populated with no values. The rental quantity or the rental price cannot be edited. If any charges need to be added or amended these can be added e.g. FUEL.
Tip: The default value is F. For this functionality to work this tariff must exist within the Tariff table (however, hire groups do not need to be allocated against it using the Tariff Rates table.
Reservation Group Expansion:
Allocated: The colour used for a allocated vehicle within the Reservations Group Expansion form process. When a hire group is drilled-down into within the Reservations form a grid is displayed detailing the individual agreement status of all individual vehicles for the reservations period defined within the form. The cells are coloured in the colour selected within this field if the vehicle is at an allocated status for the selected dates. The
button is used to display a colour search/selection palette.
Tip: The default value is Blank.
On-hire: The colour used for an on-hire vehicle within the Reservations Group Expansion form process. When a hire group is drilled-down into within the Reservations form a grid is displayed detailing the individual agreement status of all individual vehicles for the reservations period defined within the form. The cells are coloured in the colour selected within this field if the vehicle is at an on-hire status for the selected dates. The
Tip: The default value is Blank.
Allow Group Exapnsion: A checkbox which, if ticked, enables the Group Expansion process within the Reservations form. The Reservation Group Expansion Process is designed so that rental operators in a fast moving rental environment may have a quick at-a-glance view of the availability status of individual vehicles within a specific hire group for a particular calendar period.
Pop-up comments on invoice: A checkbox which, if ticked, displays any Company Comments held against the customer (in the General 3 Tab of the Marketing Company Record in the Rental Details form - MK.drcom record) prior to a manual invoice (i.e. invoiced from within the agreement) being generated. This enables the rental company to hold specific invoicing information (e.g. Ensure Collection/Delivery is always invoiced at 10% reduction) within the comments field against the company record and that this information is always viewed before invoicing.
Tip: The default value is Unticked.
Prompt for operator: This is a useful function for a rental front-desk operation. When several users are using the same terminal on the rental front-desk it is not operationally feasible for users to log off and on each time an agreement is created or opened; therefore the auditing facility is lost. However, if this checkbox is ticked, this problem may be overcome. This checkbox, if ticked, ensures that when a new agreement is being created or an existing agreement is being opened for editing an Operator form is popped-up. This form prompts for an operator login and password of the person who is accessing/crating the agreement. The login is selected via a
button from the GB_USER file within System Utilities and the password entered must match the encrypted Password held in the Operator Details table within the Vehicle Rental Miscellaneous Options menu. This enables the audit log to capture who is creating or editing agreements without each user having to log on/off each time.
Tip: The default value is Unticked.
Allow manual LTI: Allows a Long Term Invoicing agreement to be invoiced from within the agreement itself in the same way as a standard agreement.
Note: The appropriate Manual LTI priority (set within the Priorities 2/Mail Tab is required.
Tip: The default value is Ticked.
Allow extension charge: If a number of breaks have been defined within the Tariff Rates form then if the agreement is finished early and the customer should have been charged a higher rate (i.e. the rate appicable to one of the previous breaks) then the system calculates the difference and adds a charge line within the Prices Tab using the Extension Charge code below.
Extension charge code: The extension charge code that is automatically added to the Prices Tab if the rental agreement is extended or shortened.
Post using today's date: A checkbox which, if ticked, denotes that the system posts the invoice to the ledgers using today's date as the posting date. If unticked, the system posts to the ledgers using the agreement end date as the posting date.
Use today's date as invoice date: A checkbox which, if ticked, denotes that the system populates the the printed invoice with today's date as the invoice date. If unticked, the system populates the the printed invoice with the agreement end date as the invoice date.
Contract hire in arrears: A checkbox which, if ticked, denotes that any long term invoices with a long-term invoice type of Contract Hire are generated in arrears i.e. if the agreement commences on 23/09/05 then the first monthly invoice is generated on the day following the monthly anniversary date namely, 24/10/05. If left unticked then any long term invoices with a long-term invoice type of Contract Hire are generated in advance i.e. if the agreement commences on 23/09/05 then the first monthly invoice is generated on the folowing day namely, 24/10/05.
Extend agreement in days: Used in conjunction with the When to extend the agreements field. If set to a value of 7, for example, then an Estimated agreement (i.e. the Estimated flag is ticked on the agreement form) is extended automatically by seven days at a given time which is dependent on the following parameter.
Tip: These values are used conjunction with the Extend Estimated Agreements menu option. This option may be run manually or set in Timed Operations.
When to extend the agreements: The value within this field is used in conjunction with the Extend agreement in days field and determines at what time the agreement is to be extended. For example, if a value of 2 is entered within this field then the agreement is extended two days prior to the Invoice To date on the agreement. A negative value can be entered in this field which enables the agreement to be extended in arrears.
Tip: These values are used conjunction with the Extend Estimated Agreements menu option. This option may be run manually or set in Timed Operations.
Quote Valid Days: The number of days for which rental quotations are deemed valid. Following this time the quotation cannot be converted to a quotation.
Operator Questions: A checkbox which, if ticked, denotes that the Operator Questions functionality is used. The rental hire operator is to be 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; only those vehicles which conform to the specification in the recorded selections are to be subsequently displayed for allocation to the booking. The automatically prompted questions are to be call centre type questions so that less experienced staff can handle calls for complicated vehicles.
Note: If this checkbox is ticked then the following results occur: the system displays a new Questions Tab against the Hire Group set up table; against the CRM Rental Vehicle record (MK.drveh), in the More Details Tab, a new grid is displayed to hold all of the extras each vehicle contains by selecting from the current Charges Tab in DR; at the booking stage, following selection of the required Hire Group, the appropriate questions are popped-up so the operator may be guided through them as he/she is talking to the customer on the telephone (a checkbox is ticked for each item that is required); at the Allocation stage (as with Vehicle Tracking), the option is available to select only those vehicles that contain the charge/optional extra item (in MK.drveh) specific requirements.